Players Era Wrap-Up: Michigan Steamrolled, St. John’s Stumbled

So which is the real Michigan? The easy answer is neither, but I’m not so sure this second version isn’t here to stay. This team has everything — a table setting point guard in Elliott Cadeau, a matchup from hell in small forward in Yaxel Lendeborg, a two-headed monster in the paint in Aday Mara and Morez Johnson, and a deep bench that outscored Gonzaga’s reserves 38-18. The only thing this team might be missing is a reliable three-point sniper. Senior guard Nimari Burnett made all four of his attempts against Gonzaga, but he came in making 33.3 percent. The Wolverines shot 13 for 27 from behind the arc. And their defense was suffocating, holding the Zags to 34.2 percent shooting (3 for 22 from three).

I doubt Michigan can keep playing at this level, but I would have never guessed the Wolverines could beat Gonzaga by 40, either. Michigan made a strong case to be considered the No. 1 team in the country. The NCAA Tournament is a long, long way away, but the Wolverines are clearly the early favorite.

Kansas: Jayhawks win Most Improved

The Jayhawks weren’t technically the Players Era champs, but they got more out of this event than any other team because they went 3-0 without Darryn Peterson. The freshman point guard dynamo lived up to every bit of his preseason hype when he averaged 21.5 points in his first two games, but after the Jayhawks fell 87-74 at North Carolina, there were understandable questions about the quality of Peterson’s supporting cast.

While Peterson sat out the last five games with a tender hamstring, that supporting cast came of age before our eyes. Tre White and Flory Bidunga had been the Jayhawks’ two best players in Peterson’s absence, but on Wednesday against Tennessee, it was 6-foot-4 senior guard Melvin Council (17 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists) and 6-foot-3 junior guard Elmarko Jackson (17 points, 4 rebounds) who made the difference in the 81-76 win. Whenever Peterson comes back — Bill Self said it’s possible he could suit up for Tuesday’s home game against Kansas — he will rejoining a team that is monumentally better than the one he left.

Gonzaga: A need for speed

Yes, the Zags got embarrassed by Michigan, but at least they’re in good company. Their vaunted front line looked, well, unvaunted against the Wolverines’ trees up front. Senior forward Graham Ike did not score a field goal in nine tries (four of which came from three, which of course is exactly what Michigan wanted). But I’m not worried about him.

I am concerned, however, about the way Gonzaga’s guard corps of Braeden Smith, Adam Miller and Mario Saint-Supery were overwhelmed on both ends of the floor. The risk when you rely so heavily on two bigs is that it’s hard to overcome a significant deficit in speed, length and athleticism. At some point in the NCAA Tournament, Gonzaga is going to face a team like Michigan or many of the SEC teams who will seek to choke off passing lanes and force turnovers, which in turn woul negate Gonzaga’s advantages up front. 

I wrote yesterday about how old this team is, but you have to wonder about its confidence moving forward. There’s no shame in losing to Michigan, but to get run out of the gym like that creates a memory that is not easily erased. We’ll get a sense of just how much damage was done a week from Friday when the Zags play Kentucky in Nashville.

Tennessee: Beware the headless snake

There’s an old saw in basketball where an opposing coach wants to “cut off the head of the snake.” In Tennessee’s case, there is no question who that is: Ja’Kobi Gillespie, the 6-foot-1 senior transfer from Maryland. Freshman forward Nate Ament might be this team’s NBA prospect, but the Vols will go this season as far as Gillespie takes them. And on Wednesday against Kansas, he couldn’t get them far enough. Gillespie shot 1 for 10 from three-point range (5 for 19 overall) to go along with 4 assists, 2 steals and 1 turnover in the 81-76 loss.

Clearly, it was Bill Self’s intention to take Gillespie out of the game, and he deftly deployed Jamari McDowell and Elmarko Jackson to that effect. I praised Gillespie in yesterday’s column for his ability to play through a poor shooting night in Tennessee’s 76-73 win over Houston. But Rick Barnes needs to figure out a way to get Gillespie untracked when other teams are loading up on him. The whole reason why coaches want their teams to play in events like the Players Era Festival is so they can have their weaknesses exposed. Self and Kansas certainly did that, and now it’s up to Barnes, his staff and Gillespie to figure out how to make sure it doesn’t get exposed again.

Inside the SEC: Dominique Wilkins’ Son, Jake, Gives Georgia Fans Déjà Vu

Nov 26: The son of NBA legend and Georgia star Dominique Wilkins inherited his father’s vertical. PLUS: Vanderbilt’s offensive renaissance, Mark Mitchell becomes the man at Mizzou and more news from around the SEC.

Auburn: Gut check, passed

The Tigers have been riding quite the roller coaster in Steve Pearl’s first season succeeding his father as head coach. They started off by barely escaping Bethune-Cookman at home, nearly knocked off Houston in Birmingham, handled Oregon in the first game at Players Era, and then lost to Michigan by 30 on Tuesday. The Tigers’ ability to maintain confidence and dominate St. John’s in the second half to win 85-74 on Wednesday speaks volumes about this team’s character. Pearl should feel good about the valentines in his locker room.

But let’s not get it twisted — this team also has plenty of talent. The best news for Auburn is the way sophomore guard Tahaad Pettiford, the team’s lone returnee, broke out of his early season slump. Pettiford came into the Players Era shooting 27 percent from the field and 19 percent from three. In three games in Vegas he averaged 23.3 points on 48.9 percent shooting, 42.1 percent from three. Pettiford has a tendency to play his best basketball away from Neville Arena, but if he can bring this level of maturity and confidence back home, the new-look Tigers could be on to something.

Houston: The freshmen have growing up to do

I gave Cougars guard Kingston Flemings his flowers yesterday, and I meant every word of it. But he looked rather mortal during Wednesday’s 66-56 win over Notre Dame. Perhaps that’s to be expected for a freshman playing his third game in three days early in the season. Flemings had 1 point on 0 for 4 shooting, though he did add 5 assists and 4 rebounds. The other two star freshmen were likewise running in quicksand. Chris Cenac had 4 points and 2 rebounds in 15 minutes; and Isiah Harwell had 0 points and 2 rebounds in 13 minutes.

Their collective performances were just a helpful reminder that, like every other team in the country, Houston is a work in progress. Kelvin Sampson reminded reporters often this week that this team is not yet as good as last year’s squad which ended the season one possession shy of a national championship. But the fact that the Cougars were one possession away from potentially leaving Vegas 3-0 despite some uneven play from its star freshmen shows just how much room for growth the team has. 

St. John’s: The big question is still not answered

The Red Storm’s point guard soap opera is getting ever more dramatic. After going through Ian Jackson and Oziyah Sellers, Rick Pitino thought he had settled on a starter in Dylan Darling, the 6-foot-5 junior transfer from Idaho State who was the Big Sky Player of the Year. Darling’s totals during his three games in Vegas: 49 minutes, 6 points, 4 assists, 2 turnovers, 10 fouls. Can you say rut-roh?

This deficiency was apparent during the Johnnies’ 103-96 loss to Alabama, but it was especially glaring during the second half against Auburn. The Tigers repeatedly backed off the St. John’s guards, daring them to shoot and gapping their ability to penetrate, which in turn made it difficult to feed the ball to Zuby Ejiofor where he could do some damage. Conversely, Auburn guard Tahaad Pettiford took advantage of St. Johns’ inability to stop dribble penetration. The Tigers outscored St. John’s by 20 in the second and pulled away to an 85-74 win.

If there’s anyone who can solve this problem it’s Pitino, but you can’t get blood from a stone. It’s really hard to beat good teams in college basketball without quality guard play, especially at the defensive end. Pitino doesn’t have the personnel to fix this problem, so he’s going to have to find unconventional ways to get past it.