Winners and Losers of the Opening Weekend of 2016-17 College Basketball Season
The 2016-17 college basketball season was barely nine hours old when Arizona's Kadeem Allen delivered a memorable game-winner against Michigan State that we'll inevitably still be discussing on Selection Sunday.
Oh, college basketball. How we missed thee.
Hopefully you remembered to stretch before the action got underway, because there was no easing into the regular season. There were 155 games on Friday night with all 25 teams in the preseason AP Top 25 in action. Throw in another 35 on Saturday and 49 on Sunday and it was nearly impossible to keep track of the November madness.
Whether you missed the memo that hoops is back and need to catch up on the action or you just want to relive some of the crazy finishes and outcomes, we've compiled a list of the biggest winners and losers of opening weekend.
Now, get to reading, because the Tip-Off Marathon—the best early season tradition in any sport—is about to begin.
Winner: Armed Forces Classic
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We've grown accustomed to the Champions Classic bringing the noise on the fifth day of the regular season, but let's have at least three cheers for the incredible Armed Forces Classic on opening night.
The first few days of the season are typically spent sifting through blowouts in search of the occasional surprising result. At least until the Tip-Off Marathon, must-see games are few and far between, if any exist at all. But No. 10 Arizona vs. No. 12 Michigan State and No. 3 Kansas vs. No. 11 Indiana ensured we would all be watching the same thing Friday night.
And, boy howdy, did those games deliver.
The Spartans and Wildcats were painfully sloppy, committing a combined 32 turnovers and 43 personal fouls, but it was the type of beautiful mess we couldn't help but keep watching. And we were rewarded with a dramatic finish when Kadeem Allen channeled his inner Tyus Edney by going coast-to-coast for the game-winning layup.
Prior to those final few possessions, though, we were given a nice glimpse into what both teams are bringing to the table with their high-ranking freshman classes.
MSU's Miles Bridges was a monster, scoring a game-high 21 points with a few rim-rattling dunks that had the Twitter-sphere buzzing. The Spartans also got quality play from Nick Ward and Cassius Winston, albeit in limited reserve roles. Meanwhile, Arizona got a combined 31 points from Kobi Simmons and Lauri Markkanen, and JUCO transfer Keanu Pinder gave the Wildcats 17 minutes of junkyard-dog intensity and defense.
The real gem was the nightcap, though.
Indiana upset Kansas 103-99 in a whistle-filled overtime affair. Maybe it's because it came directly on the heels of the aforementioned ugly game, but this one felt like a battle between teams we'll be talking about late into March.
James Blackmon Jr., Thomas Bryant and OG Anunoby played like All-B1G candidates while Curtis Jones gave the Hoosiers an impressive 15 points off the bench. Kansas' Frank Mason III had a ridiculous 30 points, nine assists and seven rebounds before becoming one of seven players to foul out of the game. Carlton Bragg Jr. and Landen Lucas didn't get many touches, but the big men were effective and efficient with them.
All told, the two games in Honolulu were an incredible way to welcome college hoops back into our lives.
Loser: Connecticut Huskies
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It certainly didn't take long for a ranked team to give us doubts about whether it has enough talent to reach the NCAA tournament.
No. 18 Connecticut had a horrendous season debut at home against a Wagner team KenPom had rated No. 219 in its preseason metrics. The Huskies lost 67-58 in what may well be their worst offensive performance of the season.
Rodney Purvis should lead the team in scoring as a senior, but he was nowhere to be found in this one, scoring just five points on seven shots with four turnovers. Sophomore point guard Jalen Adams wasn't much better, shooting 4-of-15 from the field en route to just nine points.
VCU transfer Terry Larrier had a strong debut with 19 points and seven rebounds. Freshman guard Alterique Gilbert played a surprising 35 minutes off the bench, pitching in 14 points of his own. But they were effectively UConn's entire offense.
The shots will come, though. Purvis is going to score at least 20 points more often than he scores fewer than 10, and while Adams hasn't shown a great shooting stroke to this point, he'll be better than 26.7 percent the rest of the way.
The real concern with this team is in the frontcourt.
Starting big men Amida Brimah and Kentan Facey combined for just four points and seven rebounds in 40 minutes of action. Reserves Vance Jackson, Steven Enoch and Juwan Durham barely touched the floor as Wagner out-rebounded Connecticut by a 37-33 margin.
The Seahawks were a good rebounding team last season, but that is inexcusable. They didn't play anyone taller than 6'8" in the entire game, yet Connecticut's four guys who stand 6'10" or taller combined for just nine rebounds.
Even once Purvis and Adams start contributing more on offense, the Huskies are going to be in trouble until they figure out how to better involve Brimah and Facey on both ends of the court.
Winner: Dominant Big Men
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Maybe if Connecticut had one of these guys on its roster, it wouldn't have had any problems with Wagner.
McNeese State has been terrible defensively in the paint for the past half-decade, and Purdue's Caleb Swanigan took full advantage. "Biggie" exploded for 23 points, 20 rebounds and six assists in a 109-65 rout. He already had a double-double with more than four minutes remaining in the first half, so it was clear from the outset that he was headed for a huge night.
Utah's Kyle Kuzma had a similar season debut with 23 points, 19 rebounds and four assists, though it did come with a grain of salt against something called the Northwest Nazarene Crusaders.
Louisville's Jaylen Johnson also put on a show, albeit a considerably less-expected one. The junior forward for the Cardinals entered the season with career highs of 11 points, nine rebounds and two blocks, but he exceeded all of those marks against Evansville, exploding for 19 points, 14 boards and three rejections. Everyone was looking at sophomores Donovan Mitchell, Deng Adel and Ray Spalding as potential breakout candidates for Louisville, but who foresaw Johnson doing his best Chinanu Onuaku impression?
Another unexpected performance came courtesy of LSU JUCO transfer Duop Reath. He averaged a modest 14.6 points and 8.4 rebounds per game last season with Lee College, but he led all players in points, rebounds, blocks and steals in LSU's 91-69 win over Wofford, going for 23, 14, three and three, respectively.
The biggest big man of the weekend, though, was Valparaiso's Alec Peters. The minor-conference star averaged 29.5 points and 11.5 rebounds in wins over Southern Utah and Trinity Christian. It's more than a bit troublesome that the Crusaders were only able to beat those no-name schools by 14 points each, but 43 field-goal attempts on opening weekend could be a signal that Peters is going to lead the nation in scoring this year.
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Loser: Penn State Nittany Lions
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This was supposed to be the season Penn State finally turns a corner.
Head coach Pat Chambers has made a ton of headway on the recruiting trail, nabbing key players Josh Reaves, Mike Watkins, Tony Carr and Lamar Stevens in the past two years. Beyond the top four or five teams, the second tier of the Big Ten is more up for grabs than ever.
With Shep Garner returning and Connecticut transfer Terrence Samuel joining the fray, that new batch of young talent could get the Nittany Lions into the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2011.
But after an opening-night loss at home to a rebuilding Albany team, it seems it's going to take some time for this roster to come together.
The Great Danes lost all three of last year's leading scorers, but you wouldn't know it from their 87-81 win over Penn State. Joe Cremo, David Nichols and Dallas Ennema averaged a combined 17.6 points per game in 2015-16, but each one scored at least 19 in the surprising win.
As was the case for Connecticut, the subsequent concerns for the Nittany Lions lie in the frontcourt.
Albany is not a large team by any means, but it dominated Penn State on the glass by a 43-26 margin. The Nittany Lions were an average rebounding team last year, but they lost three of the best glass-crashers from that roster—and it showed.
Watkins had a solid night in the paint with seven rebounds and five blocks, but he was a part-time, one-man show. They'll need a lot more from guys like Stevens and Julian Moore if they're going to even compete in the paint with teams better than Albany.
Even in Sunday's 82-74 win over Duquesne, the Nittany Lions were still out-rebounded 37-32, so that opener might not have been a fluke.
Based on those poor performances on the glass, it's terrifying to think about what a team like Purdue will be able to do against Penn State's forwards.
Winner: Malcolm Hill, Illinois
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One month ago, I made predictions for the top scorer in each conference. Iowa's Peter Jok was the choice for the Big Ten, but Malcolm Hill was a tough challenger to ignore. In the end, I came to this conclusion on the Illinois star: "The Illini have considerably more mouths to feed than they did last year. Thus, unless Hill's efficiency improves significantly (31.4% 3P% and 48.1% 2PT last year), it's likely his scoring average decreases slightly."
Those numbers are through the roof thus far.
In wins over Southeast Missouri State and Northern Kentucky, Hill shot 12-of-20 (60.0 percent) from inside the arc and 7-of-14 (50.0 percent) beyond it with 16 made free throws, just for good measure. He was great against SEMO, but he was downright incredible against Northern Kentucky, dropping a 40-burger on the Norse with a dozen rebounds.
Through two games, Hill is averaging 30.5 points and 10.0 rebounds.
Granted, the competition was nothing special, but that was the case for most teams. Duke's Grayson Allen, for example, "only" averaged 20.5 points per game against Marist and Grand Canyon—and he inexplicably played 37 minutes in the win over GCU, so don't try to blame that 10-point gap on minutes played.
While the rest of the world will be watching Duke vs. Kansas and Kentucky vs. Michigan State Tuesday night, Illinois will be playing against McKendree University. If Hill so chooses, that could be the night we finally end the more-than-three-year drought without any player scoring 50 points in a single game.
Loser: Washington Huskies
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As both Baylor and Duke learned in the NCAA tournament, Yale had a darn good team last season. The Bulldogs were as good on the glass as any team in the country. They shot well, blocked shots and played with a ton of veteran poise.
One other thing Yale did was lose all of the key players from that team. With star guard Makai Mason out for the season with a foot injury, the Bulldogs were tasked with replacing all five of last year's leading scorers.
Somehow, though, they nearly dropped 100 points on Washington on a night when the Huskies blocked 15 shots as a team, putting a damper on the beginning of Markelle Fultz's career with a 98-90 upset.
The likely No. 1 pick in the 2017 NBA draft was terrific. Fultz had 30 points, seven rebounds and six assists and even tallied one of those 15 rejections. He shot 11-of-17 from the field, pacing the Huskies to a field-goal percentage of 58.9.
It wasn't just Fultz, though. That entire half of the box score is about all Washington can ask for. Matisse Thybulle had 20 points and six blocks. Sophomores Noah Dickerson and David Crisp both scored a dozen. Even scarcely discussed freshman Sam Timmins played 25 effective minutes.
It's the other side of the sheet that's going to be a major problem for Washington. Yale only committed seven turnovers and attempted 34 free throws—though 14 of them did come in the final 74 seconds as the Huskies entered desperation mode. And despite losing their best rebounders, the Bulldogs won the battle on the glass with 13 offensive boards.
Fultz is going to have a lot of incredible individual performances this season, but the Huskies simply cannot afford to lose when he gives them 30, seven and six.
Winner: Marquette Golden Eagles
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Jerry Carino of Asbury Park Press wrote about Seton Hall feeling disrespected by its fourth-place ranking in the preseason Big East coaches poll, but the real shade was thrown at Marquette picked to finish in seventh place.
A veteran team with a ton of quality guards, the Golden Eagles have the necessary ammunition to finish top three in the Big East—maybe even top two if Xavier keeps playing like it did against Lehigh. But after back-to-back seasons finished just inside the KenPom Top 100, many people clearly wanted to see something from this team before buying stock in it.
Did the 95-71 dismantling of Vanderbilt get your attention?
Maybe the Commodores need a few weeks or months to rebuild after losing their two star players and their head coach, but this was a Marquette beatdown of a roster with a lot of talent.
Reminiscent of Steve Wojciechowski's days playing at Duke, his guards pestered the snot out of Vanderbilt's ball-handlers, recording 13 steals and forcing a total of 19 turnovers. Senior Jajuan Johnson led the way with 21 points and six steals. The Golden Eagles also made 13 three-pointers, and that was with high-scoring transfers Katin Reinhardt and Andrew Rowsey combining to shoot just 1-of-9.
The big unknown with Marquette all offseason was its frontcourt situation. Senior big man Luke Fischer was great, stuffing the box score with 18 points, seven rebounds, three assists, three blocks and two steals, but who else do the Golden Eagles have? If he can keep giving them 32 minutes per game like that, there's nothing to worry about. What happens when he struggles or gets into foul trouble?
Those are questions for another day, though. For now, Marquette is flying high and looks like a serious threat to win this week's 2K Classic against Michigan and either SMU or Pittsburgh.
Loser: UCLA's Defense
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We never doubted UCLA's ability to put points on the board. With Lonzo Ball and T.J. Leaf joining four returning players who averaged at least 10 points per game, the Bruins had the potential to be the most efficient offense in the country.
Thus far, they have not disappointed. Ball averaged 16.0 points, 8.5 assists and 8.0 rebounds in his first two games. The trio of high-scoring returning guards—Bryce Alford, Isaac Hamilton and Aaron Holiday—are currently averaging a combined 60.0 points per game. All told, the Bruins put up 119 against Pacific before going for 102 against Cal St. Northridge.
However, they also allowed both of those minor-conference teams to score at least 80 points against them.
Breakneck pace of play is at least partially to blame. Pacific scored 80 points in an 80-possession game. CSUN put up 87 in a game with at least 90 possessions. With so many great guards, UCLA can run the court as well as any team in the country and is happy to do so. That inevitably means the opposition is going to get a lot of opportunities to score, too.
Still, it's concerning that two teams which ranked No. 238 and No. 245 in the nation in adjusted offensive efficiency last season just scored pretty much at will against the Bruins. If they can't hold those teams in check, what's going to happen when they start facing the likes of Kentucky, Ohio State, Oregon and Arizona?
Winner: Oklahoma State's Backcourt
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Oklahoma State's starting backcourt missed most of the 2015-16 season. Phil Forte played just three games before going down for the count with an elbow injury. Jawun Evans made it nearly three months into his freshman season before being shut down with a shoulder injury.
Without that duo, the Cowboys were quite bad. Including the game in which Evans suffered his injury, Oklahoma State went 1-10 in its final 11 games. The one exception was a home game against 5-13 Kansas State, and what was left of the roster even needed overtime to win that one.
With Forte and Evans back on the court, though, this is a team with definite postseason potential.
Evans played like an All-American in the season-opener against Campbell. In just 27 minutes of action, he finished with 34 points, six rebounds, five steals and three assists. After making 47.5 percent of his 40 three-point attempts last season, he opened his sophomore campaign by going 2-of-2 from downtown.
Forte wasn't nearly that impressive, but he did have 22 points and no fear to let it fly. He only made two of them, but he attempted nine three-pointers. Forte was much more lethal from two-point and free-throw range, making 11 of those 12 shots.
Sure, it's Campbell, so who cares? The Cowboys also have cupcakes in the form of Central Arkansas and New Orleans before heading off to the Maui Invitational. But these guys had only played 2.5 regular-season games together, so seeing them both dominate was a great sign, regardless of opponent.
Stats are courtesy of KenPom.com and Sports-Reference.com. Recruiting information is courtesy of Scout.
Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @kerrancejames.
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