Marquette’s Darryl Morsell and Shaka SmartMorry Gash/Associated Press
Portland, Oregon
No. 1 Gonzaga vs. No. 16 Wagner
No. 8 Seton Hall vs. No. 9 Virginia Tech
Portland, Oregon
No. 4 Arizona vs. No. 13 Buffalo
No. 5 Tennessee vs. No. 12 South Dakota State
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
No. 3 Illinois vs. No. 14 New Mexico State
No. 6 USC vs. No. 11 San Diego State
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
No. 2 Villanova vs. No. 15 Iona
No. 7 Ohio State vs. No. 10 Marquette
New to the Field: Marquette Golden Eagles
After six mostly disappointing seasons at Texas, Shaka Smart has something fun brewing once again at his new home with Marquette.
The Golden Eagles lost all five of the leading scorers from a team that went 13-14 last year, but you wouldn’t know it after they started the season 5-0 with wins over Illinois, Ole Miss and West Virginia.
Maryland transfer Darryl Morsell has been unexpectedly outstanding. After shooting 50-of-187 (26.7 percent) from three-point range in his four seasons with the Terrapins, he hit 12-of-21 (57.1 percent) in his first four games with Marquette. George Mason transfer Tyler Kolek has been great at point guard, and Oklahoma transfer Kur Kuath has been a defensive force in the paint.
Little was expected from Marquette in Smart’s first year at the helm, but this team really put the country on notice with that win over the Illini. (Though we’re not penalizing Illinois in our seeding for that game played without potential first-team All-American Kofi Cockburn.)
Stock Up: Arizona Wildcats
Even before beating up on Michigan in the championship of the Roman Main Event on Sunday night, Arizona had gotten out to a great start to the season, thriving both on defense and with fast-paced ball movement on offense.
The Wildcats destroyed Northern Arizona, UT Rio Grande Valley and North Dakota State to start the season, and I mean destroyed. The average score of those three games was 94-49. No big deal for the first two opponents, but beating North Dakota State by 52 was quite the statement. They proceeded to get a nice overtime win over Wichita State in Las Vegas, blowing a 16-point lead in the second half before righting the ship in the extra period.
And then they simply embarrassed Michigan in basically every facet of the game, forcing us to both question the Wolverines’ staying power in the AP Top 25 and wonder if the Wildcats might finally make it to a Final Four now that Sean Miller is no longer the coach.
The next couple of weeks should be uneventful for the Wildcats, but upcoming road games against Illinois (Dec. 11), Tennessee (Dec. 22) and UCLA (Dec. 30) will be must-watch affairs.
Stock Down: Ohio State Buckeyes
Same as Maryland and Florida State, it’s not just the loss, but also the poor showings in other games that cost Ohio State a few seed lines.
Frankly, the 71-65 loss at Xavier was one of Ohio State’s better performances in the early going. E.J. Liddell went for 17 points, eight blocks and seven rebounds, and freshman guard Meechie Johnson had 14 points off the bench. The Buckeyes simply started out slowly with two points in the opening five minutes and couldn’t quite get all the way back into the game until it was too little, too late.
That game came after they needed a last-second bucket to win their home opener against Akron, as well as a closer-than-expected game against Niagara, in which the Buckeyes never really pulled away despite averaging 1.22 points per possession.
Great big nine days ahead for the Buckeyes, though. They’ll face Seton Hall on Monday night and possibly Florida on Wednesday before the big showdown with Duke in the ACC-B1G Challenge next Tuesday. Win those three games and we’ll forget all about those Akron and Niagara games in a hurry.
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