There is ton of college basketball being played this week, but when this week is over, will have enough information to process and start thinking about conference play, which actually starts (a little bit) next week.
— I took a look at the last 10 Maui Classics that were actually played in Hawai’i (because of the pandemic, there were two that were not). Here is what I found out…….
Last 10 teams to win the Maui Classic in Maui, six of them made the Elite 8 in March. The last two years, Purdue/Auburn made the Final Four after winning a title in Maui.
2023 Arizona Wildcats were only one of last 10 Maui champs to lose in NCAA first round. Notre Dame’s 2017 team won the Maui Classic, didn’t make it to the NCAA’s.
Last 10 teams to lose the Maui Classic in Maui, only two teams made the Elite 8 and both of them lost their Elite 8 game.
Three of last 10 teams to lose the Maui Classic final in Maui also lost their first round NCAA game.
— Tennessee 76, Houston 73
Vols avenge their loss to Houston in last year’s Elite 8.
Houston led this game by 11, midway thru the first half.
Tennessee shot 55.9% inside the arc.
This was a very good game, seemed like a March game.
— USC 83, Seton Hall 81
Seton Hall led by 13 late in the first half.
USC was 31-38 on the foul line, Pirates 12-18.
Ezra Ausar was 15-19 on line; he took more FT’s than Seton Hall’s whole team.
— Arizona State 100, Washington State 94
Coogs led 48-42 at halftime, led by 11 early in second half.
ASU shot 66.7% inside arc, scored 1.41 points/possession.
Sun Devils play USC in the Maui Classic title game Wednesday.
— Cal 80, UCLA 72
Great win for a Golden Bears squad that has had eight straight losing seasons.
UCLA led this game 41-36 at halftime.
Cal made 11 of 22 shots on the arc
Cal is 7-1 this year, but this is only their second top 200 win, first top 100 win.
— Gonzaga 100, Maryland 61
Zags are 7-0 already, with five wins over top 90 teams.
Clemson/Gonzaga apparently have the oldest rotations, chronologically.
Looks like Gonzaga-Michigan is a very interesting addition to Wednesday’s schedule.
— St John’s 96, Baylor 81
Johnnies scored 1.33 points/possession, shot 11-22 on the arc.
Baylor out-rebounded St John’s 48-34; Bears only played seven guys.
Both teams play Wednesday, but this Players’ Era tournament is weird, so they haven’t said who is playing who when.
— Michigan 102, Auburn 72
Wolverines scored 1.44 points/possession, led 59-31 at halftime.
Auburn shot only 31.6% inside the arc.
Michigan is 4-0, vs a difficult schedule (#33) early on.
— George Mason 74, Florida Atlantic 65
Patriots of the A-14 are 7-0 this year; they were 27-9 last year. So far this year, Mason has played schedule #309 at a slow pace (#334)- they have the #26 eFG% defense in country. They only play one top 100 team before New Year’s, when they visit Virginia Tech January 6th.
— Famous birthdays, November 26th:
Jan Stenerud, 83
Art Shell, 79
Roger Wehrli, 78
Richie Hebner, 78
Harry Carson, 72
Bob Walk, 69
Mike Moore, 66
Harold Reynolds, 65
Chuck Finley, 63
Mario Elie, 62
Shawn Kemp, 56
Cal Raleigh, 29
— St Louis Cardinals traded P Sonny Gray to the Red Sox Tuesday, for P Brandon Clarke and P Richard Fitts. Red Sox also get $20M to pay off some of Gray’s hefty contract.
36-year old Gray was 14-8 with a 4.28 ERA last year, making all his starts. He is guaranteed $41M over the next two seasons.
— Apparently there are two pro baseball leagues in Japan, but one of them still doesn’t use the DH- they’re going to, starting in 2027.
— Oklahoma State hired North Texas coach Eric Morris as its new football coach; Morris will stay with North Texas for the rest of the regular season as well as any appearances in the AAC title game and/or College Football Playoff.
Morris was 21-15 in three years at North Texas, 24-18 in three years before that at Incarnate Word. Oklahoma State won a lot under Mike Gundy, finishing in top 20 nine times, but the last two years, Cowboys lost their last 17 conference games.
— Hawai’i’s football team has a 26-year old kicker, a 29-year old punter. The kicker is from Japan; he taught himself how to kick by watching videos on YouTube.
— California fired football coach Justin Wilcox after he went 48-55 over nine years with the Golden Bears; Cal is 6-5 this year, bowl eligible for the third year in a row, but losing to Stanford earned him a pink slip.
Wilcox gets $10.9M as his parting gift.
— Former NBA player/current TV analyst Grant Hill not only owns part of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, he also owns part of the Baltimore Orioles. It must be fun to be really rich.
