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Trabs Files: 2016-2017 College Hoops In Review Week 2

11/26/2016, 2:30pm EST
By Matt Trabold

Matt Trabold (@TrabsMatt)
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In his weekly Trabs Files, CoBL national analyst Matt Trabold takes a look around the national college landscape, both in the week that was and the week to come:

Feast Week Was More Famine for Some Top Mid-Majors

If you were to look at Dan Monson’s nine-year head coaching stint at Long Beach State coming into this season and pick one standout aspect, it would be the valiant manner in which he schedules up in terms of the non-conference slate time and time again.

Over the last decade, the 49ers seem to have boasted a top-10 strength of schedule nationally whenever you look. Already this season, Long Beach State squared off with Wichita State, then-No. 5 North Carolina, then-No. 12 Louisville, then-No. 16 UCLA and finally Washington in a nine-day stretch. It’s the two games since that span that has some scratching their heads at the now 1-7 squad from Long Beach, CA.

Thursday night, Long Beach State took a pretty tough loss to a Binghamton program that has suffered a few high-profile transfer losses over the past two years and ended last season with an 8-22 record. Falling to Atlantic Sun preseason favorite Florida Gulf Coast in overtime the evening after that was certainly not a rough loss, but the 49ers could have really used a victory in general – not even really a quality one that beating the Eagles would have been defined as – to get their season back on the rails.

Long Beach State isn’t the only big-time mid-major that had a shaky week. Murray State, picked second in the most recent preseason poll installment for the Ohio Valley Conference, has dropped two contests in a row to University of Missouri-Kansas City and Bowling Green State with former Chattanooga star Gee McGhee still sidelined by an ankle injury.

Speaking of the squad picked first in the most recent preseason poll installment for the Southern Conference in Chattanooga, the Mocs took a defeat last time out that did not seem relative to the team many came into the season believing was the top mid-major power around. Arkansas State may have upset Georgetown on the road two games prior, but the Red Wolves were still in the ten-spot in the 2016 Sun Belt Conference Preseason Coaches Poll.

Big Sky preseason favorite Weber State going down to again stout Iona Friday night in the Great Alaska Shootout was not rough simply due to the result. What made it notable was the fact that the Wildcats lost by a whopping 22 points. No starters for Weber State scored in double figures on top of Randy Rahe’s men having more than twice as many turnovers as the victorious Gaels.

Watch Your Back, Goliath (Upset Predictions)

Tennessee State at Vanderbilt--Tues., Nov. 29, 8:00 PM ET

More than ten hours north of Tennessee State’s campus, the Tigers clobbered Canisius by 14 points Wednesday night to move to 5-0 on the young season. This is the first time the program has begun a campaign winning its first five games since joining the Division I ranks in 1977. On top of that, Tennessee State received a vote in the most recent Associated Press Top-25 Poll update a couple of days after beating a Middle Tennessee State program that was a darling of the 2016 NCAA Tournament due to upsetting two-seed Michigan State. The Blue Raiders might even be better this season with Arkansas transfer JaCorey Williams joining the dynamic duo of Giddy Potts and Reggie Upshaw. While arguably the best shorter rebounder in recent men’s college basketball memory not named Josh Hart in the 6-4 Jordan Reed was sitting out last season after transferring in from Binghamton, former junior college transfer Wayne Martin was happy to lead Dana Ford’s squad on the boards. The Tigers find themselves ranked top-fifty nationally in rebounding at the moment with the country’s eighth-ranked individual rebounder currently in Martin and Reed accounting for more than twenty boards an outing combined.

The Commodores have already shown they are susceptible to the upset bug in Bryce Drew’s first season at the Vanderbilt helm. Bucknell took them down back on November 22 while outrebounding the favored side going in by eight boards. Vanderbilt’s heralded Class of 2015 recruiting class has not panned out yet. Samir Sehic transferred to Tulane. Camron Justice is averaging less production than last year despite receiving more minutes per contest so far as a sophomore. Joe Toye’s breakout is still being waited on as he has not reached double figures in scoring in a single outing through six ballgames this campaign. Even though 6-10 Djery Baptiste has started a pair of games this season already, had one of the most Division I men’s college basketball competition-ready bodies in the nation the second he stepped on Vanderbilt’s campus for the first time and took a developmental redshirt season last year, he is still averaging just three rebounds an outing thus far.

Montana State at Utah--Thurs., Dec. 1, 9:00 PM ET

To say Larry Krystkowiak and his staff had a lot to replace on Utah’s roster following last season is putting it lightly. Jakob Pöltl was a top-ten pick in the 2016 NBA Draft to the Toronto Raptors. The bell cow one-man for three seasons in a row for the Utes in Brandon Taylor and double-digit scorer since Day One inside-outside threat Jordan Loveridge both inked to teams in the Hungarian professional league over the same weekend this past August. Kenneth Ogbe is averaging nearly eighteen points per contest through four games for Utah Valley, while Chris Reyes has recorded an average of fourteen points and just fewer than eight rebounds an outing for Pepperdine in its first six games of the season. Utah has only played two opponents from the Division I ranks so far this campaign. A name to monitor going forward for the Utes is seven-footer Jayce Johnson. Johnson rather surprisingly enrolled early at the university last season in late December and was consequently ruled immediately eligible, but still ended up redshirting the second semester anyways. He had by far the best performance of his young men’s college basketball career Friday night with twelve points, nine rebounds and a block in eighteen minutes versus University of California, Riverside.

Few, if any, players – maybe Wake Forest’s John Collins – are making more of an arguably surprising leap into and up NBA Draft mocks since the start of this young season than Montana State’s rangy, sweet-shooting sophomore Tyler Hall. The 6-4 guard is not only ranked fourth nationally in scoring with just about 26 points per contest and tied for ninth in the country in amount of made three-pointers so far, but is also getting his hands on over six rebounds an outing through a handful of contests – a skill that will undoubtedly be called upon in this one with the Utes currently leading the nation in rebounding. Norwegian backcourt player Harald Frey is currently tied for seventh nationally among freshmen in assists average with 5.2 helpers per contest. That guardplay duo is going to be getting quite the complement up front in mid-December when 6-6 Utah Valley transfer Konner Frey (no relation to Harald) is supposed to make his debut with the Bobcats after getting surgery to repair two sports hernias. Konner averaged over fourteen points and seven boards an outing for the Wolverines last year, including a combined 36 points and twelve rebounds against Brigham Young and Louisville.

Stat Tease

Wake Forest at Northwestern: Three-Point Shooting Percentage

Northwestern is one of the better stories of this fresh men’s college basketball season after upsetting a ranked herd of Texas Longhorns by nineteen points. What makes that victory even more significant is that the program is still looking for its first NCAA Tournament berth despite being a power conference side. On top of that, the Wildcats only fell by two points to a Butler team that took down eighth-ranked Arizona Friday night on top of losing to Notre Dame by a mere four points. Vic Law came back from missing all of last year due to a torn left labrum better than ever. As part of Northwestern being ranked twelfth nationally in three-point shooting percentage as a team, Law is top-thirty in the country in the statistic on an individual basis with seventeen made shots from downtown thus far at a 63% clip.

The Demon Deacons are actually even better from behind the arc up to this point than the Wildcats. Wake Forest is currently holding down the tenth spot in the national three-point shooting percentage team rankings. That charge is being led by a couple of transfers in Keyshawn Woods (Charlotte) and Austin Arians (Milwaukee). Both have sent home fourteen perimeter jumpers through six ballgames with Woods tied for fourteenth in all the land in the statistic on an individual basis.

Heavy-Hitting Performers Their Teams Were Thankful for This Feast Week

Ben Lammers--Jr., Georgia Tech

Following the graduation losses of Nick Jacobs and Charles Mitchell, Lammers has undoubtedly become Georgia Tech’s top frontcourt option. After a combined 41 points, nineteen rebounds and ten blocks against Sam Houston State and Ohio in the last week, the 6-10 center has now added around fourteen points, seven rebounds and five blocks an outing to the averages from his sophomore campaign.

Obi Enechionyia--Jr., Temple

In Temple’s 2016 NIT Season Tip-Off victories over a pair of ranked sides in Florida State and West Virginia, the 6-10 Enechionyia combined for 38 points on 7-of-10 shooting from deep, twenty rebounds and eleven blocks. You could certainly say those wins at least mostly make up for the Owls being upset by New Hampshire on the first Monday of this men’s college basketball season.

Thik Bol--Jr., Southern Illinois

The junior college transfer has been productive since his very first game as a Saluki, but really turned it up over the last week versus Minnesota and Mount St. Mary’s. Against the Golden Gophers and Mountaineers, Bol combined for 31 points on 15-of-26 shooting from the field, nineteen rebounds and six blocks. He currently finds himself just outside the top-twenty nationally in blocked shots average.

Kahron Ross--Jr., Lehigh

What made Lehigh’s recent victory over another of the country’s truly mightiest mid-majors at the moment in Princeton so jaw-dropping is that it came in the absence of the 2016 First Team All-Patriot League point guard. He returned to action with a vengeance Friday night though with a team-high eighteen points versus Mississippi State, including 3-of-5 shooting from behind the arc. It took Ross six games to get up to a trio of made three-pointers a season ago.

Yosef Yacob--Jr., Binghamton

Those around the Binghamton men’s basketball program had been waiting for the Archbishop John Carroll product to return to the prowess from his freshman season with the Bearcats two years ago. It appears he may be doing just that after his performance in a very head-turning victory for a Binghamton team that has been significantly hurt by transfers of late over the star-studded Big West favorite in Long Beach State Thursday night. Yacob went 3-of-3 from downtown en route to 15 points off the bench in that one.

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