Tennessee’s French sophomore Yves Pons didn’t have a great freshman season — he finished averaging less than a point while playing double-digit minutes just three times — but no one is questioning what his potential is.
Because he can do things like this:
It must be nice to be this athletic.
The second day of the Maui Invitational will tip-off tonight, the headlining game being No. 1 Duke’s date with No. 8 Auburn.
As always, here is a look at the slate of games from a gambling perspective:
On paper, this game looks like it will be one of the most entertaining of the season.
Duke is already must-see TV every time that they take the court. That’s what happens when you have Zion Williamson, R.J. Barrett and Cam Reddish on the court at the same time. Magic happens. Auburn, on the other hand, is really, really good themselves. If you haven’t seen them play yet, they are somewhat undersized — they like to play a pair of athletic, 6-foot-8 forwards that can space the floor and protect the rim up front — but they love to press and play in transition as much as anyone.
And it’s Auburn’s style of play that I think will play into Duke’s hands here. The Tigers want to play fast. Last year they finished the season ranked 18th in pace. This year, they are just 67th, but they have already played a couple of teams that tried their damnedest to take the air out of the ballin Xavier and Washington. They currently rank fifth-nationally in defensive turnover percentage, gambling for steals in that full court pressure to try and create opportunities for easy buckets at the other end of the floor. They attack the glass (fifth in offensive rebounding percentage), shoot a ton of threes (and make them at a 39.4 percent clip) and struggle to clear the defensive boards.
Duke?
Well, they want to play fast. That is the entire basis of what Mike Krzyzewski has built this season. He has three guys on the floor that were primary ball-handlers in the high school ranks, and that doesn’t include Zion Williamson, who is the nation’s best grab-and-go forward. They are built to play in transition, and they are already top 40 nationally in pace. Like Auburn, they pound the offensive glass (they get nearly 40 percent of their misses) and have some issues boxing out. They haven’t proven to be turnover prone yet, either.
There is something of an unknown here, as Duke has yet to face a team that is going to be able to pressure the way Auburn can, but I just can’t see that fazing them.
PICKS: To get an idea of how fact the line is moving here, when I started writing this, the over-under was 162.5. As I get ready to hit publish, it has already jumped to 167.5. The line for Duke has moved from (-10) to (-11). I got my bets in before the lines moved. I still love Duke and I still think the over hits, but if you are going to bet it, get it in quickly.
Early on this season, Gonzaga is playing faster than they have in the past, which makes sense. With the talent and athleticism they have on their roster, they are going to be able to beat a lot of teams down the floor. Prior to Monday night’s win over Illinois, the Zags had scored at least 94 points in all three of their games this season and won all three by at least 23 points. That included a game against Texas Southern (who won at Baylor) and a win over Texas A&M, who was without two starters.
The game against Illinois was a different story. The Zags looked like they were ready to pull away when Trent Frazier went bonkers and made it a game. I do not think that Arizona — who is not your typical Arizona team — has the horses to run with the Zags this year. If it wasn’t for a takeover performance from Justin Coleman down the stretch on Monday night, the Wildcats would have lost to an Iowa State team missing four players, including two starters.
Yes, the Zags are without Killian Tillie, but Filip Pertrusev and Jeremy Jones have been somewhere between fine and good in his absence.
PICKS: Gonzaga (-10) is the bet that I would make here. I would lean toward the over as well.
This one is pretty simple: I think that Xavier is the better basketball team here, and after dropping one in overtime on Monday afternoon, I think the Musketeers will bounceback with a win here.
PICKS: If you can get Xavier (+1), then I would take that. I also lead towards the under here, as the total is pretty high for two teams that play good halfcourt defense. The under went 3-1 in Maui yesterday.
The KenPom projection here would usually lead me towards taking the Cyclones, but keep in mind that Iowa State is playing without four rotation pieces, including their three best big men and their best guard. So it makes sense that the line would lean closer to Illinois.
PICKS: I think the bet here is Illinois. Brad Underwood is a smart coach, and he knows that Iowa State and their shortened bench will have tired legs. I honestly think the better bet is the over. Illinois really wants to run and neither team plays much, if any, defense. In fact, all Illinois wants to do is to try and force turnovers. They gamble and give up a lot of layups. Give me Illinois (+2) and the over.
The season is now two weeks hold, and there hasn’t been all that much that has changed in terms of the Player of the Year race.
R.J. Barrett is still sitting at the top of the list. Carsen Edwards has been awesome. So has Rui Hachimura and Grant Williams. There have been a few names that have popped up on the list thanks to some magical early-season performances, and it will be awesome to see if they last.
Here is this week’s Player of the Year Power Rankings:
It’s tough to parse between these two. I think they have definitively been the two best players in college basketball this season, and they are doing it for the best team in college basketball. I’ll stick with Barrett since he was my preseason pick.
Is anyone else ready for Duke to take on Auburn today?
Edwards has been everything that we expected him to be this season. Through the first five games, he is averaging 26.6 points and 4.0 assists. He hasn’t scored fewer than 23 points in any game this season, he’s shooting 41.5 percent from three on more than 10 (!!!) 3-pointers attempted per game and he’s doing it on a Purdue team that looks like it is going to be a bit better than some people expected.
In fact, I would go as far as to say that Edwards will be one of the five-most entertaining players in college basketball this year. Someone that is capable of putting up 30 on any given night, who makes threes from 30-feet and who can also do this?
You have to tune in.
The competition that Hachimura will kick up a notch this week, as the Zags will square off with Arizona in the Maui Invitational semifinals before taking on either Duke or Auburn on the final day of the event. Hachimura has been impressive through the first four games of the season — he’s averaging 22.8 points on the season and 20.5 points in wins over Illinois and Texas A&M — but that’s not exactly a murderer’s row we’re talking about.
We are going to learn a lot about him, and this Gonzaga team as a whole, in the next two days. Then we’ll see the Zags take on Creighton, Washington, Tennessee and North Carolina. Credit to Mark Few. He didn’t shy away from anyone this year.
Happ has been an absolute machine this season. He opened the year with a triple-double in a win over Coppin State and over the weekend he had 15 points, 12 boards and six assists as the Badgers took down Houston Baptist. In between those two performances, Happ turned into Kevin McHale, going for 30 points, 12 boards and five assists as the Badgers landed an impressive win at Xavier.
Williams has been a force to be reckoned with this season. In two games against Division I competition — Georgia Tech and a Louisiana team that gave Kansas fits in Allen Fieldhouse — he is averaging 26.5 points, 9.0 boards and 3.0 assists. He gets Louisville and, basketball gods willing, Kansas this week.
Alexander-Walker has been one of the pleasant surprises of the young season. A borderline five-star prospect coming out of high school, Alexander-Walker was a guy that had some NBA buzz entering his freshman season. It never really came to fruition, as Alexander-Walker struggled with his playmaking and profiled as something of an ambidextrous slasher with some concerns about the consistency of his perimeter stroke.
Fast forward a year, and he is tearing up college hoops. Through the first two weeks of the season, he has grown into Virginia Tech’s best player, averaging 21.8 points, 5.8 boards and 4.5 assists while shooting 40 percent from three. He was terrific in their win in the Charleston Classic, which included a 25 point performance in a come-from-behind win over Purdue in the title game.
I’m not going to go all-in on the Cam Johnson takes until I see UNC play some better competition, but it is worth mentioning that, two weeks into the season, he not only looks healthier and more athletic than he was a season ago, but he is UNC’s leading scorer, their second-leading rebounder and the team leader in steals while shooting 93.3 percent from the free throw line and 56.5 percent from three.
Same as Cam Johnson. Jerome has been awesome — 17.0 points, 5.7 assists, 4.3 boards, 68.8 percent from three — but UVA has not yet played a team of their caliber.
Vick’s performance against Vermont was from another planet. The 6-foot-4 senior scored 32 points in a game where Kansas struggled early, making all eight of the threes that he attempted. He also made two threes in that game that came with his toe on the 3-point line, meaning that he was roughly six inches from going 10-for-10 from three.
Watch it. It was ridiculous:
And here’s the craziest part: That might not have been his best, or his most important, performance of the week. Vick went for 33 points in a win over Louisiana in which Kansas had to erase a 12 point first half deficit. He shot 7-for-12 from three in that win. I don’t imagine that Vick will keep shooting at this rate, but the threat of the three-ball will help to open up space in the paint for Bill Self’s talented frontline of Dedric Lawson and Udoka Azubuike.
Dropped Out: 3. C.J. Massinburg (Buffalo), 4. Chuma Okeke (Auburn), t-9. Markus Howard (Marquette)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — As a freshman, Arizona State’s Kimani Lawrence made three 3-pointers.
Monday night, the sophomore drained three from long range — part of a 22-point performance — including the game winner with 33 seconds, to lead the Sun Devils to a 72-67 victory over No. 15 Mississippi State in the heavyweight bracket of the MGM Main Event.
“I’ve completely reconstructed my shot, from the base, to the release, to getting it all in one motion, I’ve worked really hard for it,” said Lawrence, who is 9 of 19 from 3-point range through the first four games of the season. “Credit to Remy (Martin) to trusting me. He hit me, I hit the shot. Stepped up, made a big-time play for the team, for the program.”
Luguentz Dort added 17 points and nine rebounds, while Remy Martin scored 16 for the Sun Devils, who will meet Utah State in the championship game on Wednesday.
The Bulldogs, who will face Saint Mary’s in the consolation game, were led by Aric Holman with 22 points and 10 rebounds.
Arizona State, which climbed as high as No. 3 after opening last season 12-0, improved to 4-0, while handing the Bulldogs their first loss of the season (3-1).
This year, the Sun Devils have scrapped the fast-paced, up-tempo style that saw them average 95.6 points after their first six games, to a blue-collar approach that includes a physicality that baffled Mississippi State. This season, thus far, the Sun Devils are averaging 86 points per game, and outrebounding teams, 51-34.
“It’s been a drastic change from last year; we were a fun, free-flowing team that could hit the deep 3s, and I had guards that could attack the lane, and we played a lot of small ball,” Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley said. “This year it’s like the polar opposite of that. We talked about guys wanting to rebound, and you’re not gonna find a team that’s more imposing physically at all positions. For us to outrebound them is a statement to how physical we were.”
The Sun Devils held off a second-half rally by Mississippi State, which tied the game at 65 when Nick Weatherspoon drained a long-range jumper just inside the 3-point line with one minute left in the game.
“They have great size, they’re very physical, they played big — which is difficult for us — I thought they just pounded us,” Mississippi State coach Ben Howland said. “They’re a very good team. I was really happy with the way we fought and came back in the second half after getting smashed in the mouth in the first half. We made a defensive mistake and came off (Lawrence) in the corner and we weren’t supposed to and he hit the 3.”
Trailing by 15 at halftime, Mississippi State came out of the locker room firing, as it opened the second half on a 10-0 run and hit five 3-pointers during a 19-10 spurt to cut the lead to 49-43.
The Bulldogs shot 15 of 36 (41.7 percent) from the floor in the second half.
Arizona State outrebounded the Bulldogs 27-12 in the first half, including 10 on the offensive glass, and scored 14 second-chance points en route to a 39-24 halftime lead.
In the early game, Neemias Queta had 24 points, nine rebounds and five blocks and Utah State beat Saint Mary’s 80-63.
The first of two top ten matchups in the Maui Invitational will be played in the semifinals on Tuesday, as the top-seeded Duke Blue Devils will face off with No. 8 Auburn in a game that could end up turning into college basketball’s version of what happened between the Rams and the Chiefs on Monday night.
Duke, as we know, is insanely talented and is built to run up and down the floor unlike any team that we’ve ever seen. Auburn, though, has plenty of weapons offensively and also is effective enough defensively that it could cause some disruption for the young Blue Devils.
It’s the first must-see game of a Maui Invitational that is strong even by its own lofty standards. If Gonzaga can get past Arizona on the other side of the bracket, there will be a monster championship game Wednesday.
It looked as though the Bulldogs might stave off their first loss the season when Nick Weatherspoon tied things up with under a minute to play, but Arizona State got a 3-pointer from Kimani Lawrence in response to give the Sun Devils a 72-67 vicotry at the MGM Main Event in Las Vegas.
Lawrence scored 22 points to lead Arizona State to its upset of the 15th-ranked Bulldogs.
Arizona State has another undefeated start to the season at 4-0 after beginning last year with 12-straight wins. Sure, they lost six of their last seven to end the year, but that start was still something. They’ve got a date with Utah State on Wednesday for the championship.
For Mississippi State, the 3-point shooting continues to be an early-season issue. The Bulldogs were 8 of 30 (26.7 percent) against Arizona State and are now shooting 27.5 percent from distance for the season, which ranks outside the top-300 natioanlly.
The big question with Arizona heading into this season was whether or not they still had enough talent on their roster to compete at the level Wildcat fans have become accustomed to. That’s what happens when you lose five starters and your recruiting class goes up in smoke.
But there may be an answer to Sean Miller’s prayers, and his name, on Monday night, was Justin Coleman. The 5-foot-10 transfer from Samford by way of Alabama entered the game having scored a grand total of 18 points through the first three games of the season. Against Iowa State in the Maui Invitational opener, Coleman finished with 18 points, scoring 15 in the second half and just about single-handedly leading the Wildcats back from a double-digit deficit in the final seven minutes.
I’m not saying that Coleman is the answer, but in Arizona’s toughest game of the season to date, he is the one that stepped up and made essentially every single big play.
It was a terrific performance. Let’s see where Arizona can build from here.
Jared Harper might have the best poster dunk for a player under 6-feet this season.
When the No. 8 Tigers on the ropes against Xavier in the opener of the Maui Invitational, Harper made a huge play in overtime that helped ensure that Auburn would pull away with the win.
It was this:
