Morning News: Marcus Smart Torches Memphis, Butler Tops Vanderbilt, Jahii Carson Leads Arizona St Over UNLV

Memphis players watched a lot of this last night

Marcus Smart And Oklahoma State Crush Memphis This game was never competitive. Marcus Smart had 24 points in the first 12 minutes of the game, and Oklahoma State was off to the races. The thing with Smart has always been shot selection. He's obviously a great defender and a great NBA prospect, but his offensive efficiency last season was very mediocre simply because he forced a lot of terrible shots. But Memphis has always had trouble dealing with the dribble drive under Josh Pastner, and Smart was like a hot knife through butter, finishing with 39 points.

There are two things to remember about this game before overreacting. First, Memphis is not the 11th best team in the country. I had them as a 7 seed in my most recent bracket. Oklahoma State was a 9 point favorite and was supposed to win. Second, this is just one game. Play this game again and it's likely much closer. Every team is going to have ups and downs throughout the season. But I'm definitely looking forward to OSU playing at the Old Spice Classic next week.

Game Of The Night: Butler 85, Vanderbilt 77, OT This was a fun game. Butler shot the lights out in the first half and looked to be running away with a double-digit victory, but Vanderbilt fought back in the second half. Eric McClellan, the transfer from Tulsa, was absolutely unstoppable. Butler tried several of their best defenders, but he ended up leading all scorers with 29 points. Every time they needed a basket, McClellen put his head down, drove to the basket, and either made the shot or got fouled.

Butler's offense is definitely lacking options without Roosevelt Jones. Khyle Marshall is trying to be a lot more aggressive in order to provide a second option besides Kellen Dunham. In my most recent bracket, I had Butler narrowly in the NCAA Tournament and Vanderbilt narrowly out. I don't think this game changes any of that. Vanderbilt has to play better to be an at-large team, but it's not out of the question. For Butler, this is a nice win, but it probably won't matter once February rolls around. Big East play is what will matter for them.

Best Performance: Jahii Carson It was a night of scoring outbursts. But while Marcus Smart had 39 points over a ranked opponent and Frank Kaminsky scored 43 for Wisconsin, it's unlikely that those two made the difference in whether their team won or lost. Both teams happened to win in blowouts. But Jahii Carson had 40 points for Arizona State in a really competitive six point road victory over UNLV, and he was unstoppable. As a team, Arizona State had 18 assists to only 7 turnovers, and got the type of victory that will make people pay attention to a program that hasn't been in contention for an at-large bid since James Harden left.

Meanwhile, coming after a loss to UC-Santa Barbara and a three point victory over Nebraska-Omaha, UNLV is a mess right now. We knew that they had a ton to replace from last season, but they have talented transfers (Roscoe Smith, Kevin Olekaibe and Deville Smith) to go with a solid recruiting class. They should be better than this. They have a week to get ready for their next quality opponent, Illinois.

Duke's Defense Struggles Again East Carolina came into this game against Duke 4-0 on the season, but it was as soft as 4-0 gets. They had beaten DI opponents by a combined three points, and their best win was over Pomeroy ranked #220 Norfolk State. But East Carolina fought all the way to the final minute before Duke pulled away late for a nine point win. The issue for Duke, yet again, is defense. This is the third time in five games that they've allowed at least 1.00 PPP, and the two times they've held an opponent under 1.00 PPP both came against cupcakes. They are doing a decent job denying threes, like Coach K teams always do, but their paint defense is a mess. We knew that they were going to be thin in the front court this season, and it's been on display defensively.

Rutgers Knocked Out Of The NIT The first of the NIT regional home teams was knocked out as Rutgers fell 70-59 to Drexel. This isn't really a big shocker as Rutgers was only favored by 1 point in Vegas. But the story here isn't Rutgers (who we already knew isn't good this season), it's Drexel. The Dragons have been efficient in the early going this season, and they are among the favorites in the Colonial and are even a somewhat long shot bubble team. They will likely have a lot of fans in New York City for the NIT, and it will be interesting to see if they can pull an upset.

La Salle Falls Again La Salle was supposed to be a bubble team this season, but they have not been playing well at all. Their 79-72 loss to Penn State last night comes after a loss to Manhattan and narrow victories over Quinnipiac and Siena. They aren't playing at all like a bubble team right now. The big problem has been defense, which has been really bad. They gave up 1.21 PPP here and are allowed 1.09 PPP for the season. That has to improve. Meanwhile, Penn State has bounced back from that Bucknell loss with a nice double-digit road victory at Pennsylvania and this home victory over La Salle. They're going to be near the basement of the Big Ten, but they're not going to be terrible. They'll be competitive at home.