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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If BracketBusters Still Graced Us in 2016

The BracketBusters event was put on by ESPN starting in 2003 to pit the best teams from the mid-major ranks against each other in a couple handfuls of match-ups over a short span fairly late in the season in the middle of conference play. Not only did the event help boost the NCAA Tournament résumés of talented teams that didn’t get to show their worth throughout the season as much as their power conference counterparts, but it also was quite the spectacle for more avid men’s college basketball heads. Sadly, the event was discontinued after its 2012 installment. It is certainly still enjoyable though to think up what some of the premier BracketBusters battles would be for every season since, including the current one.

South Dakota State vs. Oakland: Both of these sides boast one of the top point guards in any conference this season with George Marshall for the Jackrabbits and Kay Felder for the Golden Grizzlies. The former Wisconsin Badger Marshall has reached double figures in scoring in each of the nine contests since having to sit out six of them in a row due to a right foot injury. Against a couple of the other members of the top-four in the current Summit League standings in IPFW and Omaha, Marshall had 28 points and eleven made field goal attempts in each contest. Felder still finds himself fourth nationally in scoring with over 25 points an outing and first nationally in assists with nine dimes per contest. Both of Oakland’s former Iowa State Cyclones in Percy Gibson and 6-4 guard Sherron Dorsey-Walker are averaging over six rebounds an outing.

Texas Southern vs. Hofstra: Every men’s college basketball fan may not be aware of Texas Southern’s Derrick Griffin and Hofstra’s Rokas Gustys yet, but it’s hard to find more well-rounded forces in the trenches in the sport right now. The 6-7 Griffin started his freshman campaign just fifteen games ago, but already has ten double-doubles with five of them in a row at the moment. Most people focus on backcourt transfers Juan’ya Green, Ameen Tanksley and Brian Bernardi when they look at the Pride, but 6-11 sophomore Gustys has been a phenomenal compliment to them down low. After nine-straight double-digit rebounding outings, including four of at least nineteen boards, Gustys is now tied for seventh nationally in rebounding average. On top of that, he is also top-twenty in the country in field goal percentage.

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Watch Your Back, Goliath (Upset Predictions)

Texas at No. 1 Oklahoma--Mon., Feb. 8, 9:00 PM ET
In a season where teams from the polls have been dropping left and right in historic levels, the Sooners can be considered one of the positive constants. The only defeats on the year thus far for Oklahoma came against the top-ranked team at the time in Kansas in triple overtime in its second game of Big 12 competition and a top-twenty side back then in Iowa State by just five points. Coming into this season, Isaiah Cousins was a veteran stalwart in the program whose reputation was not far behind that of the one and only Buddy Hield. Cousins just didn’t look like himself for a six-game stretch a little over two months ago – the final non-conference game for the Sooners and their first handful of Big 12 battles – averaging less than nine points per contest on top of shooting just 19% from the floor in the four games in that span where he failed to reach double-digit scoring. The last five outings for Lon Kruger’s group – versus ranked clubs Baylor and Iowa State plus other strong forces in Louisiana State, Texas Tech and Texas Christian – saw some vintage Isaiah Cousins as he averaged nearly eighteen points and six assists an outing with 72% shooting from behind the arc.

It’s safe to say Shaka Smart and his staff have gotten their bearings by now at their new men’s college basketball stop. The Longhorns have won six of their last seven contests and are currently tied for the second-best conference record in arguably the top conference around this season in the Big 12. As part of those six victories, Texas downed a top-ten team at the time in West Virginia, a top-twenty team at the time in Iowa State, fifteenth-ranked Baylor and a previously ranked Vanderbilt side that followed up its defeat versus the Longhorns by upsetting eighth-ranked Texas A&M by seventeen points Thursday night. One of the tip-top rim risers nationally in 6-4 freshman guard Kerwin Roach Jr. had the best stretch of his young men’s college basketball career last week with a combined 37 points, sixteen rebounds and seven steals for the Longhorns against the Commodores and Horned Frogs.

Pittsburgh at No. 17 Miami (FL)--Tues., Feb. 9, 7:00 PM ET
The up-and-down nature of the ACC slate for the Hurricanes this season is still in full force as Miami (FL) followed up a double-digit victory over then-ranked Duke with a sixteen-point loss this past weekend to North Carolina State. Plenty of positives came out of the squad’s most recent game though as the Hurricanes stifled 2016 Bob Cousy Award finalist Demetrius Jackson – had fourteen points, seven rebounds, eight assists and six steals in his return to action from hamstring issues in the contest before against Wake Forest – en route to a nine-point win over recently ranked Notre Dame. Kamari Murphy hasn’t been quite as good for Miami (FL) so far as he was at Oklahoma State, but he did have his first double-digit scoring performance in eight games with a season-high eleven points versus the Fighting Irish.

The Panthers have survived against Florida State and Notre Dame, but still don’t have a signature win on their 2016 NCAA Tournament résumé. Luckily – or perhaps unluckily – for them, Jamie Dixon’s men will square off with currently ranked clubs in each of their next three ACC ballgames. Frontcourt passers in men’s college basketball at the moment don’t get much better than the program's junior forwards Michael Young and Jamel Artis. Each of them currently averaging at least three assists per contest is a pivotal reason why Pittsburgh is tied for third nationally at the moment in team assists average. Much of the clout for the Panthers comes from the multitude of capable ancillary pieces Dixon and his staff have at their disposal. Recruiting classmates Cameron Johnson and Ryan Luther certainly fit that bill. After exploding for twenty points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor a couple of weeks prior against Boston College, Johnson dropped nine points and a steal in sixteen minutes last time out versus Virginia Tech. Over his last two outings against the Hokies and Clemson, Luther recorded a combined seventeen points on 3-of-3 shooting from behind the arc – the first three made triples of his sophomore campaign.

Stat Tease

Green Bay at Detroit: Scoring Offense
While Valparaiso is fourth nationally at the moment in scoring defense, the Horizon League currently has three teams in the top-eleven in the country in scoring offense. The pretty legendary likes of Keifer Sykes and Alec Brown have graduated out of the program over the last few years, but Green Bay still finds itself second nationally right now in scoring offense with nearly 87 points an outing. Junior college transfer guard Charles Cooper is putting together quite the first season with the Phoenix with nearly thirteen points per contest through 23 games. The Titans aren’t far behind in the scoring offense rankings nationally due to holding the eleventh spot on the list currently. Last time out versus Cleveland State, former Colorado Buffalo Chris Jenkins went 6-of-8 from three-point land for twenty points. Big-time NBA Draft prospect 6-8 sophomore guard Paris Bass had 23 points, eight rebounds and six blocks in Detroit’s first meeting with Green Bay this season.

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All-Not Just a Backcourt One-Trick Pony Team

A.J. English--Sr., Iona
In his storied career with the Gaels, English has been most known as an elite volume scorer. He’s still certainly known as one of those in his senior campaign with him being eleventh nationally right now in scoring average with over 22 points an outing. On top of that, he currently has the best assists average in his four years of men’s college basketball due to averaging just shy of six dimes per contest through sixteen games – good for 21st nationally in the statistic.

Zeek Woodley--Jr., Northwestern State
When mid-major legend Jalan West was lost for the season just one game in with a torn ACL, Woodley took over the reins for the Demons. Woodley – tenth in the country in scoring average – is currently putting together his second-straight season with over 22 points an outing. He is also eighth nationally in free throw percentage at 89.5% with 94 made tosses at the charity stripe through twenty contests. On top of that, Woodley is averaging over five rebounds per contest at 6-2.

Carrington Love--Sr., Green Bay
Filling the shoes of Keifer Sykes as the top option for the Phoenix is no easy task, but Love has performed valiantly at it so far by adding almost nine points an outing to the scoring average from his junior year. That boost currently places Love just two spots outside of the top-fifty nationally in scoring average. Love is also top-five in the country in steals average with 2.7 of those bad boys per contest. Before a still impressive eighteen points last time out against Northern Kentucky, he dropped at least twenty points in five contests in a row.

Roderick Bobbitt--Sr., Hawaii
Despite the surprising fourteen-point upset loss to Long Beach State a couple of games ago, the Rainbow Warriors are still only a half-game out of the lead in the current Big West standings and one of the favorites to be the conference’s representative in the 2016 NCAA Tournament. Bobbitt may be scoring a significant amount more as a senior compared to a year ago, but his bread and butter is still what he does passing and stealing the rock. At the moment, he is seventeenth and fortieth nationally in steals and assists, respectively.