Week 4 of college basketball featured several top 25 matchups. Here’s what we learned.
The week after Feast Week didn’t deprive college basketball fans of the top 25 matchups that they got used to during the early-season tournament action. UCLA-Kentucky, Baylor-Xavier and Gonzaga-Arizona combined to create one of the better Saturday slates of the season. So, what can we takeaway from the week that was? Here’s a look.
1. The evolution of Villanova’s Josh Hart continues
Before the season, there were plenty of questions about how the Villanova Wildcats would be able to defend their national title without senior leaders Ryan Arcidiacono and Daniel Ochefu back on the court. As the team’s starting point guard, Arcidiacono made the Wildcats’ offense hum. Many expected sophomore Jalen Brunson to shoulder the burden of replacing him and take over the duties of being Villanova’s primary ballhandler in 2016-17, but he’s had some help.
After emerging as an All-American last season, guard Josh Hart has thrust himself into the National Player of the Year conversation as a senior. Hart is already well-known as a scrappy defender who typified the role of star who does everything well. Think of a college basketball version of Draymond Green who plays guard. Now, though, Hart has become one of the best offensive players in college hoops. Of players who have been on the floor for more than 200 minutes in 2016-17, Hart ranks number one in Offensive Box Plus/Minus, a statistic that measures the overall offensive impact a player has on his team.
In addition to being a ridiculously efficient scorer — his 68.4 true shooting percentage ranks 57th nationally — Hart has also become a go-to creator, helping fill the void left by Arcidiacono. As a senior, the 6-foot-5 guard has raised his assist rate over 10 percentage points from 12.4 to 23.7 percent while increasing his assists per 40 minutes from 2.5 to 4.8. Hart’s full arsenal was on display in the Wildcats’ 88-57 win over Saint Joseph’s on Saturday as he dropped Villanova’s first triple-double since 1986.
Hart may not be the Wildcats’ point guard in name, but he has become the team’s best initiator on offense often receiving the ball in hand-offs from Brunson before calling up one of his frontcourt players to play pick-and-roll. With his evolved offensive game, Hart is firmly in the Player of the Year conversation and ready to help Villanova defend its championship.
2. Jayson Tatum and Marques Bolden played; Luke Kennard stole the show
The Duke Blue Devils’ Sunday matinee meeting with the Maine Black Bears at Cameron Indoor wasn’t meant to be a meaningful contest. Maine, after all, is currently ranked 340th out of 351 Division I teams, according to KenPom.
This was meant to be a tune up for the Blue Devils’ upcoming matchup with Florida and an opportunity for star guard Grayson Allen to get some rest. Then, Duke’s official Twitter account sent out a menacing tweet suggesting that freshman Jayson Tatum would make his debut. Midway through the first half came another tweet as fellow freshman Marques Bolden checked into the game wearing a Duke uniform for the first time.
Alongside Harry Giles, Tatum and Bolden are two parts of Duke’s trio of top-flight freshmen projected to be lottery picks in next June’s NBA Draft. Fellow five-star freshman Frank Jackson had already helped the Blue Devils to a 7-1 record, but the addition of the remaining prospects figured to be a boon for head coach Mike Krzyzewski. Tatum and Bolden, though, had rather pedestrian debuts against Maine as sophomore guard Luke Kennard stole the show by scoring 35 points in the win.
This isn’t to suggest that Tatum and Bolden won’t be useful, or even stellar, players for Duke, but it does emphasize the difficult choice that Krzyzewski will face once his full roster is healthy. Kennard currently ranks fourth in the KenPom Player of the Year race and has been one of the biggest sophomore revelations in the country.
It will be hard for Krzyzewski to take minutes away from him in order to give them to someone else given how well he has played. Of course, this is a problem that any coach in the nation would happily take of Krzyzewski’s hands and it’ll be a challenge he’s well-equipped to handle.
3. Kentucky’s shooting woes may limit the Wildcats’ ceiling
The biggest game of the weekend took place at Rupp Arena as the Kentucky Wildcats squared off with the UCLA Bruins. Kentucky entered the game as the top-ranked team in the country and arguably had played better basketball up to Saturday than anyone else.
The Wildcats are a vicious combination of defensive want-to and athleticism that breeds transition buckets and highlight reel slams. The problems can come when those defensive stops don’t materialize and Kentucky is forced into a shootout with an opposing team capable of scoring at a high level. So it was against the Bruins who snuck away from Lexington with a 97-92 win.
The biggest worry going forward for Kentucky is whether or not they can consistently make enough outside shots to force defenses to guard the perimeter and allow space for players like De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk and Isaiah Briscoe to attack the rim. The Wildcats are shooting just 32.4 percent from deep and made only 8-of-24 threes against UCLA. Exclude Monk and those numbers fall to 28.4 percent and 4-of-16.
The lack of shooting is certainly not a death knell for Kentucky’s national title hopes. The Wildcats will overwhelm many with their athleticism and already impressive defense, but being unable to make shots certainly won’t help. Keep an eye on how opposing coaches choose to defend them in the halfcourt as the season rolls on. If they sag off of the shooters and force the Wildcats into more jump shots, it’ll make it much tougher for Kentucky to score points.
4. For West Virginia, the sum is greater than the individual parts
Although the West Virginia Mountaineers started the year as a member of the preseason AP Top 25, it wasn’t clear how the program would respond to losing its two leading scorers and its most versatile defender. After this week, though, it might be time to stop questioning head coach Bob Huggins and his squad.
West Virginia bounced back from a neutral site loss to Temple on Friday by smashing Manhattan, 108-61, at home on Monday. The impressive part of that win? The Mountaineers forced 40 turnovers in 40 minutes. That means 46.0 percent of the Jaspers’ offensive possessions ended in a giveaway. The performance is the pinnacle of Huggins’ “Press Virginia” system that has ranked first or second in defensive turnover percentage the past two seasons. This year, they’re back atop those rankings, creating turnovers on 33.6 percent of opponents’ possessions.
If the Manhattan win was the best example of what West Virginia is capable of, the Mountaineers’ road victory over the Virginia Cavaliers on Saturday may be the most impressive victory of the “Press Virginia” era. West Virginia forced one of the surest handling teams in the country into 14 turnovers — that was a turnover on nearly one quarter of the Cavaliers’ offensive possessions — en route to a nine point win in Charlottesville. The Mountaineers were also without starting guard Daxter Miles for most of the contest after Miles was thrown out for an elbow in the first half.
At West Virginia it appears the pieces may come and go, but the system remains as resilient as ever. This week showed us there’s not much to worry about in Morgantown.
5. South Carolina suspends Sindarius Thornwell; now what?
The South Carolina Gamecocks didn’t start the season ranked in the top 25, but they’ve thrust their way into the conversation with an 8-0 start and wins over Monmouth, Michigan and Syracuse. On Sunday, though, the team announced the suspension of its leading scorer, Sindarius Thornwell, with sources telling The State that Thornwell will miss multiple games due to a violation of athletic department policy.
Thornwell has been spectacular for the Gamecocks this season, averaging 24.7 points per 40 minutes while shooting nearly 50 percent from behind the three-point arc. He is also the team’s leader in rebounds and assists while posting strong block and steal rates on the defensive end. Among players who have played more than 200 minutes this season, no player in the country has been more valuable to his team than Thornwell, according to Box Plus/Minus.
Next: Week 5 Projected Top 25 Rankings
So, what happens next for South Carolina? The Gamecocks face two opponents — Seton Hall and Clemson — in their next three games who are ranked in the top 50 at KenPom. Those are not guaranteed losses nor will they irreparably damage an NCAA Tournament resume, but they will present tough challenges for a team that will be trying to find a new identity without Thornwell in uniform. After that, it’s just a question of how long the Gamecocks will be without their star.