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 No or Low Votes to All Up in the Poll

Already this season, Baylor has beaten the fourth-ranked team in the country at the time in Oregon by seventeen points, Atlantic Sun preseason favorite Florida Gulf Coast, Virginia Commonwealth, then-ranked Michigan State by fifteen points, the tenth-ranked team in the country at the time in Louisville and then the seventh-ranked team in the country at the time in Xavier last time out by fifteen points.

After reading that progression of grand victories all in a row, wouldn’t you be surprised to hear that currently fourth-ranked Baylor did not receive a single vote in the Associated Press Top-25 Poll until Week 3 of this campaign? Also, it is worth mentioning that the Bears are enjoying all of this success this year thus far despite 6-9 top-fifteen junior college transfer Nuni Omot and a major verticality virtuoso in top-ninety recruit Mark Vital not being able to play a single minute yet.

Jo Lual-Acuil Jr. was a top-five junior college transfer himself a couple years ago, but few, if any, expected him to have this much of an impact in his first season under Scott Drew and his staff. In addition to going for twenty blocks combined in the four ballgames the Bears have already played against ranked opponents this year, the Australian seven-footer’s over four blocks an outing place him second in the country in shot-blocking right now. Jake Lindsey was Baylor’s nationally notable assist-turnover ratio man last season, but it is bruising point forward weapon Ishmail Wainright taking over that role this time around. Wainright is fifth in all the land in that statistic at this point.

Currently nineteenth-ranked South Carolina actually had to wait one more week than Baylor to get its first vote in the Associated Press Top-25 Poll this season. In the five-day span right before the Gamecocks went from no votes in the poll to entering it at the twentieth spot in its Week 4 update on November 28, Frank Martin’s group ran through a pair of ranked sides by downing Michigan by fifteen points and then Syracuse by fourteen points. There is a big question mark for South Carolina going forward after leading scorer Sindarius Thornwell was suspended indefinitely five days ago for violating an athletic department policy.

Notre Dame was regarded a little bit better than the Bears and Gamecocks before finally being truly ranked for the first time this season, but the Fighting Irish still only received six votes each in the Week 1 and Week 3 updates of the poll. Currently 23rd-ranked Notre Dame already has victories this campaign over Colorado, a Northwestern squad that could very well finally get the school to the NCAA Tournament this season and an Iowa club that beat ranked Iowa State Thursday night by fourteen points. Following the graduation of current Boston Celtic Demetrius Jackson, Matt Farrell has become one of the nation’s most successful role expansions. On top of adding around ten points and four assists to the averages from his sophomore season so far, Farrell is first in the nation in free-throw percentage after hitting his first 24 attempts from the charity stripe as a junior.

Watch Your Back, Goliath (Upset Prediction)

East Tennessee State at Dayton--Sat., Dec. 10, 2:00 PM ET

Two games ago against a Winthrop team that upset Illinois a couple weeks prior and could easily make the 2017 NCAA Tournament field, the long wait was over. Kendall Pollard was finally able to suit up for Dayton for the first time in his senior campaign following a thigh contusion. He made it count in limited playing time as he gets back into the swing of things with twelve points, five rebounds and a block in eighteen minutes versus the Eagles. The undersized front line leaper is used to serving as the main source of relief when Dayton’s frontcourt has gotten thinned for one reason or another during his career with the Flyers. This most notably occurred when Devon Scott and Jalen Robinson got dismissed from the program in December 2014. This time around though, Pollard could not initially provide this type of relief for the first four games after Bradley transfer Josh Cunningham tore a ligament in his left ankle while throwing down a game-sealing posterization with five seconds left at Alabama. Dayton fell to Nebraska at the 2016 Wooden Legacy and a ranked Saint Mary’s side in its first two games after that unfortunate injury occurred. Even with Pollard back, the frontcourt for the Flyers could experience some depth problems until Cunningham returns to action in around another couple of months. Archie Miller and his staff are in dire need of Xeyrius Williams continuing to improve as a sophomore.

East Tennessee State may just have the pieces up front to take advantage of Dayton’s front line not being at full strength at the moment. In his first campaign as a Buccaneer, 6-9 Indiana transfer Hanner Mosquera-Perea is showing for the most part why he was a top-fifty recruit back in the day. Mosquera-Perea went 17-of-24 from the field for 42 points and nine blocks in the first foursome of contests this season, including a ballgame against a 2016 NCAA Tournament squad in North Carolina at Wilmington. Another former big man for the Hoosiers in seven-footer Peter Jurkin is not averaging as many minutes at the moment as he did in his first season at East Tennessee State, but he could be utilized more in this matchup with the current makeup of Dayton’s rotation. The playing time of Isaac Banks is also down as a senior, but he is actually having the best offensive season of his men’s college basketball career thus far.

Stat Tease

Rider vs. Pacific: Rebounding

Through seven games this season so far, Rider is averaging at least five rebounds an outing more than it did in any of the four seasons longtime Sacramento King Jason Thompson played for the Broncs around a decade ago. Kevin Baggett’s crew is currently fifteenth in the country in rebounding. As part of him pulling down ten rebounds per contest up to this point in his senior campaign, Kahlil Thomas is coming off of consecutive double-digit rebounding performances against a couple of conference foes in Siena and Fairfield. Also, Southern Mississippi transfer Norville Carey is averaging just fewer than eight boards an outing himself. Carey currently finds himself in the top-fifty nationally when it comes to offensive rebounding specifically.

The other squad involved in this 2016 Gotham Classic matchup is no slouch on the boards either. Guillaume Yango and Christian Maråker are no longer at Pacific’s disposal up front, but Long Beach State transfer Jack Williams has been impressing in his first season with the Tigers. Through just his first eight ballgames playing for Pacific, Williams grabbed well more than half the amount of rebounds he recorded in the entirety of his one season with Long Beach State. Williams leads the Tigers with seven rebounds per contest at the moment on top of getting his hands on at least seven rebounds in all but two games thus far this year. Pacific is less than half a rebound out of the top-thirty nationally in rebounding at this point.

Same Face, New Place, Better Case (Transfers from Division I Ranks in First Season with New Team)

Brandon Randolph--Jr., Utah Valley

The one-time Xavier Musketeer was one of the first of many examples of Mark Pope’s recruiting prowess right out of the gate heading the Wolverines. Randolph should go down as one of this season’s top national triple-double threats. He is currently averaging barely less than ten points, over six assists and over six rebounds an outing. The 6-2 guard is twentieth nationally in assists average at the moment. His closest performance to a triple-double so far this year was 21 points, fourteen assists and nine rebounds in the upset over Brigham Young.

Steve Taylor Jr.--Sr., Toledo

Taylor Jr. is currently averaging seven more rebounds and just about ten more points per contest than in his best season with Marquette. He is currently tied for being the third-ranked rebounder in the country with twelve boards an outing. In the five games this season already that the Rockets have played against 2016 NCAA Tournament teams – Middle Tennessee State twice, Green Bay, Saint Joseph’s and North Carolina at Wilmington – Taylor Jr. averaged sixteen points and ten rebounds per contest.

Reggie Lynch--Jr., Minnesota

After recording 2.8 blocks an outing in each of his first two seasons at Illinois State, it is no surprise that Lynch is wowing sending shots away thus far as a Golden Gopher. Lynch’s rim protection numbers are actually up slightly so far this time around. He is fifth in the country at this point in shot-blocking. Back in mid-November, he had a whopping nine blocks against the team that is currently fourth nationally in shot-blocking in St. John’s. A handful of games after that, Lynch went for six blocks versus another renowned collegiate rim protector in Vanderbilt’s Luke Kornet.

Deandre Burnett--Jr., Mississippi

Burnett is one of two big-name backcourt transfers suiting up for the Rebels this season – the other being former New Mexico Lobo Cullen Neal. He is presently more than tripling up the scoring average from his one season at Miami (FL). His 21.6 points per contest are good for making him top-thirty in the country right now in scoring. On top of that, Burnett is sixteenth nationally in free-throw percentage at the moment. In his last two contests, he combined to shoot 18-of-18 from the charity stripe against Middle Tennessee State and Memphis.