The second week of the men’s college basketball season featured plenty of memorable matchups,from a loaded Tuesday slate headlined by the always electric kentucky vs. Louisville rivalry to a packed weekend of games that saw some of the best teams in the country tested in a major way. What did we learn from a weekend when three top-five teams faced off with ranked opponents and several others got pushed to the limit? Here are five takeaways from all the action.
For houston to beat Auburn in front of a hostile crowd in Birmingham, you would have expected the Cougars’ veterans leading the way. Instead, Houston‘s two star freshmen looked like budding stars in the thrilling 73-72 victory. It wouldn’t be that big of a stretch to call Kingston Flemings already houston’s best guard over Milos Uzan and Emanuel Sharp. he delivered 22 points, five rebounds and seven assists on an efficient 7-for-13 shooting. And up front, fellow freshman Chris Cenac had his best game of the season with 18 points and nine rebounds before fouling out late.
This loaded freshman class, Kelvin Sampson’s best yet at Houston, gives the Cougars more upside than some of his previous teams. The question coming into the season was just how ready Flemings and Cenac would be to impact winning early on, especially in a system that requires elite attention to detail on the defensive end.There may still be growing pains to come, but that duo looks well ahead of schedule … and that’s a scary sign for the rest of college basketball.
It has been a less-than-ideal start to the season for the Big East, owning just a 3-10 overall mark against high-major foes through two weeks. The pain has been particularly acute for a pair of preseason projected bubble teams in Marquette (losses to Maryland and Indiana) and Providence (losses to Virginia Tech and Colorado). Add in buy-game losses for Xavier (vs. Santa Clara) and DePaul (vs. Buffalo) and the Big East currently sits as KenPom’s lowest-rated high-major league.
While Dusty May’s Wolverines found ways to grind out victories against Wake Forest and TCU, it’s obvious Michigan hasn’t found it’s stride as it tries to maximize what many believe to be college basketball’s best frontcourt. Early on, May elected to start Yaxel Lendeborg at the three rather than his more natural power forward slot in order to get Morez Johnson Jr. and Aday Mara on the floor next to him. The result has been clunky at times: Michigan made a combined nine threes in two games this week and turned it over 37 times, finishing below one point per possession in both wins.
While lendeborg and point guard Elliot Cadeau are capable shooters, teams seem likely to pack the paint and do their best to slow down Michigan on the interior and dare the Wolverines to beat them over the top.Michigan may still be able to overwhelm them on the inside anyway (see its 44-23 edge on the glass vs. TCU), but hitting its Big Ten championship and Final Four ceiling will require smoothing out this bumpy offensive start.
No team in college basketball has a better two-pack of early season wins than the Wildcats, who added to their opening night win in Las Vegas over Gonzaga with a dominant 86-60 victory over Saint Thomas on Friday. Kentucky is currently ranked #2 in the AP Poll.
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