College Basketball Weekly: Penny/Indiana stumble, Here Comes Oregon

The weekend of NFL games may have been great — perhaps the greatest ever — but it was nothing compared to the action across College Basketball. Joking, but seriously, the hardwood produced some great content throughout the week. Let’s review the most interesting results, talk Penny Hardaway and Indiana meltdowns, and review the rise of Oregon and Marquette.

Also, we’ll rank the top-25 and provide a look at the best games ahead. Check it out.

Results of the Week

• (6) Purdue 96 @ (14) Illinois 88 (2OT)
• (3) Duke 78 @ Florida State 79 (OT)
• (13) Iowa State 60 @ (17) Texas Tech 72
• (12) LSU 67 @ Alabama 70
• Marquette 57 @ (10) Villanova 54
• (6) Purdue 65 @ Indiana 68
• (14) Illinois 65 @ Maryland 81
• (19) Michigan State 86 @ (4) Wisconsin 74
• (11) Kentucky 71 @ (1) Auburn 80
• Missouri State 79 @ (20) Loyola-Chicago 69
• TCU 59 @ (13) Iowa State 44
• (12) LSU 50 @ Tennessee 64
• (16) Xavier 64 @ Marquette 75

Auburn on top

Common sense prevailed on this week’s ballot as the Auburn Tigers rightfully ascended to the No. 1 spot for the first time in school history — a place they held in the rankings on this website last week. That’s all I’ve got to say about the Tigers this week. For further reading check out last week’s portion on their right to the AP Throne.

Indiana is BACK…until they weren’t

Indiana secured one of its many WE’RE BACK wins of the last decade-plus this past week. This time, Christian Watford was NOT involved. But Rob Phinisee was. An oft-maligned player during his IU career had a performance worthy of Free Beer For Life in Bloomington, scoring a career-high 20 points to boost the Hoosiers to their first win over Purdue in nine tries.

I guess if Kentucky had lost to a little-brother rival such as Louisville EIGHT times in a row, I may be delusional enough to storm the court too…

On a serious note, congrats to Mike Woodson and Indiana for a few days worth of local articles and national media members praising him for rebuilding the program so quickly, and doing it the “Hoosier Way.”

Of course, Indiana got swept up in the emotion of beating Purdue at home and lost focus against Michigan on Sunday, getting blown out 80-62 by the worst Wolverine team in quite some time. Very 21st century of the Hoosiers. Big win, bad loss.

The Comeback Ducks

My first writing gig as a freshman in college was for a local Oregon site (yes, even though I attended Kentucky) and I extensively covered the 2018-19 Oregon basketball team. With Bol Bol and several remainders off their Final Four run two years prior, they were expected to be good but stumbled and fell to some awful teams early in the year.

However, they rebounded and made a run in the Pac-12 Tournament to secure a 12-seed and wound up making it to the Sweet 16. Well, the 2022 Ducks are following a similar trail. Oregon lost six of their first 12 games, including a combined -71 deficit against Houston and BYU.

Since December 15th, Dana Altman has righted the ship. Oregon is a winner of six in a row and is 16th in the country since 12/15 via my guy Bart Torvik. Two of those wins came in a California sweep two weeks ago when they took down then-top-five-ranked USC and UCLA on the road in a span of five days. Quacktacular times in Eugene.

Marquette also on the rise

Marquette found its way onto my TV screens more than I care to admit this season. They’re like watching a David Lynch movie. I’m baffled by what I’m experiencing, the end results are confusing, I’m still stunned by Shaka Smart’s afro…Yet, when the dust settles, it’s a really good product.

What a turnaround under Shaka Smart 🙌@MarquetteMBB has already matched its win total from last season! pic.twitter.com/KvzT1hsKfq

— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) January 20, 2022

For instance, they began the season 5-0 with wins over West Virginia and Illinois, then lost six of their next nine. Now they’ve rebounded to win six in a row with a heck of a stretch last week, beating Xavier at home and Villanova on the road. Nobody in the Big East beats ‘Nova in the Pavillion!

From a resume standpoint, the Golden Eagles look like a certainty for the NCAA Tournament. Also, it’s January and Marquette is playing like one the best teams in the nation. 6-0 and No. 5 in the country per Bart Torvik since the 4th of the month, and winning games by shooting lights out from three at 42.67% during the winning streak.

𝗦𝗶𝘅 𝗜𝗻 𝗔 𝗥𝗼𝘄. 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘃𝘀. 𝗧𝗼𝗽-𝟮𝟬 𝗙𝗼𝗲𝘀.

To say @MarquetteMBB is the hottest team in #BIGEASThoops would be an understatement. pic.twitter.com/wNvOGE1nlq

— BIG EAST MBB (@BIGEASTMBB) January 23, 2022

Outlier shooting performances can explain the worst of losses and the best of wins. I respect and enjoy this Marquette team and think highly of their body of work this season, but I do not believe they will keep shooting 42% from deep on high volume.

Flip a Penny

Tails week. On the court and most definitely off the court. Just cracked my fingers in preparation to indulge one some truly unbelievable Penny content.

Let’s start with the SMU-Memphis game. The Mustangs are a solid AAC team that outlasted the Tigers on the road. Good win for SMU, but for Memphis, their eighth loss in the last 11 games. After all the pomp and circumstance surrounding the Tigers’ offseason additions and their former NBA superstar coach, questions are being asked and Penny Hardaway had to answer.

One innocent reporter wondered if Penny was embarrassed by how his team is performing, to which he responded (and I’ll paraphrase him PG), “this media gets a little [screwed] up sometimes.”

“We don’t have our full roster,” he implored. “So stop asking me stupid questions. I’m not embarrassed about nothin’!”

How would the sports world react if Frank Vogel threw a tantrum like this after a Lakers loss without Anthony Davis? Just curious…

“I work too [darn] hard,” Penny continued. “Don’t disrespect me, bro.” Spoken like an NBA player after a posterizing dunk, not a collegiate head coach talking about his spiraling team. Penny also complained, “act like we got 17 and 18-year-old kids trying to learn how to play against 22, 23, 24-year-old guys.”

I’ll cut the quotes there. Ahead of this season, there was a lot of buzz that Hardaway would have a better team than John Calipari ever had at Memphis. Forget success on the court. The difference between these two coaches is how they treat those 17 and 18-year-olds.

Penny pushed to have Emoni Bates and Jalen Duren reclassify and play right away — and their draft stock dipped since. John Calipari had Shaedon Sharpe fall into his lap in the middle of the season and refuses to play him because he doesn’t believe it is in the kid’s best interest. To me, that’s the coaching difference. One guy doesn’t want to be personally disrespected and the other puts a kid’s future over team success.

Now, onto Games of the Week and rankings.

Rankings

1. Auburn
2. Arizona
3. Gonzaga
4. Kansas
5. Baylor
6. Houston
7. Texas Tech
8. Wisconsin
9. Purdue
10. Duke
11. Michigan State
12. Kentucky
13. Providence
14. UCLA
15. Ohio State
16. Marquette
17. Villanova
18. Xavier
19. Tennessee
20. USC
21. LSU
22. Iowa State
23. Davidson
24. UCONN
25. Oregon

Games of the Week

• (4) Kansas @ (7) Texas Tech (Mon./9 p.m./ESPN)
• (2) Arizona @ (14) UCLA (Tue./11 p.m./ESPN)
• (13) Providence @ (18) Xavier (Wed./6:30 p.m./CBSSN)
• (9) Purdue @ Iowa (Thu./9 p.m./FS1)
• (5) Baylor @ Alabama (Sat./4 p.m./ESPN)
• (16) Marquette @ (13) Providence (Sat./4:30 p.m./FS1)
• (12) Kentucky @ (4) Kansas (Sat./6 p.m./ESPN