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:

Tragedy and Triumph in Oxford

The game seemed to be trending towards the same unfortunate result the Rebels had suffered in four of their last five outings. With the game clock indicating that there was 17:21 left in regulation as the players walked to their respective benches following Andy Kennedy calling a timeout, Tennessee was in the midst of a 30-14 run since Mississippi went up eleven points around eight minutes into the contest.

That is when things went from bad to worse for the home team. Senior starting guard Rasheed Brooks collapsed in the huddle during that timeout due to a seizure. As their teammate was being carted off of the playing surface and immediately to a nearby hospital, a number of Rebels were understandably visibly shaken up, emotional and crying while members of the coaching staff tried to console them.

One of those Rebels was first-year junior college transfer Justas Furmanavicius. The 6-6 Lithuanian junior was trying his best to wipe away tears and compose himself as he left the team huddle when a referee’s whistle blow signified that play was finally going to resume. As he made the short walk back onto the court, something beautiful happened. Tennessee freshman guard Jordan Bowden was the first one to reach Furmanavicius as he went to his spot on the floor to get ready for the ensuing inbounds play. It was not the longest or most thorough of embraces, but that attempt to cheer up an opponent after something horrific like that went down is one of the top acts of sportsmanship and humanity you are going to find on any field of play.

Mississippi was not going to let that rather traumatizing experience send them even further into the doldrums for the remainder of the game. With 14:10 to go in the ballgame, Kennedy’s forces pulled off one of the top plays of this men’s college basketball season so far. The sequence actually started with Mississippi’s New Mexico graduate transfer Cullen Neal getting blocked hard by Admiral Schofield off the backboard. Before landing back on his feet after stuffing Neal, Schofield slapped the ball back at the backboard after it came off the first time – probably an attempt to start a break going the other way for his Volunteers.

The ball did stay in play. It just did not reach one of his teammates. That is because Marcanvis Hymon flew in out of nowhere to tip slam the rock home after it came off the backboard for the second time in that split-second span. That is the momentum boost the home side needed to pull off a mesmerizing comeback and win by eleven points – a win that came with leading scorer Deandre Burnett out with a high ankle sprain. The Rebels ended the game on a 41-17 run.

Two days later, Brooks was released from the hospital. Kennedy said that he and his staff would gradually return Brooks to playing time with the team.

Watch Your Back, Goliath (Upset Predictions)

Georgia Tech at No. 16 Virginia--Sat., Jan. 21, 2:00 PM ET

What Georgia Tech has done in conference play thus far should make Ramblin' Wreck fans support the program’s head coach hire of Josh Pastner from ten months ago if they had not already. The Yellow Jackets were picked fourteenth out of fifteen teams in the preseason poll coming into this campaign for the Atlantic Coast Conference, but the team is currently ahead of the notable likes of Duke, Miami (FL) and Pittsburgh in the conference’s standings. On top of starting its conference competition slate with a double-digit victory over the ninth-ranked team in the country at the time in North Carolina, Georgia Tech pretty handily took care of one of the very best rosters in all the land in North Carolina State as well as fell by just a single point to previously ranked Virginia Tech in its last two ballgames. Josh Okogie is one of the most pleasant surprise freshmen nationally this season. The 6-4 guard combined for 53 points in those wins against North Carolina and North Carolina State.

On top of pulling down 9.7 rebounds an outing at the moment for the Yellow Jackets, Ben Lammers is also tied for second in the country in shot-blocking. Lammers could serve as a major problem for the Cavaliers in this one. No big man on Virginia’s roster has been able to step up and consistently be a go-to front liner on the glass and in the scoring column since former Memphis star Austin Nichols was dismissed after playing in just one ballgame under Tony Bennett and his staff. The Wahoos are presently outside the top-three hundred nationally in rebounding with no one on the team averaging even six rebounds per contest. On a more positive note for Virginia, the club yet again during Bennett’s tenure in Charlottesville has the top scoring defense in the country. Let’s see if that allows the Cavaliers this time around to overcome their own scoring issues.

North Carolina State at No. 18 Duke--Mon., Jan. 23, 7:00 PM ET

One of the biggest disappointments in the country this season up to this point was North Carolina State’s recent three-game losing streak in Atlantic Coast Conference play. Few men’s college basketball teams have a more impressive squad on paper right now than the Wolfpack, but Mark Gottfried’s men are tied for being second-to-last in the conference’s current standings – albeit a mighty conference. The first defeat of that three-game losing streak was the second-worst loss in program history in terms of margin of victory for the opponent as North Carolina State was pummeled by North Carolina by 51 points. Things arguably got worse in the two contests that followed next as the team was upset by the sides that were picked fourteenth and fifteenth, respectively, out of fifteen teams in the preseason poll coming into this campaign for the Atlantic Coast Conference in Georgia Tech and Boston College.

North Carolina State may have turned around its season on Tuesday night though by picking up a win against a strong Pittsburgh group. In that one versus the Panthers, Maverick Rowan had the best outing of the portion of his sophomore campaign so far following missing seven ballgames early in it due to concussion problems with a season-high 21 points on 6-of-9 shooting from downtown. After plenty of struggles in the first five conference games of his young men’s college basketball career, Ömer Yurtseven magnificently recorded his first double-double at this level with twelve points and a career-high sixteen rebounds versus Pittsburgh. If Yurtseven keeps this well-rounded success going on top of Abdul-Malik Abu getting off the schneid he has been on since the beating at the hands of the Tar Heels, the Wolfpack could dominate up front in a scenario where the leading rebounder for the Blue Devils in Amile Jefferson is not able to play with his day-to-day bruised foot injury and Harry Giles continues not being able to string together outings in which he looks like his pre-knee injuries self.

Stat Tease

Texas Tech at Baylor: Field Goal Percentage vs. Field Goal Percentage Defense

Even though Chris Beard rather than Tubby Smith is at the helm now, Texas Tech is in the midst of its second highly successful season in a row. That includes victories over the seventh-ranked team in the country at the time in West Virginia, a ranked Kansas State side and a fellow currently 14-4 Big 12 squad in Texas Christian over the last five contests for the Red Raiders. Texas Tech shot 51% from the field in that victory over the Mountaineers. That is a microcosm of the Red Raiders currently being tied for eleventh nationally in field goal percentage. Keenan Evans is top-seventy in the country in field goal percentage himself, while fellow junior Zach Smith is one spot out of the top-seventy nationally in that statistic.

On the other side of this battle this upcoming Wednesday night, the Bears are fourteenth in the country in field goal percentage defense. Much of that has to do with rim protection. Despite sending away just four shot attempts over his last six ballgames, Jo Lual-Acuil Jr. is tied for eighth nationally in shot-blocking with 2.94 of those bad boys an outing thus far in his first Baylor season. As part of his wildly successful outing against Texas last time out, Johnathan Motley recorded a season-high three blocks to go along with his career-highs of 32 points and twenty rebounds.

All-Toil and Trouble Team (Notable Double-Double Machines This Season)

Alize Johnson--Jr., Missouri State

Most Pittsburgh men’s basketball fans – and many men’s college basketball fans in general for that matter – remember the frontcourt feats of Chevon Troutman. Something Troutman never did though as a Panther was average double-digit rebounding in any of his four collegiate seasons like his cousin Alize Johnson is doing currently. The first-year junior college transfer is tied for eighth nationally with eleven double-doubles at this point. Last time out, Johnson exploded for 26 points and twenty rebounds against Indiana State.

Kyle Kuzma--Jr., Utah

Kuzma has certainly synched with his expanded role on the front line for the Utes this year following Jakob Pöltl and Jordan Loveridge moving on from the program after last season. On top of presently averaging four more rebounds per contest than he did as a sophomore, Kuzma is tied for fourteenth in the country in double-doubles right now. After nineteen points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field and eleven rebounds versus Washington State Wednesday night, he is currently on a streak of four double-doubles in a row.

Bryce Washington--Jr., Louisiana at Lafayette

Despite being a little undersized at 6-6, Washington is tied with Purdue’s Caleb Swanigan at the moment for being first nationally in double-doubles. Three games ago versus Louisiana at Monroe, Washington pulled down a career-high 21 rebounds to go along with his ten points, four assists and no turnovers. He has more than doubled the rebounding average from his sophomore campaign with this season more than halfway in the books. Washington is also third in the country in rebounding.

Francisco Santiago--Jr., Youngstown State

A couple of Santiago’s five double-doubles so far this campaign have a double-digit assists amount accompanying the double-digit points amount, but a majority of that handful of performances for the 6-1 guard are actually ones boasting double-digit rebounding. That trio of double-doubles featuring an impressive showing on the boards includes ten rebounds against previously ranked Michigan State and ten rebounds against a 2016 NCAA Tournament side in Green Bay. Santiago is pretty miraculously top-ninety nationally in double-doubles.