📆 Turn in your two weeks

Just two weeks out from the college hoops season, we continue to look at the preseason storylines: a Baylor player analyzes his team, Duke keeps recruiting, injuries keep surfacing, and more

Author

Riley Davis
October 24, 2022

The NFL is reminding us of the mystery of the underdog. Just yesterday, the Commanders took down the Packers, while the Panthers trounced the Bucs — two results that would've sounded improbable a week ago, even considering the underachievement of the losing teams.

Well, get used to the upsets. We're two weeks away from college hoops — and you know at least a couple of power conference teams will do the unthinkable and drop a buy game (Cal vs UC-Davis maybe?).

Let's get to the news.

STARTING FIVE

1. Tchamwa Tchatchoua Tchats with the Daily

Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua exemplifies why stats don't tell the whole story. Despite never averaging more than 8.4 points in a season, the Baylor big man filled an indispensable role over the past two seasons.

Take his bone-crushing screens for example; they unlock the Bears' pick-and-roll-heavy offense... which Tchamwa Tchatchoua further buoys with his proficiency as a lob threat. On the other end of the floor, he guards multiple positions, protects the rim and plays savvy help defense.

But unfortunately, Baylor has been without "Everyday Jon" since Feb. 12, when he suffered a serious knee injury in a home contest against Texas. The Bears still performed admirably in his absence, but they clearly lost some of their juice — they ranked 14th nationally in defensive efficiency prior to his absence, but that number dipped to 31 over the next 10 games without him (per Bart Torvik).

Eight months removed from the injury, Tchamwa Tchatchoua is determined to get back on the court. His rehab has continued throughout the offseason, and while he's "ahead of schedule," he also told me that he's "just taking it one day at a time." Still, Tchamwa Tchatchoua has learned a lot about his team — which features a bevy of new arrivals — throughout his recovery process. In our conversation, he shared his thoughts on this year's team, particularly the revamped frontcourt.

Photo courtesy Baylor Athletics

Tchamwa Tchatchoua started by highlighting West Virginia transfer Jalen Bridges. He noted the newcomer's length — a necessity for any "big wing" to fit Scott Drew's aggressive no-middle defense. But it's not just his defensive promise that should excite Baylor fans — Tchamwa Tchatchoua also praised Bridges' 3-point shooting as "[among] the best on the team."

He continued, "He reminds me some of [Jeremy] Sochan. He's ready to shoot, can handle the ball and bring it up the court."

Then there's Caleb Lohner. Judging by Lohner's stats at BYU, it's no surprise that his rebounding has impressed. But Tchamwa Tchatchoua also raved about his cerebral play: "He never turns the ball over. I don't remember the last time he turned the ball over in the past two weeks of practice."

As far as under-the-radar prospects go, Tchamwa Tchatchoua spoke highly of 6-10 Josh Ojianwuna, a freshman from Nigeria who played at the NBA Global Academy. The veteran noted his "great feet" and called him a "sponge with an incredible willingness to learn."

Not to be one-sided, he also gave credit to the backcourt, sharing that he "[thinks] LJ [Cryer], [Adam] Flagler and [Langston] Love have all shot 50 percent from 3 in practice." That number may sound exaggerated — but keep in mind Baylor hit 41.3 percent of its triples in its 2021 National Championship season.

And on the topic of championships, Tchamwa Tchatchoua didn't shy from sharing his goals.

"We don't really care about preseason rankings. It's kind of funny, but I just found out yesterday we're ranked fifth in the AP Poll. We just want to be the last team standing on the first Monday in April."

2. Pearl's jam

How do you go about replacing two All-Americans in the frontcourt?

That's the burning question that Bruce Pearl and Auburn must answer this season. And yet, even with the uncertainty up front, the Tigers have still garnered plenty of respect this preseason. They check in at 15 in the AP Poll, and the analytics project them favorably as well: KenPom has them at 13, Bart Torvik has them at 22 and EvanMiya has them at 14.

That speaks to the program Pearl has built.

From The Almanac:

"[T]here is an argument to be made that, over the past five years, the Tigers have been the best program in the SEC. They're the only team from the league to make the Final Four in the past five seasons. They're also the only team to win two SEC regular-season titles in that span."

More impressively for Pearl and Co? The whole league knows their secret sauce and still can't slow Auburn down.

As The Almanac puts it, "The Tigers will try to force turnovers by gambling on the perimeter, knowing that they’ll have some level of rim protection to erase mistakes that are made. Auburn wants to sprint — not run, sprint — in transition and get open 3s. And if that fails, Pearl wants to put the ball in his guards’ hands and let them rock."

OK. So the same system will be in play. That's enough on the Xs and Os; what about the Jimmy and Joes?

Morehead State transfer Johni Broome steps into the vacated Walker Kessler role — and he has a shot to put up similar defensive numbers. Last season, Broome posted a 13.4 block rate, good for seventh in the country (contrast that to Kessler's nation-leading 19.1). The 6-10 big flaunts the mobility, instincts, and perhaps most importantly, the size to translate to the SEC.

Jabari Smith's skillset, though, will be a little bit harder to replicate; 6-11 wings with elite shooting and defense don't just grow on toilet-paper-covered trees. However, Pearl did land another 5-star recruit to attempt to fill that void. Yohan Traore, a 6-10 forward from Tours, France, steps into these lofty expectations. But here's what's working in his favor: his head coach called him "the prototypical Bruce Pearl face-up, inside-out guy." See if you agree.

For the full Auburn preview (and much, much more) purchase The Almanac for just $19.99.

3. Duke gets...a 4-star?

Maybe you felt the same confusion as me when you saw Joe Tipton tweet on Saturday:

Duke didn't land a prospect who's been on NBA radars since his early teens. Or a surefire All-American. Or a guaranteed future lottery pick. Instead, Jon Scheyer and his staff secured a commitment from top-50 wing Darren Harris.

Of course, you still have to be really, really, really good to rank in your class's top 50. In particular, scouting reports note his shooting, shot mechanics and positional size. Nevertheless, his courtship signals an interesting development in Scheyer's recruiting strategy. Will he start targeting more multi-year guys to mold under his tutelage?

Then again, maybe you can have both. Scheyer's first two classes have a combined six top-20 recruits. The 2024 group will still probably have its share of high-end talent.

More in the world of recruiting:

4. 🤒 Injury updates

Speaking of Duke, Scheyer provided updates on the status of freshmen Dariq Whitehead and Dereck Lively II.

Whitehead, who suffered a foot injury in August, "is still a few weeks away," per his coach. However, Scheyer added that "He’s back on the floor. He’s able to shoot; he’s able to handle the ball and [...] that’s picked up his spirits being able to do some of that." Lively also is "week-to-week" with a calf strain.

The two freshmen project to be near the top of the ACC in usage rate, and thus, Blue Devils fans will wait on pins and needles for their full clearances.

5. Albany's coach suspended for five of first six games

Albany announced the details of Dwayne Killings' five-game suspension on Friday, providing clarity for the first month of the Great Danes' season. Per The Daily Gazette, the coach will miss two exhibition games (Oct. 30 and Nov. 2), a road contest at Towson (Nov. 7) and two home bouts with D2 schools Immaculata and Union (Nov. 8 and 14).

Notably, however, Killings will coach in the Albany Cup — the rivalry game against Siena that resumes for the first time since 2017 — on Nov. 12.

Albany's athletic director shared why: "Ultimately, we decided that in the best interest of our student-athletes, coaches, staff, and University the suspension occur on the front end of the season. Relative to the Albany Cup, it is a special day for the Capital Region and given coach Killings’ unwavering and proven support for the community, we feel that it is important that he represents the Great Danes that night. We look forward to coach Killings leading our team this season"

Killings' suspension stems from an investigation from November of last year — one that "substantiated that there was inappropriate physical contact between Coach Killings and a student-athlete," per the Gazette. The investigation ended in April and the program seems ready to move forward.

Albany finished 9-9 in America East play in Killings' first season. It was picked to finish sixth in the league in the preseason poll.

TWEET OF THE WEEK

A lasting image from MSG

At last week's Big East Media Day, Ed Cooley, Tony Stubblefield, Shaheen Holloway, Patrick Ewing, Shaka Smart and Kyle Neptune all posed for a photo alongside the league's Black athletic directors. It was a cool moment for the conference, as the coaches demonstrated the importance of representation.

THE FAST BREAK

Links to click as you think through just how badly you want that Reese's pumpkin:

THE GOODMAN AND HUMMEL PODCAST

Who's the better GM?

In the latest Goodman and Hummel podcast, the two did a college hoops fantasy draft. Who ended up with the better team? Who did they snub? You can find the final results here.

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