Pac-10 POY = Klay Thompson?

Washington State 77, #15 Baylor 71
Klay Thompson has been a great player for Washington State since last season, but never was his importance more on display than in this game. Washington State had an 18 point lead with 13 minutes remaining in the game when Thompson picked up his fourth foul and headed to the bench. Thompson spent nearly the next six minutes on the bench, during which Baylor went on a 22-3 run to take the lead back. But Thompson was a key down the stretch, including a killer three point with just a shade over a minute to go. He finished with only 20 points, but it came on 5-for-8 shooting, including 5-for-6 behind the arc. At this early stage the Pac-10 Player of the Year race looks wide open - certainly Klay Thompson will deserve consideration? As for Baylor, LaceDarius Dunn has to learn to pass the ball. He's the best player on the team, but you just can't be a team's primary ballhandler and then shoot 3-for-15 behind the arc with only 1 assist. Baylor dominated the boards (as they do against almost everybody) with an 18-to-5 offensive rebounding differential, but the difference in play between Klay Thompson and LaceDarius Dunn was dramatic. Washington State began the season a very questionable 9-1, eating up cupcake after cupcake and losing to the only quality team they played (Kansas State). But over the past two days in Hawaii they have thumped Mississippi State by 26 points and knocked off Baylor. They have one more game to play in Hawaii, and it will be late on Christmas night against either Florida State or Butler. Right now they have a Tournament resume, but the question will be whether they can continue this play in the Pac-10, where opponents will be more familiar with trying to stop Klay Thompson, and where there won't be a huge margin of error because of how poorly the conference is rated. As for Baylor, they will lick their wounds and will have a chance to bounce back on Christmas against either Florida State or Butler. In my opinion, Kansas has separated themselves as the best team in the Big 12, and Texas is a close second. After that, Baylor is in a battle with Kansas State and Missouri for the position of third best team. All three teams have clear and specific flaws, and it will be interesting to see which teams match up best against the others.

Gonzaga 64, Xavier 54
Gonzaga appears to be finally getting into a good groove. They're finding balance offensively by working the ball through Robert Sacre more. But more importantly their defense has gotten much better. It was absolutely putrid during their 4-5 start to the season, but it's improved dramatically over the past couple of weeks. Their effective field goal percentage allowed has slipped under 50%, and their Pomeroy adjusted defensive efficiency ranking has fallen from around 120th to around 70th. With back-to-back wins over Baylor and Xavier they have momentum heading into a home game against Oklahoma State on New Year's Eve. They also will play Memphis in February. If they can win both of those games and finish at least 12-2 in WCC play, they should be safe for an at-large bid. The fact that they still have so much work to do just to secure a Tournament bid, even after these strong back-to-back wins, emphasizes just how poor the start to Gonzaga's season was. As for Xavier, they fall to 7-3, but have wins over Butler, Wake Forest, Iowa and Seton Hall to go with only one bad loss (Miami of Ohio). They will play Florida on December 31st and will head to Cincinnati on January 6th. They could really use a win in both of those games because the A-10 isn't as strong as it was last season and there won't be as many quality wins available.

Southern Miss 74, Saint Louis 67
I know that Saint Louis still has hopes of getting both Kwamain Mitchell and Willie Reed back in January, and they had a strong performance in the Atlantic Ten last season after a disappointing out-of-conference performance, but they sure have dug themselves quite a hole this season. Of course, without Michell & Reed this team is very young and small, and building for the future is a priority for Rick Majerus. I was very impressed with his freshman guard duo of Jordair Jett and Mike McCall (a combined 28 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists in this game), both of whom are very strong and physical for their young ages. For Southern Miss, this is a quality win, and it was impressive for them to do it with a terrible day from their star, Gary Flowers (only 10 points and 6 rebounds - the 10 points are by far the fewest points he's scored in a game this season). Saint Louis falls to 5-6, and will need to win a bunch of games in a row in A-10 play to get back into any kind of bubble discussions. Southern Miss, meanwhile, moves to 9-1 with wins over Cal, USF and Saint Louis, and only a loss at Ole Miss. Their resume is good, but both Sagarin and Pomeroy think that they're closer to being the 60th best team in the nation - so both ratings systems expect them to regress to the mean a little bit as the season goes along. Certainly I need to see more before I will put them into the BP68.