City of Basketball Love

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:

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Plenty of Power outside the Power Six
With the Big Ten having a second-straight down non-conference slate and the SEC not flaunting as much depth through the first month of the season as many expected them to, there has been an opportunity for some conferences outside of the power six designation to get their hands on more of that national limelight. The two conferences that are arguably pulling off this feat the most thus far are the Sun Belt and the Missouri Valley.

After getting six teams into the NCAA Tournament field a couple of seasons ago and compiling a striking list of victories already in the 2015-2016 campaign, the Atlantic 10 is only outside of the power six conferences by definition rather than production. The Atlantic 10 has wins this season against Virginia, Vanderbilt, Iowa, Cal, Wake Forest, Northern Iowa, Penn State, St. John’s, Alabama, Seton Hall, Oklahoma State, Ole’ Miss, Houston, Harvard, Clemson, Old Dominion and North Florida.

The American Athletic Conference is not defined as a power six conference for a similar reason after breaking away from the Big East. The conference has had three sides ranked this season in Southern Methodist, Connecticut and Cincinnati, Tulsa has downed previously ranked Wichita State when the Shockers had Fred VanVleet, Oklahoma State and Iona, Houston is one of the country’s most pleasant surprises this season and Memphis still has one of the most impressive rosters nationally.

The Sun Belt has certainly lived up to its recent “Fun Belt” moniker this season up to this point. Georgia State and Louisiana didn’t just come into the season as the two most high-profile squads in the conference, but were also two of the teams with the most eyes on them nationally in all of the mid-major ranks. The Ragin’ Cajuns brought back a future NBA front liner in Shawn Long, while Ron Hunter and his staff added transfers Jeremy Hollowell (Indiana) and Isaiah Williams (Samford) to former Louisville Cardinal Kevin Ware. Few, if any, teams in the country have been more surprisingly stout this season than Arkansas-Little Rock, Texas-Arlington and Louisiana-Monroe though. The Trojans have upset San Diego State and Tulsa. Scott Cross guided his Mavericks to upset victories over Ohio State, Memphis and UTEP.

Even though Evansville and Illinois State were trendy picks to be elite mid-major sides in the 2015-2016 campaign coming in, the Missouri Valley didn’t have any proven commodities of late that returned a significant amount of their rotation and production from last season besides Wichita State. Even though the Shockers lost three straight contests while VanVleet was injured, the conference has been awfully stellar as a whole. Evansville has taken down a couple of the other top mid-major forces in the country in Belmont and UC-Irvine. Illinois State may have a 3-6 record, but took San Diego State, then-#2 Maryland and previously top-ranked Kentucky to the brink. Northern Iowa overcame a monumental frontcourt disadvantage to upset another previously top-ranked squad in North Carolina.

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Watch Your Back, Goliath (Upset Predictions)

Louisiana-Monroe at No. 14 West Virginia--Sun., Dec. 13, 5:00 PM ET
The “Press Virginia” defensive style for the Mountaineers has arguably been no more prevalent in the West Virginia tenure of Bob Huggins than with this season’s team so far. Because of that, the Mountaineers currently find themselves first nationally in steals average, first nationally in turnovers forced, second nationally in turnover margin, second nationally in three-point field goal percentage defense and eleventh nationally in scoring defense. Have you been able to figuratively catch your breath yet? Devin Williams is rightfully the most high-profile front liner for West Virginia, but fellow senior Jonathan Holton is the key cog in the squad being third nationally in offensive rebounding by being top-fifteen in the statistic in the country on an individual basis. The Mountaineers showed some vulnerability last time out by suffering their first loss of the season against top-ten Virginia by sixteen points in a game where they led by twelve points at one moment.

The Warhawks are one of the three pleasant surprises from the Sun Belt this season thus far – along with Texas-Arlington and Arkansas-Little Rock – after beating a Chattanooga side with wins over Georgia and Illinois on top of the preseason favorite in the conference in Louisiana in consecutive games. Louisiana-Monroe will certainly not be a stranger to playing a power conference foe on the road once this match-up Sunday rolls around with Keith Richard’s men already competing on the home courts of Minnesota and Houston so far before playing at Penn State the day prior to squaring off with the Mountaineers. West Virginia is a daunting force for any collegiate squad to battle on the boards, but the rebounding average for the Warhawks is actually less than a single board behind that of the Mountaineers. 6-10 Australian rim protector supreme and inside-outside threat Majok Deng – a cousin of current Miami Heat wing, Luol Deng – is the main attraction for Louisiana-Monroe. They lost the last time out versus Kent State while Deng was sitting out for precautionary reasons before this huge road trip with a lower leg injury.

Louisiana at UCLA--Tues., Dec. 15, 9:00 PM ET
Louisiana-Monroe, Arkansas-Little Rock and Texas-Arlington may be the Sun Belt sides turning the most heads in the non-conference slate, but the Ragin’ Cajuns and Georgia State came into the season as the most high-profile teams in the conference and still boast some of the most impressive rosters in the mid-major ranks. 6-9 senior verticality virtuoso Shawn Long is yet again having a campaign that is making NBA scouts salivate. Long is one of only three players in the country right now – along with Louisiana State’s Ben Simmons and New Mexico State’s Pascal Siakam – in the top-fifty nationally in scoring and the top-fifteen nationally in rebounding. Louisiana currently has the second-best scoring offense in all the land with Long being one of six Ragin’ Cajuns averaging over eight points an outing. Bob Marlin’s group is also balanced on the boards with a top-twenty mark nationally at this point in the season in both total rebounding and rebound margin.

The Bruins looked like they had turned the tide after a .500 first six-game stretch featuring losses to Monmouth and Wake Forest with a double-digit win over previously top-ranked Kentucky, but were nearly upset at home by Long Beach State last time out. Seven-foot sophomore Thomas Welsh has gone from an intangibles-driven lane stuffer averaging less than four points and four rebounds per contest as a freshman to a bona fide go-to guy for Steve Alford and his staff that has confidently nearly quadrupled his scoring average now that Kevon Looney is a Golden State Warrior. Welsh combined for 36 points and 21 rebounds in the team’s last two contests versus Kentucky and Long Beach State. All five starters average at least 11.7 points an outing, but depth is a concern for UCLA with Gyorgy Goloman still out a few more weeks with a stress fracture.

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Stat Tease

Oklahoma State vs. Minnesota: Shot-Blocking
Few, if any, power conference teams have had more disappointing seasons thus far than the Cowboys and the Golden Gophers. Unlike with Minnesota, a lot of Oklahoma State’s struggles can be attributed to injury woes. Phil Forte, III has missed five games, Leyton Hammonds has missed three games and Tavarius Shine has missed seven games. Despite his arrival being overshadowed by another new face for Travis Ford’s club in McDonald’s All-American floor general Jawun Evans, burly Eastern Illinois graduate transfer forward Chris Olivier has become one of the top options for the squad with those three guards missing so much time. Olivier averaging over two blocked shots per contest so far is the top force behind Oklahoma State being eighteenth nationally in shot-blocking.

Richard Pitino’s boys falling to South Dakota and South Dakota State in their last two contests may just be worse than Oklahoma State’s losses to George Mason and Missouri State. Minnesota obviously isn’t a side with their hands full of bright spots, but one is the Golden Gophers also being top-45 nationally in shot-blocking. 6-11 sophomore Bakary Konaté is averaging a hair shy of two blocked shots an outing and has seven more blocks through nine games this season than he did in his freshman campaign. Before a six-point performance last time out against the Jackrabbits, freshman forward Jordan Murphy was one of the hottest players in the country with the first three double-digit outings of his young men’s college basketball career in the trio of games prior. The 6-6 San Antonio product is also averaging over one blocked shot per contest.

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All-Underrated Freshman Team

Jordon Varnado--F, Troy
The 6-6 Jordon isn’t as tall and adept at protecting the rim as his older brother and former Miami Heat front liner, Jarvis Varnado, the all-time leading shot-blocker in Division I men’s college basketball history, but he is arguably a more well-rounded player. He averages nearly eighteen points per contest – currently placing him fourth nationally in freshman scoring – and over eight rebounds per contest for a Troy team that upset South Florida this year. What is maybe the most head-turning aspect of Varnado’s young collegiate career is that he is 46.7% from behind the arc right now, including a 5-of-6 performance from deep last time out versus Seton Hall.

James Thompson IV--C, Eastern Michigan
The 6-10 Thompson IV doesn’t only find himself right now towards the top on the national freshman rankings for multiple major statistics, but is also displaying his clout on plenty of ones regardless of class standing. He is ninth nationally in rebounding, top-25 nationally in field goal percentage and top-thirty nationally in shot-blocking to go along with his fifteen points an outing. Even though three of the games were against non-Division I sides, Thompson IV recording five double-doubles in a row is still quite the feat this early on in his men’s college basketball career.

Shake Milton--G, Southern Methodist
Maybe the biggest reason why the Mustangs are currently fifth nationally in three-point field goal percentage after hitting over 45% of their shots from behind the arc through seven contests is Shake being top-thirty in the country in the statistic himself. As part of a career-high twenty points versus New Hampshire, he went 4-of-7 from deep. The 6-5 first guard off the bench also has twenty assists to just seven turnovers thus far.

Joseph Chartouny--G, Fordham
It’s hard to be a more do-everything freshman this season than Louisiana State’s Ben Simmons. Simmons is top-thirty in the country in assists and steals on top of being the national leader in rebounding and averaging just shy of twenty points per contest. Chartouny is a less affluent man’s version of Simmons when it comes to all of the different ways he can fill up a stat sheet. He is a triple-double waiting to happen that currently averages over nine points, six rebounds, over five assists and two steals an outing. The 6-3 Canadian had fifteen points, eight rebounds and seven assists against Fairleigh Dickinson on top of sixteen points, ten rebounds and six assists in Fordham’s last game against LIU-Brooklyn.