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:

From the Bottom to the Top in the ACC

The expectations for the ACC of most coming into this season were that the top third or half of the conference would be elite with the remaining teams not being very strong as far as power six conference programs go. That projected bottom portion of the conference was supposed to prevent the ACC from not even getting close to having the level of depth of the Big 12, Pac-12 or Big Ten. Wake Forest was the surprise out of the ACC in the non-conference slate, but a couple of other overachieving clubs from its ranks are two of the country’s top pleasant surprises in conference play.

The team projected to finish thirteenth in the conference in the 2015 ACC Preseason Poll in Clemson didn’t have any losses in out-of-conference play that were too glaring besides falling by seventeen points against rebuilding Massachusetts, but the squad’s last four ACC contests are what have undoubtedly made the Tigers one of the top stories in men’s college basketball this season. Brad Brownell’s group rebounded from an ACC play-opening loss to a top-ten team at the time in North Carolina by upsetting Florida State and getting past Syracuse – a victory made much better due to being on the road at the Carrier Dome. What really dropped jaws though was who Clemson upset in its next two games: the sixteenth-ranked team at the time in Louisville and ninth-ranked Duke on Wednesday night. Let’s see if the Tigers can keep this dream run alive with them squaring off against ranked foes in Miami (FL), Virginia and Pitt in their next three battles.

Virginia Tech was even lower in the 2015 ACC Preseason Poll than Clemson with a fourteenth-place projection. Unlike the Tigers though, the Hokies did suffer a truly dreadful defeat in the non-conference slate against Alabama State in their season opener. To make matters worse not long after, a freshman starter in Chris Clarke joined another underclassman from the starting five in Ahmed Hill with a season-ending injury. Virginia Tech prevented a three-game losing streak with an overtime victory over a pretty strong North Carolina State side in its ACC opener. Then, the Buzz Williams-coached force did the unthinkable in the following game against mighty in-state rival Virginia by narrowly beating a top-five team at the time in the Cavaliers. Last time out, the Hokies picked up another big-time win over Wake Forest to move within a game of the top spot in the ACC standings.

Speaking of the Demon Deacons, their 1-3 mark so far in ACC competition isn’t as bad as it seems because their two other defeats were to ranked sides in Louisville and Duke. Plus, Danny Manning’s pleasant surprise bunch still has those wins on their résumé from out-of-conference play over the thirteenth-ranked team at the time in Indiana, UCLA, Arkansas and Louisiana State – the first three happening while the squad’s best backcourt player in Codi Miller-McIntyre was sidelined with a foot injury. What is slightly alarming though is that Wake Forest is .500 in the eight games since Miller-McIntyre has returned. Luckily, it seems as though the wily veteran is finally back to full form after combining for 53 points in his last three contests versus the Blue Devils, North Carolina State and the Hokies.

Watch Your Back, Goliath (Upset Predictions)

No. 13 Virginia at Florida State--Sun., Jan. 17, 6:30 PM ET

Of the five top-ten teams that fell just in the span of Tuesday through Thursday this week, only one was knocked off by a squad that was a mere five spots below in the AP Top-25 Poll in the thirteenth-ranked Cavaliers over eighth-ranked Miami (FL). What made that victory just about as notable as the others was that the reeling Wahoos needed it in a big way after dropping back-to-back ACC contests to Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech – selected fourteenth and thirteenth in the 2015 ACC Preseason Poll, respectively. The rest of his 2012 Virginia recruiting class is no longer with the program – Justin Anderson left men’s college basketball early to be drafted by the Dallas Mavericks, Taylor Barnette is a double-digit scorer for Belmont and Teven Jones ended up at Division II Tarleton State – or have a much smaller role on the club than in previous seasons like with Evan Nolte, but Mike Tobey showed against the Hurricanes he can be the frontcourt right-hand man to Anthony Gill. Tobey had his fifth performance of the season with double-digit scoring and at least seven rebounds in just eighteen minutes off the bench versus Jim Larrañaga’s men.

Now, it’s the Seminoles that could really use a key win after a less than stellar start to conference play. Florida State started its ACC slate 0-3 before grabbing a road win last time out over North Carolina State. Granted, those three defeats came against upstart Clemson, the sixth-ranked team at the time in North Carolina and the twelfth-ranked team at the time in Miami (FL). Leonard Hamilton and his staff have at their disposal truly one of the most legendary freshman duos in men’s college basketball history with springy, electric guards with stellar size Malik Beasley and Dwayne “Odell” Bacon. Don’t let the pair’s combined scoring average of nearly 34 points an outing make you forget how mighty their sophomore backcourt mate Xavier Rathan-Mayes is. With Beasley and Bacon helping out with the scoring load now that they’re part of the equation, Rathan-Mayes has raised his assists numbers. While his outing versus the Tar Heels was overshadowed by Brice Johnson’s double-double of 39 points and 23 rebounds, the thirty points on 7-of-9 shooting from deep of Rathan-Mayes in that one still warrants him taking a bow.

Northwestern at No. 3 Maryland--Tues., Jan. 19, 8:00 PM ET

Until the Wildcats finally make the NCAA Tournament field for the first time, it will be no surprise that one of the country’s top men’s college basketball narratives going into each season is their current pursuit to end this streak. Even before the squad’s top NBA prospect in sophomore swingman Vic Law sustained a season-ending shoulder injury just before this season commenced, this didn’t necessarily seem like the roster that was finally going to propel Northwestern to dancing. Chris Collins and his staff have valiantly coached this team to a 15-3 record up to this point with maybe the best victory of the season coming last time out against underachieving Wisconsin.

Sophomore Bryant McIntosh has exploded into being considered truly one of the top floor generals in the country in addition to the program’s best point guard since Michael “Juice” Thompson. Oakland’s Kay Felder may be first nationally in assists and third nationally in scoring, but McIntosh is a slightly less affluent man’s version due to being eighth nationally in assists and the leading scorer for the Wildcats at the moment. Also, senior backcourt ace Tre Demps is top-25 nationally in assist-turnover ratio right now. Dererk Pardon may be the group’s most notable freshman currently due to how he has performed in the six contests since his redshirt was burned to help fill in for the hobbled Alex Olah, but another 6-8 first-year frontcourt piece in Aaron Falzon is averaging over eleven points per contest in Big Ten competition. A freshman front liner for the Terrapins in Diamond Stone is certainly showing the strides he has made in acclimating to the rigors of the college game of late by averaging over 32 points an outing and eight rebounds an outing through a handful of Big Ten battles.

Stat Tease

Houston at Southern Methodist: Rebounding

After South Carolina’s head-scratching 23-point loss at Alabama on Wednesday night, the postseason ineligible Mustangs are rather ironically the country’s only remaining undefeated team. Former Texas Tech Red Raider Jordan Tolbert joining Ben Moore and Markus Kennedy up front this season for Southern Methodist has the squad third nationally in rebound margin through sixteen tussles. On top of being top-45 nationally in total rebounding and top-fifty nationally in rebound margin themselves thus far, the underrated Cougars are the country’s nineteenth-ranked offensive rebounding club. On an individual basis, Tolbert is tied for fifth nationally in offensive rebounding. Houston has two guards in LeRon Barnes and former Oregon Duck Damyean Dotson both wildly averaging over seven rebounds per contest.

Philadelphia Area Product Conference Play Update

Quincy McKnight--Fr., Sacred Heart (Phelps School)

Besides a four-point performance in a loss to Wagner two games ago, McKnight has reached double figures in each of Sacred Heart’s four other conference match-ups. McKnight’s best Northeast Conference scoring outing so far was seventeen points last time out in an overtime win over Central Connecticut State. As a 6-3 guard, he is averaging nearly seven rebounds an outing over his last three contests. Also, McKnight churned out over two steals per contest over those five conference battles.

Maurice Watson Jr.--Jr., Creighton (Boys’ Latin)

Watson Jr. may have shot 3-of-16 from the floor last time out as Kris Dunn and twelfth-ranked Providence came back to beat the Blue Jays at the horn, but he did make his presence felt with five assists and nine rebounds at 5-10. He reached double figures in Creighton’s four prior Big East games. In the squad’s Big East victories so far over St. John’s, Georgetown and Seton Hall, Watson Jr. combined for 57 points and 26 assists.

Amar Stukes--So., La Salle (La Salle College High School)

Right up there with Saint Louis over previously ranked George Washington, the best win in Atlantic 10 competition so far may just be an Explorers side not at full strength downing a ranked Dayton squad this past weekend. Stukes had the best performance in conference play of his sophomore campaign in that one with thirteen points and a pair of steals. Also, Stukes recorded eight points, four assists, the first block of his career and two steals against Massachusetts.

Troy Harper--So., Campbell (Neumann-Goretti)

Harper has recorded double-digit scoring in each of Campbell’s five games in the true conference play portion of the season on top of dropping 21 points against UNC-Asheville in a Big South match-up that was in the middle of the non-conference slate. He started off the true conference schedule with 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the floor in a victory over Winthrop. Harper is just about doubling his freshman scoring average so far.