1. What did you take from Syracuse finally, after flirting with defeat like a lovesick teenager, falling to Boston College in the season’s biggest upset? Does it say anything about the Duke-Syracuse Armageddon we’re being promised Saturday?
DeCourcy: Honestly, the first thing it tells me is I was correct about the dangers of overscheduling. Boston College brought back a capable team full of veterans from a 16-17 squad that was 45th in the nation in offensive efficiency last season. Then, that team was thrown into a pit of vipers from which it had very little chance to escape, unlike Harrison Ford in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” who had the benefit of a screenwriter motivated to keep the hero alive.
Look over BC’s record. When the Eagles finish the regular season with a March 9 trip to N.C. State, they’ll have played 31 games. All but four of those will have come against major opponents. And the others? Toledo, leading the MAC. Harvard, leading the Ivy. Plus Florida Atlantic and Philadelphia, a Division II team that basically doesn’t count. That’s either reckless scheduling or cheap scheduling. The folks at BC know which.
So Syracuse didn’t really lose to a terrible team — just a defeated team with a terrible record. That’s not a whole lot better, of course, especially not with the trip to Duke coming Saturday and the top-of-the-ACC showdown with Virginia lined up for March 1.
The Orange well could lose the conference regular-season title even though they made it all the way to Feb. 19 without losing a game. Virginia’s schedule inside the league has been absurdly easy, and the BC loss cost the Orange whatever advantage they’d built with their undefeated start.
The Orange’s recent struggles also underscores how even the best college teams can be discombobulated by a single injury. In three full games since reserve center Baye Moussa Keita sprained his knee against Clemson, SU has averaged 36.1 percent shooting from the field, 26.3 from long distance and 57.7 points. And that’s with Wednesday night’s OT period thrown in.
The most revealing stat during that sequence, though, is the Orange are getting only 19.7 minutes off the bench. (That’s including the 2 minutes Keita was good for against BC). Divide that rest among the five starters, and they’re averaging just short of 38 minutes per night. You wonder why Syracuse is figuratively sucking wind, scraping through so many emergency-style late-game situations? It’s because they’re literally sucking wind. Another 90-point type game against Duke might not be so ideal for the Orange; they might not be able to keep up this time.
2. Why do people insist on comparing Doug McDermott to Adam Morrison?
DeCourcy: The reason is obvious, I suppose: Each was a star player in a program that outgrew its mid-major origins.
That has to be it, no?
There are two things wrong with the constant questions about whether McDermott will become the flop in the NBA that Morrison became. The first is that today this is a superfluous question for all but the handful of gentlemen who make their living deciding what sort of pro McDermott — and his peers — will be. On this day, why would anyone care what sort of NBA player McDermott will become? He is not going to play an NBA game for another eight months. He has a minimum of six college games remaining.
Almost certainly there will be more than that, but if there are, they will be of enormous importance in the Big East Tournament or NCAAs. Isn’t that enough to hold one’s attention?
The other problem with the comparison between Morrison and McDermott is they are not remotely comparable players.
Morrison always was an incredibly ingenious scorer, but his brilliance involved trying to find ways around the fact he was an average athlete and just-OK long-distance shooter. In Morrison’s first two years with the Zags, he shot 30.9 percent on 3-pointers with just 54 makes. McDermott hits that many in a week. Morrison also was a lean wing-type player at only 205 pounds and never averaged more than 5.5 rebounds.
McDermott has made 243 3-pointers in his career and has connected at a 45.9 percent rate. For his size, McDermott ranks as one of the greatest 3-point shooters college basketball has seen. As well, he carries 225 pounds on his 6-8 frame. He never has averaged fewer than 7.1 rebounds, which is his number for the current season.
Comparing McDermott to Morrison is as inane as comparing Scarlett Johansson and Cate Blanchett. They’re both lovely women and terrific actresses, but they’re not similar. You wouldn’t want them for the same role.
3. Take a look at UCLA — now 24th in adjusted defense after starting the season as a layup line on that end of the floor. Should we start looking at the Bruins in a different light?
DeCourcy: Yeah, how about this: It might be possible for UCLA to win the national championship.
Remember the "minimum requirements" for a national champ: Top 20 offensive efficiency, top 20 defense, at least one first-round draft choice. Every team that’s won since 2003 met the efficiency standards; every team that’s won since 1988 had the first-round pick.
UCLA’s a couple of stifling defensive efforts from cracking KenPom.com’s top 20 defenses. And, honestly, if you’re that close to the neighborhood you’re probably defending well enough to win it.
The first-round choice? Well, point guard Kyle Anderson is a lock to be that, as well as reserve guard Zach LaVine in whatever year he decides to leave the Bruins. Shooter Jordan Adams has a shot. So the talent is there.
The one element that could be a detriment to the Bruins is an absence of shot-blocking. They’ve got one more as a team than Cincinnati’s Justin Jackson has himself. It’s hard to get big stops without that threat. But the Bruins’ surge has been impressive.
4. What is happening in Lincoln? Nebraska has victories in five of its last six games, including that whopper win in East Lansing. You buying the Huskers?
DeCourcy: Amazing things happen when you hire good coaches. They win games. Nebraska made a tremendous hire when it decided to replace Doc Sadler back in 2012. Tim Miles had the personality to romance a fan base and he had a history of building winners in regions that were not necessarily predisposed to high-level basketball success: North Dakota State, Colorado State.
Nebraska certainly is in line with those two programs. The Huskers haven’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 1998 — unless you check Wikipedia, which at one point on Thursday said the Huskers made the 2014 tournament , which hasn’t happened yet.
Is it possible Miles made that change himself as a motivational tool? Because it’s not inconceivable now. The Huskers are 14-10 overall with six games remaining, five of them against the bottom five teams in the Big Ten. They are short on quality victories, but few have a better one on the resume than the Huskers’ road win Sunday at Michigan State. They are 3-7 against the RPI top 50 and could use another big one; they close the regular season at home against Wisconsin and then should have some chances in the Big Ten Tournament.
Terran Petteway is a smart, creative player and 6-10 Walter Pitchford has become more comfortable and aggressive as a stretch-4. The team could use a few options beyond those two, but the Huskers have a hunger to succeed. It’s too early to book their NCAA travel plans, but also too soon to dismiss them.
5. What do you think about ESPN's insistence on up-to-the-minute bracketology updates during games this time of the year? Isn't that overkill?
DeCourcy: Joe Lunardi has been a friend for more than 25 years, since I helped arrange for him to cover an Atlantic 10 game for The Pittsburgh Press as a freelancer. I did some work for him when I was a part-owner of the Blue Ribbon yearbooks. And he is relentlessly funny and fun to be around, as I was reminded when we attended last week’s NCAA Mock Tournament Selection event. (Poor Ricky Stokes of the Mid-American Conference was stuck sitting between us. I still feel for him.)
In short, anything that gets Lunardi paid, I’m cool with that.
