It must be “Upset Saturday.” A few hours after #2 Kentucky fell to Tennessee, the top-ranked Jayhawks lost to Oklahoma State, 85-77, in Stillwater. The Cowboys led by 16 at halftime, and while Kansas fought back to cut the lead to six, the Jayhawks squandered several opportunities to get even closer. Back-to-back threes by Kelton Page with about eight minutes to play kept Kansas at bay.
With the win, the Cowboys are ensured of an NCAA tournament bid.
The 17th-ranked Vols jumped out to an 18-4 lead on the Wildcats, but Kentucky fought back, eventually tying the game at 65-65 with 2:13 to play. But oftentimes teams that come back from a big deficit are too physically and emotionally spent to pull out the win, and the Vols’ sealed the game with a 9-0 run over the final two minutes.
Good find by SPORTSbyBROOKS, who quoted Aran Smith’s scouting report of Kentucky center DeMarcus Cousins. In the report, Smith relays a text he received from a scout about Cousins’ NBA prospects.
“No way…mental issues…he is on bigtime meds i hear…not athletic enough for me talent wise also…but he has been great last month…”
That same scout has since stated that he thinks Cousins will probably go “very high” in the draft, but says he wouldn’t touch him in the top five for fear of off court issues.
Cousins has a well-earned reputation for being immature, and while talent-wise he’s the best big man in this draft, whether or not he’s able to channel his emotion will have a huge impact on what kind of professional career he will eventually have.
I won’t speculate as to what the scout meant by “big-time meds,” but it’s clear that given his attitude and immaturity, Cousins is one of the biggest upside/downside guys in the draft. He literally could be a franchise-changer, both in a good way and in a bad way.
In just 22 minutes of playing time, Cousins is averaging 16-10, 1.7 blocks and is shooting 55% from the field. He’s not great from the free throw line (64%), but he’s not Shaq-bad. He’s a dominant rebounder (think Paul Millsap) even though he’s not an elite athlete. If he can focus his energy on basketball and not get distracted by all the other garbage, then he has a chance to be a very good NBA player one day.
It’s going to be interesting to see where he goes in the draft.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
This game was decided on Villanova’s defensive glass, as the Panther big men were just too much for the Wildcats inside. Pitt posted 18 offensive rebounds in the game, which enabled the Panthers four extra shot attempts and 18 extra free throws.
The Wildcats have a nice group of guards, and promise to make some noise come tournament time, but they’re going to have major issues when they face a big and determined front line.
It took 29 points from Kemba Walker, but the Huskies upset the Wildcats, 84-75, in Philadelphia.
Losers of five of its last seven, UConn still has a lot of work to do, but a win on the road against Villanova sure helps their tournament chances. The Huskies are sitting at 5-8, so they really need to go 4-1 down the stretch against Rutgers, West Virginia, Louisville, Notre Dame and South Florida to get back to 9-9 in conference and 19-12 overall. (A win against the Mountaineers would really help.) Then, a couple of wins in the Big East championship would give UConn 21 wins and a reasonably solid resume for an NCAA bid.
We’ll see.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
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