Week 2 of college hoops featured some high profile matchups. Here’s a look at what we learned.
Week 2 of college basketball has come and gone. Last Tuesday, the Champions Classic featured a pair of battles between blue bloods, as the Kentucky Wildcats handled the Michigan State Spartans and the Kansas Jayhawks required a late winner from senior Frank Mason to get past the Duke Blue Devils. Late in the week, the various Thanksgiving tournaments that will carry us into December got going as well. We’ve had a few chances now to watch the title contenders and the future Cinderellas, so what’d we learn in Week 2?
1. Duke isn’t healthy yet and that should scare everyone else
It took a late game winner for Kansas to get past the Blue Devils at the Champions Classic last Tuesday and Duke was without three of its four five-star freshmen. To put that in perspective: Duke was missing three projected lottery picks and still pushed one of the nation’s Final Four favorites to the bitter end. The Blue Devils followed up the narrow defeat by winning the Hall of Fame Tip-Off tournament over the weekend, including a victory over No. 21 Rhode Island.
This is, of course, why the Blue Devils were ranked atop our preseason top 25 and why they’re still the favorite to win a national title. It was never just the collection of talented freshmen that made everyone so confident in Duke. It was the combination of that talent and an excellent returning class featuring National Player of the Year favorite Grayson Allen, former five star guard Luke Kennard and defensive anchor Amile Jefferson.
Kennard, in particular, has broken out in his sophomore season as an extra scorer next to Allen. The 20-year-old is averaging 16.8 points per game and shooting better than 50 percent from the field as the Blue Devils have done an excellent job getting him the ball in spots he likes. Assuming Duke gets its three freshmen studs back healthy — and nothing suggests they won’t — they should be able to put together a dangerous two-way team ready to do battle deep into March.
2. The Baylor Bears are the second best team in the Big 12
The Big 12 was supposed to be Kansas and everybody else, but the Bears flashed their potential by trouncing the Oregon Ducks, 66-49, on Tuesday. Although the Ducks were without preseason All-American Dillon Brooks, Baylor’s performance was the most impressive win for a Big 12 team this season this side of the Jayhawks’ victory over Duke at the Champions Classic.
The two biggest questions facing the Bears entering the season revolved around the point guard spot and the hole left by the departure of big man Rico Gathers. Both of those questions were answered on Tuesday. Junior point guard Manu Lecomte dropped 18 points and dished out seven assists in the win. You might remember Lecomte from the Miami Hurricanes’ upset of Duke at Cameron Indoor in 2015, when the then sophomore combined with Angel Rodriguez to pick-and-roll the Blue Devils to death. The Belgian will now look to repeat that feat on the home floors of the Big 12’s toughest competition.
On the interior, junior college transfer Jo Lual-Acuil has answered the call. Although the 7-footer isn’t much of a go-to offensive presence, his physicality has helped make him a defensive anchor in the Bears’ zone. He grabbed 14 boards and blocked seven shots in the win over Oregon and is now averaging 10.7 points, 10.0 rebounds and 5.3 block shots per game through three contests. Those are excellent numbers for someone playing against high major competition for the first time in their career. With its biggest questions answered, Baylor is establishing itself as the second best team in the Big 12.
3. The Creighton Blue Jays will challenge in the Big East
Entering the season, Creighton looked like it would be a tier below the Villanova Wildcats and the Xavier Musketeers in a highly competitive Big East. Four games into the 2016-17 season, though, it looks like the Blue Jays might belong right up there at the top of the league. This week, Creighton handled No. 9 Wisconsin in Omaha on Tuesday and dispatched Washington State on Friday before handing a 20-point loss to North Carolina State and freshman phenom Dennis Smith on Sunday.
While a lot of the focus remains on guards Mo Watson and Marcus Foster, the supporting cast for the Blue Jays has been impressive. Sophomore guard Khyri Thomas has rounded out the backcourt with highly efficient scoring. Thomas has posted a ridiculous 78.0 true shooting percentage through the first four games of the season while knocking down seven of his 12 3-pointers. It’s obviously impossible for him to maintain that level of production all season, but with defenses keyed in on Watson and Foster, there should be plenty of looks to go around.
In the frontcourt, senior Cole Huff has continued to deliver the kind of versatile power forward play that makes Creighton’s offense so difficult to defend. Huff has been consistently knocking down jump shots and opening up space for the guards to attack. Redshirt freshman Justin Patton, meanwhile, may be one of the Big East’s breakout players despite not piling up numbers on the stat sheet. With Watson and Foster leading the way and a strong supporting task in tow, the Blue Jays are ready to compete at the top of the Big East.
4. The Virginia Cavaliers can weather Austin Nichols’ departure with guard play and defense
On Friday night, the Virginia Cavaliers dismissed former Memphis transfer Austin Nichols from the program. Nichols had played just one game since moving to Charlottesville after being suspended for a pair of exhibitions and the team’s opener. The 6-foot-9 forward had been singled out as a potential All-American and the piece that could propel Virginia to the Final Four, a feat head coach Tony Bennett’s resume has been missing.
If the Cavaliers are going to miss Nichols, they didn’t show it on Sunday as they delivered a 62-38 shellacking to the Yale Bulldogs. Bennett has built a system at Virginia that prides itself on defense while playing at a methodical pace on offense. Only one of the Cavaliers’ first three opponents has scored more than 40 points, and the team currently ranks atop Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted defensive efficiency rankings with the kind of supporting numbers that would make any coach happy. Opponents are shooting just 35.0 percent inside the three-point arc and rebounding a mere 17.5 percent of their misses. They also aren’t able to get to the free throw line. Virginia currently ranks third in defensive free throw rate.
The biggest question is if the Cavaliers will have enough firepower offensively to handle the tougher battles that are to come. Marial Shayok has been the team’s best scoring option coming off of the bench, but Virginia may need more out of guards London Perrantes and Darius Thompson going forward given that they won’t have much of a scoring presence down low. Still, it’s hard to quibble with a team winning games by a margin of nearly 30 points. Virginia is definitely doing something right.
5. Markelle Fultz has arrived
Washington Huskies point guard Markelle Fultz is projected to be the top pick in next June’s NBA Draft, but luckily we get to enjoy him for a year in college first. Fultz arrived to the college scene with plenty of hype. At 6-foot-5, he is the prototypical large, athletic point guard that has taken the NBA game by storm and at Washington — behind Lorenzo Romar’s fast-paced offense — he figured to deliver ridiculous numbers.
Entering Sunday’s 92-58 drubbing of Northern Arizona in which he posted a well-rounded 16 points, eight assists, seven rebounds, three steals and two blocks, Fultz was averaging an utterly absurd 37.7 points, 7.0 assists and 5.2 rebounds per 40 minutes, all while shooting nearly 70 percent from the floor. Washington’s uptempo system is the perfect fit for the freshman guard who excels in transition and can get into the lane whenever he wants. He’ll continue to post these kinds of numbers throughout the season.
Next: Frank Mason has become Kansas' go-to guy
The tougher question is whether or not it will matter to his team. The Huskies aren’t likely to be an NCAA Tournament team and they will probably struggle to even finish in the top half of the Pac-12. Fultz is a major talent and enough of a reason to tune into Washington games even if they won’t be winning, but we could be on our way to the second straight year where the top pick in the NBA Draft doesn’t see the floor much in March.