A Wild Week at The Rodeo

If you pay any attention to college basketball (and if you are reading this blog, I know you do), you would have noticed the wild week of college hoops that culminated in a quite a shake up in this weeks’ rankings.  This last week of basketball closely resembled a bull-riding event at the rodeo, as numerous top 25 teams were knocked off every day (some earning multiple losses).  If you didn’t pay attention, but are now curious as to why the polls have done a massive shift, read below for all you need to know:

-       Six of the top 10 teams last week posted an “L” in the loss column.  

-       Louisville was shut out last week, with consecutive losses to Villanova (73-64) and Georgetown (53-51).  Add in the Syracuse loss the week before and Louisville slid from 5^th to 12^th in the rankings.  Just two weeks ago, they were the number 1 team in the nation, expected to be the number 1 overall seed in bracketology, and the favorite to earn the title of National Champions.

-       Duke (last weeks’ #1 team) was blown-out at Miami, losing by 27.  This was the third worst defeat for a #1 team in NCAA history.  This game also catapulted Miami from 25^th to 14^th.

-       Arizona lost at home to UCLA, who then lost at Arizona State by 18.  So just which team is the best in the west?  I’m going to go with Gonzaga who jumped up a few spots in the polls to 7, followed by Oregon at 10, and Arizona at 8.  The next few weeks should show which team will rule the Pac 12, but my money is on Oregon.

-       Remember Butler? The team who beat Gonzaga at the buzzer a week ago? Yeah, that team, well they lost at LaSalle AT THE BUZZER!  (Karma anyone?) Since then, Rotnei Clarke reentered the lineup and helped his team (24 points, 9 assists) easily conquer Temple.  They stayed put at #9 in this weeks’ rankings.

-       Kansas State lost two in a row, to Kansas (59-54) and Iowa State (73-67) and has fallen back to #18.  Let’s hope they get on a roll and stay in the top 25 to help Gonzaga’s RPI.

-       Minnesota – oh, what, oh what has happened to Minnesota?  The Golden Gophers have now lost 4 in a row to Indiana, Michigan, Northwestern, and Wisconsin and have nearly knocked themselves out of the top 25.  They landed at 23 this week.

-       Michigan State was the steadiest team in the lineup this week as they lost to Indiana, but remained ranked 13^th in AP, and actually moved up to 11^th in the Coaches poll.

-       San Diego State moved back into the rankings this week, landing at 22.  If you haven’t been following closely, this team has been wildly inconsistent.  After losing two in a row, and in an ugly fashion, they have now won two straight including defeating ranked New Mexico.  As a reminder, this is the same team that scored only 9 points in the entire first half against Wyoming on January 19.

So here is how the top 10 has shaken out! Below is a graph that details the RPI, SOS, and BPI of each of the teams in the top 10:

Team	RPI Rank	SOS	BPI Rank
Michigan	5	98	4
Kansas	2	45	5
Indiana	14	75	3
Florida	7	106	1
Duke	1	19	2
Syracuse	9	61	6
Gonzaga	8	56	9
Arizona	4	13	7
Butler	10	53	33
Oregon	20	24	21

But enough about rankings, this is a Gonzaga blog site, so now for the goods.  After losing that buzzer beater at Hinkle Fieldhouse (do I sound repetitive?  Because that single play has since been shown and talked about it in pretty much every game that was played last week) the Zags have now won two straight to remain undefeated in West Coast Conference play. 

On Thursday, the Zags took on BYU and won easily with a 20 point pummeling!  Kelly Olynyk was outstanding with a perfect stat line scoring 26 points (9 for 9 field goals & 8 for 8 free throws) with 9 rebounds and 5 assists.  Harris completed the dynamic duo with 25 points and 10 rebounds and showed remarkable athleticism.  The Zags seemed to renew their defensive approach, reminiscent of earlier this season, and held BYU to just 35%.  Haws, the WCC leading scorer, was held to just 1 point (0-9 field goals & earning 1 free throw) as Bell did a truly impressive job guarding him.  Brandon Davies was also held well below his season average of 18ppg, scoring 10 points.  At the half, it was clear just which duo would come out on top.  Harris and Olynyk both had 14 points at the half, Haws had 0, and Davies had 2.  The downside to the game?  Gonzaga had a season high 19 turnovers.

On Saturday, Gonzaga battled San Francisco and posted another decisive victory, winning 66 to 52.  Kyle Dranginis earned his first ever career start, but had a rather pedestrian stat line with 3 points (3-4 free throws), 3 steals, and 2 assists in 21 minutes of play.  He still looked hesitant to shoot, and missed all 4 shot attempts.  This game was definitely a tale of two halves.  In the first half, Gonzaga put on a clinic shooting 58% from the field.  The second half was a different story, as the Zags only converted on 8 of 27 shot attempts, for 29.6% shooting.   This game did allow the bench an opportunity to play extended minutes.  The team also cut down on their turnovers with just 8.

Rex Walters had this to say about the 2012-2013 Gonzaga Team:

"Kelly Olynyk, as a freshman, looked like a lot of our guys," Walters said. "He changed his body over the course of three years. He's an NBA lottery pick… Harris is a high-level pro, Pangos is a high-level pro, but it’s really simple when you have a lottery pick you become a lot better team. And that’s what he is, I really believe that. First time I’ve said that about a West Coast Conference player.”

“And they’ve got guys … I give Michael Hart a hard time about how we guard him. I love him. He’s the toughest kid they have on their team. They have great role players. They’ve owned their roles.”

And Andy Katz of ESPN seems to agree about Kelly Olynyk as he posted the below on ESPN today:

“ I have four All-Americans if the season ended today: Doug McDermott (Creighton), Trey Burke (Michigan), Ben McLemore (Kansas) and Kelly Olynyk (Gonzaga). The fifth spot is wide-open.”

So that’s the recap of a crazy week of college hoops.  Next up for Gonzaga, Loyola Marymount on Thursday.