Can Duke’s Freshmen deliver Coach K one last title? Is Kansas THAT good or is Michigan State THAT bad? Week 1 College Hoops Reactions
It’s only been a week into college hoops season, so let’s take everything with a grain of salt - but how good is Paulo Banchero and Trevor Keels for Duke? It was a great win for Coach K, nice sentimental win at MSG where it all started. However, the main takeaway for me was that Keels and Banchero are the real deal. Keels is a freshman from Paul VI (shoutout my JMU PVI guys) in Northern Virginia who’s a Point Guard built like a linebacker and attacks the basket like he is one. His ability to get to the paint and score is going to be big for this team and allow for more spacing on offense. He’s regressed a little in the two games since but he’s still a focal point on this offense along with Paulo Banchero, who’s averaging a solid 19.7 points per game and has showcased his ability to score from anywhere on the court…. except from the three point line, which is no surprise considering he’s only shot seven threes so far this season. He’s been great on the boards with 8.7 rebounds per game to go with an 88% free throw percentage, which hopefully continues considering he’s averaging about 6 free throws per game so far. Watch out for Jeremy Roach, Keels’ HS teammate at Paul VI, and Wendell Moore Jr. to help Keels in the backcourt and provide additional scoring help. Lastly, you’ll be seeing a lot of Mark Williams, a Sophomore from Virginia Beach. He’s a seven footer who can run the floor if need be and will help give Banchero some relief in the post and guard some of those bigger taller centers and allow Banchero to conserve some energy for the offense. As for Kentucky, they’re a team who’s going to take a little bit longer to get going considering they have a ton of transfers and incoming freshman to gel with their core from last year. The transfers start with Oscar Tshibwe from West Virginia, who was an absolute monster in the game versus Duke recording 17 points and 20 rebounds, with plenty of those being offensive boards. Next is Sahvir Wheeler from Georgia, a smooth and speedy point guard who has ten or more assists in both games so far this season, with ten against Duke. Then there’s Trevor Grady and Jacob Toppin, both Atlantic 10 transfers from Davidson and Rhode Island respectively. Toppin is Obi Toppin’s brother while Grady is a sharpshooter who will look to provide an additional scoring threat to Calipari’s squad.
Now to Kansas-Michigan State - Kansas looks GOOD. They had eleven different guys play against the Spartans in the first game which shows their impressive bench depth. Obaji came to play and put up 29 points, going 3 of 6 from three and a perfect 8 for 8 from the free throw line. Remy Martin took a while to get going but the second half was where he had all of his 15 points, so look for him to build on that and be a scorer for the Jayhawks. Between McCormack, Lightfoot, and Clemence, they should have enough post presence to stay in games as long as McCormack can stay out of foul trouble. Michigan State has some work to do and I’m starting to think at this point Tom Izzo prefers to have a slow start to deter the hype and then have his guys ready to run in March. Not the worst plan right? He’s got a younger team this year and trying to incorporate transfer Joey Hauser and Freshmen Max Christie and Jaden Akins, so it will be more of the same this year if I had to guess right now.
Gonzaga and Texas both ran through their first opponents each winning by 34 points before their face off in Spokane, Washington this past Saturday. Gonzaga won with the home field advantage by twelve and practically led the whole game. Chet Holmgren didn’t play great after a stellar first game, but Drew Timme came to play and reminded us who should be the frontrunner on the Wooden Award list, notching 37 points and 7 rebounds while Rasir Bolton added another 16. What’s going to scare me is when this team really gels and you have Chet and Timme on a roll together - SHEEEESH.
Other thoughts/reactions:
UCLA looked solid against Villanova, but I’m still not sold on either team yet. Both teams had four or more guys get double digit points, but there’s not a whole lot of depth on the bench for either team. Villanova only played 7 guys throughout the game and UCLA had 9 with two of those guys being 6 minutes each. If they can find some more depth in the bench as the year goes on UCLA and Nova could easily prove me wrong.
UVA lost to Navy on the first night of College Basketball and the James Madison Dukes are 2-0 looking to go 3-0 against Eastern Kentucky tonight. Look for the Cavs to bounce back against a solid Houston squad tonight at 8pm and return to their normal selves.
Illinois needs Kofi Cockburn to make a run, confirmed by the Marquette loss last night. Don’t think this is a surprise to anyone but he’s back for the next game now that his suspension is up so be ready to see some crazy double-double stat lines as he comes back.
Games to Watch this Week:
Creighton @ Nebraska - Tuesday 7pm
BYU @ Oregon - Tuesday 10pm
VCU @ Vanderbilt - Wednesday 8pm
St. John’s @ Indiana - Wednesday 9pm
Ohio State @ Xavier - Thursday @ 6:30pm
Marquette @ Ole Miss - Thursday 7pm
