Yancy Gates was emotional in the aftermath of the ugly brawl with Xavier, but is his six-game suspension adequate punishment?
This is the introduction of Full-Court Press on HoopSpeakU, where five of our writers congregate to discuss college basketball’s hottest topics and make their best attempts at being insightful and/or witty. We encourage you to pitch us your thoughts regarding the featured topics in the comments section.
1.) Nine programs are currently unbeaten. Who will be the first to lose?
Joey Whelan (@JoeyWhelan): Illinois has gotten off to a fine start, but aside from a win over a Gonzaga team that has suddenly slipped out of the polls, the Fighting Illini don’t exactly have any impressive wins. They welcome a dangerous UNLV team to Assembly Hall on Saturday in a game that seems tailor-made for an upset. The Runnin’ Rebels play at a much faster pace, rebound the ball better and most importantly have a stud in Mike Moser who will be a tough match-up for the Illini.
Adrian Atkinson (@FreeportKid): At least three of the nine unbeaten teams figure to face stiff tests this Saturday: 7-0 Baylor travels to BYU, 9-0 Louisville hosts Memphis, and 10-0 Illinois faces UNLV in Chicago. My money is on Baylor to be the first to go down (with Illinois joining them within a few hours)—Provo is a notoriously tough venue, and the Bears’ shaky ball-handling (219th in the nation in TO%) will be its downfall in a hostile environment.
Dave Ryan (@DRyanbball): Pitino’s Cards will be heavy favorites when they suit up at home this Saturday (KFC Yum!), but something tells me Memphis will defy the odds and pull off the upset of the week. The Tigers are clearly athletic enough to get the job done, and Louisville’s body of work to-date is downright questionable for the No. 4 team in America.
Josh Parcell (@JoshParcell): Illinois, Louisville and Syracuse all face stern tests on Saturday. I think Illinois is the most vulnerable of the group going down the road to Chicago to face UNLV. I’ve only watched the Illini play once this season and they struggled with a mediocre Maryland team. The Rebels shoot a high volume of three-pointers. If they get hot it could spell doom for Illinois.
Zach Zimmerman (@Zach_Zimmerman): Louisville may not have a loss, but Rick Pitino’s boys haven’t looked like the fourth-best team in the country. Having failed to post 60 points against teams like Ohio and Arkansas State, the 117th-best scoring offense in the college ranks is anything but potent. Matchups against Memphis and Georgetown should knock UL out of the top five before the Cardinals travel to Lexington on New Year’s Eve.
2.) Aside from Jared Sullinger, who is the single most integral player to his team’s success in college hoops?
AA: Through ten games, Draymond Green leads Michigan State in points (16.3 per game), rebounds (9.7), assists (3.1), steals (1.8), and minutes (32.3). He’s also second on the team in blocked shots (1.0). Although he’s still not an efficient scorer (TS% of 51.4) in his expanded offensive role, Green’s senior leadership and do-it-all game have been instrumental in the Spartans’ eight-game winning streak (on the year, MSU is +17.9 points / 40 with him on the court and only +5.7 / 40 with him resting).
DR: Xavier might have the widest range of possible postseason outcomes of any school in the country, and Tu Holloway will be the reason why. When he’s on, he’s a Kemba Walker-type who can, and will take over games from anywhere on the court. He might just lead Xavier to the Final Four. Or he might just go 2 for 16 in the opening round and lose to a 13-seed.
JP: It has to be Kendall Marshall. Given how predicated North Carolina’s offense is on point guard play and that Marshall has no true backup, this is a simple choice. He’s second in the nation in assists per game (10.2), and already has three 15-assist games this season. His ability to advance the ball with the pass is unmatched, and makes the Heels’ offense operate at the same speed (if not faster) than it did when Raymond Felton or Ty Lawson ran the show.
ZZ: Without star senior Tu Holloway, Xavier is a respectable team in the Atlantic 10. Instead, his ability to create scoring opportunities for the Musketeers has earned the program a top-10 ranking and a legitimate shot at finishing the season with fewer than five losses. It will be interesting to see how Xavier rebounds from the fiasco with Cincinnati, but if Holloway can continue scoring nearly 18 points per game while shooting better than 87 percent from the line, the team is in good shape.
JW: This is always a tough one to quantify, given that importance doesn’t always necessarily go hand in hand with stardom. One such example is Kentucky’s Terrence Jones. His potential is sky high but given his relative inconsistency to date, I hesitate to call him a star. Still, if he isn’t performing, the Wildcats can be beat, as was the case in Saturday’s 73-72 loss to Indiana in which the sophomore had four points and six turnovers in 28 minutes. When Jones is on his game, this is a national championship level team.
3.) Name one power conference school currently in the top 25 that will not be ranked in March.
DR: Despite being 10-0, I’m still not even sure Illinois is a tournament-caliber team this year. Remember, UCF raced out to a 13-0 start before completely nosediving in league play a year ago, and the Illini won’t get any favors playing in nation’s best conference. Big man Meyers Leonard is promising, sure, but guys like Brandon Paul and D.J. Richardson haven’t improved enough to definitively say this will be a top 25 team in March.
JP: Call me a hater, but to me it’s not a question of whether or not I think Louisville is the fourth best team in America; I’m not convinced they belong in the top 15. The Cardinals’ toughest opponent thus far was Vanderbilt, which they knocked off in overtime. They still face Memphis, Kentucky and Georgetown before opening Big East play. The Cardinals’ conference slate includes two games each against Connecticut and Pittsburgh, as well as a road trip to Marquette. The grind of that slate will catch up to Louisville.
ZZ: Things are about to get really nasty for Texas A&M. Before entering a conference schedule in which they will twice face Baylor, Kansas, and Mizzou, the Aggies must first do battle with Florida, a talented team that has looked very confident in two close road losses to Ohio State and Syracuse. Billy Kennedy is going to have a tough time rallying the troops in any of those seven games, and the Kansas States of the world will always pose tough tests. Yikes.
JW: I was torn between Michigan and Georgetown here, but I think the Hoyas have a bit more upside and the Big Ten is a little better top to bottom right now. So, based almost more on the strength of the conference than the team itself, I see the Wolverines slipping out of the national polls by the time the regular season concludes.
AA: With six Big Ten teams currently residing in the top 25, it stands to reason that the conference will cannibalize itself some during league play. Ohio State and Wisconsin seem like safe bets to remain ranked all year, but the other four (Michigan State, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan) are candidates to drop out of the polls by March. I’ll vote for Illinois—currently ranked 40th at kenpom.com, and projected to go 8-10 in conference—to eventually fall out.
4.) If you were calling the shots, how many games would you have suspended Yancy Gates for his actions over the weekend?
JP: For the rest of the season. Period. He embarrassed himself, his team, his school and the city of Cincinnati. What I want to know is how Bruce Pearl was suspended eight games for having a barbecue in his backyard, yet Gates must sit only six for this. I was convinced Gates was done following Mick Cronin’s post-game comments, but that was not the case.
ZZ: I’m fine with the suspension, but only because I don’t find it possible to quantify punishment for on-court violence. (I suppose six games are sufficient?) What concerns me more is the one-game suspension for Holloway. He’s a star, sure, and did his best to avoid making contact with his knuckles, but he was one of the primary instigators of the ruckus. Minor suspensions do their part to temporarily stifle brawls, but as has been demonstrated at all levels of sport, they are far from preventive measures.
JW: I thought this tweet from Jay Bilas summed things up pretty nicely. Gates took a cheap shot and opened a pretty nasty gash on Kenny Frease – there’s just no room for that in basketball, or any sport for that matter. While I don’t feel Gates should be done for the season, a double-digit game suspension was certainly warranted in this instance.
AA: I would have been a bit stricter in my punishment, but think Gates’ suspension was in the right ballpark. Something in the neighborhood of 8-to-10 games might have been more appropriate, especially considering that the Bearcats’ next four games are against teams with an average Pomeroy ranking of 300th (games 6-10 would represent the first 5 games of Cincinnati’s Big East slate). I’d have a zero-tolerance policy for any additional on-court incidents, however.
DR: Considering Tim Abromaitis was already suspended four games for a ridiculous technicality that didn’t even happen on a basketball court, Gates’ six-game vacation for committing aggravated assault is completely laughable. As far as I’m concerned, a real message needed to be sent here, and this sappy, six-game slap on the wrist isn’t it. A season-long ban should have been strongly considered.
5.) Name one freshman that has played better than you expected so far this season.
ZZ: Shameless school promotion aside, Stanford point guard Chasson Randle has quietly been one of the most consistent first-year players in the country. After a sloppy start to the year, Randle has quickly emerged as the one-loss Cardinal’s lockdown perimeter defender and averages nearly two steals per game. His offense has also steadily improved, as double-digit scoring performances in four of his last five have brought his season average up to 11.2 points per game. In the win over NC State, he also was a perfect 8-for-8 from the charity stripe, a very welcome sight for an abysmally poor free-throw shooting team.
JW: Maybe I’m taking the easy way out on this one, but I don’t think many people anticipated Anthony Davis being this kind of an impact player from day one. Plenty have already said by March they expect him to be the most dominant player in college basketball – I wouldn’t rule it out. His defensive presence alone alters games in ways that few can right now.
AA: With apologies to Texas’ terrifically efficient pair of freshmen—Sheldon McClellan (ranked 48th by RSCI, ORating of 132.3) and Jonathan Holmes (70th, 121.0)—my choice is Richmond’s Kendall Anthony. With 63% of the Spiders’ scoring lost to graduation, Anthony has instantly stepped into a “microwave” role off the bench. The diminutive 5-foot-8 guard scores a team-leading 15.1 PPG in just 24.9 MPG—accounting for an insane 35.6% of UR’s shots during his minutes while maintaining a respectable TS% of 56.5.
DR: The quick transition of Ohio native Trey Burke at Michigan stands out most. Losing Darius Morris to the NBA seemed like a debilitating blow for Michigan hoops, making it feel like there was almost a glass ceiling attached to this team at one point. But Burke’s ability to create off the dribble has been huge, and he’s already established himself as arguably the most consistent player on a top 20 team.
JP: I wasn’t sure how quickly Cody Zeller would adjust to this level. After watching him several times, I love his offensive fundamentals. His footwork on the block is a thing of beauty, and his effort on the glass is just as impressive. His strength and toughness is apparent as well. Forgive me if I see shades of Tyler Hansbrough in Zeller’s game. I don’t think Tom Crean would have any complaints with a poor man’s Hansbrough working the paint for the next three or four years.
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