Final Saturday Recaps

These are the final games from Saturday that I'd like to talk about:

Charlotte 87, #18 Louisville 65
I'm not totally sure what to make of this result. Obviously the margin of victory makes this look like more of a blowout than it was: Charlotte shot 10-for-24 from behind the arc, 48% on two-pointers and 90% from the line. Louisville shot only 36% overall from the field. So Charlotte's hot shooting was a little bit of a team just getting hot from the floor. But at the same time, Charlotte did outplay Louisville on their home floor, even when you cancel out the shooting impact. For example, they collected 50% while on offense while Louisville collected only 38% of rebounds while they were on offense. And Charlotte had more assists than turnovers, while Louisville had more turnovers than assists. So no matter how you slice it this is a really bad result for the Cardinals, although I again have to emphasize that Rick Pitino's teams always get off to slow starts and play well later on. Last season they lost to Western Kentucky and UNLV before Big East play began, and went on to get a 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. But with all of the injuries that Louisville has had this year, you've got to wonder just how much better they can get. As for Charlotte, they've had good results so far, but the computers think that they're not as good as those results sugggest. They're 6-1 with their only loss coming to Duke, and their RPI is 31st and their Sagarin ELO_CHESS is 13th. But at the same time, their PREDICTOR is 95th and Pomeroy has them 98th. So the computers don't buy their quick start. I'd still put Dayton, Xavier, Temple, Rhode Island and Richmond ahead of them in the Atlantic 10.

Kansas State 86, Washington State 69
Washington State has played well so far this season, but it's clear that they struggle to score if Klay Thompson isn't scoring. With 25.9 points per game he's not getting stopped too often, and he did score 22 points here, but he did it very inefficiently (5-for-15 shooting from the field, with 9 turnovers). Thompson is going to have to trust his teammates more and realize that if he's getting shut down he doesn't need to force things. Although obviously you've got to credit Kansas State's defense for suffocating Thompson. The Wildcats are now 7-1 with a win over Dayton to go with this one, and only a loss to Mississippi, a team which may end up in the RPI Top 50. Washington State is off to a solid start, although they don't really have results to show for it. Other than this game they have a very close loss to Gonzaga, and have won all of their other games - but none of them are against impressive opponents. LSU is their only remaining quality opponent before Pac-10 play begins.

#25 California 82, Iowa State 63
California still isn't shooting very well, but overall they're playing better basketball than they were in early and mid-November. This is by far their best win of the season. Still, it's clear that they're going to struggle when Patrick Christopher and Jerome Randle aren't both playing well, at least until Theo Robertson and/or Harper Kamp gets back. They've got to get Max Zhang out of the starting lineup, because he just gets eaten up by athletic opponents. As for Iowa State, Marquis Gilstrap is continuing to play to play well alongside Craig Brackins (Gilstrap had 17 points and 10 rebounds in this game), but Iowa State's other young players aren't quite ready for prime time. This season will continue to be about developing those young players, and perhaps having a Tournament contender next year.