Cam Reddish isn’t an underdog
Cam Reddish, Dick Vitale, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton explain how Duke’s buzzer-beater to beat Florida State happened. (1:10)
Over the weekend, college basketball’s highlights included buzzer-beaters, major upsets and standout performances.
It was filled with chaos.
On Saturday, four ranked teams lost home games — three (Iowa State, Mississippi State, North Carolina) of them to unranked opponents.
So let’s dissect What’s Real? and What’s Fake? in college basketball:
Please stop this.
Reddish, one of Duke’s elite freshmen, hit the game-winning shot at Florida State on Saturday and suddenly became a candidate for a Disney movie after he helped the Blue Devils secure a signature win with Zion Williamson sidelined by an eye injury in the second half.
C’mon, folks. He’s not William Baldwin or Joe Jonas.
He’s a five-star wing who signed with Duke over Kentucky. At the Maui Invitational in November, an NBA exec called Reddish “the most talented player on the team …. If he would stop bulls****ing.” He’s a fluid wing and projected top-10 pick who’d be an All-American candidate had he picked a school that didn’t have Williamson and R.J. Barrett.
He’s in a difficult spot because he’s had to play a complementary role to Barrett and Williamson. That’s not easy for a player who is accustomed to being a star. Williamson’s eye injury in Saturday’s win at Florida State gave Reddish the platform to showcase his potential.
If anything, his performance illustrated how a strong Duke team can become a great squad if Reddish (a 38 percent shooter this season) plays with the same efficiency (5-for-8 from the 3-point line at Florida State) he demonstrated throughout Saturday’s win.
But performances like the one Reddish put together on Saturday were the expectations when he signed with the Blue Devils. He’s a versatile threat with a bright future at the next level.
Yes, he’s been overlooked in the Williamson/Barrett craze. Anyone who knows college basketball, however, was waiting for Reddish to deliver the way he did on Saturday.
He is not, however, some two-star recruit who walked onto the Duke squad and saved Saturday’s game. He’s just the No. 3 player on a team that might have the top two picks in this summer’s NBA draft and another first-round pick named Tre Jones.
Saturday’s effort wasn’t surprising. Saturday’s game was refreshing because Reddish finally put together the performance that showcased his skills.
On Saturday, Vanderbilt had a 16-4 lead at Kentucky in the first half.
The Wildcats had previously been in a similar spot multiple times throughout the season. They were down 29-10 midway through the first half of a 34-point loss to Duke at the Champions Classic. They were down 12-2 in the first half of a win over Texas A&M last week. In a loss to Alabama earlier this month, a two-point Kentucky lead at halftime turned into a six-point deficit two minutes into the second half.
So Saturday’s 12-point deficit with 15 minutes, seven seconds remaining in the first half against Vanderbilt was a test for this team. Would it collapse or regroup? Their ability to outscore the Commodores 24-14 before the break demanded a resilience the Wildcats had lacked during previous lulls.
“We just knew that as long as we stayed focused, don’t get out of character, just keep playing defense, we’d get back into the game,” Keldon Johnson said after the 56-47 win.
Johnson and Ashton Hagans are only 19 years old. John Calipari is still trying to find a formula for a frontcourt that needs Nick Richards and E.J. Montgomery to play quality minutes. Tyler Herro can become a consistent and reliable shooter.
There are questions about this Kentucky team that the squad might not answer before the NCAA tournament. But Saturday’s early challenges could have led to another loss. But Kentucky got the stops they needed and made the plays they had to have en route to a win.
That’s a sign of growth.
The Tar Heels were flying high after a big performance against NC State only to come back down to earth after a blowout loss to Louisville on Saturday.
No. 2 Michigan (17-0) set a school record for the best start to a season and tied the longest winning streak in program history after an 80-60 victory over Northwestern on Sunday night.
Virginia is outstanding, but let’s stop pretending the Cavaliers are different. Plus, Duke has issues on the boards and other hot takes we can prove.
It’s never a great idea to doubt a Roy Williams team. But Saturday’s loss to Louisville, the worst home loss in the Williams era at North Carolina, magnified some of the concerns about this program. This is still a good team that will have an edge in most matchups. But the Tar Heels aren’t the physical, tough Tar Heels we’ve been accustomed to seeing under Williams.
Louisville kept them from taking advantage of second-chance opportunities and stalled their transition game on Saturday. They’re also struggling to defend teams that push the pace and get buckets on fast breaks. Per Synergy Sports, they’re ranked 246th in transition defense.
Luke Maye is 4-for-13 from beyond the arc a year after making 47 percent of his 3-point attempts in conference play. Coby White is committing turnovers on 22.5 percent of his possessions, per KenPom.com. A team that can beat Gonzaga and North Carolina State on the road is a team that has the potential to compete for a national championship. That’s still UNC’s ceiling. But North Carolina has been overwhelmed in three lopsided losses to Michigan, Kentucky and Louisville.
Williams’ track record suggests he’ll fix the challenges.
Right now, however, a turnaround doesn’t seem like a guarantee for the Tar Heels.
It’s fine to disagree with Michigan’s head coach who recently told a reporter: “The way Michigan and Michigan State have been playing basketball in these last six or seven years … it’s not different than Duke and North Carolina.”
Let’s assume he’s referencing the last 5-10 years. Since the 2008-09 season, North Carolina and Duke have won four national titles and appeared in five national title games. Michigan State and Michigan have reached two national title games, both by the Wolverines, and five Final Fours in that span.
National titles are largely viewed as the marks of success in college basketball and the Big Ten has not won the championship since Michigan State’s run in 2000. By that barometer, Beilein’s comments seem odd. On a more diverse scale, he’s on the mark.
Duke hasn’t won a regular season ACC title since 2010. North Carolina has won two of the last three. Michigan (2014) and Michigan State (2018) have won two Big Ten titles in the last four years.
Michigan State and Michigan have nine 26-win seasons combined since 2012-13, the same combined number for North Carolina and Duke. Duke and North Carolina have a significant edge in the number of players they’ve sent to the NBA.
But Michigan State and Michigan have been two of the best teams in America in recent years and legit powerhouses.
They don’t have rings within that stretch. But that can’t be the lone tool we use to measure a program’s status. The 2014-15 Kentucky team didn’t win the title and most people believe they were America’s best team that season. Does anyone believe Connecticut in 2011 and 2014 were actually the best teams in America during those years? No.
Beilein is just saying the collective success of Michigan State and Michigan in recent years is comparable to the success Duke and North Carolina have had. And, within that stretch, he’s right.
Most of the major leagues in college basketball have already identified their frontrunners. But the past weekend’s action also elevated potential contenders that could shake up races.
Maryland fans don’t want to hear this, but the Terps haven’t lost since Dec. 22. And their three losses, all to quality teams, were by 11 points combined. In Friday’s 78-75 win over Indiana, Maryland’s only matchup against the Hoosiers this season, Bruno Fernando finished with 25 points and 13 rebounds, his ninth double-double of the season. Mark Turgeon has a top-15 offense, too.
In the ACC, Louisville made a statement with a convincing, lopsided road win over North Carolina on Saturday. Sure, the Cards face a gauntlet of NCAA tournament teams in league play. But here’s the benefit of Chris Mack’s upcoming conference schedule: he’ll only face Duke (home), Florida State, North Carolina State (home) and Virginia Tech once apiece. Could the Cardinals duplicate Saturday’s effort throughout the season and climb into the ACC’s top tier? It’s not a crazy thought after the team’s win over UNC on Saturday.
Ole Miss is 3-0 in league play after Saturday’s win at Mississippi State. Kermit Davis’ team has wins over MSU, Auburn and Vanderbilt by an average margin of nearly 10 points. Breein Tyree has made 82 percent of his free throws. And his Ole Miss squad will only play Kentucky and Tennessee one time each this season — both home games.
In the Big 12, Dean Wade is back for a Kansas State team that won at Iowa State Saturday and continues to play top-five defense. Oregon State is playing top-10 interior defense in a Pac-12 that’s wide open.
Yeah, it’s early but the list of contenders in the Power Five leagues expanded during this weekend’s action.
After Tennessee’s win at Florida on Saturday, the Vols did the Gator Chomp toward Florida’s fans. Some suggested the Vols were classless for making that gesture.
That’s just silly. Per Admiral Schofield, Gators fans said things to the Vols that were “very disrespectful” and “inhumane.” He also said it wasn’t just students who were making comments but older fans, too.
That’s why I thoroughly enjoyed that late-game Gator Chomp. Florida deserved it. It wasn’t an egregious act. It was payback. And that has to be an allowable element of college basketball or we should all just find something else to do and enjoy.
Tennessee is now in a position to go to a place like Gainesville and win.
The Vols hadn’t won a game at Florida since the 2011-12 season. So they had a little fun at Florida fans’ expense. And that’s fine. It’s not classless. It’s not wrong. It didn’t cross any lines. It was within the boundaries of proper postgame celebrations for a win over a rival.
Also, did anyone have sympathy for the opponents that had to endure the Gator Chomp as Billy Donovan’s squad won back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007? What about the Gator Chomps under Mike Miller? Or Jason Williams? Anyone remember those? Were those fans wrong for using that gesture to taunt opponents during games or gloat after big wins? Because I can’t recall any admonishment of overzealous Florida players, coaches or fans who basked in that patented celebration in the school’s richest years.
Yeah, Tennessee did the Gator Chomp. And if the team gets the chance, I hope the Vols do it again because that’s what makes this game fun and enjoyable.
Chill out, everyone. And let me know when Joakim Noah apologizes for all the times he used the Gator Chomp throughout his career with Florida.