College Basketball Weekly: Johnny Davis' Greatness, Coach K stumbles

Welcome to the recap of perhaps the best college basketball week of the season thus far. Wisconsin’s Johnny Davis ascended into superstardom and the Coach K farewell tour did not go as planned. We’ve also got the heads or tails decision on Penny and, of course, rankings at the end.

Let’s dive in.

Games of the Week

Wisconsin 74 @ Purdue 69
Kentucky 60 @ LSU 65
Providence 56 @ Marquette 88
Texas Tech 47 @ Iowa State 51
Ohio State 51 @ Indiana 67
Miami 76 @ Duke 74
Kansas 67 @ Texas Tech 75
Iowa State 66 @ Oklahoma 79
Alabama 86 @ Missouri 92
Tennessee 67 @ LSU 79
UCONN 87 @ Seton Hall 90 (OT)

Johnny Davis Week

Not since the wretched existence of Frank Kaminsky has Wisconsin had a singular basketball talent as dominant as Jonathan Davis. The sophomore guard practically came out of nowhere this season, grabbing a stranglehold on the Wooden Award race. Behind five starting seniors on last year’s Badgers squad, Davis only averaged seven points a game coming off the bench.

In ’21-22, Davis is scoring 22.3 points and grabbing 7.4 rebounds as a 6-foot-5 guard.

This past week’s trio of performances really put him on the map as potentially the best player in the country. Monday, on the road vs. third-ranked Purdue, Davis nearly single-handedly willed the Badgers to victory, scoring 37 and pulling down 14 rebounds. He also used a series of deep jumpers and a pair of dunks to finish the Boilermakers off in Mackey Arena.

He followed that performance up by out-dueling the nation’s leading scorer against Iowa and Keegan Murray. He notched 26 points, nine rebounds and six assists in that win. Then on Sunday, he helped fend off a Maryland comeback in College Park with 19 & seven.

The Player of the Year race is often fickle and driven by recency bias. And that’s the case with Davis. According to a poll of prominent college basketball watchers conducted by Jeff Goodman, Davis is the runaway favorite after his stellar week. I’ll agree, for now.

I polled nearly 20 media members who watch more overall college basketball right now than anyone in the country for their votes on the National Player of the Year.

Wisconsin’s Johnny Davis received 15 of 19 first-place votes and is the National Player of the Year frontrunner.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) January 7, 2022

Coach K farewell tour hits bump in the road

It was shaping up to be the perfect sendoff season for Mike Krzyzewski. He handled Kentucky in Madison Square Garden to kick things off, defeated rising power Gonzaga in Las Vegas and the ACC looked like a collective pile of dog crap. The league was lining up to bow down and let Coach K waltz to his final ACC title with ease.

Jim Larranaga and Miami refused to join in as sacrificial sheep. The Canes were 4-0 in the ACC heading into Saturday’s matchup with Duke in Cameron Indoor. Jim, you were supposed to lose and let Coach K sail to a 5-0 start in conference play in front of the Crazies. Why don’t you know this? Instead, Miami upset Duke at home to soil the Blue Devils’ unbeaten streak.

That wasn’t the only misstep for Coach K last week. In Duke’s game against Georgia Tech, K got into a spat with an opposing player. Tech’s Michael Devoe had the audacity to point and mutter something at the Duke bench following a score. Coach K was having none of the disrespect.

Michael Devoe talking smack to Coach K while losing pic.twitter.com/j85S6kUFGV
— Crazie TWT Live (@CrazieTWTLive) January 5, 2022

“You don’t know who you’re talking to!” Krzyzewski growled at Devoe and stormed towards the player as he made his way back to the GT bench. The tantrum fizzled shortly after, but Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner profusely apologized for Devoe’s point after the game.

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Coach Pastner on his lengthy exchange with Coach K after the game and the exchange between K and Michael Devoe. pic.twitter.com/RSvWPFc6hl
— Carolina Blitz (@KeepBlitzin) January 5, 2022

But Devoe wasn’t ready to kiss up to the old Grinch on the Duke sideline. After the game, he was indifferent, saying he “apologized and everything” and that Coach K “took it the wrong way,” including that his point was aimed at the bench, not at the Hall-of-Fame coach.

This is the Coach K we all know and love. Harassing college students and losing home games.

Penny: Heads or Tails

It’s a heads week for Penny Hardaway! Following a Tulane loss and tails week last time, Penny and Memphis are winners of three straight. They smashed Wichita State last weekend and swept their games this past week with close wins over Tulsa and Cincinnati.

While their play on the court is steadying out, who is playing is still a mystery game-to-game. Memphis started three different lineups during the winning streak and has started all 11 of its rotation players at least once this season.

For now, the lineup carousel is working. But check back next week to see if the Tigers manage to stay heads up.

Other College Basketball Notes

Two Unbeatens Remain. We talked extensively about Baylor’s unbelievable three-year run last week, and mention them this week to note that they are in fact still undefeated at 15-0. As is Southern California at 13-0. USC has three easy Pac-12 games this week. Baylor has Texas Tech and Oklahoma State both at home. We very well may be talking about these two unbeaten against next week.

Down goes Colorado State. Colorado State was ranked and respected as one of the best mid-major teams in the country. All that goodwill was lost on Saturday when they lost by 30 against San Diego State. SDSU is typically solid but losing by 30 lands CSU back outside the top-25.