City of Basketball Love

Matt Trabold (@TrabsMatt)
--

(Ed. Note: 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)

Challenge Win a B1G Step in the Right Direction

Last season’s non-conference slate for the programs of the Big Ten – stylized as B1G by many these days – in a general sense ended up being one of the most disappointing in the storied history of the conference as member teams logged losses to the likes of NJIT, Eastern Michigan, Texas Southern, Incarnate Word, Hawaii, Central Michigan, Charlotte, Eastern Washington, North Florida, Gardner-Webb, Saint Peter’s and St. Francis (Pa). Even after all of those early season doldrums, the Big Ten still tied the Big 12 for most representatives in the 2015 NCAA Tournament field with seven teams. Plus, half of the Final Four in that particular slice of major sports postseason nirvana came from the conference with Michigan State and Wisconsin.

You would think that there was no way truly one of the mightiest power conferences would have a second straight out-of-conference part of the schedule debacle when you look at the Big Ten as a whole. Even though this men’s college basketball season is only roughly halfway through that section of the schedule, that is arguably what the conference was mired in coming into this past week of action with defeats at the hands of Western Illinois, North Florida, Chattanooga, Louisiana Tech, Texas-Arlington, Radford and Duquesne. Granted, there are some notable mid-major sides in that group, but they still should be considered upsets nonetheless.

Many believed the ACC to be the country’s top conference coming into this season and still had that conviction coming into the latest installment of the illustrious Big Ten/ACC Challenge this most recent Monday. Those are just a couple of reasons why it looked like the ACC could easily win the event outright for the first time since 2008. As Peter Jok and Adam Woodbury shined in the overtime period of the very last game of the interconference competition en route to a three-point Iowa victory over Florida State, the Big Ten ended up keeping its streak alive of not allowing its tip-top high major conference counterpart to beat them in this setting.

Despite losing in the end in their respective 2015 Big Ten/ACC Challenge match-ups, a foursome of Big Ten squads either rebuilding or limping through this season turned some heads with their performances against favored ACC teams. An Ohio State squad that is the not-so-proud owner of the Texas-Arlington and Louisiana Tech losses listed above and a Nebraska program that had Terran Petteway leave early for a shot at being drafted in the 2015 NBA Draft following last season fell by just two possessions or less to ranked sides in Virginia and Miami (FL), respectively.

One of the biggest national disappointments this season so far is the rebuilding though ranked coming into the season Wisconsin Badgers. Bo Ryan’s boys accomplished at least a slight turnaround to their 2015-2016 campaign by beating fourteenth-ranked Syracuse at the Carrier Dome in overtime even though they had twenty turnovers. Nigel Hayes and Ethan Happ had a game-high five turnovers each, but redeemed themselves in the extra period behind a he-man hoop off a spin move by the former on top of a dunk following his own inbounds pass and a later pair of clutch free throws by the latter. On the other hand, Indiana did not pull out a much-needed redemption victory as they squandered a very promising first nine minutes at Duke and ended up relinquishing 94 points on 52.9% shooting from the floor.

~~~

Watch Your Back Goliath (Upset Predictions)

VMI at Butler--Mon., Dec. 7, 7:00 PM ET
The Bulldogs could easily find themselves back in the national polls Monday afternoon after yet another game-winning bucket in the storied men’s college basketball career of Roosevelt Jones – this time against seventeenth-ranked Cincinnati. If one is looking at a single match-up featuring a high major team versus a smaller conference team, not too many mid-majors over the last decade would be a better selection to pull off a shocker than VMI due to the program’s recent scoring pedigree. Going into last season, the Keydets led the nation in scoring in six of the eight prior seasons. Plus, they weren’t too shabby a year ago finishing the 2014-2015 campaign fifth nationally in points per contest.

This season’s group isn’t quite at that level of scoring prowess just yet, but point guard QJ Peterson is back with a vengeance averaging over twenty points an outing thus far after missing the final twelve games of his sophomore season due to a medical furlough. The Keydets don’t have anyone that stands taller than 6-6 on their roster currently, but Butler’s starting front line goes just 6-8, 6-7 and 6-4 with Tyler Wideman, Andrew Chrabascz and Jones, respectively.

TCU at Washington--Tues., Dec. 8, 11:00 PM ET

Don’t let the 3-3 record the Horned Frogs currently boast fool you, TCU is one of the more positively surprising power conference squads this season along with conference mate Texas Tech. Trent Johnson’s club has lost by just six points to a Rhode Island side that could still easily get into the 2016 NCAA Tournament despite the injury to E.C. Matthews, beat a trendy elite mid-major pick in Illinois State by eleven points right after the Redbirds gave second-ranked Maryland a scare and fell by just five points their last time out against a ranked group of SMU Mustangs. Double-double threat Vladimir Brodziansky and marksman Malique Trent have certainly lived up to their billing of being top-25 junior college transfers thus far averaging a combined 27 points an outing through six games for the Horned Frogs.

Washington’s rotation has some of the most notable depth in the country, but Lorenzo Romar and his staff are having trouble right now getting consistency out of any player not named Andrew Andrews. TCU has turned heads this season though leading returning rebounder Kenrich Williams is unavailable for the 2015-2016 campaign following late September knee surgery and elite defender Chris Washburn won’t play his first game as a junior for another week or two due to a finger injury.

Stat Tease

UC-Irvine at Saint Mary’s: Assist-Turnover Ratio

Not only are the Gaels the seventh-ranked team in the country in assists average with over twenty dimes an outing, but Saint Mary’s can also flaunt being ranked fifth nationally in assist-turnover ratio. Randy Bennett’s Boston College transfer Joe Rahon – tenth in the country in individual assists average – is currently more than doubling the assists average he garnered during his last season as an Eagle with 7.3 assists per contest to just 1.5 turnovers per contest. Rahon went for ten assists and just one turnover in their 26-point Manhattan victory. Australian sophomore Emmett Naar is also averaging 6.3 assists an outing through four games.

The Anteaters themselves are the 21st-ranked team in all the land in assist-turnover ratio. English floor general Luke Nelson has been a mesmerizing whirling dervish since his first UC-Irvine game, but he’s distributed the ball better and played a larger amount of mistake-free basketball as a junior through six contests to the tune of 5.1 assists per contest and 1.9 turnovers per contest.

All-Plymouth Rock Team (Same Faces Settling in With New Places)

Cameron Forte--Sr., Portland State

In two years at Georgia after coming into that program as a junior college transfer, Forte just couldn’t truly break the rotation of the Bulldogs. The 6-7 high-flyer has done that and much more with the Vikings by turning into the unquestioned top option for them this season with just under twenty points an outing through six games. In a narrow three-point loss to a solid Nevada side, Forte exploded for 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the floor and nine rebounds on top of recording a double-double of eighteen points, fifteen rebounds and three steals the last time out against in-state rival Portland.

Jaaron Simmons--So., Ohio

Ohio’s former Houston Cougar is currently ranked sixth nationally in assists average with 7.7 dimes per contest after recording just 1.2 assists an outing as a freshman with the Cougars. Simmons went off for thirty points, five rebounds and eight assists in an impressive two-point loss versus a Tulsa team that upset Wichita State when the Shockers still had a healthy Fred VanVleet. He combined for 65 points and twenty assists in his first three Ohio contests against Florida Gulf Coast, Tennessee State and the Golden Hurricane. First-year Michigan State transfer forward Kenny Kaminski has also been pretty phenomenal in his inaugural season with the Bobcats.

Malcolm McMillan--Sr., Canisius

Central Connecticut State has produced some big-time volume scorers recently with McMillan, Kyle Vinales and Matt Mobley. Now with the Golden Griffins, the 6-0 backcourt focal point has more than doubled the best season scoring average he had in his three-year run as a Blue Devil with nearly 24 points per contest through five games this season – good for being ranked ninth in the country in scoring. McMillan unleashed thirty-plus points in each of his first two Canisius outings with 33 points and 31 points against Hofstra and Lehigh, respectively. He is also shooting over 44% from behind the arc and over 87% from the charity stripe right now.

Kyle Davis--Jr., BYU

Davis put up an average of just under a double-double in his last season at his former men’s college basketball stop also in the state of Utah, Utah State. He has definitely ramped up his play on a bigger stage with the Cougars with 12.2 points an outing and an 11.3 rebounds an outing average that places him eleventh nationally right now in rebounding. Davis began his BYU run with a bang and a half dropping seventeen points and twenty rebounds against Utah Valley. Last time out against a Utah frontcourt that features projected 2016 NBA Draft lottery pick Jakob Poeltl, he had twelve points, eight rebounds and two steals.