The Baylor Bears extend their winning streak to seven, while the Texas Longhorns continue a streak of their own.
College Basketball Report: Week 6
Dec 17, 2019, 6:51 am
The Baylor Bears extend their winning streak to seven, while the Texas Longhorns continue a streak of their own.
Adding to the win column. 😤 #AllForTexas | #HookEm https://t.co/0o8GUgIGcE— Texas Men's Basketball (@Texas Men's Basketball) 1576439184.0
Last week (1-0): W-Central Michigan 87-76
This week: Saturdayvs. Providence
The Texas Longhorns had a short week but continued their winning ways against Central Michigan on Saturday. The Longhorns extended their winning streak to five in an 87-76 victory over the Chippewas.
It was a backcourt affair inside the Frank C. Erwin Jr. Center in Austin as Texas' junior guard, Jase Febres posted a game-high 23 points (7-11 FG, 7-10 3PT), while second-year guard Courtney Ramey added in a career-high 20 points in the win. Following the victory, the Longhorns will return to action on Saturday for a road match against Providence in Rhode Island
The plays that made the difference 📼 #GigEm https://t.co/9ohkJSYBl7— Texas A&M Basketball (@Texas A&M Basketball) 1576459200.0
Last week (1-0): W - Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 63-60
This week: Saturday vs. Oregon State
The Texas A&M Aggies ended their four-game losing skid in a 63-60 victory over the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders on Sunday. It was a big come from behind win for the Aggies, as Texas A&M trailed by 11 early in the second half. They went on to outscore the Islanders by 10 in the second half (39-29), as Emanuel Miller scored 20 points while shooting 7-8 from the floor.
After allowing nine made 3-point field goals in the first half, the Aggies picked up their defensive intensity and held the Islanders to shoot 20% (2-10 3PT) from behind the arc in the second half. With one game on the schedule, the Aggies will look to make it two straight wins on Saturday when they take on Oregon State.
Final score presented by @thejointchiro @calebmills_3 leads with 23 pts, @thatup_coming11 with 11 pts & 9 rebs NE… https://t.co/gzvyXnS2m0— Houston Men's Hoops 🏀 🐾 (@Houston Men's Hoops 🏀 🐾) 1576447830.0
Last week (1-1): W - UT Arlington 71-63, L - Oklahoma State 61-55
This week: Thursday vs. UTEP, Sunday Portland
The Houston Cougars had one heck of the week that ended in heartbreak. The Cougars extended their winning streak to four in a 61-55 victory over the UT-Arlington Mavericks on Wednesday. It was a wire-to-wire victory on a night where sophomore guard, Nate Hinton, scored a career-best 25-points (9-15 FG, 4-8 3PT) and 10 rebounds in the win.
Unfortunately, Houston's win streak came to a halt on Sunday in a 61-55 loss to the Oklahoma State Cowboys. On a night where the Cougars struggled to buy a basket, freshman guard, Caleb Mills, was one of two players who scored in double-figures with a career-best 25 points in the loss. Mill's performance against OSU was enough to award him with the American Athletic freshman Player of the Week.
Following the win, the Cougars will return to the Fertitta Center for a contest against UTEP before opening their Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic on Sunday against Portland.
In case you missed last night's game, here are some highlights from the victory over Houston Baptist. #GoOwls👐 x… https://t.co/eqwWctRjLE— Rice Basketball (@Rice Basketball) 1576436683.0
Last week (1-0): W - Houston Baptist 96-84
This week: Thursday vs. St. Thomas
The Rice Owls overcame a 29-point performance from Houston Baptist' Ian DuBose to pick a victory over the winless Huskies on Saturday in a 96-84 win. Senior guard Robert Martin led the Owls with 20 points while shooting 8-for-9 from the field, 3-for-4 from behind the arc.
Following the win, the Rice Owls will return to Tudor Fieldhouse for a match against the St. Thomas Celts.
⛹️♂️💨 Fast Break: Vol. 7 Hustle + Effort = Another Top 20 Win 💪 #SicEm 🐻 | #1TGF 🏀 https://t.co/uuhoUDWlL4— Baylor Basketball (@Baylor Basketball) 1576117275.0
Last week (1-0): W - Butler 53-52
This week: Wednesday vs. Tennessee-Martin
The sizzling Baylor Bears continued their early-season success with a 53-52 victory against the No. 11 Butler Bulldogs on Tuesday. Junior forward Mark Vital sealed the one-point victory for the Bears with a game-winning block on Butler's Kamar Baldwin with 1.5 seconds remaining in the second half.
It was a total team effort by Baylor as guards MaCio Teague and Devonte Bandoo led the Bears in scoring with 10 points apiece.
Win the win, Baylor has extended their winning streak to seven, ahead of their home match against the Tennessee-Martin Skyhawks on Wednesday.
Funky Films | vs. Lamar #GoFrogs 😈🎥 https://t.co/DDMIElAFa2— TCU Basketball (@TCU Basketball) 1576451769.0
Last week (2-0): W - Winthrop 70-60, W - Lamar 79-50
This week: Sunday vs Xavier
After a heartbreaking loss to USC, TCU picked up back-to-back convincing wins over Winthrop (70-60) and Lamar (79-50) last week. Both the Eagles and the Cardinals did not have an answer to slowing down the Horned Frogs, as TCU shot 47.3 from the floor, 34.4% from deep. Sophomore guard R.J. Nembhard averaged 14.0 points on 42% shooting from the floor, to go along with 6.5 rebounds in a two-game sweep.
TCU will return to action on Sunday to face off against the Xavier Musketeers.
Spicy. 🔴@davide25moretti | #WreckEm⚫️ https://t.co/jTF2HxfZ1X— Texas Tech Basketball (@Texas Tech Basketball) 1576549552.0
Last week: (2-0) W - Louisville 70-57, W - Southern Mississippi 71-65
This week: Saturday vs. UTRGV
The Texas Tech Raiders ended their three-game losing skid in a convincing 70-57 victory over No. 1 ranked Louisville Cardinals. The win over the Cardinals was the first victory against a top-ranked team in the Red Raiders' program history.
Texas Tech completed the upset with a great defensive performance, as the Red Raiders held the Cardinals to 34.0% shooting from the field, and an unpleasant 17.6% from behind the arc. Following their second straight win over Southern Mississippi (71-65), Texas Tech will return to the court on Saturday for a showdown against the Texas–Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros.
Can’t wait to get back on the court! 🐴⬆️🏀 #PonyUpDallas https://t.co/IxtLa3YFw8— Rick Hart (@Rick Hart) 1576552217.0
Last week (0-0): No Games Scheduled
This week: Tuesday vs Georgia Bulldogs, Monday Georgia State
With no games on the schedule, SMU will return to the floor on Tuesday, December 20th against the Georgia Bulldogs.
Back in action this week! #BootUp 🐯 https://t.co/HBWJ4gvbcu— LSU Basketball (@LSU Basketball) 1576511825.0
Last week (0-0): No Games Scheduled
This week: Wednesday vs East Tennessee St., Saturday USC
With no games on the schedule, LSU will return to the floor on Wednesday against East Tennessee St before taking on USC on Saturday.
They’ll be watching in Canada, not just because of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, though the NBA’s scoring champion and MVP favorite who plays for Oklahoma City surely helps lure in fans who are north of the border.
They’ll be watching from Serbia and Greece, the homelands of Denver star Nikola Jokic and Milwaukee star Giannis Antetokounmpo. Alperen Sengun will have them watching Houston games in the middle of the night in Turkey, too. Slovenian fans will be watching Luka Doncic and the Lakers play their playoff opener at 2:30 a.m. Sunday, 5:30 p.m. Saturday in Los Angeles. Fans in Cameroon will be tuned in to see Pascal Siakam and the Indiana Pacers. Defending champion Boston features, among others, Kristaps Porzingis of Latvia and Al Horford of the Dominican Republic.
Once again, the NBA playoffs are setting up to be a showcase for international stars.
In a season where the five statistical champions were from five different countries, an NBA first — Gilgeous-Alexander is Canadian, rebounding champion Domantas Sabonis of Sacramento is from Lithuania, blocked shots champion Victor Wembanyama of San Antonio is from France, steals champion Dyson Daniels of Atlanta is from Australia, and assists champion Trae Young of the Hawks is from the U.S. — the postseason will have plenty of international feel as well. Gilgeous-Alexander is in, while Sabonis and Daniels (along with Young, obviously) could join him if their teams get through the play-in tournament.
“We have a tremendous number of international players in this league,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said earlier this season. “It’s roughly 30% of our players representing, at least on opening day, 43 different countries, so there’s much more of a global sense around our teams.”
By the end of the season, it wound up being 44 different countries — at least in terms of countries where players who scored in the NBA this season were born. For the first time in NBA history, players from one country other than the U.S. combined to score more than 15,000 points; Canadian players scored 15,588 this season, led by Gilgeous-Alexander, the first scoring champion from that country.
Gilgeous-Alexander is favored to be MVP this season. It'll be either him or Jokic, which means it'll be a seventh consecutive year with an international MVP for the NBA. Antetokounmpo won twice, then Jokic won three of the next four, with Cameroon-born Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers winning two seasons ago.
“Shai is in the category of you do not stop him,” Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic said after a game between the Raptors and Thunder this season.
In other words, he's like a lot of other international guys now. Nobody truly stops Jokic, Antetokounmpo and Doncic either.
And this season brought another international first: Doncic finished atop the NBA's most popular jersey list, meaning NBAStore.com sold more of his jerseys than they did anyone else's. Sure, that was bolstered by Doncic changing jerseys midseason when he was traded by Dallas to the Los Angeles Lakers, but it still is significant.
The Slovenian star is the first international player to finish atop the most popular jerseys list — and the first player other than Stephen Curry or LeBron James to hold that spot in more than a decade, since soon-to-be-enshrined Basketball Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony did it when he was with New York in 2012-13.
“We’re so small, we have 2 million people. But really, our sport is amazing,” fellow Slovene Ajsa Sivka said when she was drafted by the WNBA's Chicago Sky on Monday night and asked about Doncic and other top Slovenian athletes. “No matter what sport, we have at least someone that’s great in it. I’m just really proud to be Slovenian.”
All this comes at a time where the NBA is more serious than perhaps ever before about growing its international footprint. Last month, FIBA — the sport's international governing body — and the NBA announced a plan to partner on a new European basketball league that has been taking shape for many years. The initial target calls for a 16-team league and it potentially could involve many of the biggest franchise names in Europe, such as Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City.
It was a season where four players topped 2,000 points in the NBA and three of them were international with Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic and Antetokounmpo. Globally, time spent watching NBA League Pass was up 6% over last season. More people watched NBA games in France this season than ever before, even with Wembanyama missing the final two months. NBA-related social media views in Canada this season set records, and league metrics show more fans than ever were watching in the Asia-Pacific region — already a basketball hotbed — as well.
FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis said the numbers — which are clearly being fueled by the continued international growth — suggest the game is very strong right now.
“Looking around the world, and of course here in North America," Zagklis said, "the NBA is most popular and more commercially successful than ever.”