Top 25 - 11/18/19

1. Louisville (4-0)
2. Gonzaga (4-0)
3. Duke (4-0)
4. Michigan State (2-1)
5. Ohio State (3-0)
6. Kentucky (2-1)
7. Virginia (3-0)
8. Arizona (4-0)
9. Kansas (2-1)
10. North Carolina (3-0)
11. Tennessee (3-0)
12. Maryland (3-0)
13. Seton Hall (3-1)
14. Oregon (4-0)
15. Auburn (4-0)
16. Texas Tech (3-0)
17. Texas (4-0)
18. Washington (2-1)
19. West Virginia (2-0)
20. Baylor (2-1)
21. Xavier (4-0)
22. Villanova (2-1)
23. Butler (4-0)
24. Oklahoma (3-0)
25. Michigan (3-0)

St. John’s Still a Work In Progress, But Better

St. John’s headlined the Legend’s Classic this week and took care of business, beating California 82-79 Monday night and outlasting VCU 87-86 in overtime last night.

The Red Storm (5-0) were far from flawless in their two victories. It took them until the last seconds of regulation to finish off Cal - last place in the PAC 12 last season and picked to finish last again this season - and needed overtime and multiple clutch shots from Shamorie Ponds to get by a VCU squad picked to finish 5^th in the Atlantic 10.

The Johnnies are a talented, if small, offensive unit led by the junior Ponds and junior returnees Marvin Clark II and Justin Simon. Newcomers Mustapha Heron, LJ Figueroa and Mikey Dixon give St. John’s an offensively talented nucleus that should be able to play with anyone in the country.

6-foot-9 Center, Sedee Keita, the Red Storm’s lone true big on the roster, is out with a knee injury and is expected back in five weeks.

This week at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, St. John’s showed off their offensive talent and versatility, but also showed that they may not yet be ready for prime time. Defensively, they allowed unheralded Cal to shoot 57% from the field, including 44% from beyond the 3-point line. While Cal made some tough shots, St. John’s also exhibited “Swiss cheese defense” (shout out to Clyde Frazier), allowing way too many easy forays into the paint and uncontested layups.

The following night, the defense was improved versus VCU, but mental lapses often allowed the Rams to stay in the game and take leads late in regulation and overtime.

However, a win is a win is a win. And maybe those preseason prognostications were wrong and Cal and VCU will prove to be better than was thought.

St. John's coach Chris Mullin addressing the media after the Red Storm's victory over VCU.

“My thing is this, we played two really good teams that played well, they made shots,” St. John’s coach Chris Mullin said after the game. “I mean from a coach’s standpoint sometimes you think you can play better defense, you can contest better and that’s all true, but they still gotta make them… So give our opponents a lot of credit, but to our credit, we were in some tough situations the last two nights.”

“We fought back and didn’t hang our heads,” Mullin continued. “That’s really where the experience comes in. They truly believe they can win the game and I don’t think that was the fact the last two years.”

Yes, it is easy to get caught up in the influx of talent and experience now on the Red Storm’s roster and expect them to easily win the games they are favored in. But, teams take time to build and there is no doubt progress is being made. As Mullin eluded to, it is highly likely that St. John’s would have lost one or both of those games last year.

Ponds, who scored 32 and 35 points in the two wins respectively, made every big shot and big play the Johnnies needed. He looks even better than last year and is clearly one of the better guards in the country. Heron is a big time player and Figueroa is better than advertised.

St. John’s is not there yet. They are not an NCAA Tournament team yet. They are not the best team in the Big East, yet. But, the pieces are there, the experience is there and most importantly, the belief is there.

Bol Bol Shines As Oregon Rebounds And Cuse Plummets

Highly touted Oregon freshman Bol Bol shined at Madison Square Garden tonight, scoring 26 points on 11-17 shooting and adding 9 rebounds in the Ducks 80-65 win over Syracuse in the consolation game of the 2K Empire Classic.

Bol scored on an array of floaters inside the key, finesse moves around the basket, put-back ducks and layups, and even hit one of his two three-point attempts. The 7-foot-2 freshman also was poised and passed well in attacking the vaunted Syracuse zone.

Bol Bol addresses the media after Oregon's win versus Syracuse.

“[Bol’s] a unique player and he’s going to grow into a special player,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said after the game, “because you saw him shoot the three, you saw him handle it, he made some passes.”

“At 7’2, to do the things that he can do,” Altman continued, “you saw that soft touch, the jump hooks and that the ball just lays on the rim. He’s got a very soft touch for 7’2.”

Bol, ranked the fourth best high school prospect by Rivals.com (ahead of Zion Williamson), bounced back from a subpar performance Thursday night in a loss to Iowa.

“I think [tonight’s win] was really important because of what happened last night and we didn’t play too good,” the soft spoken Bol said. “After the game we were just focusing on the next game and playing really hard.”

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, while not happy after his team’s second loss in two nights, had high praise for Bol, as well.

“He’s a good player, he’s big, he’s tough. He’s very good. He’s a big problem out there,” Boeheim said. “He’s got a great touch. I think that’s the biggest thing, he has a great feel for the game. He’s a good passer and he’s a good scorer. He can shoot from the perimeter, he can shoot from the high post, that’s a great combination.”

Oregon moves to 3-1 and faces Green Bay on Tuesday.

Syracuse, who many predicted would be a top team in the ACC this season, drops to 2-2 after two subpar performances from team leaders Tyus Battle and Oshae Brissett. The Orange will face a less formidable opponent in Colgate on Wednesday.

“The bottom line is we need to make some threes if we shoot 28 of them, if we’re going to be successful,” Boeheim said of his team’s 5-28 performance from beyond the arc.

Luckily for Cuse, there is a lot of season left for improvement. Scarier for the rest of the country, the same thing can be said of Bol Bol and the Oregon Ducks.

Iowa's Fran McCaffery On NCAA Tournament: "There's no such thing as an upset."

Everybody loves the NCAA Tournament, or almost everybody. You can find a hater or two out there in the twitterverse if you try hard enough. But for the most part, it is a beloved event.

Why? Easy: the love of March Madness stems from fans’ love of the upset. We all love to see David come through from time to time and take down Goliath. The NCAA Tournament provides ample opportunity for these surprise results.

This year, the Tournament’s first round did not disappoint.

On Thursday, Ivy League Yale took down Big 12 power Baylor, Arkansas Little Rock came from behind to beat one of the Big Ten’s finest in Purdue, and in a slight upset, Wichita State pretty easily took care of Arizona.

Friday produced even gaudier results. Hawaii, who many didn’t realize fielded a basketball team, upset a talented, though injury bugged California team. 14 seed Stephen F. Austin took it to 3 seed West Virginia and in one of the biggest upsets of all time, 15 seed Middle Tennessee State took down mighty Tom Izzo and Michigan State.

Insert your favorite bracket busted joke here.

However, according to Iowa coach Fran McCaffery, there are no upsets in this tournament. That’s right, those random occurrences that we all love and root for do not really exist. They are figments of our imagination.

“There’s no such thing as an upset and I mean that sincerely,” McCaffery said after Iowa’s last second victory over Temple in Brooklyn. “I’ve had lower seeded teams that won. You’ve seen higher seeded teams lose.”

Iowa coach Fran McCaffery

“It’s really difficult [to win an NCAA Tournament game],” he explained. “You’re playing somebody that you haven’t played, on a neutral site. You’re trying to figure them out in a short period of time.”

Hmm, maybe he has a point, especially nowadays.

The mid-major teams – the good ones that end up in the NCAA Tournament – tend to be more experienced, upper-class dominant squads that have been together as a unit and with their coach for a number of years. That’s a sharp contrast from the now typical major program that is dependent on highly ranked freshmen, likely to leave the program before they are ready to take it to any significant heights.

Stephen F. Austin coach, Brad Underwood, sees some advantages to building a team at the mid-major level.

“We’re able to get better players [than in the past] and keep them for their career and have seniors, so there’s maturity,” he said after his team dispatched of West Virginia Friday night.

“One of the biggest discrepancies in college sports is the difference between an 18-year old freshman and a 22-year old senior. The maturity level is drastically different.”

So maybe there are no upsets and these are just a collection of good teams knocking each other off.

That’s likely the case, but don’t expect to hear that narrative. We don’t want to.

We love the upsets, real or not.