Sports
Starting Five: Top men's college basketball games this weekend led by Big 12 showdown – USA TODAY
At last, college basketball gets a Saturday to itself.
Yes, we understand how it is with football in this country, how when we’re not watching it we’re talking about it. But now it’s time to start paying attention to hoop happenings, and there are plenty of those with conference play in full swing.
We should note that the nation’s top two ranked men’s teams, Connecticut and Purdue, will be in action early Sunday before the NFL once again grabs the spotlight. But for this edition of the Starting Five we’ll stick with the Saturday slate, which as usual features a Top 25 showdown in the Big 12. All times are Eastern.
While life on the road is never easy in the ‘Large Dozen-plus-two,’ there’s no way to spin Kansas’ losses at league newcomer Central Florida and sub-.500 West Virginia as acceptable. Now out of the top five for the first time all season, the Jayhawks find themselves in something of a ‘prove it’ game as they visit the hostile environs of Hilton Coliseum, where the Cyclones already own a win against Houston and now look to secure another seed-boosting victory. A positive development for the Jayhawks has been the recent strong play from G Johnny Furphy. That will need to continue for a team lacking in quality depth. Iowa State isn’t especially deep, either, but compensates by limiting opponents to 61.1 points on average while forcing 18.5 turnovers a game.
The ACC hasn’t garnered many pixels yet in this space, so we’ll make up for it a bit this week by featuring this important afternoon doubleheader on the four-letter channel. The Tar Heels’ early dominance, including an earlier win against the Seminoles way back on Dec. 2, has spawned whispers about possibly running the table in league play. But the Seminoles appear to have figured some things out since that encounter as well as some other damaging out-of-conference results. While North Carolina guard R.J. Davis (21.0 ppg) is a contender for ACC player of the year, the Seminoles are beginning to get the kind of bench production we’re used to seeing from Leonard Hamilton’s teams with 11 players now averaging double-digit minutes.
In a sense, Clemson’s resume is the antithesis of Florida State’s, having accumulated several beneficial results before conference competition before encountering troubles in league play. But the Tigers turned in a solid performance in Tallahassee earlier this week and now look to claim another top-tier road victory. While winning in Cameron Indoor Stadium is usually daunting, Duke’s last home contest was a loss to Pittsburgh. Admittedly the Blue Devils were shorthanded in that game, and Duke should now have its full lineup back, as it did in Tuesday’s bounce-back win at Louisville. But while Mark Mitchell and Jeremy Roach being available is always helpful, the key for Duke going forward might be G Tyrese Proctor continuing to increase his scoring output. When Clemson struggles, it’s generally due to issues on the defensive end. The Tigers were much more sound in that regard last time out, holding Florida State to 67 points on just over 40% shooting.
We stay in the east for this first-place showdown in the Atlantic 10. The Flyers, enjoying their best season since the 2019-20 campaign in which they might have had Final Four potential had the pandemic not intervened, are in good shape for NCAA inclusion even if they don’t win the conference tournament. The Spiders enter on a nine-game winning streak and hope to take advantage of this rare opportunity to earn a top-tier victory on their home floor. The driving force for Dayton is DaRon Holmes (19.6 ppg, 7.6 rpg, 2.2 bpg), evoking pleasant memories for fans of the days when Obi Toppin patrolled the paint. Things didn’t look so rosy for the Flyers when veteran PG Malachi Smith went down with a season-ending knee injury on opening night, but Javon Bennett and Kobe Elvis have stepped up to average a combined 7.3 assists. Richmond will counter with Jordan King (19.1 ppg), a 42.6% three-point marksman. He is often on the receiving end of inside-out feeds from Neal Quinn, a skilled 7-footer who leads the Spiders in assists at 3.7 a game from the post.
We conclude in the Big East and the battle to stay within shouting distance of front-runner Connecticut. Perhaps still smarting from last weekend’s triple-overtime loss to Creighton, the Pirates stumbled at home Wednesday night against a depleted Providence squad and must now head to Milwaukee to face a Golden Eagles’ bunch seeking to avenge their earlier setback against the Hall. Marquette for its part took care of business against hapless DePaul on Wednesday and enters this rematch with the Pirates on a three-game winning streak. Unfortunately for the Pirates, they were without standout PG Kadary Richmond in the loss to the Friars due to an undisclosed injury. He had a huge game in the earlier win against the Golden Eagles with 21 points and five assists, but his availability for round two has yet to be determined. His backcourt mate Al-Amir Dawes is also capable of putting up a big number, but Marquette’s Tyler Kolek and Cam Jones both have takeover ability.
