Let’s start with the fun stuff. In-state rivalries.
Texas Tech Is Good
Mark Adams has Texas Tech playing better and better every week, with last night’s win among their most dominant showings all year. The Red Raiders welcomed Texas to Lubbock and sent them home with bootprints on their buttcheeks, moving ahead of Duke on KenPom and perhaps prompting legitimate questions over who should be the state of Texas’s third-highest paid public employee (note: I did not fact check this, I’m just assuming Beard’s that guy behind Fisher and Sarkisian in some order).
Regular readers know we’ve been lumping teams into categories, specifically National Championship Contenders and National Championship Possibilities. Is it time to include Texas Tech as a Possibility? I’m not sure. It might be. It also might be a good time to write off Duke.
Auburn Made Another Statement
Still in our Possibility camp, and not in our Contender camp, is Auburn. Auburn put up 100 last night on a team that’s beaten both Gonzaga and Baylor. Auburn also allowed 81 last night to a team that’s lost to Mizzou, Georgia, and Memphis. The point, of course, is that Alabama is all over the place. But the more important point is that as fun as that win was, it doesn’t make us Auburn believers just yet.
Where Was Iowa State?
For the second time in three home games, Iowa State failed to appear last night, with a very shorthanded Kansas running them off the floor. David McCormack, as we feared, was unstoppable offensively, and while the Cyclones did force turnovers on 31% of Kansas possessions, their inability to make threes did them in. Izaiah Brockington took 28 shots from the field, made only eleven, and managed to get to the free throw line just twice. Tyrese Hunter, by the numbers, was even worse (and that’s important, because as we wrote earlier, Hunter’s the guy who makes the offense work). At least Gabe Kalscheur finally made another three.
It’s a rough one for the Cyclones, partially because it comes before an Austin/Morgantown road trip, but Iowa State entered in a place where they could lose three straight and still be comfortably projected to make the tournament. It would be good to split this upcoming pair, and it would be good to play better than they did last night, but to some extent Iowa State is what it is, and that is not an effective offensive team.
Matt Campbell Watch, Again
We’re back in on Matt Campbell watch, with Jim Harbaugh reportedly waiting to see if the Vikings will hire him and Michigan therefore looking at new coaches, with Campbell presumably a possibility.
It’d be a tough decision for Campbell. Michigan’s ceiling is undoubtedly higher, but job security is lower and you’d have to compete with Ohio State year in and year out in perpetuity. There’s also the element of how late in the offseason this is happening. The second signing day was today. Lose a lot of transfers in Ann Arbor and suddenly you’re playing from far behind, and that might not be something from which you can catch up immediately.
On the Michigan side, this probably does point towards continuity, which is why offensive coordinator Josh Gattis is getting so much attention. But if Michigan’s willing to commit to a surer thing and risk some transition pains, it’s hard to think of anyone they’d want more than Campbell.
We’ll see. In the meantime, Iowa State’s currently listed as having the 39th-best class in the country over on 247, meaning they’ve slipped a bit lately. Admittedly, I don’t follow Iowa State’s recruiting enough to know the context here, and whether this was expected, but as we’ve been saying, it’s a very good recruiting year by ISU’s standards.
UPDATE: Adam Schefter reported, moments after this was published, that Harbaugh is remaining at Michigan. Sweet relief.
Texas A&M: National Champion in Waiting?
In the biggest signing day news, Texas A&M took home the top class. There are a lot of questions being asked about the role NIL played in this, but I struggle to see the case for it being a bad thing if A&M boosters paid players a bunch of money to go there. For one thing, that already happens, and for another, it’s a free market system. Don’t like it, go raise more money, or figure out how to win with less talent.
Whether Texas A&M can win with more talent remains to be seen. Alabama and Georgia remain right on their heels in the recruiting rankings, and it’s just one class. Still, we’re at least asking the question: Will Texas A&M Win a National Championship?
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Among our college basketball Contenders, Kentucky’s the only one in action tonight, hosting Vanderbilt at 7:00 PM EST on SEC Network. Among Possibilities, Purdue visits Minnesota at 7:00 on Big Ten Network, Houston hosts Tulane at 8:00 on ESPN+, Illinois hosts Wisconsin at 9:00 on Big Ten Network, and Villanova goes to Marquette at 10:00 on FS1. Andre Curbelo should be back in that Illinois game. Elsewhere…some mediocre action in the ACC, Big 12, A-10, and MVC. Enjoy.
