Weekly Reflection: Blowouts and Buzzer Beaters
If you missed the action this weekend.
Greetings, Congregation!
The Reverend here with a brand new shiny newsletter. We are trying something new here. Since the Higher Post is made to look at upcoming weekends, this is meant to reflect on the action from that weekend. As much as we try, we can’t watch all the games, so here are some highlights. Hope you enjoy! And if you do, please share with others.
In Case You Didn’t Witness:
Basically, here is a quick review of the weekend events in case you missed it.
WBB: #1 UConn 90 - #11 Iowa 64: The Huskies start Strong, but end with a Fudd!
This was truly a Tale of Two Halves at the Women’s Champions Classic, as #1-ranked UConn rolled over #11 Iowa. Sophomore sensation Sarah Strong was too much for the Hawkeyes in the first half, racking up 20pts/5stls. Even when Hannah Stuelke and Ava Heiden were able to stop Strong inside, she just punched out a few 3’s. Not much you can do about that.
While Strong dominated, the rest of her team was quiet, keeping Iowa in the game. But, it was the second half where senior guard Azzi Fudd took over scoring, bringing in 27pts of her own.
For Iowa, it was Hannah (high scorer at 17pts) and Chazadi ‘Chit-Chat’ Wright (16pts) who made all the noise, dropping 33 of Hawkeye’s total points (51%). The Hawkeyes have lost 2 of their last 3, but when those 2 are #10 Iowa State and #1 UConn, with neither game at Carver-Hawkeye, there is no shame in that game.
MBB: #23 St. John’s 66 - Kentucky 78: The Master has been slain!
The lead up this game had a real ‘A New Hope‘ feeling to it. Kentucky in desperate need a solid win after starting the year 7-4 and 0-4 against ranked teams. With Sith Lord Rick Pitino coming to town that was not going to be easy. And it wasn’t. But the Boys in Blue got a boost from sophomore Jayden Quaintance who made his season debut, providing 10pts and 8 rebs on 17mins of play. Mark was once the student, but now he is the master.
WBB: #10 Iowa State 79 - Kansas 76: The Cyclones don’t need their Crooks to steal one from Kansas and win by a Hare!
No sleepers at this Hilton. Final 5.4 secs on the clock with both teams level at 76. All eyes on the nation’s points leader, Iowa State sophomore center, Audi Crooks. But, Audi didn’t touch the ball. As the Cyclones inbounded the ball, the pass went to Addy Brown, who pushed right over to junior guard Kenzie Hare who got the corner 3 off just in time. This team is really fun. If you have not had a chance to watch them, you need to.
MBB: #12 North Carolina 71 - THEE Ohio State 70: The Tar Heals have defenses ‘Trimbling’
Seth Trimble, senior guard, made his return to the Argyle Arena for the first time since November 9, when a training accident fractured his left forearm. His defensive assignment was against Buckeye star, senior guard Bruce Thornton. Going into Saturday, Thornton was shooting 60% from the field. Trimble held Thornton to 16 points while he scored 17 himself, proving once again that every point makes the difference.
Meanwhile, the Buckeyes were caught looking ahead on the schedule to their New Year’s Eve match up with The U… in football.
TECHnically Underdogs: Both Texas Tech teams pulled off ‘come from behind, 1-point upsets over the weekend!
First, the men’s team taking down #3 Duke 82-81. Duke led from the start until the 1:13 mark in the second when The Red Raiders got their first lead. But it was the Christian Anderson’s game winning free throws with 3.4 seconds left to steal it.
Then, on Sunday, The Lady Raiders also got game winning free throws, this time from Bailey Maupin, to snap a 31-game losing streak to #15 Baylor 61-60. Well done!
Please do not through objects into the stands…Looking at you Ed Cooley.
Georgetown head coach Ed Cooley was suspended for one game after he threw his water bottle into the stands following a buzzer beating loss to Xavier (80-77). Cooley’s bottle struck a child. Not … cool? #SorryNotSorry
CoB Saturday School!
What did we learn from the weekend that will help us win the office pool:
#1 UConn is really really scary good.
Ok, I almost said they are ‘super Strong’, but I already made that joke. However, the sentiment is the same. After watching them dismantle then-#16 USC and following it up with a 26-point win over #11 Iowa, you really see where they are the favorite on the season so far. The microcosm of the Iowa game really saw Strong and Fudd as the main stars of the show. But, its really an ensemble cast when you add in the power of forwards Bianca Quiñonez and (Brooklyn’s own) Serah Williams, along with the shooting of Ashlynn Shade and KK Arnold (and a dash of ‘Heckeling’) they could run havoc up the Northeast Corridor all the way to March.
Blowouts! Blowouts! Blowouts!
Over the weekend, there were quite a few buzzer beaters. More than usual. We are also noticing a bothering trend of lopsided blowouts as well.
Just looking at the Top-25 teams in action - on the men’s side, there were 18 match ups with 6 of them ending with a point difference of 30 points or more. This included the 52 point win of Michigan over LaSalle (102-50)
On the Women’s side, its even worse - of the 19 Top-25 games, 10 of them ended in blowouts, including 6 of those being by 50 or more. That is literally 60% of the all the ‘blowouts’ (30pts or more) are by 50. The worst being the 82-point victory for #20 Notre Dame over Bellarmine.
Now, readers will know that I’m a fan of this Notre Dame program, but that will not hold me back from using the example, especially because I know this team well. They are a good team, but they are not your Senior roommate’s Irish; and these lopsided wins are not because of these team’s incredible power (ND is #20, not #2 and are 1-2 against other ranked teams so far) but to just weak, weak scheduling.
There is a common scheduling philosophy to schedule some cupcakes to pad your record. This provides confidence in your squad, but also skews the NET rankings. This is by design.
There is also a popular argument that the Transfer Portal is killing Cinderella team in March, but that is not fully true. For as many R.J. Luis jr’s going from mid-major to power conference schools, there are Megan Olbrys’s going from power to mid-major and for a chance to use her talents to grow a diverse skill set, while lifting those programs up.
But the NET ranking is there to put the thumb on the scale for the power conferences come Selection Sunday.
I will have more on this in a later post, but for this purpose, the take away is to beware of power conference teams with padded records since they usually lack the experience of non-conference major opponents and are easy upset picks in the office. These are the power schools with the 21-10 records, get seeded under 5 and match up with that slappy Atlantic 10 school no one believed had it in them. Well, I do and will always pick them in bracket challenges.
We Got Next: Games to watch this week! (all times EST)
This is a shorter week due to holidays, so many of the players are home on winter break, but if you like your cupcakes, there are plenty. I’m not listing potential blowouts. Just the fun games to watch when the Premier League games are over on Boxing Day.
MBB:
Tuesday - 7p: Villanova / Seton Hall (Peacock) An old Big East grudge match (one the an old coach is coming home as the rival coach.)
WBB:
Sunday - 2p: #4 UCLA / #19 THEE Ohio State (BTN) Yup, B1G has started
Sunday - 4p: Penn State / #14 Iowa (BTN) Two seasons ago, The Lady Lions came to Carver-Hawkeye and a young Hannah Stuelke left the game with the entire crowd chanting her name after she dropped 47pts on them. It was beautiful. The Hawkeye’s could use a solid win, so expect them to go Lion hunting.
Sunday - 4p: Duke / Syracuse (ACCn) One program is trending down and the other is trending up. Which ones? Well, the only hint I will give you is, think of where Devils come from. Kara Lawson’s team has a weird year and could use a win. In contrast, the “Lady Orange” are 11-1 and fighting for a top spot in the ACC standings. This will be fun.
Final Seconds
Ok, friends! Time to move on. I would love to hear your thoughts on the new newsletter. Is it fun? Informative? Useless? Please send me your thoughts.
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Always live One Shining Moment at a time. Never be boring.