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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At-Large Bids Out of the MAAC and Sun Belt?

Just about every season in recent men’s college basketball memory, there has been a collection of smaller conference sides that have turned heads nationally in the non-conference slate by somehow downing ranked opponents. Very, very rarely do those teams outside of the power conference ranks do enough in out-of-conference action though to offset the lesser competition they square off against in conference play for their NCAA Tournament résumé to warrant them getting selected to dance.

This season may just have one of those miraculously rare exceptions, or even two. That is because Monmouth and Arkansas-Little Rock have gotten their hands on wins against power conference or big-time mid-major opponents at every stage of the non-conference portion of their schedules. The amusing and creative in-game antics of the end of King Rice’s bench are making many headlines right now, but that shouldn’t take away from how jaw-dropping the Hawks have been on the actual hardwood up to this point. Monmouth may have a head-scratcher of a double-digit defeat to Canisius a couple of weeks ago, but the squad has victories versus UCLA on the road to begin the season, a team ranked in the top-twenty at the time in Notre Dame in the AdvoCare Invitational, an improved collection of USC Trojans and at Georgetown Tuesday night by fifteen points in maybe their positively wildest performance of the 2015-2016 campaign.

Junior guard Justin Robinson, despite being 5-8, is playing like an All-American right now. In addition to being top-thirty in the country in scoring with over 20 points an outing, Robinson is tenth and top-twenty nationally in free throw percentage and steals average, respectively. Monmouth and Arkansas-Little Rock are actually the top-two teams in the country right now in free throw percentage. Prized Oklahoma backcourt transfer Je’lon Hornbeak is poised for a true breakout with his new men’s college basketball program here soon. Despite combining for 45 points in those four key Monmouth wins, Hornbeak converted on only a mere third of his shots from the floor in that foursome of battles.

Arkansas-Little Rock is one of only eight undefeated teams left in the country at 9-0 with road victories against San Diego State, Tulsa and DePaul by 22 points two games ago. 5-11 top-25 junior college backcourt transfer Marcus Johnson Jr. and long-time major contributor senior guard Josh Hagins are the double-digit scorers the Trojans have at their disposal. Keep an eye out for 6-9 junior wing Mareik Isom. Isom has reportedly grown eleven inches since his sophomore season in high school, led the Sun Belt in three-point field goal percentage a season ago at 45 percent and received the second-last regular season Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week award of the 2014-2015 campaign. He has yet to explode onto the scene as a junior like he did as a sophomore, but he has proven that potential is there.

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Watch Your Back Goliath (Upset Predictions)

Eastern Kentucky at No. 20 West Virginia--Tues., Dec. 21, 7:00 PM ET
The top-six teams in the Big 12 record-wise currently – the handful of ranked sides the conference boasts at the moment on top of one of the country’s most pleasant surprises in Texas Tech – have a combined record of 48-4. West Virginia is arguably the shakiest of the bunch right now. Three games ago, the Mountaineers got shellacked when it was all said and done by Virginia by sixteen points despite flaunting a twelve-point lead late in the first half. At the beginning of this week, West Virginia allowed Louisiana-Monroe to shoot over 51% from the floor despite winning by 42 points and forcing 21 turnovers. On Thursday night, a Marshall squad that began this season falling in its first six contests led Devin Williams and company as late as a couple of minutes into the second half.

Eastern Kentucky amassed at least 21 wins in each of the previous three seasons coming into this one largely on the laurels of wily veteran – many of the four-year variety like with Eric Stutz and Timmy Knipp – Colonels, but a trio of transfers is leading the charge this time around. The squad has started 8-4 in Dan McHale’s inaugural season at the helm with that experience-laden threesome of new faces for Eastern Kentucky in Jarelle Reischel (Rhode Island, Rice), JaVontae Hawkins (South Florida) and K.J. Bluford (Iowa State) as three of the team’s top-four scorers thus far. That trio combining to average over 43 points per contest and hit 49 triples through twelve games are big reasons why the Colonels are fifteenth nationally in scoring offense, sixteenth nationally in field goal percentage and thirteenth nationally in three-point field goal percentage.

Oregon vs. Alabama at Birmingham’s Legacy Arena--Tues., Dec. 21, 9:00 PM ET
Even though Oregon’s projected starting point guard coming into the season in Villanova graduate transfer Dylan Ennis hasn’t been able to suit up yet for his new men’s college basketball squad and renowned sophomore shot-blocker Jordan Bell just returned from his own injury issues, this was the first regular season week of the 2015-2016 campaign that the Ducks weren’t ranked following that two-point road loss to a Boise State side that could easily win the Mountain West. Bell being able to suit up for the past couple of games has been quite the blessing for Oregon because Dana Altman and his staff only had a seven-man consistent rotation at their disposal before his return – despite having five players that average double-digit scoring. The defensive prowess of Bell picked up right where it left off with the 6-9 second-year Duck combining for five steals and three blocks against the Broncos and UC-Irvine.

The two biggest storylines to come out of the 2015 AdvoCare Invitational may have been a Monmouth side that beat UCLA on the road in their season opener really bursting onto the scene and Xavier truly starting its ascent to currently being ranked in the top-ten, but Alabama also showed it was for real this season in that holiday tournament. The Crimson Tide pulled out victories on the grounds of the Walt Disney World Resort versus a pair of clubs ranked in the top-twenty at the time in Wichita State sans Fred VanVleet and Notre Dame. Avery Johnson’s group was dealt a big personnel blow a little over a week ago when high-flying freshman starting point guard Dazon Ingram was lost for the season after suffering a fractured left foot in practice. In their first outing since losing Ingram against Clemson, experienced Belgian guard Retin Obasohan stepped up and dropped a season-high 23 points.

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Stat Tease

No. 6 Maryland vs. Princeton: Free Throw Percentage vs. Fewest Fouls

The mighty Terrapins aren’t just eighth nationally in free throw percentage at 77.5% due to the usual solely backcourt legitimate contribution to that statistic. Big-name freshman center Diamond Stone is shooting an eyebrow-raising nearly 77% from the charity stripe. On top of that, two more of the most mountainous human beings in Mark Turgeon’s rotation in Damonte Dodd and Michal Čekovský both shoot over 63% at the free throw line. Rarely used 6-9 Croatian freshman Ivan Bender is even 4-of-5 on the year on free throws despite only playing twelve minutes thus far. As part of there being no weak links shooting free throws up to this point for the Terrapins, those backcourt players are still pretty stout in this sense. Melo Trimble leads the group with an 84.5% free throw percentage.

Even with Harvard in arguably a rebuilding season, the Ivy League is still the deepest it has been in a long time. Right in the thick of that reality is Princeton with a 7-2 record. The Tigers are maybe the most disciplined team in the country due to being eleventh and top-twenty nationally in fewest turnovers and fewest fouls, respectively. Junior forward Steven Cook is fourth on the squad in playing time with nearly 28 minutes per contest, but has only committed eleven fouls in eight games.

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All-First-Year Junior College Transfer Team

Marcus Johnson Jr.--G, Arkansas-Little Rock
The top-25 junior college transfer exploded out of the gate for the pleasant surprise Trojans this season with thirty points on 7-of-8 shooting from behind the arc in the second game against Centenary. Johnson Jr. has also wowed versus Division I opponents: 28 points on 4-of-6 shooting from deep and 8-of-8 shooting from the charity stripe in the first match-up with Central Arkansas and thirteen points at DePaul. To make up for a 1-of-5 shooting performance from the floor against San Diego State, he got his hands on five rebounds at 5-11.

Chris Boucher--F, Oregon
Plenty of expectations surrounded the 6-10 Boucher coming into this season with him joining the Ducks as a top-fifteen junior college swap, but most didn’t expect him to be this impressive right away. Replacing the previously sidelined by injury Jordan Bell as the team’s – and one of the country’s most elite – main rim protector seemed like a nearly impossible task, but Boucher finds himself currently tied for third nationally in shot-blocking with nearly four blocks an outing. On top of that, Boucher started the year going 17-of-26 from the floor over his first three games in an Oregon uniform versus Jackson State, a ranked Baylor force and Savannah State. He had a near triple-double of seventeen points, nine rebounds and nine blocks against Arkansas State.

Tra-Deon Hollins--G, Omaha
On top of possessing a double-digit scoring average, Hollins is first in the country in steals average – four of them per contest – and top-35 in assists average. He unleashed a near triple-double of thirteen points, seven rebounds, nine assists and four steals versus Minnesota. Then, he recorded nine assists in each of the following two games on top of that.

Wayne Martin--F, Tennessee State
Plenty of eyes coming into this season were on Tennessee State’s foursome of transfers from the Division I ranks in Jordan Reed (Binghamton), Keron DeShields (Montana), Tahjere McCall (Niagara) and Christian Griggs-Williams (Long Beach State), but Martin has been the best new face for the Tigers thus far. Martin is tied for fifth nationally in rebounding and is averaging over fourteen points an outing as well. He has performances on the boards of 21, seventeen and sixteen rebounds against Loyola (MD), Stetson and Lipscomb, respectively.