Player of the Week:
Jamiya Neal, Creighton Blue Jays
Creighton has proven to be the kryptonite of the UConn Huskies over the past few seasons, which showed in their win at Gampel on Saturday, ending the Huskies 24 game home winning streak. Jamiya Neal was excellent for the Jays; flashing all sorts of timely scoring prowess throughout the game. The Arizona State transfer has proven to be one of the best offseason acquisitions in the conference this season, and he made a name for himself in the lore of Creighton Basketball this past weekend, carving up a Huskies defense with a lot of off-ball movement and easy buckets to score 24 points on 10/16 shooting in the win. He also was their leading scorer in their ensuing win against DePaul, the first time all season he’s lead them in scoring in back-to-back games. Neal has flown under the radar in the conference, but he’s been a huge contributor all season for the Jays. Neal can get microwave-levels of hot at any time, he made 6 threes on 7 attempts against Nova a month ago, and his gravity can become a huge advantage for Creighton with Kalkbrenner waiting in the middle of the floor for a seal opportunity. My favorite thing about his game is how solid he plays, he’s a 6’5 guard so he’s not getting bullied on or off the ball, and it seems like he makes the right play almost every time you watch him. The Jays midseason resurgence has been beautiful to see, and Neal will be an X-Factor down the stretch for them.
Who’s Hot?
Saint John’s Red Storm
Saint John’s is now the number one seed in the Big East. After all of the offseason talk about Creighton, UConn and Marquette, it feels like that little school in New York was left out a bit too much. Rick Pitino is guiding the Storm to their best season under him yet, a season that could very well see them be undefeated if two or three more shots had fallen in their favor. They hold the largest point differential in the conference at 16.4, and have lost their 3 games by a combined 5 points. The Storm have a great number one guy in RJ Luis Jr., and a great contributing cast around him. In signature Pitino style there’s a lot of grit with this team, and in all honesty it feels like Pitino should have coached here his entire career. Something just feels right about this team, and they’re my current favorites to win the conference.
Zach Freemantle, Xavier Musketeers
In a win to Marquette and a loss to Saint John’s, Freemantle lived up to the moment in both games. He led the Musketeers in scoring in their biggest win of the season, also their first top-10 win since 2022. They took down the Golden Eagles in Wisconsin, which makes his numbers even more impressive. Freemantle has sat back seat to Ryan Conwell for most of the year, but he stepped up when he was needed most. Conwell didn’t contribute much on the scoreboard against Marquette, which has been a losing formula for the Musketeers all season, however the difference this time was his number two stepping up. The win isn’t just huge for morale, it’s a huge jolt to their at-large-bid odds. Xavier believed they could make it to March this season, and this win will prove to be huge down the line if that happens. Freemantle was great in their loss too, he stymied Saint John’s downhill attack a lot, garnering 4 blocks and a steal to help push the Red Storm to overtime. The scariest thing about this Xavier offense is that Freemantle shoots 2-3 threes a game, and he hasn’t hit a lot this season. Like Creighton and Kalkbrenner, if Zach can start to make those then Ryan Conwell may see a surge in points in the paint. He’s on the right track.
Who’s Not?
UConn Huskies
Dan Hurley made national headlines once again this week for an angry outburst on the sidelines, this time berating a referee and declaring himself “the best coach in the sport” in a narrow victory over lowly Butler at home. Times have been rough for UConn fans, as their defensive prowess that made them back-to-back champions has fallen off the cliffside this season. They don’t even have the best defense in their state (Central Connecticut has one of the best scoring defenses in the country), and that’s a problem for the boys in Storrs. With Liam McNeeley out, times were bound to get rough, but the return of Alex Karaban has been a lot less fruitful than fans had hoped for. His numbers look fine, but UConn fans would tell you he looks like the worst player out there every night. It might be time for Hurley to start running the offense through Solo Ball more, because until McNeeley returns there isn’t a clear guy for UConn to win games with… their defense certainly isn’t helping them out either.
Villanova Wildcats (except Eric Dixon)
The Wildcats are an incredibly fun and frustrating team to watch this season. It feels very akin to watching LaMelo Ball drag the Hornets to wins, or LeBron with the Cavs in his early days where you would ask yourself: “How does this guy have no help?” Second leading scorer Wooga Poplar was ejected 8 minutes into their loss against Georgetown, a mental mistake that doomed Dixon and the Wildcats for the rest of the game. Villanova having the leading scorer in the nation yet being in the bottom half of their conference in both points per game and point differential is troubling, and it starts with the rest of their starting lineup. Sometimes it feels very reductive to say: “Someone has to step up!” because that isn’t always an option, but at a prestigious basketball school like Villanova, it should be. Kyle Neptune is doing a great job with this rebuild of the program, but he’ll need to reach deep into his motivational bag.
Power Rankings:
5. Georgetown Hoyas
Giving the Hoyas the nod here after their win over Nova, they feel like a much more complete team, too. A few tough
4. UConn Huskies
The Huskies are not the same team from the past years.. A threepeat is getting less likely by the day.
3. Creighton Blue Jays
These Blue Jays are one of the hottest teams in basketball.
2. Marquette Golden Eagles
One bad loss doesn’t define a season, but I can’t keep them at one with how excellent the next team up has been…
1. Saint John’s Red Storm
Complete dominance this season, and it’s my fault for not having them higher sooner. This team is almost perfect.