College Basketball Week In Review
A&M struggling; Baylor heating up
Feb 5, 2019, 8:01 am
Billy Kennedy's Aggies are struggling. Getty Images
TEXAS LONGHORNS (12-10) 4-5 Big XII
Last week (1-1): W- Kansas 73-63, L- @ Iowa State 65-60
This week: Wednesday vs. Baylor, Saturday @ West Virginia
Texas knew they needed a big week to remain in contention for a tourney bid, and it started off on the right foot with a 73-63 win over Kansas. The Horns hadn't won a game against Kansas since 2014. Defense carried the Horns in the first half, and offense in the endgame. Dylan Osetkowski put up 16 in the win, and Kerwin Roach added 15. Jace Febres hit 4 3-pointers, all seemingly at a point where Kansas was poised to make a real run to get back in the game. Texas followed that up with a strong effort at Iowa State, but fell short, 65-60. Roach led the way offensively, scoring 19 in the loss. Texas struggled from distance, hitting only 6-23 from long range. Texas, down by as many as 14 points, cut the Cyclone lead to 1 with under 2 minutes left, but couldn't get over the hump. The Horns get Baylor and West Virginia this week.
TEXAS A&M AGGIES (8-12) 1-7 SEC
Last week (0-2): L- LSU 72-57, L- Tennessee 93-76
This week: Wednesday @ Ole Miss, Saturday @ Mizzou
The woes continue for Texas A&M, with a two-loss week. They started off getting blown out 72-57 by LSU. The Aggies struggled to put anything together offensively outside of TJ Starks, who scored 21 points despite going 2-10 from 3. The Aggies shot 14% from distance as a team, and only 33% from the field. Those numbers, compounded by 16 turnovers, made for a long night. The Aggies then took on the number 1 team in the country, falling 93-76 to Tennessee. Different story, same result in this one as the Aggies woes came on the defensive end in this one. Tennessee shot 65% from the field and 45% from 3-point range in the game. Wendell Mitchell had 18 for the Aggies in defeat. Texas A&M gets Ole Miss and Mizzou on the road this week.
HOUSTON COUGARS (21-1) 8-1 American
Last week (1-0): W- Temple 73-66
This week: Wednesday @ UCF, Saturday vs. Cincinnati
Houston got its revenge. The Cougars got back their only loss of the season, taking down Temple 73-66. Defense won the day for UH, holding Temple to just 34 percent shooting. Corey Davis, Jr. led the offensive attack for the Cougars with 24 points in the win. There was a massive discrepancy in free throws, with Temple shooting 14 and UH taking 36. The coming week is clearly the toughest run of schedule for Houston, with a road game against third place UCF and a home game against the conference co-leader Cincinnati.
RICE OWLS (9-14) 4-6 CUSA
Last week (1-1): W- @ Charlotte 65-61, L- UAB 89-86
This week: Wednesday vs. Western Kentucky, Sunday vs. Marshall
Rice did something they haven't done much this season, winning a game on the road, 65-61 at Charlotte. The Owls weren't great, shooting just 38% from the field and turning the ball over 15 times, but the 3-point shooting puled them through. Rice hit 11-22 from distance, including 3 from Ako Adams, who led the Owls with 16 points. They followed that up with a valiant effort that came up just short, falling to conference-leading Old Dominion 80-76. This time it was the opposition getting hot from deep. ODU shot 57 percent from 3-point range in the game. Adams struggled, shooting just 3-10 from the field. The Owls were paced by freshman Chris Mullins' 14 points. Rice is back at home this week for games against Western Kentucky and Marshall.
BAYLOR BEARS (15-6) 6-2 Big XII
Last week (1-0): W- TCU 90-64
This week: Wednesday @ Texas, Saturday vs. Kansas State
Baylor is making their case for being the team to beat in the Big XII. They only played one game this week, but made a statement, destroying TCU 90-64. Makai Mason had a career night, scoring 40 points in the victory. Mason was 14-20 from the field, and hit 9-12 3-pointers. The Bears pulled away early and never looked back. Rebounding was a key factor for Baylor, as they had a 40-26 advantage on the boards. The win was Baylor's 6th straight. Baylor has Texas and Kansas State this week.
TCU HORNED FROGS (15-6) 3-5 Big XII
Last week (0-1): L- @ Baylor 90-64
This week: Wednesday vs. Oklahoma State, Saturday @ Iowa State
Like Baylor, the TCU-Baylor matchup was the only one this week for the Frogs. Baylor dominated TCU 90-64. TCU shot just 4-14 from 3, and were dominated statistically in basically every metric. Senior JD Miller had 17 to pace the Frogs. Desmond Bane, who the Horned Frogs need to get a boost from, was on the floor for 30 minutes, but held to just 5 points and 2 rebounds. TCU will look to get things back on track with a game against Oklahoma State followed by a road trip to Iowa State.
TEXAS TECH RED RAIDERS (18-5) 6-4 Big XII
Last week (1-1): L- @ Kansas 79-63, W- West Virginia 81-50
This week: Saturday @ Oklahoma
Texas Tech continued its struggles away from Lubbock, dropping a 79-63 decision at Kansas. Tech was down by 20 at halftime, and never recovered from the slow start. Tech's defense wasn't itself, as the Jayhawks shot 46% from the field and 43% from 3-point range. Davide Moretti led the Red Raiders with 14 points in the loss. Tariq Owens had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Things got better back at home, with an 81-50 drubbing of West Virginia. The defense was back on track, with WVU shooting only 23% from the field (9-39). The Raiders also forced 26 turnovers. There was an ugly moment where WVU reserve Logan Routt tripped Matt Mooney from the bench and was ejected. Brandone Francis led the Red Raiders in scoring with 16. Texas Tech has just one game this week, a road game against Oklahoma.
SMU MUSTANGS (12-9) 4-5 American
Last week (0-2): L- @ Wichita State 85-83, L- @ Cincinnati 73-68
This week: Wednesday vs. USF, Sunday vs. UCF
SMU dropped a heartbreaker at Wichita State, 85-83. Samajae Haynes-Jones hit a game winning layup for Wichita with 1 second to play in a game that SMU led for the majority. Isiaha Mike led the Mustangs with 25 in the loss. All 5 starters for SMU were in double digits, which was good because their bench was outscored 15-0. The Ponies then went to Cincinnati, where they lost a tightly contested 73-68 game to the Bearcats. Again, the Mustangs got good output from their starting lineup, but saw their reserves outscored 20-1. Jahmal McMurray led the way for SMU, scoring 21 in defeat. SMU is back at home this week against South Florida and Central Florida.
LSU TIGERS (17-4) 7-1 SEC
Last week (1-1): W- @ Texas A&M 72-57, L- Arkansas 90-89
This week: Wednesday @ Mississippi State, Saturday vs. Auburn
LSU started off with a dominant road win over Texas A&M, 72-57. It didn't exactly come easy for the Tigers, who shot just 37% from the field. Naz Reid, Marlon Taylor and Skylar Mays shot just 6-31 combined, but Tremont Waters dominated. Waters had 38 points and 5 rebounds for the Tigers, essentially carrying them single-handedly to a win. LSU then dropped their first SEC game of the season, 90-89 against Arkansas. LSU missed 3 chances at a game winner. LSU dominated the boards 44-20, but Arkansas hit 58% from the field and 54% from 3. LSU turned the ball over 21 times. Nad Reid led the Tigers with 19 in the loss. LSU has a road game at Mississippi State and a home game against Auburn this week.
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No, we have not been transported back in time to 2012 and are again stuck with an atrocity of an Astros team heading for well over 100 losses. I’m pretty sure anyway, even though the Astros are in our nation’s capital for the weekend looking so far this season about as dysfunctional as the federal government often seems to be. At 6-14 this is a dung heap of a squad to this point. The Astros are two and a half games behind the A’s! The rightfully heralded back end of the bullpen has already lost four games the Astros have led after six innings. They are 5-4 in games they led after six, which is awful.
Last season the Astros were a good team, not close to a great team. The 2023 Astros finished 72-6 in games they led after six. Then there’s the offense which has some nice raw stats, but been weak with runners in scoring position (.686 OPS ranks 19th among the 30 Major League teams), weaker with runners in scoring position with two outs (.631 ranks 22nd), and demonstrated meager come from behind ability. The Astros have zero wins in games they have trailed after six (0-8). They are 0-5 in one-run games. But hey, good thing they kept the roof closed for all six games of another failed homestand. Going back to last season the gruesome ledger over the Astros last 42 home games reads 11 wins 31 losses.
As bad as things have been, those already seeking a priest to administer last rites for this season, chill! Be worried, be angry if you’d like, but chill. At least a little. The Astros are fortunate that no one is off to a great start in the American League West, the worst division in MLB over the season’s first three weeks. Obviously the Astros need to pick it up, or they will wind up dead and buried, but the plug will not be pulled on playoff chances in April. They have stunk, but it is also a fact that over the 20 game flop start, the Astros have played zero games against a team currently carrying a losing record. Furthermore, on the subject of 20 game schedule portions, the Texas Rangers had a 20 game stretch last season over which they went 4-16.
JV returns
41-year-old Justin Verlander will be no savior, but starting his regular season Friday night at the Nationals is certainly a welcome sight. We’ll see when Framber Valdez returns. This is the Astros’ second series in Washington D.C. since sweeping three games there during the 2019 World Series. Then they came home, yada, yada, yada. In the four seasons since, the Astros have been to four more American League Championship series and won it all for the second time in 2022. Since taking down the Astros to win the 2019 Fall Classic, the Nationals have posted four straight last place finishes in the National League East. The Nats are off to an 8-10 start this season.
Altuve has been a bright spot
Once before, Jose Altuve has finished April with his OPS over 1.000. 2016 was the season in which he elevated from star to superstar. Altuve awoke May 1, 2016 batting “only” .305 but with an OPS of 1.011. With nine games left this month the numbers could change markedly, but wow what a start to 2024 for him. Altuve carries a .388 batting average into the weekend with an OPS of 1.137. That’s a whopping 225 points higher than Yordan Alvarez’s second best on the team OPS of .912. Of course Altuve won’t finish batting near .388 but if wondering what’s the target number if a career best is in play, in Altuve’s AL Most Valuable Player Award-winning 2017 season he wound up batting .346 which won his third AL batting title. The under on .346 for this year is the highly likely outcome, but wouldn’t feel totally comfortable emptying out the retirement fund to bet on it.
The Abreu dilemma
Between Manager Joe Espada and General Manager Dana Brown I believe they have blown through their 2024 quota of “look at the back of his baseball card” references to pedantically expect everyone to believe that hapless Jose Abreu will be just fine. Jeff Bagwell has used that line too. Guess what fellas? Take a look at the back of Bagwell’s baseball card. He was an awesome offensive player. Until he wasn’t. Ditto Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, and a multitude of other players greater than Abreu was at his best and better at their worst than this mess Abreu is now. At some point, washed up is washed up.
Here's a plausible Abreu scenario. He comes up with “back problems” and goes to the Injured List. That’s followed by a handful of games with Sugar Land and/or Corpus Christi. Then he rejoins the Astros. If he then resumes performing at or close to the rotting corpse level of performance he’s produced through the first 20 games, then the Astros release him. Obviously, Jim Crane prefers to not cut checks of 35 million dollars to Abreu for him to not play for the Astros. Paying him to continue to play is worse. It’s doubling down on damage.
Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.