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Court Vision: What's going on at Villanova, top performances from opening week and more

8 November 2024Last Update :
Court Vision: What's going on at Villanova, top performances from opening week and more

If you can name UT-Rio Grande Valley’s mascot without looking it up, well, I don’t believe you. But the best part about college basketball? Any game can become quality, even seemingly out of nowhere. Looking at you, UTRGV vs. Creighton.

Now, we’d love it if there weren’t as many snoozers this week — no more 30-point spreads, please — but that just makes the few superior games that much more enjoyable.

Let’s dig in.

1. Ryan Kalkbrenner makes history

No better place to start than that Creighton game. Not because of the contest itself — although, yikes, Creighton — but because of Kalkbrenner’s historic performance. The Bluejays’ 7-foot-1 center is typically known as a defense-first player, so of course he dropped a career-high 49 points (on only 22 shots!) in Week 1. It’s the most points any D-I player has had in a season opener since 2009.

There are other historic elements to Kalkbrenner’s big night. It was the second-most points in a game in Creighton history. He’s the first player since Bill Walton in the 1973 title game to make 20 shots while shooting at least 90 percent. Bottom line: He looks like a budding All-American, as expected.

2. Cause for concern at Creighton?

If not for Kalkbrenner going full-on Hulk mode, Greg McDermott’s team easily could’ve lost to a team picked eighth in the Southland Conference. I get that Texas Tech transfer Pop Isaacs was out with an undisclosed injury — as if someone who took 30.4 percent of his team’s shots last season would’ve let Kalk get off 20 attempts — but it’s a little concerning that the team picked to finish second in the Big East looked so panicky. McDermott has two weeks to correct things before Nebraska, CU’s first top-100 opponent, comes to town. My confidence in Creighton isn’t quite as ironclad.

3. Other eyebrow-raising results

Creighton wasn’t the only high-major to struggle in its opener.

North Carolina: The Tar Heels ultimately pulled away from Elon for a 90-76 win, but, uh, trailing with under seven minutes left, against a team picked 12th in the CAA? Not ideal. UNC finished the game on a 19-5 run. RJ Davis, who finished with a game-high 24 points, had eight during that stretch and the Heels got solid contributions from fellow guards Elliot Cadeau (17 points, eight assists) and Seth Trimble (15 points). The bad news is that Hubert Davis’ frontcourt didn’t exactly assuage preseason concerns, despite respectable counting stats.

Kansas awaits Friday night at the Phog, where the Tar Heels’ trio of bigs — Jalen Washington, Jae’Lyn Withers, and Ven-Allen Lubin — will face off with Hunter Dickinson. In my best ‘Taken’ voice: Good luck.

Texas A&M: Another early-season letdown by a Buzz Williams-coached team? Say it ain’t so. Now, a 64-61 road loss at UCF is not the same as a home defeat to KenPom’s 232nd-ranked team — like when the Aggies lost to Wofford in December 2022 — but it’s the underlying trend that’s more troublesome. Though, credit where it’s due: Not many teams travel to another high-major on opening night.

For the Aggies, if star guard Wade Taylor IV, who shot 4-for-15 overall, isn’t cooking, where does the offense come from? Williams must be wondering the same, after his team managed one point in the final four minutes. UCF, meanwhile, rattled off 12 for the come-from-behind victory. The loss snapped a 23-game A&M winning streak in season openers.

Baylor: Beating No. 6 Gonzaga in Spokane was never going to be easy, but a 38-point blowout loss? The Bears might be further from a finished product than I thought. It’ll help when Scott Drew gets back Langston Love, the nation’s seventh-best 3-point shooter last season (47.9 percent). Love is still recovering from ankle injuries that cost him 11 games in February and March, but it seems it’s going to take time for all of Drew’s new pieces to fit. Former Duke guard Jeremy Roach mustered just nine points on 2-of-9 shooting, and star freshman wing VJ Edgecombe struggled even worse, going 2-for-11 overall — although one of those baskets came in garbage time, when he absolutely destroyed Mark Few’s poor son, Joe:

Better days are ahead for a team that should compete for the Big 12 title, but maybe not right away, since No. 16 Arkansas awaits on Saturday. Still, that wasn’t the worst opening week performance.

4. Time for a change at Villanova?

Hoooooo, boy. I never want to call for anyone’s job, but it’s really difficult to see much of a future on the Main Line for Kyle Neptune, who went 35-33 his first two seasons after replacing Jay Wright. Villanova isn’t a place where you can afford to miss the NCAA Tournament three years running, especially considering where Wright handed things off. But after Columbia dropped 90 points on the Wildcats at their place, this might not be salvageable. Neptune has now lost to five sub-100 KenPom teams in 70 games as Nova’s head coach. I could go on, but CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish kind of nailed the larger context here:

5. The best opening week performances belong to …

Gonzaga: Holy efficiency. Few’s team shredded the Bears to smithereens, finishing with more assists (25) than Baylor made baskets (23). The ball movement was simply gorgeous. And while Graham Ike and Ryan Nembhard were solid, as usual, the guy who impressed me most was reserve forward Braden Huff.

The 6-foot-10 sophomore had 14 points off the bench and appears to have taken classes at ‘The Drew Timme School of Drop Steps.” But his passing, especially when Baylor sent two defenders at him, like it did in the first half, is what stood out. Huff had only two three-assist games in 34 appearances last season, but he hit that threshold on opening night against a top-10 opponent. With his low-post scoring, 3-point potential — especially as a trailing big — and now his ability to make plays out of double-teams, Huff could emerge as one of the nation’s most-improved players.

And for you gamblers out there: The Zags are still +1400 to cut down the nets this season. Just saying.

Duke: “bUt yOu’Re bIaSeD!” No, I simply know a good team when I see one. Duke is gigantic — I believe it’s the first high-major team in over a decade where every rotation player is at least 6 feet 5 — but reading about that size and seeing it up close are totally different. It’s especially true in the frontcourt, where freshmen Cooper Flagg and Khaman Maluach both possess 7-foot-plus wingspans. It’s NBA size, which is unfair against most teams (not Jon Scheyer’s problem). Maluach is an eraser, even while learning the ins and outs of pick-and-roll play, but his growth from pre-Olympics — he played for South Sudan in Paris — to now has been remarkable.

My overarching Duke take: This team has the defensive versatility of Scheyer’s first Duke team — which featured current Dallas Mavericks center Dereck Lively II, and BartTorvik’s ninth-best defense the last two months of the season — and the scoring potency of last season’s Elite Eight squad, which was top-10 in adjusted offensive efficiency all season. Scary proposition.

Auburn: Vermont has made five of the past eight NCAA Tournaments, and is consistently one of the toughest mid-major teams. Auburn’s 94-43 win over the Catamounts on Wednesday is one of those scores that stopped me dead in my tracks.

Georgia Tech transfer Miles Kelly was the star of the night. He tied his career-high with seven made 3s, including five straight at one point, but Bruce Pearl’s team never relies on just one player. Depth is the name of the game: 10 guys played at least 15 minutes, and five scored in double figures. That doesn’t even include high-flying freshman Jakhi Howard, who single-handedly woke the Jungle with one transition slam.

6. Fab freshmen

The best freshman in America last season, Reed Sheppard, came off the bench for a team that couldn’t beat Oakland in the NCAA Tournament. And while 10 first-years ultimately went in the first round of June’s NBA Draft, that class has nothing on this season’s freshmen, many of whom — not just Flagg — made their presence known from the opening tip.

I could go long on all these guys — and I did on another, Duke shooter Kon Knueppel — but their debuts were too impressive not to mention:

Egor Demin, BYU: The 6-foot-9 Russian freshman and potential lottery pick dropped 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting, including four made 3s — but oh, my god his passing. Demin had 11 assists in BYU’s 38-point win, including one possession where he completed both a behind-the-back bounce pass and an alley-oop.

Derik Queen, Maryland: The Terps’ first five-star since 2018 didn’t disappoint, dropping 22 points and 20 rebounds (!!) in just 27 minutes vs. Manhattan. He’s the first D-I player to go for 20 and 20 in his debut since Michael Beasley back in 2007. That’s the kind of company you want to be in.

Liam McNeeley, UConn: What does UConn’s five-star wing have in common with Klay Thompson? More than a headband. McNeeley — a one-time Indiana commit —needed only two dribbles to score 18 points on Wednesday, not to mention adding 10 rebounds. He’s Dan Hurley’s latest off-ball, do-everything perimeter dude.

Tre Johnson, Texas: Texas lost to Ohio State in its season opener, but not because of Johnson, who broke Kevin Durant’s program record for points in a freshman debut, scoring 29 — including five made 3s — to go along with five rebounds and four assists. He’s a walking bucket and could easily lead the Longhorns in scoring their first SEC season.

Asa Newell, Georgia: The fourth five-star freshman from Montverde Academy — joining Flagg, Queen, and McNeeley — wouldn’t be outdone by his high school teammates, contributing 26 points, 11 rebounds, and three blocks in Georgia’s narrow win over Tennessee Tech. The Bulldogs might not be awesome, but Newell will be, and easily can be a first-rounder next June.

7. What’s next?

This weekend is stacked with more top-tier games, but three stand above.

No. 9 North Carolina at No. 1 Kansas ( 7 p.m. ET, Friday, ESPN2): The Roy Williams Bowl! Not many faces are left from the last time these teams met in the 2022 national title game, but it’s still two blue bloods in prime time. UNC probably doesn’t have the manpower inside to deal with Dickinson, but does Kansas have anyone to match RJ Davis from deep?

No. 12 Tennessee at Louisville (12 p.m. ET, Saturday, ACC Network): This isn’t the same sorry Louisville squad of the past two seasons. The Cards took 36 3-pointers (and made 11) in their 48-point win over Morehead State — but will that same strategy work against Rick Barnes’ typically stingy defense? It’s unfair to say new Louisville coach Pat Kelsey needs a signature win, but this would count.

No. 11 Auburn at No. 4 Houston ( 9:30 p.m. ET, Saturday, ESPNU): A top offense against a top defense, and both teams can go 10-deep? Yes, please. Auburn struggled in these sorts of high-profile games a year ago, especially away from home. Knocking off Houston — KenPom’s current No. 1 team, which won its opener by 57 — would affirm the Tigers as one of this season’s best teams.

(Photo of Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner: Steven Branscombe / Imagn Images)

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