The second week of the men’s college basketball season featured plenty of memorable matchups, from a loaded Tuesday slate headlined by the always electric Kentucky vs. Louisville rivalry to a packed weekend of games that saw some of the best teams in the country tested in a major way. What did we learn from a weekend when three top-five teams faced off with ranked opponents and several others got pushed to the limit? Here are five takeaways from all the action.
Houston’s freshmen meet the moment
For Houston to beat Auburn in front of a hostile crowd in Birmingham, you would have expected the Cougars’ veterans leading the way. Instead, Houston’s two star freshmen looked like budding stars in the thrilling 73–72 victory. It wouldn’t be that big of a stretch to call Kingston Flemings already Houston’s best guard over Milos Uzan and Emanuel Sharp. He delivered 22 points, five rebounds and seven assists on an efficient 7-for-13 shooting. And up front, fellow freshman Chris Cenac had his best game of the season with 18 points and nine rebounds before fouling out late.
This loaded freshman class, Kelvin Sampson’s best yet at Houston, gives the Cougars more upside than some of his previous teams. The question coming into the season was just how ready Flemings and Cenac would be to impact winning early on, especially in a system that requires elite attention to detail on the defensive end. There may still be growing pains to come, but that duo looks well ahead of schedule … and that’s a scary sign for the rest of college basketball.
Big East off to slow start
It has been a less-than-ideal start to the season for the Big East, owning just a 3–10 overall mark against high-major foes through two weeks. The pain has been particularly acute for a pair of preseason projected bubble teams in Marquette (losses to Maryland and Indiana) and Providence (losses to Virginia Tech and Colorado). Add in buy-game losses for Xavier (vs. Santa Clara) and DePaul (vs. Buffalo) and the Big East currently sits as KenPom’s lowest-rated high-major league.
The primary exception to that slow start has been Georgetown, which owns two of the league’s three high-major wins after beating Clemson on Saturday. Arizona transfer guard KJ Lewis has made a major impact, and in his third year on the job Ed Cooley has the type of roster he excelled with at Providence with positional size and physicality across the board. It also magnified the importance of UConn holding on against BYU after the league’s other projected top contender in St. John’s lost a winnable home game to Alabama last week.
Michigan an early work in progress
While Dusty May’s Wolverines found ways to grind out victories against Wake Forest and TCU, it’s obvious Michigan hasn’t found its stride as it tries to maximize what many believe to be college basketball’s best frontcourt. Early on, May elected to start Yaxel Lendeborg at the three rather than his more natural power forward slot in order to get Morez Johnson Jr. and Aday Mara on the floor next to him. The result has been clunky at times: Michigan made a combined nine threes in two games this week and turned it over 37 times, finishing below one point per possession in both wins.
While Lendeborg and point guard Elliot Cadeau are capable shooters, teams seem likely to pack the paint and do their best to slow down Michigan on the interior and dare the Wolverines to beat them over the top. Michigan may still be able to overwhelm them on the inside anyway (see its 44–23 edge on the glass vs. TCU), but hitting its Big Ten championship and Final Four ceiling will require smoothing out this bumpy offensive start.
Arizona is building a monster résumé
No team in college basketball has a better two-pack of early season wins than the Wildcats, who added to their opening night win in Las Vegas over Florida with a come-from-behind victory in Inglewood, Calif., against UCLA on Friday night. On a night that freshman sensation Koa Peat struggled (seven points, six turnovers), one of Arizona’s veteran reserves in senior Anthony Dell’Orso stepped up in a major way with 20 points, including four of Arizona’s six threes.
It feels notable that the Cats have now beaten a high-level foe in a shootout (Florida) and slugfest (UCLA). And their gift for that major rivalry win? A trip across the country on Wednesday to take on UConn, a chance for yet another statement victory. And it doesn’t get any easier in December, with dates with Auburn, Alabama and San Diego State before conference play.
Saint Mary’s wins in style
Saint Mary’s has climbed from No. 55 in KenPom’s preseason rankings to No. 24 in the span of two weeks thanks to four wins by 21-plus points. Those victories haven’t been against the dregs of the sport either; three of the four teams the Gaels beat won at least 24 games a season ago. Most recently, the Gaels led 47–17 at the half against a North Texas team ranked just outside the top 100 nationally before going on to win by 31. Sophomore 7-footer Andrew McKeever looks like the next in a line of highly effective Saint Mary’s bigs, dominating the boards and anchoring a defense that has kept all four opponents under 70 points. Bucket-getting guard Mikey Lewis has taken the next step with 20-plus points in three of his first four games, and Paulius Murauskas is one of the best non-power-conference players in the nation. They always seem to do it with little fanfare, but all the Gaels do is win, and with a manageable schedule ahead it wouldn’t be shocking to see them stay undefeated into the new year.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Houston Freshmen Step Up to Beat Auburn Is Biggest Week 2 College Hoops Takeaway.
