Friday, November 18, 2011

Purdue Beats Temple, SDSU Beats USC

Purdue 85, Temple 77
I know that I'm basically the only college basketball blogger who had Purdue as a 5 seed preseason, and that projection looked particularly bad after they barely survived High Point, but to me this team is showing improvement every game. It simply wasn't fair to expect Purdue to have everything clicking immediately when trying to bring Robbie Hummel up to speed while also trying to replace JaJuan Johnson and E'Twaun Moore. Their one point victory over Iona was an improvement (Iona is much better than High Point), and they looked even better here with an eight point victory over the team I picked preseason to win the Atlantic Ten. The biggest change has been Lewis Jackson, who looked last year like he was ready to break out as an elite Big Ten guard. I was mystified when he started the season with eight points total in his first two games. But he scored 17 against Iona and exploded for 26 points on 8-for-14 shooting here. The one player who I thought would take the next step but who hasn't yet is Terone Johnson, who was almost invisible in 16 minutes in this game with zero points and two assists.

Purdue obviously isn't one of the 20 best teams in the nation yet, but they're getting better. If Terone Johnson can find his game and the Boilermakers can get one of their bigs (not including Hummel) to take the next step, I think they've got as good of a shot as any team of finishing third in the Big Ten, behind only Ohio State and Wisconsin. Purdue heads to the finals of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off, where they'll play the winner of Alabama/Wichita State on Sunday. A quick word for Temple - I'm worried about their lack of depth. Ramone Moore and Juan Fernandez are who I thought they were, but they've gotten absolutely zero help so far. Only eight players have played so far this season, and only six or seven are providing any real production. I'm not sure I'm going to bail on Temple as my A-10 pick already, but there's no question that Xavier has looked better in the early going this season. Temple will play Sunday in the third place game of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off, against the loser of Alabama/Wichita State.

San Diego State 56, USC 54
This season has been a struggle so far for San Diego State, particularly on the offensive end. With as bad as USC looks to be this season, the Aztecs surely didn't expect to need a shot in the final seconds by Xavier Thamas to win. They had 14 turnovers and 10 assists in this game, and for the season have more turnovers than assists. Their outside shooting has been poor, too, with 3-for-17 shooting in this game dropping their season average to 32.9%. It's not a big surprise that their ball handling dropped off with the graduation of DJ Gay. Last year's San Diego State team didn't get nearly as much attention as they deserved, and what little attention they got was reserved for Kawhi Leonard (and that's no knock on Leonard - I thought he deserved to be a First Team All-American last season), but Gay was unquestionably the key to their offense.

The key for San Diego State going forward might be the development of Xavier Thames, the redshirt sophomore who transferred in after playing a season at Washington State. Thames is probably the best point guard that San Diego State has, and this was his best game of the young season so far. San Diego State will play tomorrow against Long Beach State, and then on Wednesday they'll play at Arizona State. Both should be good tests for them. USC will have to treat this loss, and the overtime loss to Nebraska, as moral victories. Their schedule eases up a bit for the next week (they play Cal Poly tomorrow). Their next quality opponent will be next Friday, when they'll play at UNLV.

Ole Miss 63, Drake 59
It was hard to know just what to make of Ole Miss after they beat up on a pair of cupcakes, and I'm still not sure we know even after this, but this is a nice early season victory. Drake, after all, was coming off a win over an improving Iowa State team. And this game might have represented a breakout game for true freshman Jarvis Summers, who came off the bench for 14 points. Remember that this Ole Miss team wasn't particularly strong last season, and they had to replace their two best players, including do-everything star Chris Warren. Preseason I viewed Ole Miss as a long shot to make the NCAA Tournament.

That all said, I'd hesitate to draw too many conclusions from this game. Drake might not be that good, and this game was truly ugly (47 fouls, 43 turnovers, 39 made shots). Both of these teams scored well under one point per possession. We'll get a better idea of where Ole Miss stands in their next game - the semifinals of the Paradise Jam against Marquette on Sunday. They will play their final game in Puerto Rico on Monday, against either TCU or Norfolk State. Drake will try to bounce back in the Consolation Bracket against Winthrop. Their final game will be against either Virginia or Drexel.

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