Player of the Week
Austin Nichols, Memphis
There’s the Memphis team we expected to see this year. After a rocky 8-6 start to the season, the Tigers have righted the ship and won 5 of 6 to position themselves on the outskirts of the conference title race. This week, they were carried to two more gutsy victories by their sophomore power forward, Austin Nichols, who has emerged as the go-to guy for this team. While other players may have big scoring nights and quiet scoring nights, Nichols has produced pretty steadily on the offensive end. His status as the main weapon for this Tigers team was no more apparent than on Saturday, when he got the ball in his hands and hit the game-winner against Tulane, having scored the Tigers’ last 6 points to close out the game. And against East Carolina, in a game where the Tigers had significantly less difficulty, Nichols scored 21. In all, Nichols scored 19 per game on 16/25 shooting (64%), with 7 rebounds and 2 blocks per contest. Nichols has now scored in double-digits in 13 of his last 14 and could vie for conference POY honors.
Who’s Hot
Ryan Boatright, Connecticut
The Man is back on track. After a pair of single-digit scoring performances that led to losses last week, the preseason conference POY helped his squad take care of business in two very necessary home wins against USF and UCF. Boatright scored a ho-hum 18 and accumulated 7 assists against UCF, then went off for 28 against USF. Boatright was especially impressive from beyond the arc, as he had his two best outside shooting performances of the year. He connected on 4/6 in the first game and 4/5 in the second. Boatright is back on top of the conference scoring list. UConn faces a tough stretch of a pair of games against SMU, a pair against Memphis, road trips to Cincinnati and Temple, and another shot at AAC unbeaten Tulsa from here to the end of the regular season, and big-time players like Boatright are need to win big-time games like those and keep his team in the tournament field.
Jesse Morgan, Temple
It looks like Jesse Morgan is going to be okay. I’ll be honest, after an atrocious 1/17 (0/13 from outside!!) shooting performance against Tulsa January 10th, I was a little worried. I thought he might be developing chucker-itis, something that a Temple ranked last in the AAC in field goal percentage certainly did not need. But now Morgan has scored 15+ in each of his last 4 games, shooting a total of 22/47 for a very respectable 47% in those games. Additionally, in Morgan’s last three games, he’s made 3 or more 3’s in each while making at least half of his attempts in each of those games. That kind of efficiency from the perimeter is huge for Temple, who is trying to stay in NCAA tournament contention after dropping three straight. If you throw out a 3-game stretch where Morgan averaged a mere 7 PPG on 20% shooting, since the UMass transfer became eligible in mid-December, Morgan has scored 15+ in every single game and has shot the ball at a 43% rate, with a marvelous 45% rate from outside. Oh, and by the way, his 92% free throw rate would be far ahead of anyone in the conference if he had played enough games to qualify for the league leaders page. His scoring presence has been huge for the Owls.
SMU’s Stars
Nic Moore and Markus Kennedy are the heart and soul of this team, and, as they’re pretty good basketball players, SMU is having a pretty healthy season. Larry Brown doesn’t need both players to have huge nights for the Mustangs to win ballgames. This week, Moore was huge in a steamrolling of Houston, as he put up a very bizarre stat-line of 28 points on 8/11 shooting…all from behind the arc. Moore generally drives as much as he shoots it rom outside, but on this particularly night, he was red-hot from outside and that’s where he took all his shots, in addition to 4 free throws made on 4 attempts. Then on Wednesday, Kennedy scored a career-high 22 on 10/12 shooting (83%). With Yanick Moreira chipping in 26 points and 19 boards in the two games, the Mustangs rolled to their 6th and 7th straight victories.
Who’s Not
Adonys Henriquez, Central Florida
The UCF Knights have fallen flat recently, and so has their freshman guard Adonys Henriquez. It’s been 8 games since he has shot over 40%, and this week, as the Knights lost 3 in a busy 7 days of basketball, Henriquez averaged a mere 7 points on 6/23 shooting (26%). Henriquez’ fellow freshman and backcourt mate B.J. Taylor got injure in the Cincinnati game on Sunday and didn’t play against Temple on Wednesday, which didn’t make things any easier on Henriquez. He’s struggled with his shot, but it’s part of a bigger problem, and that is the fact that UCF’s offense has been pretty ineffective and inefficient, which, coupled with a struggling defense, has made for a pretty miserable season. The Tigers haven’t won a game in regulation since December 22nd, prior to the conference season; the only game they’ve won by double-digits all year was against Division II Eckerd College, a game in which UCF trailed at the half. Henriquez and the Knights need Taylor to return and shots to fall if they want to gain any traction in conference play.
Bracketology
Tulsa
RPI: 41
KenPom: 54
Best Wins: vs. UConn, @Temple, vs. Memphis
Worst Losses: vs. SE Oklahoma St., @ Oral Roberts
Note: Tulsa is on a 10-game winning streak, and if they held on to win the regular season conference title, it’d be hard to keep them out of the tournament. But the SE Oklahoma St. loss was atrocious, and the lack of key wins means they still have a lot of work to do.
Outlook: Good side of the bubble; has work left to do
Southern Methodist
RPI: 21
KenPom: 23
Best Wins: @Michigan, vs. Wyoming, @Temple,
Worst Losses: vs. Arkansas
Note: With no bad losses, and wins in 16 of their last 17, SMU is overcoming off-the-court issues to boast perhaps the best resume in the conference currently. But with no wins over probable tournament teams, they have need to close the season just as strong.
Outlook: Should be in the tournament; currently looking at a 5-10 seed
Cincinnati
RPI: 29
KenPom: 32
Best Wins: vs. San Diego St., vs. SMU, vs. UConn
Worst Losses: @Nebraska
Note: With a few mid-level victories and no remotely bad losses, Cincinnati has put themselves in solid position. Their remaining schedule is very manageable.
Outlook: Should in in the tournament; currently looking at 5-9 seed
Memphis
RPI: 77
KenPom: 88
Best Wins: vs. Cincinnati
Worst Losses: vs. Tulane
Note: Memphis boasts a very mundane profile. They haven’t dropped any horrible games for the most part, but several losses to semi-impressive teams are stacking up and could have the Tigers in danger of missing out. Their name recognition value may give them a small boost come selection time.
Outlook: Incredibly remote shot at tournament; Likely NIT-bound
Temple
RPI: 49
KenPom: 71
Best Wins: vs. Kansas, @UConn, vs. Louisiana Tech
Worst Losses: @St. Joes, vs. UNLV on neutral court
Note: The Kansas game is what’s keeping Temple in the conversation. With the mid-season addition of Jesse Morgan, they’re likely a tournament-caliber team, but they probably didn’t get enough done in the non-conference season without him.
Outlook: Bad side of the bubble; More likely to end up in the NIT
Connecticut
RPI: 80
KenPom: 60
Best Wins: vs. Cincinnati, vs. Dayton on neutral court, @Florida
Worst Losses: @ Yale, vs. Temple
Note: The defending champs haven’t been spectacular this season, and last week’s pair of losses didn’t help. Suddenly, UConn’s tournament hopes are on life support. It might be less of a surprise if they made a run in the conference tournament and snatched the automatic bid.
Outlook: On the fringes of the bubble; More likely to end up in the NIT
Tulane
RPI: 176
KenPom: 161
Best Wins: @Memphis
Worst Losses: @UCF, vs. Wake Forest
Note: Though Tulane has been surprisingly competitive, they just haven’t been able to beat decent teams. A late, crazy conference run might get them into the tournament conversation, but for now, they don’t have much to hope for.
Outlook: Probably on the NIT bubble; More likely to be a CBI team
UCF
RPI: 214
KenPom: 259
Best Wins: vs. Tulane, vs. Georgia Southern
Worst Losses: @Illinois-Chicago, vs. Florida Atlantic
Note: Likely will not end up with a winning record. Need to pick up conference wins.
Outlook: Needs a run to earn CBI bid
Central Florida
RPI: 262
KenPom: 241
Best Wins: vs. James Madison
Worst Losses: @Florida Atlantic, vs. UNC-Asheville, @USF
Note: Too many bad non-conference losses and no traction in conference play has made the inaugural AAC season a tough one for ECU.
Outlook: No postseason hope; Can only hope Whisnant, Tyson, and White get hot in conference tournament
South Florida
RPI: 223
KenPom: 255
Best Wins: @Hofstra
Worst Losses: @Detroit
Note: At least they have no horrible losses.
Outlook: No postseason for the Bulls
Houston
RPI: 256
KenPom: 241
Best Wins: @Murray St., vs. Texas Tech on neutral court
Worst Losses: vs. South Carolina St., vs. Arkansas Pine-Bluff, vs. UCF
Note: A couple solid wins, but way too many losses for Houston.
Outlook: Need to try and win a conference game.