If you’re a fan of ACC basketball, or worse, ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips, you might want to look away.
If you’re an SEC basketball fan? Come on in. The water is very clean.
1. The ACC’s nightmare is the SEC’s coronation.
This week’s ACC-SEC Challenge was more than just a beatdown.
It was a baton pass. One league decisively usurped another, and history and long-term success were cursed.
What else do you call a 14-2 carnage in favor of the SEC? A “challenge” of sorts. In fact, it’s proof that Greg Sankey’s conference finally funneled football’s riches into basketball, leading to what is now believed to be the deepest and toughest conference in America. It’s not just an anecdote. KenPom currently ranks the SEC as the best conference in the nation by a wide margin. There is a bigger gap between the SEC and the No. 2 Big Ten than there is between the Big Ten and the No. 4 Big East. Meanwhile, the ACC is the caboose of the upper major leagues, firmly back in fifth place.
And while the two ACC wins (Clemson over Kentucky and Duke over Auburn) were against previously undefeated top-five teams, that doesn’t make up for the huge bias. Consider that this week, the SEC had as many teams in the top five as the entire ACC (three teams). This also includes North Carolina State, which somehow maintained its ranking despite failing to beat a top major team all season. UNC lost 94-79 at home to Alabama on Wednesday, suffering its worst first-month record since head coach Matt Doherty’s disastrous 2001-02 season.
It’s also not like the SEC has gotten rid of some troublemakers. Tennessee beat Syracuse by 26 points, will likely be No. 1 in next week’s polls, and has won every game this season by at least 15 points. Ole Miss defeated Louisville by 23 points, South Carolina defeated Boston College by 22 points, and Georgia defeated Notre Dame by 21 points. Mississippi State defeated Pitt, one of the three ranked teams in the ACC, by 33 points.
So, it was completely destroyed.
The ACC has qualified for the NCAA Tournament just five times over the past three seasons, the lowest number in any three-year period over the past decade, but it’s already ambitious for the league to reach that total again this season. It appears to be. Duke looks like a legitimate national title contender, so that’s one of them. Clemson has been especially solid defensively. Can North Carolina still win enough games to qualify? And even after Wednesday’s bombardment, Pitt’s resume and metrics are right up there. But then… Louisville? Wake Forest? Beulah? It’s dark, isn’t it?
On the other side of that coin is the SEC, which should be toying with the all-time tournament bid record of 11 set by the Big East in 2011. Thirteen (!!) SEC teams rank in KenPom’s top 50 in adjusted efficiency. , and 14 of the league’s 16 members have a record of at least 7 wins and 2 losses. (John Calipari’s first Arkansas team isn’t in that bracket; the Razorbacks have lost to both top-75 teams they’ve played.) The league has depth and top-end talent. . Of the four remaining undefeated power conference teams in the country, three are from the SEC: Tennessee, Florida and Oklahoma, and each has won at least three major championships.
Maybe there’s more to it than that.
2. Did 4 of the top 5 lose in one week? So…
It looks like our preseason predictions were correct. There are a lot of great teams this season, maybe a dozen or so teams that could make it to the Final Four, but probably none of them are elite.
Like last year, for example. Purdue and UW have proven themselves to be 1A and 1B early on, by this point in the calendar. That they faced off in the national championship game was only further proof of that exalted status. Single-elimination tournaments don’t always produce the “best” teams, but both teams were so good last season that a clash seemed all but inevitable.
this year? Auburn looked like it had a great run in the first month, defeating three Top 12 teams and even winning the Maui Invitational, but Duke’s No. 1 defense held off the Tigers’ top-ranked offense on Wednesday. He was able to save time and snatch victory. Creighton had to use extreme defensive schemes to beat No. 1 Kansas, but the Jayhawks’ lack of perimeter shooting, which doomed Bill Self’s team late last season, is what Self’s team was looking for this summer. Despite the transfer portal import rearing its head again.
It’s not at all embarrassing for Marquette to lose at Iowa State — the Cyclones are elite enough as it is, even without considering the magic of Hilton Coliseum — but now the Golden Eagles have lost their best team to an early exit. We’ll have to see what happens with 3-point shooter Chase Ross. with an ankle injury. And as for Kentucky, the Cats had their worst 3-point shooting game all season — thanks in large part to Clemson’s defense, which ranks in the top 20 nationally in adjusted efficiency — and the nation’s top 3-point shooter, Coby. -I never forgave Blair. .
None of these are bad losses. But they do suggest that there are equivalent levels at the top of the pecking order. That being said, I would pick some of these teams into my top five favorites to make the Final Four. Alphabetical order: Auburn, Duke, Iowa State, Marquette (if Ross is okay), Tennessee.
3. How Duke’s No. 1 defense defeated Auburn’s No. 1 offense
Auburn center Joni Bloom was ranked No. 1 on KenPom’s Player of the Year rankings Wednesday night, and for good reason. The All-American had just been named Maui Invitational MVP after defeating Iowa State, UNC and Memphis. And early on, against Duke freshman center Kaman Maruaha (7-foot-2 but not as physically strong as Bloom), it looked like the Auburn big man might be back in action.
The Tigers took a 13-2 lead when John Scheyer called a timeout and subbed in backup center Malik Brown, an All-ACC defender at Syracuse last year. At 6-9 and 222 pounds, Brown still cedes size to Bloom, but his hands — “the best hands I’ve ever coached,” Scheyer said. Between his ability to switch to the perimeter, Brown gives Duke one of his best hands. The most versatile defender in the country. Look at how much resistance Brown (No. 6, wearing a headband) offers even when he comes off a BLOB (Baseline Out of Bounds) set.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, Bloom made 2 of 7 shots when Brown was his primary defender. Against other Duke players, he went 6-for-11.
Beyond Brown’s interior presence, he was the key to the Blue Devils’ explosion of Auburn’s main offense. Generally speaking, Auburn, led by Bruce Pearl, has relied on the flex concept. The idea is for defenders to set up something like a cross screen just outside the paint, allowing teammates to cut untouched and parallel to the baseline.
You can see why it works. Bloom is isolated almost directly under the rim and is shooting 83 percent this season (according to CBB Analytics), more than 20 percentage points better than the national average. Very few teams have stopped this.
But while studying the Auburn tapes, Scheier had an idea. If Auburn’s flex is predicated on picking off defenders with screens and creating instant openings, what if Duke switches everything up and doesn’t give Auburn that opening? It’s going to be tough to do because the defenders have to communicate everything and they have to do it fast enough to cut off Auburn’s angles. But Duke was willing to try, and for the most part, the strategy worked.
Auburn went nearly four minutes without a goal, including on this possession, especially because of Scheyer’s decision to switch to the flex. Auburn tries to get Chaney Johnson (No. 31, top of screen) open over the middle, but Cooper Flagg flips the switch and hands Johnson to Isiah Evans. This prevented Tahad Pettiford from taking a shot across the middle for Johnson, instead forcing Johnson to kick the ball wide to Myles Kelly. Duke hedged Brown’s subsequent Kelly-Bloom ball screen, but Evans and Tyrese Proctor rotated on the help side, giving Brown time to recover and counter the shot.
After Duke defeated Arizona on the road, Scheier likened Maruach and Brown’s different styles to pitchers throwing multiple pitches. Maluach offers full length and rim protection, while Brown offers more versatility, deflection, and (at least for now) strength. In some ways, it’s not dissimilar to the big man rotation UConn used the past two seasons with Donovan Clingan and Adama Sanogo/Samson Johnson. The different looks mean Duke can appear in multiple coverages. This is a valuable asset in Scheyer’s toolbox.
4. Injury concerns emerge
Sadly, it’s that time of year again. Multiple teams have been hit hard by long-term injuries to their big players. Among them are the following:
Alabama: The Crimson Tide lost starting guard Latrell Lightsell Jr. to a torn Achilles tendon over the weekend, which is just as devastating for the player as it is for the program. Nate Oats’ team is struggling to shoot the ball — Alabama is shooting just 33.1 percent from 3-point range, below .150 nationally, and couldn’t afford to lose its top shooter, Wrightsell. He leads the Tide in 3s made (19) and 3-point percentage (42.2 percent).
However, the return of transfer guard Chris Youngblood, who averaged 15.3 points and shot 41.6 percent from 3 last season for South Florida and is currently the co-AAC Player of the Year, is looming. Youngblood has not played yet this season due to an ankle injury, but Oats said over the weekend that the 6-4 guard will make his debut “soon,” perhaps within the next two weeks. Alabama will be off until next weekend, when it will face Creighton in its final nonconference game. Although it’s unlikely, there’s a very good chance that Youngblood would be a good fit. Either way, Alabama needs to get him up to speed quickly. They will host undefeated Oklahoma in their first SEC game on January 4th.
Louisville: Because Pat Kelsey’s job of rebuilding the cards wasn’t that difficult already. Forward Ka’Sean Pryor (who I thought was Louisville’s most talented player during my mid-October visit) tore his ACL during the team’s Battle 4 Atlantis appearance, but it doesn’t explain how big of a blow it was for UL. It cannot be overstated how much this is true. Pryor is averaging 12.1 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game in just 23.3 minutes, making his all-around impact irreplaceable.
But that’s not all. Backup guard Kolen Johnson, the reigning Pac-12 Sixth Man of the Year, announced Tuesday that he will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery and redshirt. Johnson hasn’t played since the team’s second game, sidelined with an undisclosed illness, and his loss means Kelce loses a valuable body in the backcourt. Finally, forward Aboubakar Traore, who averaged 12 points, 8.4 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game for Long Beach State last season, has been out since mid-November with a broken left arm. Kelsey said Traore’s expected recovery time would be around six weeks, with a return to action expected around the new year. For a Cards team looking to return to the NCAA Tournament, it won’t happen soon.
CONNECTICUT: UW wing Alex Karaban, the only returning starter from last season’s title team, was taken to a hospital in Hawaii after taking an elbow to the head in the closing minutes of a game against Dayton on Maui. I had to. Karavan later suffered what coach Dan Hurley called a “pretty mild concussion.” Still: Karaban missed UW’s blowout win over Maryland-Eastern Shore on Saturday and the Huskies’ four-point blowout win over Baylor on Wednesday in the Big 12 vs. Big East battle.
Karavan will return sooner or later, but how soon? Colleges are in what is arguably the toughest time of the season and are in dire need of top scorers. They play in Texas on Sunday, then play Gonzaga at Madison Square Garden and then play Xavier two weeks later.
(Photo of Tennessee guard Chazz Lanier: Brianna Paciorka / News Sentinel / USA Today via Imagn Images)
