COLLEGE BASKETBALL REPORT
NCAA hoops: Texas Tech keeps rolling along; A&M bounces back
Feb 5, 2018, 2:55 am
Keenan Evans and Tech went 2-0 last week. Texastech.com
TEXAS LONGHORNS (15-8, 5-5 BIG XII)
Last week (1-1): L-@ Texas Tech 73-71 OT, W-Oklahoma 79-74
This week: Wednesday vs. Kansas State, Saturday @ TCU
Texas had a chance to make this a massive week, but it started with them coming up just short on the road against the top-10 ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders. Keenan Evans hit a shot at the buzzer to give Tech the 73-71 victory in overtime. The game had two consistent factors throughout: Evans was going to be amazing and the Horns were going to struggle from the line. In a tightly called game that saw 52 foul whistles, the Horns shot only 13-of-26 from the charity stripe in the loss. Kerwin Roach led the Horns in scoring with 20, while Mohamed Bamba had a 12 point, 10 rebound, 7 block performance. Texas was back at home on Saturday to face Oklahoma and their freshman sensation, Trae Young, who came in averaging over 30 points per game. Luckily for Texas, Young wasn’t himself, and scored only 19 on 7-of-22 shooting. The Sooners struggled from 3-point range, going only 3-of-22 from deep. Freshman Matt Coleman led the Horns with 22 points in the win. Texas gets a solid Kansas State squad at home before hitting the road again to face TCU.
TEXAS A&M AGGIES (15-8, 4-6 SEC)
Last week (2-0): W-Arkansas 80-66, W-South Carolina 83-60
This week: Wednesday @ Auburn, Saturday vs. Kentucky
Texas A&M, on life support a week ago, may have taken a breath this week. They started out with a dominant win over Arkansas, 80-66. The Aggies took advantage of an Arkansas team that struggles mightily on the road, led by freshman point guard TJ Starks, who put up 16 points and 5 assists in the win. All five Aggies were in double digits scoring, and as a team they dominated the glass by a 45-30 margin. The Aggies kept the momentum going against South Carolina, getting another balanced offensive attack in an 83-60 victory. Admon Gilder led the Ags with 15 and Robert Williams was perfect from the field en route to an 11 point, 9 rebound, 5 block performance. The Aggies were brilliant defensively, holding the Gamecocks under 28% shooting for the day. This week will be huge for A&M’s tourney hopes, as they have a trip to Auburn and a home game with Kentucky on the schedule.
HOUSTON COUGARS (17-5, 7-3 AAC)
Last week (1-1): L-@ Cincinnati 80-70, W-@ UCF 69-65
This week: Thursday vs. SMU, Sunday vs. Tulane
Houston looked on its way to a massive road win that would have broken the nation’s longest home winning streak and all but locked up a bit in March Madness, but a furious Cincinnati comeback knocked the Cougars off by a score of 80-70. The Cougars led by 18 points in the 1st half, but gave nearly all of that lead away before halftime. Rob Gray, who led the AAC in scoring with 18.7 points per game, struggled to 9 points on 4-of-15 shooting. Corey Davis, Jr. led the Cougars with 18 points. Gray bounced back on Saturday, scoring 20 in a 69-65 win at Central Florida. UCF pushed for a comeback in the second half, but the Coogs stiffened late and held off the charge. The Cougars are back at home against SMU and Tulane this week.
RICE OWLS (5-18, 2-8 CUSA)
Last week (0-1): L-@ North Texas 74-70
This week: Thursday @ Middle Tennessee, Saturday vs. UAB
Rice lost its only game of the week, dropping a 74-70 decision at North Texas. Rice led by nine with under 9 minutes to play, but couldn’t hold off the Mean Green. Once again, turnovers were the culprit, as the Owls had a -10 turnover margin. Connor Cashaw led the Owls with 18 points in the loss. Rice will hit the road to take on conference-leading Middle Tennessee before returning home to take on UAB.
BAYLOR BEARS (13-10, 3-7 BIG XII)
Last week (1-1): L-@ Oklahoma 98-96, W-Iowa State 81-67
This week: Tuesday @ Oklahoma State, Saturday vs. Kansas
Baylor had no answer for Trae Young, and the freshman scored 44 points in a 98-96 Oklahoma win. Manu Lecomte was strong for Baylor in the loss, scoring 29 points including seven 3-pointers. Nuni Omot was 6-of-6 from deep for the Bears as part of his 23 points. Young dominated though, including a 16 of 19 performance from the free throw line. He also had nine assists for the Sooners. Baylor was able to snap their four game losing streak against Iowa State, taking an 81-67 win over the Cyclones. Terry Maston led the Bears with a career-high 23 points in the win. The game was back and forth in the first half, but Baylor took control in the second half and never looked back. After the 3-point shot was so kind to Baylor against Oklahoma, it failed them against Iowa State. The Bears had to focus their attack on the inside, as they shot only 2-14 from deep. The Bears travel to Oklahoma State in search of their first road win of the season this week before heading back home to take on Kansas.
TCU HORNED FROGS (16-7, 4-6 BIG XII)
Last week (1-1): W-@Oklahoma State 79-66, L-Texas Tech 83-71
This week: Tuesday @ Kansas, Saturday vs. Texas
The Horned Frogs picked up their second road win of the season, and their first since Jan. 2, with a 79-66 win at Oklahoma State on Tuesday. The Frogs shot the lights out, going 56% from the field and 67% from distance in the win. Kenrich Williams and Alex Robinson led the Frogs with 13 points each in the win, and TCU had five players in double digits for the game. The good fortune did not follow the Horned Frogs home, as they were blown off the court by Texas Tech 83-71. The final score was closer than the game. The Frogs trailed by 24 at half and were never close in the 2nd half. Vladimir Brodziansky led TCU with 18 points and 3 blocks in the loss. TCU will likely have 3 more shots to get a road win over a ranked team, and the first chance comes Tuesday at Kansas. The Frogs go home on Saturday to take on Texas.
TEXAS TECH RED RAIDERS (19-4, 7-3 BIG XII)
Last week (2-0): W-Texas 73-71 (OT), W-@ TCU 83-71
This week: Wednesday vs. Iowa State, Saturday @ Kansas State
Texas Tech has worked its way into a 1st place tie in the Big 12 with another 2-0 week. The Raiders started off with a 73-71 overtime win over Texas that was essentially the Keenan Evans show. Evans had a career high 38 points on 9-13 shooting and 18-20 free throw shooting in the victory. He also hit the game winner as time expired in overtime. No other player for the Red Raiders had more than 3 made field goals in the win. The Raiders kept their momentum rolling against TCU, taking an 83-71 win over the Frogs. Evans put up 17 in the win, and Jarrett Culver led the Red Raiders with 20. Texas Tech gets Big 12 cellar-dweller Iowa State at home before hitting the road to take on Kansas State.
SMU MUSTANGS (15-8, 5-8 AAC)
Last week (0-1): L-@ Tulsa 76-67
This week: Thursday @ Houston, Sunday vs. Cincinnati
SMU played just once this week, and suffered a damaging blow, falling 76-67 at Tulsa. SMU played without Shake Milton, and struggled from the field without him, shooting 38% from the field and 33% from three. Ben Emelogu led the Mustangs in scoring, putting up 24 points in the loss. The Mustangs find themselves firmly on the bubble for March, and have a rough week ahead of them with a road trip to Houston and a home game against Cincinnati.
LSU TIGERS (13-9, 4-6 SEC)
Last week (1-1): L-@ Tennessee 84-61, W-Arkansas 94-86
This week: Wednesday @ Florida, Saturday vs. Ole Miss
LSU lost for the fifth time in six games, dropping an 84-61 game at Tennessee. LSU suspended two players before the game, and had only seven scholarship players available. Duop Reath led the Tigers with 21 points. Tremont Waters struggled mightily, going only 1-of-9 from the field in the loss. The Tigers were only 3-19 from long range in the game. Waters was much better against Arkansas, putting up 27 in a 94-68 LSU win. The 3-point shooting woes were gone at home as well, as the Tigers hit 15-30 from deep against the Razorbacks. LSU gets a road trip to Florida and a home matchup against Ole Miss in the coming week.
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After finishing up with the Guardians the Astros have a rather important series for early May with the Seattle Mariners heading to town for the weekend. While it’s still too early to be an absolute must-win series for the Astros, losing the series to drop seven or eight games off the division lead would make successfully defending their American League West title that much more unlikely.
Since their own stumble out of the gate to a 6-10 record the Mariners have been racking up series wins, including one this week over the Atlanta Braves. The M’s offense is largely Mmm Mmm Bad, but their pitching is sensational. In 18 games after the 6-10 start, the Mariners gave up five runs in a game once. In the other 17 games they only gave up four runs once. Over the 18 games their starting pitchers gave up 18 earned runs total with a 1.44 earned run average. That’s absurd. Coming into the season Seattle’s starting rotation was clearly better on paper than those of the Astros and Texas Rangers, and it has crystal clearly played out as such into the second month of the schedule.
While it’s natural to focus on and fret over one’s own team's woes when they are plentiful as they have been for the Astros, a reminder that not all grass is greener elsewhere. Alex Bregman has been awful so far. So has young Mariners’ superstar Julio Rodriguez. A meager four extra base hits over his first 30 games were all Julio produced down at the ballyard. That the Mariners are well ahead of the Astros with J-Rod significantly underperforming is good news for Seattle.
Caratini comes through!
So it turns out the Astros are allowed to have a Puerto Rican-born catcher who can hit a little bit. Victor Caratini’s pedigree is not that of a quality offensive player, but he has swung the bat well thus far in his limited playing time and provided the most exciting moment of the Astros’ season with his two-out two-run 10th inning game winning home run Tuesday night. I grant that one could certainly say “Hey! Ronel Blanco finishing off his no-hitter has been the most exciting moment.” I opt for the suddenness of Caratini’s blow turning near defeat into instant victory for a team that has been lousy overall to this point. Frittering away a game the Astros had led 8-3 would have been another blow. Instead, to the Victor belong the spoils.
Pudge Rodriguez is the greatest native Puerto Rican catcher, but he was no longer a good hitter when with the Astros for the majority of the 2009 season. Then there’s Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hitting stats with the Astros look Mike Piazza-ian compared to what Jose Abreu was doing this season. Finally, mercifully for all, Abreu is off the roster as he accepts a stint at rookie-level ball in Florida to see if he can perform baseball-CPR on his swing and career. Until or unless he proves otherwise, Abreu is washed up and at some point the Astros will have to accept it and swallow whatever is left on his contract that runs through next season. For now Abreu makes over $120,000 per game to not be on the roster. At his level of performance, that’s a better deal than paying him that money to be on the roster.
Abreu’s seven hits in 71 at bats for an .099 batting average with a .269 OPS is a humiliating stat line. In 2018 George Springer went to sleep the night of June 13 batting .293 after going hitless in his last four at bats in a 13-5 Astros’ win over Oakland. At the time no one could have ever envisioned that Springer had started a deep, deep funk which would have him endure a nightmarish six for 78 stretch at the plate (.077 batting average). Springer then hit .293 the rest of the season.
Abreu’s exile opened the door for Joey Loperfido to begin his Major League career. Very cool for Loperfido to smack a two-run single in his first game. He also struck out twice. Loperfido will amass whiffs by the bushel, he had 37 strikeouts in 101 at bats at AAA Sugar Land. Still, if he can hit .225 with some walks mixed in (he drew 16 with the Space Cowboys) and deliver some of his obvious power (13 homers in 25 games for the ex-Skeeters) that’s an upgrade over Abreu/Jon Singleton, as well as over Jake Meyers and the awful showing Chas McCormick has posted so far. Frankly, it seems unwise that the Astros only had Loperfido play seven games at first base in the minors this year. If McCormick doesn’t pick it up soon and with Meyers displaying limited offensive upside, the next guy worth a call-up is outfielder Pedro Leon. In January 2021 the Astros gave Leon four million dollars to sign out of Cuba and called him a “rapid mover to the Major Leagues.” Well…
Over his first three minor league seasons Leon flashed tools but definitely underwhelmed. He has been substantially better so far this year. He turns 26 May 28. Just maybe the Astros offense could be the cause of fewer Ls with Loperfido at first and Leon in center field.
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.