The Baylor Bears won their respective tournament, and the Texas Tech Red Raiders look to stay perfect to start the season

College Basketball Report: Week 3

Coty Davis
Nov 26, 2019, 7:30 am
Shaka Smart and Texas are fading fast. Jamie Squire/Getty Images

TEXAS LONGHORNS (5-1)

Last week (1-1): L: Georgetown 82-66, W: California 62-45

This week: Saturday vs. McNeese State

The Longhorns continued their tour of the 2K Empire Classic benefiting Wounded Warrior Project with an 82-66 loss to the Georgetown Hoyas. The 16-point defeat snapped Texas' four-game win streak to open the new season. After allowing the Hoyas to shoot 50.9% from the field, 45.5% from deep, the Longhorns picked up their defense in a win against the California Golden bears, where Cal shot 34.6% from the floor, 20.0% from 3-point range. Following a week in the Big Apple, the Longhorns will return to Austin on Saturday to face off against the McNeese State Cowboys.

TEXAS A&M AGGIES (3-1)

Last week (1-0): W: Troy 56-52

This week: Thursday vs. Harvard

After trailing 25-17 in the first half, the Aggies outscored the Trojans 39-27 in the second half, while shooting 44.4% from the field and forced 10 second-half turnovers to complete a 56-52 victory over Troy Wednesday night. Texas A&M was led by walk-on guard Mark French, who recorded a career-high 12 points in the win. Up next, the Aggies will open their Orlando Invitational on Thursday in a match against the Harvard Crimson.

HOUSTON COUGARS (2-2)

Last week (1-1): W: Rice 97-89, L: Oregon 78-66

This week: Tuesday vs. Houston Baptist

After a heartbreaking loss to BYU, the Houston Cougars opened the week with a tremendous comeback win over their crosstown rival, the Rice Owls. The Cougars trailed by 15-point late in the first half before closing the period on a 13-5 run. To complete their second-half surge, Houston ignited for a 21-1 run late in the second half, which led to a 97-89 victory. Sophomore guard Quentin Grimes scored a career-high 32 points in the win, 21 coming in the second half.

Following the win, the Cougars could not capitalize on the momentum gained, as Houston fell to the No. 11 Oregon Ducks, in a game where they shot 10% from deep in the loss. Next week, the Cougars will return to the Fertitta Center on Tuesday to take on Houston Baptist Huskies.

RICE OWLS (6-3)

Last week (2-2): L: Houston (97-89), W: Milwaukee (75-69), L: Liberty ( 71-59), W: East Carolina (77-69)

This week: None

The Owls week got off to a rocky start after blowing a 15-point lead to the Houston Cougars. They then traveled to the Bahamas to take part in the Islands of the Bahamas Showcase, where the Owls picked up wins against the Milwaukee Panthers (75-69) and the East Carolina Pirates (77-69). In both games, senior guard, Ako Adams, stepped up big averaging 17.0 points on 53.3% shooting on 3-point field goals. However, by picking up a loss Saturday against the Liberty Flames (71-59), the Owls ended the tournament finishing in third place.

BAYLOR BEARS (5-1)

Last week (3-0): W: Ohio Bobcats (76-53), W: Coastal Carolina (77-65), W: Villanova (87-78)

This week: None

The Baylor Bears took part in the Myrtle Beach Invitational over the weekend and dominated their competition. Baylor opened the tournament with wins against the Ohio Bobcats (76-53) and the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers ( 77-65), where they found themselves as underdogs in the championship round against the No. 17 Villanova Wildcats. Behind a 22-point performance from Jared Butler, the Bears defeated Villanova, 87-78, Sunday to win the Myrtle Beach Invitational. After winning the Myrtle Beach Invitational, Baylor is currently riding a five-game week streak heading into the Thanksgiving break.

TCU HORNED FROGS (4-1)

Last week (1-1): W: UC Irvine (59-58), L: Clemson (62-60 OT)

This week: Tuesday vs Wyoming

The TCU Men's Basketball team had back-to-back nail-biting games that ended on both sides of the spectrum. Sophomore guard, RJ Nembhard scored a game-winning 3-pointer with 3.7 seconds left to give the Horned Frogs a 59-58 victory over UC Irvine. Nembhard ended the night with a game-high 20 points while shooting 5-for-9 from deep. Unfortunately, TCU opened its MGM Resorts Main Event tournament losing in an overtime thriller to the Clemson Tigers, where they blew a 15-point lead in a 62-60 loss Sunday night. TCU will end their tournament against Wyoming on Tuesday.

TEXAS TECH RED RAIDERS (5-0)

Last week: (2-0) W: Tennessee State (72-57), W: Long Island (96-66)

This week: Thursday vs Iowa

The Texas Tech Red Raiders are hot to start the season and are showing no signs of slowing down.

The Red Raiders opened the Las Vegas Classic Regional Round with a 72-57 victory over the Tennessee State Tigers and a 96-66 win over the Long Island Sharks. Freshman guard, Jahmi'us Ramsey, maybe on the verge of taking home the award as the tournament's Most Valuable Player, as he scored 27 points while shooting 10-for-16 from the field, 5-for-6 from deep in a win over the Sharks.

Following a strong start, Texas Tech will continue their Las Vegas Classic tournament on Thursday in a Thanksgiving showdown against the Iowa Hawkeyes.

SMU MUSTANGS (5-0)

Last week (2-0): W: Evansville 59-57, W: UNLV 72-68

This week: Wednesday vs. Hartford, Friday vs Abilene Christian

Last week, the Mustangs continued their winning ways in a 59-57 nail-biter against the Evansville Purple Aces. Juinor guard Tyson Jolly helped SMU escaped with a narrow victory with 15 points, seven rebounds and a block. The Mustangs later extended their winning streak to five, in a 72-68 win over the UNLV Rebels in Las Vegas. SMU will return to Dallas to begin a four-game homestand, which begins against the Hartford Hawks on Wednesday, and the Abilene Christian Wildcats on Friday.

LSU TIGERS (4-2)

Last week (2-1): W: UMBC (77-50), L: Utah St. (80-78), W: Rhode Island (96-83)

This week: Friday vs Missouri St.

The LSU Tigers opened the week with a blowout victory over the UMBC Retrievers before things got testy during the Jamaica Classic. The Tigers suffered a heartbreaking 80-78 loss on Friday when LSU fell to the Utah St. Aggie. The late-game heroics by Utah's Sam Merrill was enough to overcome a 30-point performance by LSU's Skylar Mays. The Tigers bounced back after the loss in a 96-83 victory over the Rhode Island Rams on Sunday. LSU will return to the court on Friday to take on Missouri St. inside the Maravich Center in Baton Rouge, La.

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THE LEFT TURN

NASCAR: Quaker State 400 preview

Photo via: WikiCommons.

This week, the NASCAR cup series heads to Kentucky Motor Speedway for the Quaker State 400. Built in 2001, this track is a 1.5 mile tri-oval with a dog-leg on the front stretch. The most dangerous part of the track has to be turn three as the corner is flat compared to the other three corners that are banked. This has been a major point of contingency for these drivers as most of the cautions end up being there. Look for turn three to be a hot spot come Sunday. Last year, both the Busch brothers finished 1-2 in one of the most exciting finishes of the season so there will be a lot of hype for this race to live up to.

Last week at Indy, as we all expected the race was a crazy one. Over the course of the race's 160 laps, we saw many horrific accidents including a scary pit road accident involving Corey Lajoe, Ryan Blaney, Justin Allgier, Ryan Preece and others. The wreck started when everyone got stacked up entering the pits and the calamity was on from there. During the wreck Brennan Poole struck Rear Tire Changer Zach Price as he was trying to avoid the wrecking cars in front of him. After the incident fans and media alike all held their breath as they awaited news on his condition. But when the camera panned to him being loaded into the ambulance, there was a huge sigh of relief as he gave everyone a thumbs up signifying he was okay. Another scary moment was both Erik Jones and Alex Bowman's vicious crashes. Both cars had tire failures that sent their cars directly into the wall. Fortunately both drivers were okay but their days were over.

In the end, tire wear would end up claiming one more victim as it took out Denny Hamlin as well. With seven laps to go, the four-time winner this season was in prime position to get his fifth victory until his right front tire blew out, sending him hard into the turn 2 wall. This mishap handed the win to his main rival in the championship, Kevin Harvick, as he went on to claim his third Brickyard 400 victory and fourth win of the year. When it was all over, many questioned why there were so many tire failures and if new owner Roger Penske would make an effort to possibly widen the pit-road after the massive accident on Sunday.

Needless to say, there are a lot of questions on what will be different at Indy in 2021. When I talked to spotter Freddie Kraft on Tuesday, he gave a lot of good insights on both topics. When it came to the tire failures, he talked about how the increasing corner speeds at the racetrack has put a lot of pressure on these Goodyear tires which eventually led to them coming apart. As far as Pit-Road and what they can do to fix that, he talked about how it is difficult to make changes to a track that is so historical. Which makes sense, but he followed this up by saying that maybe it would be wise to give up a little history and move the wall over and make it wider. It will be interesting to see what NASCAR does in the coming months.

On Friday, Associated Press journalist Jenna Fryer revealed a bombshell announcement that 7-time champion and NASCAR's biggest name Jimmie Johnson, had tested positive for coronavirus. As everyone knows, the world is going through the worst pandemic it's ever faced in this lifetime. With the sport coming back and racing again, it was only a matter of time until one of the drivers came down with it. Unfortunately it had to be NASCAR's most recognizable driver. Thankfully, Jimmie made a full recovery and was cleared to return this weekend at Kentucky. This was a big scare for everyone in the NASCAR world, but I have to give a lot of credit to Johnson for being as forthright as he was about his diagnosis with everyone who he works with. It will be good to have Jimmie back on Sunday.

The driver that I have winning this weekend is Kyle Busch. While this season has been a disappointment for the defending champion, Kentucky would be a great place for him to turn it around. Ever since the cup series has started going there, Kyle has always been in contention to win. In fact, he won the first cup series race that was run at this track back in 2011. In his nine starts there, Kyle has finished outside the top ten only once and even then he finished 12th, back in 2016. Last season it appeared that Kyle was on his way to a third victory at this track, but he came up one spot short to his brother Kurt in a fantastic last lap duel. After a late race restart this weekend though, I see Kyle redeeming himself and capturing his first victory of 2020. Look for Kyle to get back on track come Sunday.


All stats and information used in this article are brought to you by the good folks at driveraverages.com and Racing-Reference.com, the best websites for all NASCAR stats.
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