No. 1 Baylor Bears and No. 10 LSU Tigers extend their winning streak as conference play continues.

College Basketball Report: Week 11

College Basketball Report: Week 11
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TEXAS LONGHORNS (12-6), (2-4)

Last week: (1-2): W - Oklahoma State 74-64, L - Kansas 66-57, L - West Virginia 97-59

This week: Saturday vs. LSU

The start of the Big 12 Conference has not been kind to the Texas Longhorns with a below .500 record. After recording a 12-point victory over the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Longhorns dropped back-to-back games against the Kansas Jayhawks and the West Virginia Mountaineers.

The 38-point loss to the Mountaineers proved to be the Longhorns' worst performance of the season, as UT allowed West Virginia to shoot 51.4% from the floor, 42.9% from behind the arc and trail 45-20 heading into the halftime break.


With one game on the schedule, the Longhorns will look to bounce back in a home match against the hot LSU Tigers.

TEXAS A&M AGGIES (8-8), (2-3)

Last week: (0-2): L - LSU 89-85, L - South Carolina 81-67

This week: Tuesday vs. Missouri, Saturday vs. Oklahoma State

The Texas A&M Aggies hit a rough patch last week and are currently riding a two-game losing streak heading into their match against the Missouri Tigers on Tuesday, before taking on the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Saturday.

The Aggies dropped a heartbreak overtime loss in a game against the LSU Tigers, where they fought their way back from 10 down at the half. Unfortunately, A&M could not carry over their second-half surge against the Gamecocks, as South Carolina shot 48.3 % from the floor, 53.3 % from 3-point range.

Senior forward Josh Nebo led the Aggies in scoring both games averaging 19.0 points and 2.5 blocks per game.

Houston Cougars (12-4), (2-1)

Last week: (2-0): W - SMU 77-62, W- Wichita State 65-54

This week: Thursday vs. UConn, Sunday vs. USF

Winners of eight out of their last nine games, the Houston Cougars swept through their opponents picking up wins against the SMU Mustangs and the Wichita State Shockers.

In the win against No. 16 Wichita State, the Cougars had one of their best defensive performances of the season, as Houston recorded nine blocks and held the Shockers to 32.2% shoot from the field, and 20% from behind the arc. Following the win, the Cougars will come into Thursday showdown against UConn tied with Wichita State atop of the American Athletic Conference.

RICE OWLS (9-11), (1-6)

Last week: (0-3): L - Louisiana Tech 72-56, L- Southern Miss 81-68, L - North Texas 79-59

This week: Thursday vs. UTEP, Saturday vs. UTSA

Loser of seven of their last eight games, the Rice Owls are currently riding a three-game losing streak after a winless week.

The Owls suffered a blowout defeat in all three games, losing by an average margin of 16 points, with their worst coming at the hands of North Texas on Monday. Up next, Rice will look to end their worst skid of the season on Thursday in a CUSA showdown against UTEP.

BAYLOR BEARS (16-1), (6-0)

Last week: (3-0): W - Iowa State 68-55, W - Oklahoma State 75-68, W - Oklahoma 61-57

This week: Saturday vs. Florida

While improving their national rank to No. 1, the Baylor Bears extended their conference play winning streak to six with wins against Iowa State, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma over the past week.

In the win against Oklahoma, Macio Teague led the Bears to a close win with 16 points and three steals. Following their overall 15th straight victory, the Bears will put their winning streak on the line against Florida on Saturday.

TCU HORNED FROGS (12-5), (3-2)

Last week: (0-2): L - West Virginia 81-49, L - Oklahoma 83-63

This week: Tuesday vs Texas Tech, Saturday vs Arkansas

After riding a four-game winning streak, the TCU Horned Frogs dropped two consecutive conference games in a loss against West Virginia and Oklahoma last week. In both games, the Horned Frogs lost by an average margin of 26 points, which indicates their two worst two-game stretch of the season.

Up next, TCU will look to return to their winning ways against the No. 18 Texas Tech Red Raiders on Tuesday, before taking on the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday.

TEXAS TECH RED RAIDERS (12-5), (3-2)

Last week: (2-0): W - Kansas State 77-63, W - Arkansas 72-52

This week: Tuesday vs TCU, Saturday vs Kentucky

After dropping two of their first three conference games, the No. 16 Texas Tech Red Raiders had a prefect week picking up wins against the Kansas State Wildcats and Iowa State Cyclone.

Against Iowa State, the Red Raiders finished the game shooting 54.3% from the floor and connecting on nine 3-point field goals in the win. Sophomore guard Kyler Edwards registered a career-high five 3-pointers and finished with 22 points inside the United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas.

Up next, Tech will look to extend their winning streak against the TCU Horned Frogs on Tuesday.

SMU MUSTANGS (13-4), (3-2)

Last week (1-1): L - Houston 71-62, W - Temple 68-52

This week: Wednesday vs ECU, Saturday vs Memphis

The SMU Mustangs opened the week dropping their second straight game in a loss to in-state rival, the Houston Cougars. In the loss, the Mustangs did not have an answer for Houston's Fabian White Jr., as the junior forward recorded 17 points and 10 rebounds in the win.

Following the loss in Houston, SMU returned to their winning ways in a home victory over the Temple Owls, a game in which Tyson Jolly had one of his best performances of the season with 25 points and 14 rebounds, two steals and a block in the win.
The Mustang will stay home for an AAC showdown against ECU on Wednesday before traveling to Memphis to take on the Memphis Tigers on Saturday.

LSU TIGERS (13-4), (5-0)

Last week (2-0): W - Texas A&M 89-85, W - Ole Miss 80-76

This week: Tuesday vs Florida, Saturday vs Texas

No. 10 LSU Tigers continued their hot start in conference play and extended their winning streak to six last week.

Both games went down to the wire as the Tigers needed an additional five minutes to pull off a win against the Aggies, a game where LSU nearly blew a 10 point lead at the half. Five players scored in double-digits for LSU with Trendon Watford and Skylar Mays each scoring 19 points apiece.

The Tigers will return home on Tuesday for a match against Florida before a Big-12 showdown against the Texas Longhorns on Saturday.

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The Astros will look to get back on track against the Orioles. Composite Getty Image.

When you hit rock bottom the only direction to go is up. Actually that's not true, you can continue to be a bottom feeder. Things are not nearly so dire for the Astros, despite them enduring one of the more pathetic weeks in franchise history. The Astros nearly had a perfect game pitched against them by a guy who had zero big league wins and a 6.70 earned run average. After managing to eke out a win the following game, they were shutout three games in a row. In the game after that Framber Valdez gave up six runs in the first inning, essentially ending the game right then and there. But hey, the Astros scored two runs in Wednesday's 7-2 loss, snapping an embarrassing run of 31 consecutive scoreless times at bat. Yet somehow over that stretch of gross, the Astros increased their American League West lead! The somehow being the Seattle Mariners saying "hold my beer" and losing five days in a row.

Reminder to those wanting to have the fat lady start warming in the bullpen thinking the Astros are done: the 162-game regular season lends itself to sometimes extreme peaks and valleys. The Astros limped out of Detroit with a record of 14-23 in their last 37 games. Over that time span only the Tampa Bay Rays and San Francisco Giants have worse records. Immediately before this lengthy garbage stretch of performance, the Astros went a blistering 29-10. Bi-polarity is part of the baseball season. The Tigers flat destroyed the Astros three days in a row to run the Motowners' recent spurt to 16 wins in 23 games. Immediately before going 16-7, the Tigers lost 12 out of 13! The longest winning streak in the American League this season is the 13-gamer put up by the Minnesota Twins. The rest of their season was so bad the Twins dealt away nearly half their roster before the trade deadline. The Red Sox had a 10-game losing streak earlier this season. The Yankees endured a miserable stretch of 6-16. Of most direct import to the Astros, the Mariners big dumped seven out of eight games directly after their eight-game winning streak had wiped out what remained of the Astros' one-time seven game American League West division lead. It's the full 162 games that tell the tale. The Astros absolutely could collapse out of the playoffs entirely. But that such is inevitable is ridiculous. In part because….

Yordan Alvarez should actually play in a game that counts this coming Tuesday. Why wait that long? He had two hits and a walk (and a stolen base...why Yordan, why!) in his first game in the minors Tuesday. If the long-injured and recovering hand is okay, having him play in the minors through the weekend is a waste of time. If Alvarez's timing isn't up to speed, so what? The mere threat Yordan represents is better than the dreck populating much of Joe Espada's batting order these days. The back-to-back games he's playing in the minors Thursday and Friday should have been in Baltimore in an Astros' uniform.

Any game Alvarez is the designated hitter removes deployment in the DH role of José Altuve. That's okay, Altuve is needed in left field because the ludicrously lousy offense from the other Astros' outfielders might not be good enough to win this week's Little League World Series. Hyperbole, but you get the point. Cam Smith has been brutally inept at the plate for almost a month and a half, arriving in Baltimore with a .137 batting average over his last 102 at bats and not a single homer in his last 149 ABs. While Smith's future can still be very bright, his present is pitch dark. Jacob Melton has been almost completely overmatched at the plate, batting .170 with an absurd 23 strikeouts in his first 54 at bats. Jesus Sanchez has stunk since coming in trade from the Marlins. Chas McCormick is a better comic reliever than he has been a hitter for more than a year and a half. Taylor Trammell's career big league batting average is .177. No one confuses Mauricio Dubon or Ramon Urias with Craig Biggio, but either guy in the lineup at second base with Altuve in left is better than Altuve at second and any of those outfielders playing.

While the Astros strive to garner at least a split of their four-game set with the Orioles this weekend, the Mariners are home for three vs. the Athletics. Since the All-Star break, the A's have the best record among the five AL West clubs. The Astros have the worst. As this column has covered, wild swings of results can happen at any time, but the Tigers crushing the Astros basically ends plausible Astros' hopes of winding up with the best record in the AL. The Tigers shoved the Astros six games behind them, and clinched the season series tiebreaker. The Astros still could run down Toronto for the second-best AL mark and bye past the best-of-three Wild Card round that comes with it. Along with playing vastly better ball period, the Astros quite likely would have to win their series over the Blue Jays in Canada next month.

For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!

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