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College Basketball Weekend Primer – Best Games, Best Bets For Feb. 3-5
Don't doubt No. 1 Gonzaga unless you've seen the Zags play. They'll be in action this weekend along with perpetual underdog Maryland as Coach K returns to the Duke bench and Malik Monk leads Kentucky.
February 3, 2017
Don’t doubt No. 1 Gonzaga unless you’ve seen the Zags play. They’ll be in action this weekend along with perpetual underdog Maryland as Coach K returns to the Duke bench and Malik Monk leads Kentucky.
Gonzaga’s first week as the nation’s No. 1 has gone pretty smoothly, unlike other reigns at the top this season. It’s true the previous top-ranked squads were playing against better competition than what the Bulldogs face in the West Coast Conference, but viewing that as a reason for their success simply means you haven’t stayed up late enough to watch them play.
The Zags improved to 23-0 with Thursday’s 85-75 win at BYU despite a performance that wasn’t exactly up to coach Mark Few’s standards, mostly because of their 14 turnovers. But they still ran their streak of winning by double digits to 15. The last time Gonzaga failed to win by at least 10 points? December 3 – a 69-62 victory over Arizona.
Yes, that Arizona team that is 21-2 and riding a 17-game winning streak since losing to Gonzaga. The Zags also boast wins over Florida and Iowa State and demolished St. Mary’s – currently ranked No. 18 – by 23 on Jan. 14. The Gaels are supposed to be the Zags’ top competition in the WCC.
So let’s not start talking about how Gonzaga is only undefeated and ranked No. 1 because it has an “easy” schedule. There are plenty of major-conference pushovers that the college basketball blue-bloods have beat up. In fact, the Zags have a victory over Tennessee, which knocked off Kentucky just last week.
Gonzaga hosts Santa Clara on Saturday and will likely win easily. But take some time out to watch talented players like Nigel Williams-Goss – a transfer from Washington – and Przemek Karnowski. Maybe that’ll be enough convincing that this Zags team is for real and a real threat come March.
As for that Arizona team Gonzaga beat earlier? It travels to Eugene to face Oregon in a Pac-12 showdown Saturday night.
Welcome back, Coach K
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski has missed the last seven games after having back surgery, and things haven’t exactly been perfect since he left. The Blue Devils have gone just 4-3 under acting coach Jeff Capel, and Krzyzewski banned the team from using the locker room and wearing team gear following a home loss to N.C. State.
Duke has won back-to-back games since that defeat, and now gets its Hall of Fame coach back on the bench for Saturday’s home game against Pittsburgh.
The Malik Monk Show
Get a glimpse as often as you can, because he likely won’t be seen on college basketball’s stage next season.
Monk saved No. 8 Kentucky from losing three straight games under coach John Calipari for the first time when he scored 37 points while going 7-of-11 from 3-point range in Tuesday’s 90-81 overtime win over Georgia. The Wildcats trailed by two toward the end of regulation, but Monk’s long, contested jumper forced the extra session, where the Bulldogs couldn’t hang.
It marked Monk’s third game of at least 34 points, giving him an average of 22.4 per game on the season – which likely will be his first and only with Kentucky. The latest stellar performance came without fellow freshman De’Aaron Fox, who sat out with an illness. It’s still unclear if Fox will be healthy enough to play in Saturday night’s SEC showdown at No. 24 Florida, so look for Monk to step up his game again.
The Maryland Underdogs
A Big Ten team “quietly” possessing a 20-2 record with an 8-1 mark in conference play seems impossible, but such is life for Maryland. It just keeps winning, and getting little to no credit for it.
The Terps improved to 8-0 as the underdog this season with Tuesday’s 77-71 win at Ohio State. They were five-point dogs last Saturday at Minnesota and won by seven. They’ve entered as the favorites just once during their current seven-game winning streak, one that’s continued in part because of the rising play of freshman Justin Jackson, who had 28 points and 10 rebounds against the Gophers and 22 points with 12 boards versus the Buckeyes.
And wouldn’t you know it – Maryland opened as a three-point underdog for Saturday’s home matchup with No. 23 Purdue. Not that they mind too much.
Floundering Irish
Notre Dame was sitting pretty with a 6-1 record in ACC play and looked like the team coming off back-to-back Elite Eight appearances. Then came losses to Virginia, Georgia Tech and Duke, putting its record at 17-6 with question questions of whether or not it peaked too early.
The Irish travel to Chapel Hill on Saturday to face No. 12 North Carolina in desperate need of a victory to get back on track. Notre Dame hasn’t lost four in a row since a seven-game skid back in 2009. The only thing that might save it from another defeat is if the game is postponed because of a water shortage that has hit Chapel Hill.
UPDATE: The UNC-Notre Dame game has been moved to Sunday at 1 p.m. ET and will be played at the Greensboro Coliseum.
Best Bets
In this section each week I pick five games against the spread that I’d put smart money on. I then keep a running record throughout the season. These picks will consist of games taking place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Here’s a look at what I have this week:
Season record: 21-21-3
Last week: 3-2
- Florida State (-2) over Syracuse (L)
- Duke (-1) over Wake Forest (W)
- Tennessee (PK) over Kansas State (W)
- Maryland (+5) over Minnesota (W)
- Ohio State (PK) over Iowa (L)
This week:
- Duke (-16) over Pittsburgh
- Kentucky (+2.5) over Florida
- Illinois State (+10) over Wichita State
- Arizona (+3.5) over Oregon
- Arkansas (-8) over Missouri
