The Report Card: Kansas, Colorado State post big road wins
DATE: Wednesday, Dec. 10
A — Colorado State
These are the nine teams undefeated Colorado State has beaten so far this season: Colorado, Georgia State, UTEP, UC Santa Barbara, Missouri State, Mercer, Northern Colorado Montana and Pacific. Taken individually, none of those wins are anything special. Taken collectively, that's a fairly good résumé the Rams are quietly putting together.
Colorado State was already in the early-season RPI top 10 before it went to Boulder on Wednesday night and edged in-state rival Colorado 62-60. None of the opponents the Rams have beaten will be mistaken for title contenders anytime soon, but there's an above-average Pac-12 team in the Buffaloes and a slew of quality mid-majors. That's good enough to put Colorado State in position to earn an NCAA tournament bid if it doesn't tank in league play, and it might even get the Rams into the AP Top 25 before too long.
The difference in Wednesday night's game was the way Colorado State swarmed Josh Scott and forced the Buffs' perimeter players to win the game themselves. Scott went 0-for-7 from the field and didn't score until late in the second half and Colorado shot 40.4 percent from the field, not good enough to offset 19 points from J.J. Avila and balanced scoring from the rest of the Rams.
A- — Kansas
With Georgetown feeding mammoth center Josh Smith in the post at one end and frequently hiding him on defense in a zone at the other, Kansas needed an outside shooter to make the Hoyas pay. Enter reserve guard Brannen Greene, the hero of the Jayhawks' 75-70 victory in their first true road test of the season.
Greene scored 19 points and sank all five 3-pointers he attempted, none bigger than the one that came with 2:40 remaining and Georgetown still within a basket. It was a breakout night for a former elite recruit who has spent much of the season battling to earn Bill Self's trust and show he can be counted on to not only knock down shots but be a complete player.
Wednesday's victory was probably Kansas' most impressive this season, and it wasn't just a result of Greene. Sophomore Frank Mason further solidified his hold on the point guard job with an efficient 14-point, three-assist outing, and Kelly Oubre showed flashes of promise in increased playing time off the bench.
C — BYU
For a team I think is pretty good, BYU is in a fair amount of trouble one month into the season. The Cougars remain without a win of consequence after squandering a combined 40 points from Tyler Haws and Kyle Collinsworth in a 65-61 home loss to surging rival Utah.
Not having any marquee wins wouldn't be that big a deal for a power-conference team at this stage of the season, but BYU's schedule doesn't afford it too many more chances. The highest-profile teams the Cougars face the rest of the season are Gonzaga twice in league play and Stanford and UMass later this month. Since BYU's most notable wins to this point have come against Long Beach State and Utah State, the Cougars will have to take advantage of those chances to have realistic hope of an at-large NCAA tournament bid.
What's killing BYU is its pair of overtime losses in Maui last month. The first one against San Diego State knocked the Cougars into the vastly weaker loser's bracket, and the second one against Purdue ensured BYU would return to the mainland with no victories against Division I opposition from its trip. Had the Cougars beaten San Diego State, they would have had one quality win in the bag and chances for more with games against Pittsburgh and either Arizona or Kansas State next.
F — Nebraska
Nebraska lost once all of last season at its raucous new arena. The Huskers eclipsed that Wednesday when they fell at home for the second time in three days.
Incarnate Word, a San Antonio-based school in its second year of transitioning from Division II to Division I, dealt Nebraska a mystifying 74-73 defeat. The Cardinals did enter the game with gaudy offensive stats and a 5-1 record that included a victory over Princeton, but their other four wins came against Division II foes. They should have been no match for a Nebraska team returning the core of last season's NCAA tournament team.
Nebraska put itself in jeopardy Wednesday with two critical turnovers on inbound passes in the final 30 seconds, the first by Tai Webster with the Huskers leading by three and the second by Terran Petteway with the edge down to one. Incarnate Word's Kyle Hittle then made Nebraska pay, hitting the winning baseline pull-up jumper over the outstretched arms of Shavon Shields with 2.7 seconds left.
NOTES:
• The team that has played the best against Kentucky so far this season? Believe it or not, it's Columbia. The Ivy League power bolted to an 11-0 lead at Rupp Arena on Wednesday, held an advantage into the second half and only lost 56-46 when it could no longer keep the Wildcats off the glass or out of transition. Tyler Ulis and Devin Booker both sat out the game with injuries for Kentucky.
• The Sam Dekker that showed up Wednesday in Milwaukee is the one Wisconsin needs the rest of the season. The junior forward scored an efficient 17 points in just 20 minutes as the Badgers overpowered Milwaukee 93-54.
• To put UCLA trailing into the second half against UC Riverside into proper context, consider the score when Utah played the Highlanders. The Utes clobbered UC Riverside 88-42. The Bruins pulled away in the final minutes for a 77-66 win.
• Washington State has lost by 27 to TCU, by 28 to UCSB and by seven to Idaho, so forgive the Cougars if they take a modest moral victory out of being competitive with Gonzaga. The Zags eventually pulled away for an 81-66 win behind 22 points from Przemek Karnowski and 21 from Kyle Wiltjer.
• San Diego State has a well-chronicled win streak in games it leads with five minutes to play. On Wednesday, the Aztecs showed they can come from behind too. Trailing Long Beach State by eight points with 8 1/2 minutes to play, San Diego State turned to Dwayne Polee and J.J. O'Brien to spearhead a comeback 60-59 victory. Polee scored a game-high 16 points and O'Brien had eight points, six rebounds and three steals.
• Wyoming's chances of earning a long shot at-large bid to the NCAA tournament took a hit Wednesday when the Cowboys fell 45-42 at Cal. The hero for the Bears was guard Tyrone Wallace, who scored a game-high 17 points and also poked away the ball from Wyoming for a key late steal and dunk.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
