1. Cincinnati (12-2, 2-0): Jarron Cumberland is starting to show everyone why he was so highly recruited. Cumberland had a career high in points as the Bearcats crushed Tulane. In their opener, Cincinnati got a huge 56-50 win over Temple which should boost their RPI. The Bearcats are playing some great basketball right now. NEXT WEEK: @ Houston
2. SMU (12-3, 2-0): Tim Jankoich is 2-0 in AAC play. Mustangs got an ugly win on the road at Memphis 58-54. They played their typical defense which ranks top 20 in the nation. SMU came back with a blowout win over East Carolina on the road as well. A big stretch is up coming as SMU will play Temple and Cincinnati in their next three games. NEXT WEEK: vs. Temple, vs. South Florida
3. Houston (11-3, 2-0): What a game Houston played against UConn. Houston held them to 12 points at halftime before eventually blowing out the Huskies. The Cougars followed it up with another blowout of South Florida. Rob Gray Jr was named the American player of the week and he deserved it with a 20 point game against UConn and then 25 against USF. Houston has a huge one against Cincinnati this week and I do not want to see an empty arena like I usually do down in Houston. This team deserves to have Coogs fans come out! NEXT WEEK: vs. Tulsa, vs. Cincinnati
4. Central Florida (11-3, 2-0): As every week passes, the Knights are starting to make their case for an NCAA Tournament selection. A lot of people didn't think that was possible when the season started. UCF is now 2-0 in AAC play as they started out with a win over Tulane and then blowing out a solid Temple team 77-53. Central Florida continues to be one of the best rebounding and shot blocking teams in the nation and that's what leads to their great defense. I just feel like that lost to Penn could come back to hount them, but Johnny Dawkins has something brewing down in Florida. NEXT WEEK: vs ECU @ UConn.
5. Tulsa (7-6, 1-0): The Golden Hurricane opened up conference play with an ugly 61-59 overtime win over UConn. Frank Haith's team is very young and I thought they would get better as the year goes on and we will see if that happens come Wednesday night when they visit Houston. NEXT WEEK: @ Houston.
6. Memphis (10-4, 0-1): In their conference opener, Memphis lost a 58-54 dog fight to SMU. Neither of the Lawson's never got going. The Tigers seemed to drain the shot clock and not get a good shot off. That changed the next week when Memphis took care of a decent South Carolina team on the Saturday 70-54. If Memphis can find away to force turnovers and play defense like they did against South Carolina then they could find themseleves playing in the NCAA Tournament. We already know they have playmakers on offense. NEXT WEEK: vs. UConn, @ Tulane
7. Temple (9-6, 0-2): What a non conference season Fran Dunphy and the Owls had. Well, that's all gone now. Temple lost to Cincinnati 56-50 which is not a bad loss at all, but then getting demolshied by Central Florida? UCF is better than what everyone thought, but Temple had to win that. They need to make some noise in the conference if they want to get back to the NCAA Tournament. NEXT WEEK: @ SMU, vs. ECU
8. East Carolina (9-6, 1-1): Jeff Lebo was on the hot seat coming into the year and he remains on it now. ECU picked up a win in their first game over South Florida. Freshman Elijah Hughes showed how good he could be putting up a career high 19 points in a 10 point victory over the Bulls. I was looking for some fight in the game against SMU even though they came in as big underdogs and I didn't see it as SMU rolled 75-44. NEXT WEEK: @ Central Florida, @ Temple
9. UConn (5-8, 0-2): Who would of that UConn would be 5-8 to start the year. The Huskies shot 12 percent in their first half against Houston in which they scored 12 points and eventually lost by a big margin. UConn followed that lost up with another loss to Tulsa in Overtime. Kevin Ollie's seat may be warming up. UConn is now playing for pride at this point. The Huskies are not going to the NCAA Tournament this year. I know they have had a lot of injuries, but they also lost to Northeastern and Wagner at full strength.
10. South Florida (6-7, 0-2): The Bulls are 0-2 to start conference play. They 60-49 to East Carolina after committing almost the same amount of turnover as points in the first half, USF didn't look totally awful in the 2nd half. South Florida got blown out by Houston on Saturday 70-56 at home. It was once again a tail of two halves. We are just a week and a half away from the USF/Tulane barn burner we have been waiting for. NEXT WEEK: @ SMU
11. Tulane (3-11, 0-2): The Green Wave played good in their first half game against Central Florida but it's gone all down hill since then. Tulane went on to lose by 13. It was much the same against Cincinnati when they were down 12 at the half, but lost by 36 with final score being 92-56. Mike Dunleavy might want to work on some halftime adjustments. Any way, Cameron Reynolds has been solid for Tulane this year, but that's about it. NEXT WEEK: vs. Memphis
No comments:
Post a Comment