When the Champions Classic first started in 2011, it was a collection of four coaching icons: Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, Michigan State’s Tom Izzo, Kansas’ Bill Self and Kentucky’s John Calipari.
Coach K retired a few years ago and now we have another change as Mark Pope has replaced John Calipari at Kentucky. Here are the other storylines to watch:
1) The basketball world will get its first true look at Duke’s heralded do-it-all freshman Cooper Flagg. The 6-foot-8 versatile forward from Maine, the odds-on favorite to be taken with the first overall pick come June in the NBA Draft, is averaging 15.5 points, 9.0 rebounds. 4.0 assists, 2.5 steals and 1.5 blocks through the first two games. Suffice to say, he’ll be facing tougher competition than Maine and Army.
2) Pope will have a chance to win over all of Big Blue Nation with a victory over Duke. But let’s be realistic here. He has a team with all new faces, while the Blue Devils have a couple of key pieces back in Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster from last year’s team. Advantage: Duke.
3) This is a chance for Tom Izzo to put the Spartans back in the conversation as one of the top teams in the country after a couple of ho-hum seasons. Michigan State is 41-38 over the past four seasons in Big Ten play, but a win over No. 1 Kansas would give Spartans fans some hope that this team could be a threat to make some noise in the Big Ten and the NCAA tourney.
OK, it’s time to get to Stock Watch, where we take a look at teams, players, leagues or truly anything or anyone that has seen its stock flourish move over the last seven days. Let’s start with the positive.
STOCK UP
Auburn Flight Club. Listen, I’m not sure what to call it: Horseplay, a donnybrook, a skirmish. But whatever happened on Auburn’s initial flight to Houston that forced the pilot to turn the plane around, it didn’t deter the Tigers on the court. They went out and matched Houston’s toughness and then were ultra efficient scoring the ball in the second half. Bruce Pearl told me he was surprised at the performance and that now it shows this team – led by big man Johni Broome – just might be a legit Final Four contender.
North Florida – Some people were concerned about veteran head coach Matthew Driscoll and his job security not too long ago. The Ospreys showed improvement over the past four years, but they were still 49-68 over that span and lost star guard Chaz Lanier to Tennessee. Well, Driscoll has used balance to knock off South Carolina and Georgia Tech on the road this past week. Six guys are averaging between 13.3 and 16.3 points per game, but the surprise thus far has been 6-foot-8 freshman Josh Harris, who leads the team in scoring.
Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton – The fifth-year big man has never been known as an offensive weapon, but that’s largely because he’s always been considered one of the top defensive big men in the country. He has been too passive on the offensive end in the past, but that wasn’t the case in the season-opener when he went for 49 points, grabbed 11 boards and blocked three shots in a win over UTRGV. Creighton needed him to provide more scoring since point guard Pop Isaacs was hurt with a minor injury.
The Freshman Class. A year ago, the freshman group was incredibly disappointing. Guys like Isaiah Collier, Justin Edwards, Aaron Bradshaw, D.J. Wagner, Xavier Booker, Omaha Billew, Aday Mara and T.J. Power were all Top 20 recruits and didn’t live up to the hype. This season, the Top 20 frosh (as ranked by 24/7) as a whole are crushing it, averaging 18.1 points in 24 minutes. Tre Johnson is averaging 28.5 points per game at Texas, UConn’s Liam McNeeley is averaging 14.0 points and 10 boards and BYU point guard Egor Demin is putting up 19 points and 9 assists. Throw in Flagg and you have one of the best crop of newcomers I’ve seen in a long while.
STOCK DOWN
Kyle Neptune. It’s never easy to follow a legend, but the Villanova head coach has not done himself any favors. He entered the season firmly on the hot seat after two seasons in which he compiled a 35-33 overall record and tied for sixth in the Big East both years. Then he came out of the gates and lost to a Columbia team at home in the second game of the season, a Columbia team that has been middle of the pack in the Ivy League. Neptune can ill afford any other bad losses and will need to find a way to get this Wildcats team dancing come March.
Arkansas Shooting. Through the first two games, the Razorbacks have made just 9 of 39 shots from beyond the arc. Johnell Davis is 1 of 9, freshman Boogie Fland is 4 of 13 and D.J. Wagner has missed all four of his attempts from long range. This is somewhat worrisome, especially since they were also a combined 13 of 48 in the two exhibition games against Kansas and TCU. Look for Davis to become more effective once he becomes more comfortable in John Calipari’s system and is also 100 percent healthy.
Louisville. No one is saying to give up on Pat Kelsey’s Cards after the second game of the season and there’s no shame in losing to a Tennessee team, even at home. But maybe some people (i.e. Rob Dauster) overrated this group this season and the Cards will be a fringe NCAA tourney team. Louisville was never in this game and wound up losing by 22 at the KFC Yum! Center. Maybe we just need to recalibrate the expectations for this program and remember that the Cardinals were the biggest embarrassment in the country for the past two seasons under former coach Kenny Payne.
UCLA. A year ago, Mick Cronin didn’t have much NIL and was forced to go the international route. It didn’t work. This past offseason, he had some money, assembled a deep team via the portal with mostly his type of guys. Many ranked them in the Top 25 entering the season, but the Bruins have a ways to go before they are worthy of being ranked. UCLA lost, 72-64, to New Mexico in Las Vegas. Cronin’s team looked disjointed, especially on the offensive end of the floor. Again, it’s a brand-new team for the most part, although he brought back Dylan Andrews, Sebastian Mack, Lazar Stefanovic and Aday Mara. So we’ll give it some time before we make a firm judgment on the Bruins, but this was a disappointing performance against a Lobos team that lost a ton from last year’s tourney team.
HOT ON HOOPS HQ
Men’s College Basketball Top 25 Rankings
Seth Davis’ rankings for Week Four. Oregon jumps into the top 10, UConn drops out.
