PAC-12 Thursday Recap

PAC-12 Thursday's has always been my favorite day of the college basketball regular season even over the past few years when the talent level was light and most of the teams played at a snails pace. This year the conference is back and opening night ended with two huge upsets and a game winning dunk in overtime. It should be a fun ride over the next three months. 

Game of the Night:

Oregon 70 Utah 68 (OT)

ATS: Push (Oregon -2), Total: Under (149)

In case you haven’t seen how the game ended, here is a look at the final possession in overtime after Utah called a timeout. 

Oregon's Game Winning Dunk

In a back and forth game, Utah took the lead with two Brandon Taylor free throws in regulation, but then the Utes fouled Damyean Dotson with 27 seconds left and with two clutch free throws the game was tied at 62. Despite the overtime turnover which cost Utah the game, they still had an open look to win the game but a Jordan Loveridge three was just off the mark. Expected to give Arizona a run for their money, Oregon came away with a much needed win while Utah suffered a devastating loss. Despite the loss it will certainly be tough for Pac-12 teams to come away with a win in Salt Lake City. Loveridge was the high scorer for Utah with 21 points and Richard Amadi led the Ducks with 14.

As Expected:

Arizona 60 Washington State 25

ATS: Arizona (-18), Total: Under (131)

Well, the number one team in the country won easily as expected; however I don’t think anyone anticipated Washington State only scoring 25 points for the GAME. Yikes, not a good way to start the Pac-12 season for Ken Bone and the Cougars. Washington State scored their first point at the 17:02 mark thanks to a Royce Woolridge free throw and their first basket at the 6:44 mark. That’s 13 minutes and 16 seconds until their first made field goal. Once again, YIKES. The first half ended 28-7 and the Cougars shot 2-21 from the field. Arizona, in a rather subpar offensive performance only had one player in double figures which was Kaleb Tarczewski who finished with 11 points. Freshman Aaron Gordon ended the game with 5 points on 2-6 shooting and 10 rebounds. 

Upset of the Night:

Washington 76 Arizona State 65

ATS: Washington (+10), Total: Under (152)

Despite having dominated the series for the past four years, Washington was not expected to give ASU a game after their non-conference performance. Led by Player of the Year candidate Jahii Carson, the Sun Devils jumped out to a 16-10 lead before the Huskies got going. Led by C.J. Wilcox and Nigel Williams-Goss, Washington went on a first half scoring explosion and took a 40-23 lead into the half. Arizona State mounted a quick comeback in the second half and cut the lead to 10 before a quick 8-0 Washington run put the game out of reach. Four starters scored in double figures for the Huskies led by Wilcox and his 17 points and ASU finished 2-14 from the three point line. 

Other Games:

California 69 Stanford 62

ATS: Stanford (+6.5), Total: Under (141.5)

In another upset, Mike Montgomery stole one in Palo Alto. Senior guard Justin Cobbs hit some clutch shots and finished with 18 points and sophomore guard Tyrone Wallace tied a season high with 20 points on four three pointers. A big win for California and a tough loss for Johnny Dawkins to start the PAC-12 season.

Colorado 64 Oregon State 58

ATS: Oregon State (+12), Total: Under (147)

Oregon State kept hanging around and tied the game at 40 with 10:35 to go and the cut the lead to four with just two minutes to go but they could never get over the hump. Askia Booker, Spencer Dinwiddie, and freshman Jaron Hopkins scored 13 apiece for Colorado while Roberto Nelson was the only player to reach double digits for the Beavers with 23 points.

Oakland EYBL Review

The final regular season installment of the Nike EYBL ended over Memorial Day in Oakland, CA with several teams making a strong final push to earn a berth to the prestigious Peach Jam tournament in July. Here is a look back at the 5 games to watch along with answers to the “Will…..?” section.

1)      CIA Bounce came into Oakland with a 14-0 record and faced off with Mean Streets on opening night. Mean Streets jumped all over CIA Bounce in the Friday nightcap behind the strong play of guard Kendrick Nunn who had 24 points and 7 rebounds. Mean Streets only has one player that averages in double digits, but they are one of the best coached teams on the circuit. The stars from CIA all struggled and their quest to go undefeated went up in smoke early on in the West Coast trip.

2)      The two top players in the class of 2013, Jabari Parker and Julius Randle faced off this past Sunday with Randle’s team holding on in the second half and getting the 63-59 victory. Randle went for 23 points and 13 rebounds, while Parker went for 14 and 5 on 6-15 shooting. One of the areas of improvement for Parker is his 3-point shooting which showed in this game as he went 0-5, and Mac Irvin as a whole went 0-16. Top junior big man Jahlil Okafor held his own with 12 and 16, while sharp shooting Matt Jones of the Texas Titans went for 19 on four 3’s. While Parker has always been the clear cut top player in the class of 2013, Randle is by far the most imposing and physically dominant player.

Jabari vs. Randle 

3)      In the big men battle of the 2014 class, Jahlil Okafor’s team, Mac Irvin cruised to a 17 point win over Dakari Johnson’s E1T1 who was missing its starting point guard Joel Berry. While Okafor’s team got the win, it was Johnson who was the aggressor in the match-up. Johnson went for 11 points and 17 rebounds while getting to the line eight times. Okafor finished with 4 points and 9 rebounds and did not get to the line once in 27 minutes. Mac Irvin does not do a great job of feeding their big men down low so unfortunately this battle did not live up to the expectations, although there will surely be many more big men match-ups in the future.

4)      Tyus Jones made his return to the EYBL circuit after missing the previous tournament in Dallas. Jones went 8-13 for 18 points in his match-up with the talented Houston Hoops squad; however Houston had too much talent and pulled away in the 2^nd half in a 63-52 victory. Houston had a balanced attack led by Justin Jackson’s 14 points. The other members of the wing trio, Justice Winslow and Keith Frazier were fairly quiet during the game, but the other team members were able to pick up the slack and defeat Jones and his teammates.

5)      In a West Coast match-up, the talented Cal Supreme team dominated its rival from Portland 62-43. The newly committed Washington Husky, Nigel Williams-Goss led the way for Cal Supreme with 17 points on 6-11 shooting. Playing in his second EYBL tournament with this team, Williams-Goss was the best player on the court. The top players on ICP, who will both play for Long Beach Poly next year struggled shooting the ball. Roshcon Prince went 7-20, while Kameron Chatman went 1-8. Prince struggled throughout the weekend, except for his Sunday night game against CP3, in which he got back to attacking the basket on his way to 25 points and 9 rebounds.

Williams-Goss, future UW guard

 WILL…….

CIA Bounce stay undefeated? No. CIA Bounce was destroyed by Mean Streets in the first game of the tournament and followed that up with a loss to Boo Williams the next day. Despite the losses in this tournament, they will still be the top seeded team in the Peach Jam.

James Young continue his dominant spring? Partly. Young’s team went 2-3 over the weekend. At times Young was dominant, but at others he struggled. Young went for 29 points in his first game and 27 points and 9 rebounds in his last game, both wins. In between, Young had 19 and 16 in a loss to Team Takeover on 5-14 shooting, 15 and 10 in a loss to Nick King and Bluff City on 4-13 shooting, and 20 against Mokan Elite on 5-20 shooting. Despite these sub-par shooting performances, Young can get his shot against any defender on the AAU circuit.

Jabari Parker show why he is the consensus #1 player in the class of 2013? Parker’s team went 3-3 over the weekend and he failed to shoot over 50% in any of the 6 games. Parker played well at times, however he shot 2-16 from the 3 point line throughout the tournament. While Parker has always been the clear cut number 1 player in his class, Julius Randle might have started to close the gap, especially with the 33 point, 20 rebound performance he put up on the final day.

Kennedy Meeks show why he is considered one of the top big men in the country? Meeks’ team played well, going 5-1 (including 1 forfeit). Meeks turned his game up on Sunday and Monday going for 13 points and 10 rebounds against BABC, 18 and 11 against Bobby Portis and the Arkansas Wings, and finally 16 and 6 in the lone loss to Texas Pro. Meeks has great court awareness, but needs to continue to work on his conditioning.

Freshman Malik Newman and 8^th grader Thon Maker spark the Jackson Tigers? Well, the Jackson Tigers went 0-6 in Oakland and Maker did not make the trip. Newman missed the last two games, but went for 16 points on 7-14 shooting in his first game against Bluff City. Newman established his dominance in Dallas and led the Tigers in shot attempts this time out. Unfortunately Newman missed his Sunday night game against another freshman sensation Isaiah Briscoe.

All Iowa Attack win their first EYBL game? No. All Iowa finished with a record of 0-20. Fairly embarrassing.