Getting A Jump On March Madness

By my own admission, it was an embarrassing moment for this coach falling off his couch. I was supposed to cover Buffalo’s key Mid American Conference (MAC) match-up at Kent State on Friday night, only to find out I do not have the CBS Sports Network on my cable package. Seriously, what college basketball blogger would be missing that station?

With my credibility at stake, instead I decided to cover a bunch of games over the weekend, gearing up for the road to March Madness now just around the bend. Thankfully, ESPN provides options that rival Starbucks.

Despite lacking proper cable to get the job done right, let’s give the Buffalo Bulls some well deserved love anyway. The No. 14 ranked Bulls bounced back from a two-point loss league loss at Northern Illinois earlier in the week to beat Kent State, 88-79. When you’re a mid-major power like Buffalo, your respect level barely exceeds Rodney Dangerfield’s, so with the loss to Northern Illinois, the Bulls will likely move down a few spots in the national rankings.

Nevertheless, I did have the pleasure of watching the second half of Buffalo’s 71-59 victory at Syracuse earlier this season and came away impressed. Now in his fourth season at Buffalo, Coach Nate Oats has done a superb job putting the Bulls on the national stage. When Bobby Hurley left Buffalo to take the Arizona State job in 2015 (talk about a change in weather!), Oats was elevated from an assistant to the head coaching position.

Under Oats’ strong leadership, Buffalo has proven to be no fluke and has an experienced team that will be a tough out for any team in the NCAA’s. The Bulls are solid on both ends of the floor. In the Syracuse game, Buffalo moved the ball efficiently for wide open 3’s while pretty much every Orange trey was strongly contested. Upstate bragging rights were never in question. Buffalo’s 6-3 senior guard CJ Massinburg — averaging 18.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 3.1 assists — is among the nation’s best at his position. March Madness should hardly intimidate the Bulls, as they will be making their fourth NCAA appearance in the last five years. And Buffalo has proven it can play with the best in the big dance, having routed No. 4 seed and Pac 12 champion Arizona, 89-68, in the opening round of the NCAA’s last season.

I was hoping to make up for the Buffalo debacle by switching gears to another mid-major, Hofstra, which has quietly put together the nation’s longest winning streak. Only there was no TV coverage to be found for the Pride (how do you simulate that with a mascot?) as they beat Towson 84-61 for their 16th straight victory. Do we dare suggest a march on Washington for ESPN 4?

Coach Joe Mihalich is one of the most underrated coaches around and has a reputation for being one of college basketball’s true gentlemen. Which is certainly no surprise to me, as that is exactly how I remembered Joe attending the LaSalle basketball camp with him many years ago. Mihalich has a great weapon at his disposal, as senior guard Justin Wright-Foreman is having an All-American type of season. The 6-2 Wright-Foreman is among the country’s leading scorers, averaging 26 points, and is getting the job done with the efficiency of a sniper. His percentages of 51% from the field and 42% from the three-point line are remarkable for a player shooting so much.

Hofstra is 19-3 overall and 9-0 in the Colonial Athletic Conference (CAA). In recent years, the CAA is certainly no stranger to success in the NCAA tournament. Under Jim Larranaga, George Mason made it to the Final Four in 2006, and with second-year coach Shaka Smart running the show, VCU advanced to the Final Four in 2011. These Cinderella stories spring boarded both coaches to big-time coaching gigs, as Larranaga is now at Miami in the ACC and Smart is with at Texas in the Big 12. Would be nice to see Wright-Foreman finding his sniping range at just the right moment in March to help one of college basketball’s classiest acts, Mihalich, have a chance at the big-time, too.

While on the topic of tremendous runs, let’s not lose sight of what has been going on at Michigan. I watched the visiting Wolverines dominate struggling Indiana, 69-46, Friday night in a Big 10 contest that was over just after tip-off. Michigan jumped out to a 17-0 lead, and by the second media time-out, Indiana faithful were booing the Hoosiers off the floor. Think Bobby Knight was laughing watching this one?

Michigan has been on a crazy run lately, as the Indiana win pushed the No. 5 ranked Wolverines to 19-1 on the season. Combine that with Michigan’s great finish at the end of last year, when it reeled off 14 straight victories before falling to Villanova in the national championship game, and you have a team that has won 33 of its last 35 games. Michigan is definitely a team with the potential to win it all. Coach John Beilein has proven to be one of the best post-season coaches in recent years, leading the Wolverines to national title appearances in 2013 and 2018. Normally, Beilein coached teams are known for their offense, but this year’s Michigan team is winning with suffocating defense. The Wolverines are giving up just 56 points per game, allowing only 39 percent shooting from the field and 29 percent from the arc. Perimeter players 6-7 Ignas Brazdekis and 6-6 Charles Matthews are among the Big 10’s most versatile players and lead the Wolverines in scoring at 15.2 and 13.1 points, respectively. Brazdekis, who hails from Canada (more on that later), is one of the best freshmen in the country.

Brazdekis might even win Big 10 Rookie of the Year honors over Romeo Langford, who arrived at Indiana with high expectations much like Duke’s Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett. The high school player of the year in Indiana, Langford was ESPN’s No. 5 ranked recruit nationally. Langford is a talented slasher and is sure to be a high lottery pick in this year’s NBA draft, but he might not even lead Indiana to the NCAA tournament. The Hoosiers have lost their last six games and are now on the bubble with a 12-8 record overall and 3-6 mark in the Big 10. Indiana is the worst 3-point shooting team in the Big 10, and in a league that is as unforgiving as any, the Hoosiers have struggled. At one point in the Michigan loss, the Hoosiers missed five straight free throws, clanking them off the rim like a grade school CYO team. By halftime, Fox halftime commentator Steve Lavin had seen enough, joking that Indiana might be better off suiting up Coach Archie Miller to shoot 3’s in the second half. After all, Miller was a 43% career 3-point shooter at North Carolina State.

On Saturday, we had the Big 12-SEC Challenge going on and the best match-up of the day was No. 24 ranked Iowa State at No. 20 Ole Miss. Iowa State was impressive in its 87-73 win over the Rebels and showed it could be a team to watch in the NCAA’s. Fifth-year senior Marial Shayok, a transfer from Virginia, is emerging as one of the surprise stories in college basketball while leading the Big 12 in scoring at 19.7 points per game. At Virginia, Shayok averaged just under 10 points per game. Like Hofstra’s Wright-Foreman, Shayok is getting the job done efficiently, shooting 51% from the field and 41% from the arc. After a slow start, Shayok finished with 17 points in the Ole Miss win. An interesting tidbit was provided by ESPN in this broadcast, revealing that Shayok is one of 133 Canadians playing at Division I schools. Many are sure to be factors in March Madness. Brazdekis is making his mark at Michigan, and Shayok and Duke’s Barrett are Canadians who will likely lead two of the nation’s best conferences, the Big 12 and ACC, in scoring.

Speaking of freshmen, there’s been enough hype about Duke’s Barrett and Williamson to last a lifetime, but Iowa State’s rookies Tyrese Haliburton and Talen Horton-Tucker deserve some praise, too. Horton-Tucker scored a game-high 23 points to propel the Cyclones past Ole Miss, and Haliburton has been the key to the team’s success from the point guard position the entire season. Lesson learned here is never to put too much stock in ESPN’s recruiting rankings. Coming out of high school in Wisconsin, Haliburton was only rated a Three Star recruit by ESPN. Way too low considering Haliburton’s stats so far: a team-leading 35 minutes per game, 86 assists and only 17 turnovers, and 45% shooting from the arc.

With Haliburton shooting 3’s at a high percentage along with Horton-Tucker and Shayok, Iowa State is a dangerous team from the arc. The Cyclones also have good versatility on the defensive end, with an athletic group of starters ranging in height from 6-4 to 6-9 having the ability to switch all screens. Young and talented, Iowa State could surely surprise in the NCAA’s.

Finally, there was the matchup between teams heading in opposite directions when No. 8 Kentucky beat visiting No. 9 Kansas, 73-63, Saturday night. The Wildcats have come a long way since being hammered by Duke in their season opener and have won six straight. A showdown with No. 1 Tennessee is just a few weeks away and should be fun to watch.

No. 9 Kansas, on the other hand, is not the same without 7-1 center Udoka Azubuike, who is out for the season with a hand injury. With Azubuike in the lineup, Kansas was 9-0, including wins over Michigan State, Marquette, and Tennessee. Without him, the Jayhawks are only 7-4 and look like a team that will be hard-pressed to make a deep tournament run.

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