A Season of Hope

While the latest surge in COVID cases wrecks the schedule, hope springs eternal.

December 22, 2021

Tipoff

It sometimes seems like nothing ever changes. The blue blood (or adjacent) programs like Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, and Michigan State look to be legitimate contenders. Previously unheralded seniors (like Izaiah Brockington of Iowa State, featured in Around the Rim, below) provide the feel-good stories of the season. Talented freshmen are dominating the court and NBA Draft buzz. Unfortunately, teams are scrambling to adjust their schedules at the last minute, just like last year. Head coaches, like Iona’s Rick Pitino, are out there begging teams to make a match on Twitter.

Going through this again, for the second year in a row, is both exhausting and comforting in a way. Kentucky took the flight to Las Vegas, even though their scheduled opponent, Ohio State, wasn’t able to make the trip. It was comforting to see that North Carolina also made the trip, not knowing if they would face UCLA in the CBS Sports Classic. Kentucky ultimately faced UNC in Vegas with the Wildcats earning a badly-needed resume-boosting win on Saturday night. In spite of it all, the schedules were adjusted and teams not on pause were able to play. Well, most of them, anyway.

The uncertainty of it all is a real drag. But we have been through this before. The games mostly continue and players, coaches, and fans are coping with disruptions to their health and schedules. Sports is a distraction from the rigors of real life for us fans. This holiday season, I continue to hold out hope each time the ball tips off. Here’s to a happy and healthy holiday season to all of you that get to watch a college basketball game with your friends and family this weekend.

The Mixtape 

The Field of 68 team puts out lots of great content each week. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights.

  • On Field of 68 After Dark, we are giving out gifts this holiday season! Rob Dauster, former Iowa State head coach Steve Prohm, and former Pitt standout Ashton Gibbs talk big wins for Baylor, Gonzaga, and Purdue before giving out the gifts contending teams need to compete for the rest of the season. While the rival fans may want to leave some hater-ade for Duke under the Christmas tree, Rob thinks the Blue Devils are in need of better hydration. What is the deal with cramping this year for Duke?

  •  When it comes to winning the game of basketball, one of the tried and true strategies is to get the ball into the hoop. That has been a bit of a problem for Louisville so far this season. On Floyd Street’s Finest, Jeff Greer talks shooting with new UofL beat reporter Brett Dawson. The two talk offensive woes and what needs to change for the Cards to compete in the ACC.

  •  Is COVID derailing the college basketball season? We are certainly experiencing a bump in the road with the recent Omicron outbreak. On Champaign on Ice, Deon Thomas meets with Derek Piper of 247Sports to talk COVID pause and what Illinois can and may do to navigate the current environment.

 The Field of 12

It’s that magical time of year, Bowl Season! That, signing day, new hires, and the Heisman. What a magical time of year for college football. Here is a brief sample of the new network from the makers of Field of 68.

Wednesday Superlatives

Each week, we will shine a light on a team and an individual player that has captured the hearts of the world of college basketball.

  • Team of the Week: Creighton

    • I was tempted to name the Omicron variant as Team of the Week, but this is a light-hearted newsletter. Let’s be positive! The Blue Jays kicked off Big East play with a statement victory over the perennial favorites in the Big East Conference, the Villanova Wildcats. This year’s version of Nova has serious questions around its frontcourt play. The young Blue Jays turned to sophomore center Ryan Kalkbrenner to exploit the mismatch. The 7-footer blocked 5 shots to go along with 8 points and 9 rebounds. Meanwhile, forward Ryan Hawkins led the team in scoring with 19 points and 9 rebounds of his own. The length of Creighton was too much to handle.

  • Player of the Week: Tari Eason

    • One of the surprise teams of the non-conference schedule has been LSU. Meanwhile, one of the breakout performers has been Eason. Against Louisiana Tech and “America’s Sweetheart,” Kenneth Lofton, Jr., Eason displayed 3-level scoring ability, dropping 21 points and filling up the rest of the stat sheet. Eason and the Bayou Bengals will enter SEC play a week from Wednesday, on the 29th. The schedule is daunting in conference. Will Eason and the rest of Will Wade’s squad be able to keep the good times rolling?

Box Score

Basketball can be told through the numbers. We take a look at some of the numbers from the last week of college hoops.

  • $185 Million. Now that both the men’s and women’s basketball teams have National Championship banners to hang, Baylor and the City of Waco, Texas, announced plans to build the Paul and Alejandra Foster Basketball Pavillion. The facility will be shared with the city and be used for concerts and other events. (Baylor University Athletics)

  • 53. As of Wednesday morning as I write this, there are 53 teams in Division I men’s college basketball that have had to go on pause due to COVID. That represents 14.8% of the 358 teams in DI. That number is increasing on a daily and seemingly hourly basis, so this is probably too low by the time you read this. Here we go again… (Matt Norlander, CBS Sports).

  • 50. Michigan State senior Nia Clouden scored a school-record 50 points against Florida Gulf Coast on Monday on an efficient 17-28 shooting from the floor and 15 of 17 free throws. The game ended in overtime with FGCU winning 85-84. The single-game scoring mark bested the previous record of 42. (Detroit Free Press)

  • 6. Prior to the big in-state matchup with Clemson on Saturday, South Carolina head coach Frank Martin announced the Gamecocks would be down 6 players due to a combination of COVID and injuries. USC dressed 10 players and lost to host Clemson, 70-56. (The State)

  • 3. Davidson knocked off 10th-ranked Alabama on Tuesday night, with a final score of 79-78. The game featured a wild ending with a late Davidson turnover followed by a missed Alabama free throw. It was the 3rd time head coach Bob McKillop has defeated a top-10 team in his career. The other two times, he had this player named Steph Curry on the roster. (Jared Berson, ESPN)

Around the Rim

This section highlights some of the best writing on college basketball to hit the web. Consider these your extra credit assignments for fall semester.

If you read one long story about a college basketball team this winter, I highly encourage you to read this one by Kevin Sweeny. He chronicles the arduous non-conference schedule of Coppin State men’s basketball. Their approach to scheduling this year has been based on funding the program, to the tune of $80,000 per game. At one point, the team even forgot to bring jerseys to its game against Drexel and were forced to play in practice jerseys loaned by the home team. Division I college basketball is not all glitz and glamour. 

I bet you never wanted to hear the term “COVID Pause” again, did you? If you think about it, though, we were this close to seeing two teams with undefeated records play in the National Title Game last April. Baylor experienced a ~2-week COVID pause just before dropping their first and only regular season loss of the year, after all. Now that dozens of teams are dealing with pauses due to the Omicron Variant, college basketball analytics guru Evan Miyakawa takes a timely and deep dive into the numbers to help us understand what these pauses mean for teams. In short, expect a dip in performance once the pauses ends that reverts closer to baseline after a few games.

The story begins with a Philly kid playing a game of pickup at the local park. The kid gets cut from two local youth teams. He earns a Division I scholarship and then transfers to a Big Ten team. He is a bench warmer, a role player, and then a contributor. It involves a team that lost the first 18 games played in 2021. Now at Iowa State, with a new head coach and new roster that has yet to lose this season, Izaiah Brockington is breaking through as a star player. It’s a classic story, told exceptionally well by Brian Hamilton.