What we learned this week:
- Arkansas may not be competing for the SEC title anytime soon, but with the insertion of Courtney Fortson back into their line-up, the Razorbacks now have a piece they were sorely missing - a guard that can create shot opportunities in the half court. Fortson had 19 points and 7 assists, but committed 6 turnovers and was just 5-16 from the field. But his ability to penetrate and break down a defense - a high-risk, high-reward venture - means that Rotnei Clarke, Marshon Powell, and Michael Washington (when he is fully healthy) will get more easy shot opportunities as their defenders are forced to help on Fortson's penetration.
- We touched on this a little bit on Sunday, but the Pac-10 standings are an absolute disaster. After Sunday's games, there is no team in the league that is undefeated two weeks into league plays. Washington State, at 12-4, is the only team in the conference with fewer than five losses while three teams - Arizona, Oregon State, and UCLA - are under .500. Oregon State, who sits in 9th in the league at 2-1, is all of 1 game behind the three teams in first place with five teams sitting in between. Washington, the preseason favorite and only team ranked in the conference at the start of the week, is currently in last place with a 1-3 record.
- Evan Turner's value to the Buckeyes can be measured not only in his numbers, but in the numbers of his teammates. Let's ue Jon Diebler as our guinea pig. In the six games Turner missed, Diebler played all but three minutes - with those minutes coming in a 30-point win over Prebyterian. He averaged 10.2 ppg while shooting 37.5% from the floor and 36% from three. With Turner in the line-up he is averaging 16.5 ppg and shooting 51% from the floor and 49% from three.
- For my money, there are four leagues outside of the Big Six that seem to be close to a lock to get an at-large bid and 16 teams in those leagues that still can feasibly play their way into a bid:
- Atlantic 10: Temple (13-3, 2-0), Xavier (10-5, 2-0), Dayton (12-3, 1-0), Richmond (12-5, 1-1), Rhode Island (12-2, 0-1)
- Conference USA: UAB (14-2, 2-0), Tulsa (12-3, 2-0), Memphis (11-4, 1-0), UTEP (10-4, 1-0)
- Missouri Valley: Northern Iowa (14-1, 5-0), Wichita State (15-2, 4-1), Missouri State (13-3, 3-2)
- Mountain West: BYU (16-1, 1-0), UNLV (13-3, 1-1), San Diego State (12-4, 1-1), New Mexico (13-3, 0-2)
CO-PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: Austin Freeman, Georgetown, and Andrew Goudelock, College of Charleston
When you talk about Georgetown, the first name you always hear is Greg Monroe. But over the last five games, the Hoyas best player has been Freeman. He's averaging 21.2 ppg over that span while shooting 57% from three, and it should come as no surprise that Georgetown is 4-1 over that stretch, with their only loss coming at Marquette. But the reason Freeman got the nod was his performance against UConn. The Hoyas were down 17 points early in the second half before Freeman took over. He scored 28 of his 33 points in the second half (his previous career high was 21), but perhaps his most important play was a charge he drew on Jerome Dyson in the final minute.
Goudelock was just as impressive. He had 22 points and 10 boards in a win at Southern Conference contender Citadel, but that was far from his best performance. Playing in front of a national television audience, Goudelock had 24 points as the Cougars knocked off North Carolina in overtime and hit what may be the shot of the year at this point in the season to force the OT:
They were good too:
- Luke Harangody: Harangody led the Irish to a 2-0 week as he averaged 30.0 ppg, including a 36 point outburst against South Florida. But the biggest shot that Gody hit was down the stretch against West Virginia. The Mountaineers had rallied back from a 21 point deficit to cut the lead to 67-66 when Gody answered a Dalton Pepper three pointer with a bucket inside.
- Chris Johnson: Everyone knows about Dayton's Chris Wright, but Chris Johnson is pretty good too. The Flyers cruised to a win against Ball State, but in an A-10 battle against Duquesne, Johnson had 26 points and 20 boards to lead Dayton to the win in overtime.
- Devan Downey: If South Carolina is going to have any chance of making the tournament without front court starters Dominique Archie and Mike Holmes, they are going to have to play small ball and ride the coattails of Downey. And in they did just that in their SEC opener, as Downey went for 33 points to lead the Gamecocks to a win at Auburn.
- Rihard Kuksiks: In the Sun Devils one game this week, Kuksiks had 27 points and 9 boards in a win against Washington.
TEAM OF THE WEEK: Tennessee Volunteers
What the Vols did this week was nothing short of phenomenal. Four players were arrested on New Years Day for the Vols, with Bruce Pearl suspending all four almost immediately. On Friday, Tyler Smith was dismissed from the team for his role in the incident. Many, including myself, were expecting the Vols to collapse under the weight of the distractions. This team had plenty of issues prior to the suspensions, and the general consensus seemed to be that they would not be able to withstand the loss of 40% of their scholarship players.
But that prediction looks foolish now, and I'm sure I'm not the only writer that has learned the hard way to never doubt the motivational powers of Bruce Pearl. Tennessee went 2-0 this week, blowing out Charlotte before upsetting then-undefeated and No.1-ranked Kansas. There was no shortage of surprises for the Vols: seldom-used before the suspensions, sophomore Renardo Wooldridge averaged 12.0 ppg and 7.5 rpg this week while more than doubling the number of threes he has hit on the season by going 6-11 from deep; the Vols were able to stave of comeback attempts in both games thanks if large part to some clutch shooting from walk-on Skylar McBee, who hit two threes to halt a 21-2 run by the 49ers and buried an off-balance three to beat the shot clock with 36 seconds left to give Tennessee a commanding 64-58 lead against Kansas; Bobby Maze proved to many why he was once considered a top-tier point guard, outplaying Sherron Collins to the tune of 16 points, 8 boards, and 7 assists; most shockingly, Tennessee was able to hang on against KU despite the fact that JP Prince and Wayne Chism played only 33 foul-plagued minutes combined, leaving two walk-ons and freshman Kenny Hall on the court for an extended period of time.
As Pearl said after the game "It's pretty amazing what chemistry can do."
They were good too:
- College of Charleston: The Cougars had two big wins this week. Obviously, everyone saw the win over UNC, but what shouldn't fly under the radar is Charleston's win at The Citadel. The Citadel was one of the early season favorites in the Southern Conference, and as we've mentioned, winning on the road in league play is not an easy thing to do.
- Northern Iowa: The Panthers are not getting enough talk. They won this week at Illinois State and Southern Illinois, both MVC contenders. UNI is big, they are balanced, and they control the pace of the game.
- Notre Dame: The Irish won on the road at South Florida, then came home and hung on to beat a good West Virginia team that caught fire in the second half. Notre Dame desperately needed a resume win to legitimize their gaudy record, and beating a top ten team in West Virginia does that.
MATCHUPS OF THE WEEK
- 1/12 - 7:00 pm: Ohio State @ Purdue
- 1/12 - 7:00 pm: Texas A&M @ Kansas State
- 1/12 - 9:00 pm: Kentucky @ Florida
- 1/13 - 7:00 pm: Pitt @ UConn
- 1/13 - 7:00 pm: UNC @ Clemson
- 1/13 - 10:00 pm: San Diego State @ UNLV
- 1/14 - 11:00 pm: Gonzaga @ St. Mary's
- 1/16 - 11:00 am: Dayton @ Xavier
- 1/16 - 12:00 pm: Syracuse @ West Virginia
- 1/16 - 12:00 pm: Louisville @ Pitt
- 1/16 - 1:30 pm: Ole Miss @ Tennessee
- 1/16 - 2:00 pm: Georgia Tech @ UNC
- 1/16 - 4:00 pm: Oklahoma State @ Baylor
- 1/17 - 12:00 pm: Georgetown @ Villanova
- 1/17 - 1:30 pm: UConn @ Michigan
- 1/17 - 8:00 pm: Wake Forest @ Duke
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