Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Who’s Impressed So Far?
Behind the anarchical nature of the just-concluded college football regular season lies the other big-time NCAA sport, where over a thousand games have been played without any BCS-style frustration and politicking.
Of the 341 teams competing in all those games, three teams with unblemished records have stood out above all the rest with their level of play and the level of competition they have already disposed of.
The loss of Kevin Durant for Texas was supposed to be too much for the Longhorns to overcome. A team just doesn't lose the output from one of the great freshman seasons of all-time and hope to get better, right?
We won't know for sometime if the Longhorns end up with as many wins or are as good a basketball team as their predecessors, but going on all that we have for the young season, the Longhorns are better than expected and already have two incredible marquee wins.
On November 24 against Tennessee, Texas shot 64% from the floor and scored a nearly unbelievable 1.31 points per possession (the national average is 0.97). That performance came just a night after taking New Mexico State (their first round NCAA opponent from a year ago) to the sword for 62% from the field and 62% from three-point range.
On Sunday, Texas won perhaps the most difficult game on paper for their entire schedule, beating UCLA at Pauley Pavilion, in a contest largely ignored by the national media after the BCS results and a full day of NFL games.
Texas went on a 17-0 run in the first half and was up by 12 at halftime before UCLA caught them and took a lead with 12:53 left to go in the game. The Longhorns won despite only getting to the line five times.
Several times last year in close games against quality opposition, Texas didn't have enough balance in scoring to help Durant or enough confidence on defense for their young team to get key stops.
This year, scoring balance has been Texas' bread and butter, with all five starters in D.J. Augustin, A.J. Abrams, Justin Mason, Damion James, and Connor Atchley averaging double figures.
Defensively, in their biggest game of year to date, Texas held UCLA to just two points in the final three minutes.
The incredulity of Texas seemingly getting better after losing an NBA-bound underclassman cannot be said about Duke, who had Josh McRoberts go pro and now looks to be better for losing the big man who seemed to like passing more than rebounding.
Whatever your thoughts about Duke, who are definitively the Yankees/Manchester United/Patriots of college basketball, they usually do play an entertaining brand of offensive basketball with solid defensive play to back it up. A year ago, they resembled more of a fourth- or fifth-place Big Ten team than a vintage Duke team.
Vintage Duke might be back this season, as evidenced by an 8-0 record with three wins over consensus preseason NCAA tournament teams in Marquette, Wisconsin, and Davidson.
(In the interest of being fair, there were two of the most ridiculous charges in the history of basketball called on Davidson's Stephen Curry that saw Curry, Davidson's top scorer and best player, have to sit for long stretches of the game. Insert "Duke gets all the calls" comment here.)
In the first half of the Wisconsin game, Duke played a tremendous all-around half of basketball and led the Badgers 48-25 at the break en route to a 24-point win. The Blue Devils were nuisances to the Badgers on defense, causing many turnovers that led to fast break points. On offense, Duke ran past Wisconsin and got a plethora of easy, open shots.
Against another team from Wisconsin earlier in November, Duke was able to out-rebound Marquette, a similar-sized team, by 10 in the Maui Invitational Final.
Freshman Kyle Singler has perhaps been the most instrumental player in Duke's early success, connecting on 58% of his shots and bringing down seven rebounds a game for a team with a lack of big men on the roster.
Butler was one of, if not the, mid-major success story of a year ago. Now they look to be building on that to the point of possibly being a mid-major with the staying power of Gonzaga or Southern Illinois.
The Bulldogs are fascinating in that they are a very good team that doesn't rebound the ball that well. In just two of seven games this season has Butler won the battle on the glass. Indiana State and Ball State, who combine for a record of 3-9 this season, both out-rebounded Butler.
What Butler does do, however — shoot from the perimeter, defend, and hold on to the ball — they do just about as well as anybody in the country. Butler ranks 12th in the nation in three-point percentage and only turns the ball over on 15% of their offensive possessions (the national average is 22%). Butler is also one of the top teams in the nation as points per possession at 1.20.
The Bulldogs won the Great Alaska Shootout over Thanksgiving weekend, and beat three power conference teams in Michigan, Virginia Tech, and Texas Tech. If anyone knows how good those three teams are going to be by the end of March, they're lying. Butler did, however, beat Ohio State at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Saturday evening, a team that, despite three early losses, figures to be among the top three or four in the Big Ten at season's end.
If a mid-major team that counts on the same things Butler does to win games is very cold from the floor early they normally start to get buried by the power-conference team. Saturday's game had the looks of one where Butler just didn't have their shooting touch, as they were below 30% for the first half and were only one for their first 15 from three-point range. However, Butler showed on Saturday that they are no typical mid-major team as they limited the Buckeyes to just 16 second half points.
Ohio State also decided to play a 3-2 zone for much of the game, respecting Butler's normally awesome three-point game. The inside then was freed for Butler's Matt Howard to go 9-of-13 from the floor and ultimately pick up 23 points. Butler won the rebounding battle against the taller Buckeyes, which give their style of play, is essentially icing on the cake. The Bulldogs were also able to force Ohio State into turnovers on 38% of their possessions.
Through a month, we still don't know a whole lot about the 2007-08 college basketball season. From what we do know, however, Texas, Duke, and Butler have been extremely impressive and could be big players at the end of the season.