COLLEGE BASKETBALL REPORT
NCAA hoops: Texas Tech keeps rolling with monster week that includes a win over Kansas
Jan 8, 2018, 1:15 am
Keenan Evans #12 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders shoots over Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk #10 of the Kansas Jayhawks during the game at Allen Fieldhouse on January 2, 2018 in Lawrence, Kansas. Jamie Squire/Getty Images
TEXAS LONGHORNS (10-5, 1-2 BIG XII)
Last week (0-1): L-@Baylor 69-60
This week: Wednesday vs. TCU, Saturday @ Oklahoma State
Texas fell to the Baylor Bears on Saturday, 69-60, dropping them to 1-2 in the Big 12. The Horns resorted to the poor shooting that haunted them all last season, and at times this year, shooting 34% from the field. Jase Fabrese led the Horns with 18 points, all in the 1st half. Star freshman Mohamed Bamba added 15 points and 9 rebounds. The Horns get TCU at home and travel to Oklahoma State this week.
TEXAS A&M AGGIES (11-4, 0-3 SEC)
Last week (0-2): L-Florida 83-66, L-LSU 69-68
This week: Tuesday @ Kentucky, Saturday @ Tennessee
Texas A&M was missing three starters going into their matchup with Florida, and without Admon Gilder (knee), Duane Wilson (knee) and leading scorer D.J. Hogg (suspension), they didn’t stand much of a chance against the Gators. The Aggies were hammered for the second straight time, losing 83-66 to Florida despite a healthy rebounding edge and only 1 free throw attempt for the Gators. Jay Jay Chandler scored 17 to lead the Aggies in the loss. The Aggies struggled defending the outside, as the Gators went 17-28 from distance. Things didn’t go much better against LSU on Saturday, with the Aggies again missing three starters. Tyler Davis led the Aggies with 19 points and 12 rebounds, but also committed a team-high 6 turnovers. The Aggies have now lost 3 straight and hit the road this week to take on ranked Kentucky and Tennessee.
HOUSTON COUGARS (12-3, 2-1 AAC)
Last week (0-1): L-@ Wichita State 81-63
This week: Thursday vs. Tulsa, Sunday @ East Carolina
Houston has established themselves firmly on the strong side of the AAC contenders, but it is clear the gap between “strong” and “the best” is still pretty wide. UH got rolled by Wichita State 81-63 on Thursday night, in a game they trailed by 32 at one point. Wichita started 9 of 11 from 3-point range, and never looked back. Zach Brown, whose mother played volleyball for UH, held Houston’s Rob Gray to only 13 points, well below his season average of 19. The Cougars shot only 4 of 15 from 3 in the game. Next week things stay tough with a Thursday matchup against conference-leading Tulsa and a Sunday road trip to East Carolina.
RICE OWLS (4-13, 1-3 CUSA)
Last week (1-1): L-Old Dominion 82-75(OT), W-Charlotte 73-64
This week: Saturday vs. North Texas
Rice fought hard to make their matchup with Old Dominion competitive, and they were able do take the Monarchs into overtime, but eventually fell 82-75. Robert Martin’s 17 points led the Owls and Connor Cashaw added 16. The Owls didn’t score for the first 4:12 of overtime. Rice rolled the respectable showing against Old Dominion into a win against Charlotte, taking Saturday’s game 73-64. Ako Adams led the Owls with 20 points and freshman Malik Osborne added 18 in the win, snapping a 7-game losing streak.
BAYLOR BEARS (11-4, 1-2 BIG XII)
Last week (1-1): L-TCU 81-78(OT), W-Texas 69-60
This week: Tuesday @ West Virginia, Saturday @ Iowa State
Baylor came up just short at home in one of the best games of the season, falling 81-78 in overtime to TCU on Tuesday. Jo-Lual Acuil led Baylor with 28 points and 11 rebounds in the loss. His return from injury made a massive difference, particularly on the glass. The Bears out rebounded the Frogs 45-34. Terry Mason also added 20 and 9 in defeat. They avoided an 0-3 start to conference play with a 69-60 win over Texas on Saturday. Manu Lecomte and Jo Lual-Acuil both had 17 points in the win. The Bears got 23 points off the bench to the Longhorns’ 9. Baylor hits the road this week, with trips to West Virginia and Iowa State on the schedule.
TCU HORNED FROGS (13-2, 1-2 BIG XII)
Last week (1-1): W-@ Baylor 81-78, L-Kansas 88-84
This week: Wednesday @ Texas, Saturday @ Oklahoma
TCU bounced back from their first loss of the season to get an overtime win over Baylor, 81-78. TCU beat Baylor for the first time since joining the Big XII, having dropped the previous 11 matchups. Vladimir Brodziansky led the way for the Frogs with 18 points, including the go-ahead 3-pointer in overtime. All five starters for TCU hit double digit scoring in the game. The Frogs then gave Kansas all they could handle, but eventually fell to the Jayhawks 88-84 on Saturday. Fouls cost TCU in this game, as they sent Kansas to the free throw line 33 times in the game. Brodziansky led the Horned Frogs with 20 points and Jaylen Fisher added 18 in the loss. The Horned Frogs travel this week, with road games at Texas and Oklahoma.
TEXAS TECH RED RAIDERS (14-1, 3-0 BIG XII)
Last week (2-0): W-Kansas 85-73, W-Kansas State 74-58
This week: Tuesday @ Oklahoma, Saturday vs. West Virginia
Texas Tech got the biggest win of the Chris Beard era, drubbing Kansas 85-73 to give the Red Raiders their first win at Allen Fieldhouse in school history. Tech continues to ride a strong defense, particularly on the perimeter, where they held Kansas to 6-26 from 3-point range. The Raiders dominated the glass, 44-29, and got 42 points off the bench. Keenan Evans led Tech with 15 in the win. Evans was strong again against Kansas State, as his 27 paced the Red Raiders in a 74-58 win to push Tech to 3-0 in conference play. Tech shot an impressive 59% from the field in the win. Texas Tech gets two top-10 opponents this week, going to Oklahoma on Tuesday before returning to Lubbock for a weekend battle against West Virginia.
SMU MUSTANGS (12-5, 2-2 AAC)
Last week (0-2): L-@ Tulane 73-70, L-@ Cincinnati 76-56
This week: Wednesday vs. Temple
Rough week for the Ponies. SMU dropped a 73-70 nail-biter to Tulane on Thursday night, despite getting a strong 24 point, 6 rebound effort from Shake Milton. You could argue Tulane won the game at the free throw line, as they hit 18 of 20 from the stripe in the game, including 4 in the last 20 seconds of the game. SMU was 15-22 from the charity stripe. There were no nails to bite Sunday against Cincinnati. The Bearcats stomped SMU 76-56 on a night where the Mustangs shot 35% from the field and turned the ball over 18 times. SMU will look to get back in the win column as they return home to face Temple this week.
LSU TIGERS (10-4, 1-1 SEC)
Last week (1-1): L-Kentucky 74-71, W-Texas A&M 69-68
This week: Wednesday @ Arkansas, Saturday vs. Alabama
LSU lost a heartbreaker to Kentucky, 74-71 on Wednesday night. The Tigers actually led by 5 at halftime, and had two late three-point attempts to tie it, both which were off. In fact, the stroke from deep was a problem all night, as LSU shot just 6 of 24 from deep. Duop Reath led the Tigers with 24 points and 11 rebounds, while Tremont Waters added 18 and 11. After nearly shocking the world against Kentucky, LSU actually did pull the upset over Texas A&M, taking a 69-68 win over the shorthanded Aggies. Waters scored 21 in the win, including a game winning 3 that dropped with 1 second left on the clock. LSU’s defensive strides are making them a team to watch in the SEC. The Tigers travel to Arkansas before a weekend home game with Alabama.
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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 a 4-8 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.