Sunday, December 01, 2013

Morning News: New Bracket, Villanova Knocks Off Iowa, BYU Over Utah State & Greg Whittington Dismissed


New Bracket Projection It's Sunday, which means a new bracket projection. As I talk about in the post, there are a few conferences that are awfully tight at the top. I'm sticking with Georgetown and Duke as the Big East and ACC champions, respectively, though I will have to write up a longer post at some point to explain those picks. Regardless, the change in the composition of the Field of 68 is San Diego State and Clemson moving in and La Salle and UNLV moving out.

Villanova Knocks Off Iowa This trip to the Bahamas could not have worked out any better for Villanova. A day after upsetting Kansas, they took down Iowa in overtime. This was just a weird win, though. They launched a staggering number of threes (38) and had 20 turnovers, but then also earned 30 free throw attempts. I can't recall the last time I saw a team that had more free throws + three-pointers than total field goal attempts. That's just a goofy game. The thing to always want to be careful about here is that strange things often happen in these November tournaments, and they don't always carry over to conference play. So as well as Villanova is playing, let's not put them in the Big East title race just yet.

As for Iowa, they certainly do still seem like a Top 20 team, but the lack of depth is a concern. Players like Aaron White, Mike Gesell and Melsahn Basabe have taken a back seat this year and mostly just watched Roy Devyn Marble jack up shots (Marble has taken 30.5% of his team's shots while on the floor). Marble is a really good player, but Iowa is going to need more balance to contend for a Big Ten title. Marble is going to have off nights (and he was off here, shooting only 8-for-23 from the field), and his teammates will need to pick him up.

BYU Wins A Rivalry Game Over Utah State With wins over Weber State and now Utah State, BYU will get a chance against Utah in a couple of weeks to sweep the state of Utah. What was impressive about this win is how BYU did it - without the three ball. They came into this game shooting 43% behind the arc but only 47% on twos. They have some great perimeter shooters, but no post scorers. They weren't working it into the post here either, but they were attacking the basket and passing well. Despite hitting only a pair of three-pointers all game, they hit 52.6% of two-pointers while assisting on 56% of made baskets. Kyle Collinsworth was the primary playmaker, coming close to a triple double with 7 points, 8 assists and 13 rebounds.

BYU seems like a team that is going to teeter around the bubble all season long. They'll have a good winning percentage and a bunch of good wins (Stanford, Texas and Utah State already), but are unlikely to have a lot of really big scalps. A road game at Oregon is their only real chance other than the two games against Gonzaga.

Utah State, meanwhile, will be very happy to take advantage of their new position in the Mountain West Conference. This is their first loss of the season, but they will head into conference play without a single win over a likely RPI Top 50 opponent. But instead of struggling on the bubble with a great won-loss record and no quality victories, the Aggies will get plenty of chances for quality wins in conference play. A loss to their rival here will sting, but it's not the end of the world. They'll have plenty of chances to make up for it.

Greg Whittington Dismissed From Georgetown Greg Whittington tore his ACL over the summer and had not played this season, but he won't be returning at all to Georgetown. John Thompson III has dismissed him from the team. Whittington had been struggling with some off-court issues, so this isn't a total shock. And considering the injury and the fact that he wasn't a particularly great player last season anyway, this isn't huge news. But he surely would have been a contributor next season and the season after, so it's a loss for the Hoyas.

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