Feast Week takeaways

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Now let’s get to the weekend hoops.

1. Every team has flaws (well, almost)

When did Feast Week turn into Carnage Week? It was after UConn went 0-3 at Maui, and after Gonzaga and Arizona both lost at Atlantis. Maybe Saturday night’s final two games in the Players Era Festival is what sealed it.

• San Diego State 73, No. 6 Houston 70 (OT)

• Oregon 83, No. 9 Alabama 81

Two Top 10 teams lose as favorites. Not that they were alone. Over half of the AP Top 25 lost this week, including five teams — UConn, North Carolina, Indiana, Creighton and Arizona — that lost twice. Only 1-2 of those Top 25 losses should be considered bad losses (most of them played each other), but it sums up the state of college hoops right now:

Everyone’s got flaws. Take Houston and Alabama, two teams who are still in the Top 10 of KenPom, Torvik and EvanMiya. They’re still really good, but there’s something missing right now.

Houston (4-3) had a chance to win at the end of regulation, and a chance to tie at the end of OT, but missed both. What’s missing? “We’ve always had a guy. This team doesn’t have a guy yet,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said afterward. (Also, there’s no shame in losing to SDSU. Once again, the Aztecs (4-2) boast a nasty defense.)

The problem for Alabama (6-2) is the same thing that plagued it last year: Defense. The Tide allowed 1.12 points per possession to Oregon, the fifth-straight game they’ve given up at least 1.05 ppg. When Oregon (8-0) hit its game-winner, you could see how much they missed guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr. in the closing minutes. Having Mouhamed Dioubate guard full court wasn’t ideal. And they may not have Wrightsell going forward, either. He’s being evaluated for an Achilles injury.

Still, most teams have some kind of issue. Examples:

• Arizona (3-4) entered the season as a Top 10 team in the AP poll and advanced metrics. Now it’s lost four of its last five, the offense looks decidedly un-Arizona like — its 27th in adjusted efficiency at KenPom; it’s never been lower than 11 in Lloyd’s three seasons — and the defense is soft. It’s the first time since Arizona is below .500 since Feb. 25, 2010.

• UNC (4-3) is awesome to watch with its three-guard attack. But it can’t defend or rebound.

• Indiana (5-2) is an average perimeter shooting team (35.8%), but for all its size it’s awful on the glass, ranking 291st in defensive rebounding. Is it an effort problem?

Could be worse. You could be a Big East team.

We’re already covered UConn’s issues, which seem to have scarred Dan Hurley. Creighton is 5-3 and has dropped 30 spots on KenPom over the last 8 days. It closed the week with an 80-76 win over Notre Dame — and without Ryan Kalkbrenner! — but has Kansas looming on Wednesday. Providence (5-3) dropped three straight at Atlantis and apparently needs Bryce Hopkins to score points. Xavier barely beat South Carolina State on Sunday.

And Seton Hall (4-4) closed its week with a 63-51 loss to Monmouth, which got 28 points from Abdi Bashir Jr. That’s the first time the Pirates have ever lost to sub-.300 KenPom team. It did play without starting guard Dylan Addau-Wusu (flu), but … it’s bad for Shaheen Holloway’s crew. They’re 316th in adjusted offensive efficiency (97 points per 100 possessions!) without a path for improvement.

Only Marquette and Butler are performing as expected (or better) right now for the league.

Still, even that wasn’t the worst Feast Week result for a power conference team. Miami lost as a 25.5-point favorite to Charleston Southern, the biggest upset of the season. The Canes (3-4) have lost four straight and have dropped nearly 50 spots (!) on KenPom over the last week.

2. It’s the SEC and everyone else

It’s not gloom and doom for every team.

Butler (6-1) has won five straight. West Virginia (5-2) handed Gonzaga its first loss of the season, then closed the Battle 4 Atlantis with an 83-76 win OT over Arizona — its third OT game of the tourney. The one team that beat the Mountaineers at Atlantis was Louisville (5-2), which had its eye on the tourney trophy until Oklahoma pulled off a 69-64 win on Friday.

The ending, which featured a controversial no-call on an in-bounds play and a an odd handshake between Porter Moser and Pat Kelsey, might overshadow that the Sooners, with their four new starters, are 7-0 and among the SEC programs that have elevated the league to the clear No. 1 status in the sport right now.

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