My 5 Favorite Things In College Basketball This Week
I'm somehow keeping rivalry games to a minimum
This week we saw some highly anticipated games: Coach Calipari’s return to Rupp Arena, Gonzaga played St. Mary’s, and of course, we had the best rivalry in the sport, UNC and Duke. The thing is, none of those games were what I’d call fun. Fun atmospheres, sure, but the actual content wasn’t always up to snuff. So I’ve only picked picked one rivalry moment from this week (and it wasn’t any of those mentioned above), and four other amazing things.
1. The Caleb Love Shot
Caleb Love is my favorite basketball player. I’ve been on record calling him the greatest basketball player on the planet maybe ever (is it in jest? You’ll never know). I think he’s one of the most fun watches you’ll have. He is going to lead the team in scoring. Whether that’s because he’s putting the team on his back or because he’s scoring 30 points on 40 shots depends on the game. But when he’s at his best, he’s unbeatable. He was not at his best on Monday. He was 2-11 from deep, and his Arizona Wildcats found themselves down by three points with about a second to go. Who had the ball in his hands? Of course it was Caleb Love. He took a shot from 3/4 court… and he sunk it. Because of course he did. And that’s the Caleb Love experience. You have to embrace. If you truly embrace it might take you to the lowest of your lows, but the highest highs possible are always on the horizon. Arizona won the basketball game in overtime.
2. Can We Please Call Him Airious
Ace Bailey is so good. I think he’s good enough that when he’s on, he’s in the unguardable category of good. We saw that against Northwestern this week. He was just rising up and hitting shots. Hand in his face, contact being made, whatever it was he was unstoppable. He can jump higher than you. There’s nothing you can do. He was above 20 points in the first half. He finished the game with 37. He played through some foul trouble. This is Ace Bailey at his finest. Let’s just not talk about his performance against Michigan. This game against Northwestern wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for the average fan. It was the last game we’ll ever get to watch Brooks Barnhizer play college basketball. I think that’s a shame. I apologize to Ace Bailey for hijacking his segment, but I think it’s important to note. We just saw a generational career. It’ll always be overshadowed by Boo Buie, and then a half season where Nick Martinelli played almost as well as him, but Brooks was there through it all. When Ty Berry got hurt, he took on a bigger role. When Buie left he learned how to handle the ball. His teeth were knocked out, his eyes were blackened, and body tested. His spirit was never altered. Thank you Brooks Barnhizer.
3. The Rivalry Game
Indiana and Purdue played a great rivalry game on Friday night. This is the rivalry I wanted to talk about. IU has looked anemic as of late, and going to Mackey Arena is always a tough task. But somehow, they showed up. They led the game with under 30 seconds left. Ultimately they came up short, but they made something out of nothing. Whether or not Mike Woodson can take this team into the tournament remains to be seen, but this was a performance the Hoosiers can hang their hats on. Not to mention Trey Kaufman-Renn’s dominance for the Boilermakers.
4. Nebrasketball
The Cornhuskers had themselves a week. Realistically, with Keisei Tominaga leaving, Rienk, and all of the other roster changes that Fred Hoiberg saw happen this offseason, the hope of back-to-back tournaments wasn’t very promising. The team started 2-7 in Big Ten play, all but confirming this. This week, however, they had a really talented (although underperforming) Illinois team and a good (we all know they’re bad) Oregon team on the schedule. Now, I’m going to spoil this because you already know what happened, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing about this, but they won both games. The Oregon game was never particularly close (or at least never felt particularly close), while they needed overtime to knock off the Fighting Illini. Either way, that’s a successful week. If Rienk Mast was here, this team could’ve been scary.
5. The Cowboys Are (Not Quite) Back In Town
After a tough 6-5 non-conference, people began to write of McNeese State. That was a mistake. Will Wade’s team decided to shut everyone up by going 10-0 to start Southland play. Unfortunately for Will Wade’s team, he ran into Nicholls. Is Nicholls a good team? Kind of. They do well in the SLC, even if not a wagon in the conference. But Nicholls has been tormented by McNeese for too long. They lost thrice last year, and another time earlier this year. So, at home, in their 5th meeting since Will Wade was hired, they took down Goliath. McNeese should still win the league easily, but a win’s a win.
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