My 3 Favorite Things In College Basketball This Week
An abbreviated newsletter for an abbreviated week
It’s a holiday week! The last week that won’t be completely full of basketball until conference tournaments begin! Obviously holidays are great and I’m glad they exist, but it was strange turning on the TV and realizing there was nothing to watch (I did this twice; I’m not proud of my dependence on college basketball). Because there were only games on 57.4% of the days this week, I’ve only put 60% of the typical amount of favorite things on this newsletter. That’s the closest I can get since it seems unreasonable to have 2.87 favorite things. Let’s get into the favorite things.
1. The Annual Gonzaga vs. UCLA Blockbuster
Gonzaga and UCLA have played each other in some capacity for each of the past five seasons, delivering in all but one of those meetings. Obviously you know about the Jalen Suggs shot in the Final Four, and you probably know about the Julian Strawther shot in the Sweet Sixteen, but last year in Maui, Anton Watson went 14-15 from the field, dropping 32 points for the Zags while Lazar Stefanovic and Sebastian Mack combined for 32 points and 76 minutes in what was ultimately a four-point Bulldogs win. This year, the game delivered again, and again it wasn’t without controversy, as some mediocre (to say the least) officiating in the second half got in the way of the game to a not-insignificant degree. UCLA ultimately pulled it out by three points on a missed Ryan Nembhard half court shot to end the game… after he missed a free throw that would’ve tied the game. There is already a return game scheduled next year. Thank you Mick Cronin. Thank you Mark Few.
2. Games on Christmas Day
The one thing that Christmas Day typically lacks is the ability to escape your relatives to a basketball game when you get overwhelmed by the conversation. This year, in a cruel twist of fate, my nephew had a fever and our dinner was rescheduled (I love my nephew, that was for comedic effect). Luckily, to fill the time, the Diamond Head Classic had games on! There were four games on back-to-back-to-back-to-back, and three of them were great games. The one game that turned out to have a double digit margin was the championship game between Nebraska and Oregon State. Would you expect anything less from Wayne Tinkle when his Beavers were on pace for an at-large bid through the non-conference games? The other three games were all one possession final margins, with the game between Oakland and Hawai’i even going to overtime. I cannot believe they’re moving this tournament to Feast Week next year. Please keep it during Christmas, I have nothing better to do with my life.
3. Mountain Best?
We’ve already talked about Utah State on this program before, and I think San Diego State has been mentioned as a good team in passing. They played each other on national television this week in what would’ve been their MWC openers if the conference hadn’t expanded to a 20 game schedule meaning every team had to play a game in early December (except for UNLV, because UNLV is special). It’s no secret that these are probably the best two teams in the conference after Boise State had a little but of trouble in the non-conference. This game did not disappoint. The Aztecs jumped out to a quick lead behind the home Viejas Arena crowd, but USU fought back, with Mason Falslev hitting a go-ahead three-pointer with less than 10 seconds to go in the second half. SDSU couldn’t respond, and the Aggies won 67-66. San Diego State plays Boise State on national TV next week. More of this please.
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