College Basketball Weekly: New SEC Contenders & A Foul Proposal

Welcome back to another edition of College Basketball Weekly, where we’ll be addressing a new duo of SEC contenders which emerged this weekend, while the post ends with a question on whether the five-foul limit for college hoops players is really necessary.

Below are the notable results, some quick hitters, and then the major topics of the week. Enjoy!

Notable Results

(15) Mississippi State 66 @ (1) Auburn 88
(21) Ole Miss 74 @ (4) Alabama 64
Missouri 83 @ (5) Florida 82
(11) Texas A&M 69 @ Kentucky 81
(25) Baylor 70 @ Arizona 81
(9) Kansas 57 @ (2) Iowa State 74
(23) Georgia 56 @ (6) Tennessee 74
(22) Utah State 62 @ UNLV 65
(16) Gonzaga 89 @ Oregon State 97
(18) Memphis 81 @ Temple 88
(20) Michigan 81 @ Minnesota 84
(1) Auburn 70 @ (23) Georgia 68
(4) Alabama 102 @ (8) Kentucky 97
(6) Tennessee 75 @ Vanderbilt 76
Xavier 59 @ (7) Marquette 57
(17) Purdue 65 @ (13) Oregon 58
Creighton 68 @ (14) UConn 63
(21) Ole Miss 81 @ Mississippi State 84
Santa Clara 103 @ Gonzaga 99
(19) Illinois 78 @ Michigan State 80
TCU 74 @ Baylor 71

Quick Hitters

Parity at last in the WCC! We noted during the 31-conference whip-around that the WCC has its best roster in years thanks to the Washington State/Oregon State additions — and so far, league play has paid off with what looks like an enticing conference title campaign, meaning that Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s are not the only worthwhile names. Santa Clara and Oregon State both beat Gonzaga this week and while the Gaels are 6-0 in conference, there’s the aforementioned Santa Clara and OSU squads, plus a lingering Gonzaga, and even Washington State and San Francisco who are 2-3 in the standings as of Sunday evening. For at least one year, the WCC took a major step up, and Gonzaga is already faltering because of it.

Tails for Penny. Memphis results are about as predictable as the flip of a penny, making for a very appropriate metaphor for the Tiger program under Penny Hardaway. Memphis is on track for their third NCAA Tournament appearance in four seasons and is ranked in the AP poll at some point for the fourth straight season. Awesome stuff. However, this week, Memphis pulled the joker out of their sleeve again and fell at Temple, ending a promising four-game win streak. It’s been these one-off eggs laid against lowly AAC foes that’s undone Memphis’ tourney chances in the past, and they’ll need to avoid too many such results to lock down the 2025 bid if they don’t win the AAC tourney.

A New Wave of SEC Contenders?

Every single week, there’s a new SEC team announcing themselves as a serious contender. So after Missouri and Vanderbilt stepped into that role this week, let’s review the 2024-25 timeline for the league.

Alabama and Tennessee came in as respected superpowers and have mostly looked the part as definite top-10 teams. Auburn grabbed the torch quickly though once the season began beating Houston, Iowa State, Memphis and Purdue all in the non-conference, and has since continued to mow its way through league play with or without National Player of the Year frontrunner Johni Broome. Folks, the Tigers are hitting every single checkpoint of an eventual national champion and should be the easy favorites right now.

Then you have Kentucky, who defeated Duke to start the year and collected five wins against the current top-25 already. Meanwhile, Florida and Oklahoma were two of the last remaining undefeated and have taken lumps, the Sooners much worse than the Gators, who are still bonafide top-15.

What about Georgia? They beat Kentucky and burst into the AP Poll this week for the first time in more than a decade. Heck, even Arkansas at 0-5 in the SEC was ranked at one point and scored a huge non-conference victory over Michigan.

Then, this weekend, we had the first ranked-on-ranked matchup between Ole Miss and Mississippi State in a number of years (Hail State triumphed in OT) while Missouri completed a sweep of Arkansas and Florida to get out to a 4-1 start in league play. Even Vanderbilt with a whole new roster and coach just took down Tennessee at home to advance to… 15-3.

Will Missouri and Vandy last as true contenders? Honestly, who’s to say at this point in this ridiculous SEC season, but the ripples those schools made this week are only another sign of just how deep the SEC is at the top, middle and bottom.

A Foul Proposal

While watching Illinois fans meltdown over the five foul calls on their star point guard Kasparas Jakucionis in an eventual two-point loss vs. Michigan State, the thought came up: What if we just got rid of foul-outs?

In fact, the weight of consequences of foul calls in college hoops is way out of balance. Really, who wants to see the best players not playing at the end of the game? There’s plenty of consequence for fouls via the bonus or free throws on shooting fouls. You get hammered for fouling too much. Your best players end up on the bench and the other team parades to the free throw line for 10+ minutes each half.

So the question is: does the punishment fit the crime? Should a player who fouls just five times really be ejected from the game, essentially? Should a few bad calls from referees lead to a crazy bonus advantage for one team? It just feels like college hoops fans, coaches and players all deal with foul-oriented issues far more than should be necessary in these games. Again, referees and officiating ought to be background players, after all.