The annual December clash of the ACC and Big Ten provides us with most of our tastiest post-Thanksgiving Weekend dishes.
First and absolutely foremost among those takes place in Chapel Hill Tuesday night where the top-ranked University of Maryland Terps will take on the No. 7 North Carolina Tar Heels.
Then, Wednesday night, it will be the unbeaten (and certainly “untested”) Louisville Cardinals trekking it into East Lansing for a real test vs. No. 6 Michigan State – which has aced all of its tests so far.
Also on tap Wednesday night: Indiana (stunned twice in Maui last week) visiting No. 9 Duke and No. 12 Syracuse playing host to Wisconsin.
This week’s Power 16 breakdown, by conference: ACC four, Big 12 four, Big East three, SEC two, Big 10 two and WCC one.
Rank (Last week’s rank) | Record | Comment |
1. Maryland (1) | 6-0 | The going gets a lot tougher this week but it’s hard to fault anything about the Terps’ play during their wins over Rhode Island and Cleveland State. |
2. Kentucky (2) | 6-0 | The Wildcats will improve to 7-0 Monday night against Illinois State in Lexington before heading to Southern California – Westwood, specifically – in an attempt to go 8-0 Thursday night. |
3. Iowa St. (5) | 5-0 | In decent position to take a 9-0 mark into Cincinnati on Dec. 22. |
4. Oklahoma (9) | 4-0 | The Dec. 7 contest with Villanova shapes up as a humdinger of sorts, doesn’t it? |
5. Villanova (7) | 6-0 | “Tightest” margin of victory so far: 14 points against Stanford. |
6. Michigan St. (11) | 7-0 | The Spartans spent Thanksgiving weekend in Orange County; they came away with a tourney title and Coach Tom Izzo checked wins No.’s 500-02 into his overhead compartment on the flight home. |
7. North Carolina (12) | 5-1 | That stunning loss to Northern Iowa will become a lot less relevant if the Tar Heels toppled former ACC foe Maryland Tuesday night. |
8. Kansas (14) | 4-1 | The Jayhawks will get some major league reinforcements (aka, “Cheick Diallo”) Tuesday night against Loyola-Maryland. |
9. Duke (15) | 6-1 | Freshman Luke Kennard seems to finally have re-discovered that nifty shooting touch that he brought to Durham with him. |
10. Virginia (NR) | 5-1 | Since stumbling at George Washington the Cavaliers have knocked off four teams by an average margin of 25.8 points. |
11. Xavier (NR) | 7-0 | A combined 48 points separated the Musketeers and their three Orlando opponents. |
12. Syracuse (NR) | 6-0 | The Orange delivered an emphatic statement in the Bahamas, didn’t they? |
13. Gonzaga (4) | 4-1 | The relative “newcomers” in the Bulldogs’ backcourt (Silas Melson and Josh Perkins) seem to be progressing nicely. |
14. Texas A&M (NR) | 6-1 | There seems to be more challengers to Kentucky in the SEC than of late. This is one of them. |
15. Providence (NR) | 6-1 | The Friars have more to offer than “just Kris Dunn” as them demonstrated during the John R. Wooden Legacy. |
16. West Virginia (NR) | 6-0 | The walloping the Mountaineers gave San Diego State over the weekend in Las Vegas was eye-catching, to say the least. |
ON THE CUSP: Arizona 6-1, Cincinnati 7-0, George Washington 6-1, Louisville 5-0, Miami 5-1, Oregon 5-0, Purdue 6-0, SMU 4-0, Utah 5-1 and Vanderbilt 5-1.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK (Nov. 23-29)
*Wayne Selden (Kansas): He hit 20 of his 30 shots in Lahaina, including 12 of 17 from behind the arc.
*Denzel Valentine (Michigan State): It’s two weeks in a row in this category after he averaged 26.0 points, 8.7 rebounds and 7.0 assists in three John R. Wooden Legacy games.
*Henry Ellenson (Marquette): The 6-10 freshman had quite a week, too, averaging 16.3 points, 10.3 rebounds and 1.7 blocked shots in wins over North Carolina State, Arizona State and Jackson State.
*Michael Gbinije (Syracuse): The second-year transfer from Duke had a big week in the Bahamas, dropping 21.0 points, 2.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists in the Orange’s run to the championship.
*Georges Niang (Iowa State): The senior forward averaged 18.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists during his squad’s wins against Virginia and Illinois.
Frank Burlison / BurlisonOnBasketball has been covering hoops for 30+ years for a variety of publications.
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wayne selden is starting to
wayne selden is starting to look like a 1st rounder once again.he’s averaging 17 pts/3assts/3rbs/1stl /54%fg and making 3s.
wayne selden is starting to
wayne selden is starting to look like a 1st rounder once again.he’s averaging 17 pts/3assts/3rbs/1stl /54%fg and making 3s.