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Sizing up the remaining 4 undefeated teams in men's college basketball – NCAA.com
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Time to size up the Final Four.
No, not that one. Not the bunch who’ll be in Arizona in April, hoping confetti gets dumped upon their heads. The final four unbeaten teams this season. And an eclectic quartet they are.
Houston, Oklahoma, James Madison, Ole Miss. They have a combined record, through Tuesday, of 43-0. None are yet deemed worthy of the No. 1 ranking, never mind the zero on the right side of their record. Houston, at 11-0, is the highest of the group at No. 3. None have ever won a national championship. Three of the four — everyone but Houston — did not receive a single vote in the Associated Press preseason poll. All are finally ranked this week, with Ole Miss the last to join the club.
Together, they vividly prove how there’s more than one way to skin an opponent.
James Madison scores big — No. 1 in the nation in point production at 92.9 a game. But the Dukes are 215th in scoring defense. Houston is 166th in scoring, but is a wall for opposing shooters to clang their bricks against, leading the nation in scoring defense at only 51 points a game. The Cougars also are fourth in scoring margin, dominating most of their foes. Ole Miss, not so much. Five of the Rebels’ victories have come by a total of 10 points. That includes the one-point escape against Detroit Mercy, after which each team sped off in opposite directions. Ole Miss is now 11-0, Detroit Mercy is 0-11.
Oklahoma is the best shooting team of this foursome and the 12th best in the nation. The Sooners have a player, Javian McCollum, who has taken 176 free throws in his career and missed only 20. Houston is 245th in field goal shooting. The Cougars just survived a game with Texas A&M where they missed 18 of 20 shots and blew a 21-point lead.
Did you know that James Madison’s leading scorer is T.J. Bickerstaff, whose uncle J.B. coaches the Cleveland Cavaliers and whose grandfather Bernie was a head coach and the front office for five different NBA franchises? Or that James Madison, Oklahoma and Ole Miss are 63-5 if you combine their football and basketball teams? Or that Ole Miss’ Jamarion Sharp is the tallest player in Division I at 7’5 and in his career has blocked 77 more shots than he’s made? On the Rebels’ roster, too, is Cam Brent, who is 5’5. If he and Sharp ever want to see eye-to-eye, Brent is going to need a podium.
And so the four teams keep marching to different drummers, never losing, though you might want to check back Wednesday night, after Oklahoma goes against North Carolina in Charlotte.
Anyway, know who might be good to talk with about this fab four? The coach at Texas State. The Bobcats lost to Oklahoma 93-54 in November. They’ll be at Houston Thursday night and nine days later visit James Madison. That’s three of the four perfect teams.
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“If Ole Miss was on our schedule, maybe life just wouldn’t be fair,” coach Terrence Johnson joked over the phone Wednesday.
He really doesn’t mind this hard labor. His team is 6-5, has won three games in a row, and led Texas midway through the second half before losing by 19. Texas State figures to enjoy what’s ahead. At least mostly.
“I just think that’s a rarity. That doesn’t happen very often. Not many people can say that’s their next two games,” he said. “The things these guys ask for when you recruit them — ‘Hey, will I have a chance to play on this stage, will I have a chance to play this team?’ — we try to make good on our promises. Obviously, we didn’t draw it up this way but this is where we’re at and this is what’s in front of us.”
“It’s kind of like a be-careful-what-you-ask-for challenge. It’s definitely like a gift and a curse. We look at it like a great opportunity for us to grow and get one day better.”
If this Texas State journey seems a little unusual, so is Johnson’s. The man who has won two regular season Sun Belt titles with the Bobcats used to be a middle school teacher. Before that he was a microbiology major who was thinking he’d become a dentist.
“I don’t know how God drew this up,” he said. “It’s a play that only He could execute.”
Johnson decided early on that he liked teaching more than dentistry. And then he “fell back in love with basketball,” so the coaching profession beckoned. He looks back and can see how all those days dealing with the mercurial nature of middle schoolers pay off even now.
“They’re stuck between fear and respect. In the sixth grade they fear you. In the eighth grade you’re trying to get them to respect you because they no longer fear you. It has helped me through my journey as a college basketball coach,” he said, mentioning how the player who comes in as a meek freshman can transform into a young adult secure in his starting spot and no longer terrified of the coach.
“He’s thinking, `It’s going to be hard for him to bench me because I understand one thing; I’m averaging 18 and 6 and I help us win.’ But you’ve got to figure out a way to get that guy to respect you. I’m very thankful to those middle school students for what they have done to my life and how they shaped me as a man and as a coach.”
And so, bring on Houston, who is 82-6 in its building. Then James Madison, who scored 130 and 107 points in two of its home games.
“It’s definitely going to be one of our toughest challenges since I’ve been a part of this program,” Johnson said. “But one in which we’re privileged to be a part of.”
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Meanwhile, college basketball waits to see who’ll be the last unbeaten standing. Can Oklahoma get past North Carolina? What happens when Ole Miss dives headfirst into the deep end of the SEC pool on Jan. 6 at Tennessee, or when Houston starts going on the road for its first Big 12 tour, beginning with Iowa State on Jan. 9 and later BYU, Texas and Kansas in 12 days? Will James Madison still be perfect after seeing fellow Sun Belter Appalachian State twice in January? App State mashed Kentucky-killer UNC Wilmington by 30 and also won at Auburn.
The Hoosiers of ’76 Trophy awaits the final unbeaten. Well, there really isn’t such a trophy but there could be, with Indiana’s 1976 national champions owning the last perfect season.
For the men, anyway. The women have had nine undefeated champions since 1976. And while the men this season are down to four unbeatens, the women still have a crowd with 11. None, by the way, are playing Texas State.
Mike Lopresti is a member of the US Basketball Writers Hall of Fame, Ball State journalism Hall of Fame and Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame. He has covered college basketball for 43 years, including 39 Final Fours. He is so old he covered Bob Knight when he had dark hair and basketball shorts were actually short.
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