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:

Exam Week Low in Quantity but Not Quality

The period during the men’s college basketball season where final exams are being taken around the country at the end of the first semester of a given school year understandably has fewer games in the sport happening. That did not stop this week’s collegiate hardwood action from having plenty of spectacular moments.

Villanova’s Josh Hart first became nationally relevant in the sport through his jaw-dropping rebounding numbers for a 6-6 guard. As a senior, Hart has really gone into the stratosphere with his production, leadership and poise. Despite missing his first five field goal attempts, Hart ended Tuesday night’s game with 26 points as his Wildcats handily beat a Temple side with two ranked victories already this year over Florida State and West Virginia. That outing against the Owls came after a performance of 37 points on 10-of-14 shooting from the field, 3-of-4 shooting from deep and 14-of-14 shooting from the charity stripe and eleven rebounds versus the 23rd-ranked team in the country at the time in Notre Dame the contest before.

When a male European basketball player is pegged as a lottery pick in one of the next two NBA Drafts, they do not usually decide to come overseas to play men’s college basketball before throwing their hat into that ring. Ömer Yurtseven is not most male European basketball players. After being ineligible for North Carolina State’s first nine games this season, the Turkish seven-footer suited up for the Wolfpack for the very first time Thursday night against Appalachian State. Yurtseven went for twelve points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field, including making his lone attempt from three-point range, in 24 minutes versus the Mountaineers. Not only did he look more than fluid in every facet of the game while he was out there, but Yurtseven also spoke the English language in post-game interviews as if he has been an American his entire life.

Another high point of this week’s men’s college basketball action was the 2016 Under Armour Reunion at Madison Square Garden on Monday night. In the second and final game of the night, Seton Hall moved to 8-2 on the season by coming back to beat sixteenth-ranked South Carolina sans indefinitely suspended leading scorer Sindarius Thornwell. PJ Dozier’s attempt to tie at the final buzzer from the opposite charity stripe hit the rim twice and the backboard once before falling out. The first game of the event featured an Auburn team that could still easily find itself in the 2017 NCAA Tournament field falling to Boston College after 6-11 Bosnian freshman Nik Popovic tipped in a teammate’s missed shot attempt with 0.2 seconds left in regulation. That victory moved the Eagles to 5-5 on the year.

Watch Your Back, Goliath (Upset Predictions)

Wake Forest at No. 17 Xavier--Sat., Dec. 17, 8:00 PM ET

The Demon Deacons have been something special in the program’s second and third non-conference slates since Danny Manning became Wake Forest’s head coach. Before Atlantic Coast Conference play last season, the team picked up victories against the thirteenth-ranked squad in the country at the time in Indiana, Louisiana State, Arkansas and California, Los Angeles. While this season’s group has stormed out to an 8-2 record thus far with losses only to the third-ranked team in the country at the time in Villanova and an improved Northwestern side, Wake Forest has yet to gets its hands on a signature non-conference win this time around. The Demon Deacons have recovered from the graduations of Devin Thomas and Codi Miller-McIntyre as quickly as John Collins is moving up NBA Draft boards and men’s college basketball national statistic rankings. Charlotte transfer Keyshawn Woods is not showing signs of legitimately slowing down when it comes to his perimeter prowess. Woods is currently top-thirty nationally in three-point field goal percentage with nineteen makes from behind the arc up to this point.

Sean O'Mara was pegged as the next Kenny Frease for the Musketeers, but he just has not gotten very close to that level of production in the middle of Xavier’s front line yet. RaShid Gaston is not currently averaging the same caliber of numbers that he was in his final season at Norfolk State, but he will be called upon to provide plenty of frontcourt help alongside O’Mara to have a chance at stifling Collins in this one. Against Colorado and Utah in Xavier’s last two ballgames, Gaston combined for 25 points on 12-of-16 shooting from the field and 25 rebounds. After taking on the Demon Deacons, the Musketeers square off with another impressive unranked side in Eastern Washington.

Troy at No. 24 Southern California--Sat., Dec. 17, 10:30 PM ET

With second-leading returning scorer Bennie Boatwright going down for six weeks on the final day of November with a sprained knee, this is the time to play Andy Enfield’s Trojans. Former Minnesota starter Charles Buggs is not quite the caliber of perimeter shooter out of the frontcourt that Boatwright is, but he could end up being the Trojan called upon the most to fill in for the 6-10 sophomore over the next month if he recovers in a timely fashion from a hamstring injury he sustained in the layup line before Southern California’s last game. In his first game since returning from a knee injury of his own that kept him out the team’s November 22 contest versus New Orleans, Buggs went 2-of-3 from the field with three blocks in eleven minutes against Southern Methodist. Most people with sufficient knowledge of the program probably were not expecting coming into the season that Buggs would be getting less playing time up front for the Trojans than freshman Nick Rakocevic.

The other group of Trojans in this ballgame is certainly adding to the Sun Belt Conference’s “Fun Belt” moniker through the program’s NBA connections. Troy’s leading scorer and rebounder at the moment is the shorter younger brother of recent Philadelphia 76er and men’s college basketball’s all-time leader in shot-blocking Jarvis Varnado in sophomore forward Jordon Varnado. Despite standing only 6-6, Jordon is currently averaging nearly two blocks an outing. Troy’s second-leading scorer is Wesley Person Jr. – the son of two-time NBA Three-Point Contest participant Wesley Person Sr. Person Jr. was top-thirty in the country as a sophomore last season in amount of three-point field goals made. Former Florida starter DeVon Walker is in the best statistical season of his men’s college basketball career due to averaging over six points and six rebounds per contest so far.

Stat Tease

Portland State at San Francisco: Offense

San Francisco had two of its top-four scorers from last season transfer to other men’s college basketball programs after the campaign wrapped up. The leading scorer for the Dons from that season with over twenty points an outing in Devin Watson headed to San Diego State, while Uche Ofoegbu headed to Nevada, Las Vegas. Even after enduring that pair of roster blows, San Francisco is currently averaging more points per contest than a season ago on top of being top-fifty nationally in scoring offense at the moment. 6-5 junior Chase Foster has more than tripled his sophomore scoring average up to this point. Foster comes into this one looking for his third performance in a row going for at least twenty points.

Portland State’s spot in the top-fifty in the country in scoring offense right now is significantly better than that of the Dons with the Vikings finding themselves ninth in all the land in the statistic. Leading scorer Braxton Tucker being questionable for this one with a knee injury does not put into question if Portland State will have any big-time scorers to employ against San Francisco. Arizona State transfer Calaen Robinson is presently pouring in fourteen points per contest. Former Long Beach State 49er Deontae North has recorded at least sixteen points and seven rebounds at 6-4 in three ballgames in a row.

Philadelphia Area Product Update

Charlie Brown--Fr., Saint Joseph’s (George Washington)

Brown’s performance of twelve points, seven rebounds, a block and a steal against Princeton last time out was his first double-digit scoring outing since reaching double figures in scoring in three contests of a four-game stretch in the latter half of November. Two of those double-digit scoring performances impressively came against North Carolina State and Mississippi.

Tyree Bynum--Sr., Texas Southern (Penn Wood)

Despite scoring just a combined twelve points over the first seven games he received minutes in this season, Bynum exploded for ten points on 3-of-5 shooting from behind the arc last time out against a ranked Cincinnati team. That was the second double-digit scoring outing of Bynum’s men’s college basketball career.

Secean Johnson--Sr., California, Riverside (Penn Wood)

A former teammate of Tyree Bynum at Penn Wood High School in Johnson has followed up his 2016 Big West Conference Honorable Mention Team season with a bang. Johnson is currently second on the Highlanders in scoring with nearly eleven points per contest. The 6-5 forward is coming off of back-to-back double-digit scoring performances after seventeen points and six rebounds against the eleventh-ranked team in the country at the time in California, Los Angeles and ten points against Santa Clara.

Donte McGill--Sr., Florida International (Mont Clare Academy)

It looks like McGill could easily lead the Panthers in scoring for the second campaign in a row despite Swiss Alabama transfer Michael Kessens joining the fray this season and another Philadelphia product in Kimar Williams being an improved scorer this time around. On top of being top-sixty nationally in scoring at the moment with a hair under twenty points an outing, McGill went for a combined 73 points on 26-of-27 shooting from the charity stripe over his last three ballgames. He is also tied for seventeenth in the country in free throw percentage.