In perhaps the best week of the college basketball season outside of March, there were plenty of big wins and great moments across the country. We saw Purdue dominate the Maui Invitational, FAU bounce back from an awful home loss to Bryant, and Colorado State come out of seemingly nowhere to dominate #8 Creighton. This article will take a dive into a handful of the nation’s best stories from this week.
The Best MTE Field of Recent Memory Delivered
The 2023 Maui Invitational could go down as one of the best multi-team events in college basketball history after what transpired this week. Five top 15 teams, including #1 and #2, traveled to Hawaii for a set of three games.
Purdue had the best week of the bunch, putting together wins on back-to-back-to-back days against Gonzaga, Tennessee, and Marquette. Defending National Player of the Year Zach Edey put up monster numbers, averaging 25.3 points, 13.0 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks on the week. The Boilermakers looked unstoppable, with sophomore guards Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer taking turns going off throughout the tournament.
The Kansas Jayhawks came out of the week 2-1, but after a disappointing 73-59 loss to Marquette it remains to be seen who will make an impact outside of their “Big Four” of Hunter Dickinson, Dajuan Harris Jr., Kevin McCullar Jr., and K.J. Adams Jr.
Marquette’s win over Kansas was followed by a loss to Purdue, but the Golden Eagles can come back from Hawaii excited for the rest of the season after three great battles in which Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro established themselves as one of the most electric duos in the country.
Gonzaga claimed 5th place at Maui, taking down UCLA and Syracuse after their first-round loss to Purdue. One more piece worth mentioning on the Zags: Anton Watson had himself one of the best individual performances in the tournament against UCLA, scoring 32 points and grabbing 7 rebounds while shooting 14-15 from the field.
The Tennessee Volunteers had the worst record on the week of the top 15 teams, falling to a 4-2 record after losses to Kansas and Purdue. Outside shooting and the lack of an offensive post presence seem to be the biggest faults of this Vols team, as they shot 27% from 3 in the games against Kansas and Purdue and couldn’t match Zach Edey or Hunter Dickinson.
Colorado State Raises Eyebrows with Blowout Win over Creighton
The casual fan might not have known much about Isaiah Stevens or the Colorado State Rams before Thursday, but there may not be a better time to hop on the Rams’ bandwagon than now, after a 69-48 throttling of Creighton in the Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City, Missouri. Isaiah Stevens will have to compete with San Diego State’s Jaedon LeDee for Mountain West Player of the Year honors, but both players have a great chance to be named All-Americans this season after impressive starts. Stevens has been the cog behind the Rams offense for five seasons now, and his performance against Creighton that included 20 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists could be the norm for him going forward.
Villanova Wins the Battle 4 Atlantis in Style
Lots of questions were being asked of the Villanova Wildcats after a loss to Penn at the Palestra, but Villanova answered most of these questions with three great wins in the Bahamas this week. Eric Dixon averaged 21.3 points and 8.0 rebounds throughout the tournament, including a 34-point double-double in the semifinals win over UNC. The team’s best performance of the tournament came in the championship game. Villanova held Memphis to just 16 first-half points and held a 35-point lead with nine minutes left in the game. It was likely just a short one-week absence from the polls for Villanova, as their performances in the Bahamas had them looking like a top 15 team.
Buckeyes’ Sophomore Back Court Shows Out in the Emerald Coast Classic
Ohio State’s Bruce Thornton and Roddy Gayle Jr. have both taken huge leaps already from their freshmen seasons, with Thornton increasing his points per game average from 10.6 to 17.2 and Gayle Jr. increasing his from 4.6 to 15.0 ppg. The duo stole the show in Destin, combining for 52 points and both dropping career highs in Friday’s 92-81 win over Alabama. We began to see these two come into their own late last season, but Friday’s performance solidified themselves as one of the best backcourts in the Big Ten. Ohio State finished the weekend strong with an 86-56 blowout win over Santa Clara and look to be one of the top four teams in the Big Ten.
FAU Comes Back to Final Four Form
Just one week ago the entire country was questioning the legitimacy of FAU and their preseason top 10 ranking after a 61-52 loss at home to Bryant, but the Owls put the doubters back in their place with three big wins in Orlando. FAU started the week with a win over Butler in the ESPN Events Invitational quarterfinal, and then shot 53.3% from behind the arc in a 96-89 semifinal win over Texas A&M, where the preseason AAC co-Players of the Year, Alijah Martin and Johnell Davis, combined for 51 points. Then on Sunday, FAU went out and beat Virginia Tech by 34 to win the ESPN Events Invitational. When the Owls are shooting the ball well, there aren’t many teams in the country who are able to keep up with them, and another hot streak could have them in the Final Four in back-to-back years.
Final Takeaways from Feast Week
With so much going on in college basketball this week, not everything was covered in the topics above, but after this week, one thing is for certain: The Purdue Boilermakers are the #1 team in the country. Following this, my second takeaway from this week: Don’t overreact to one early loss, as FAU and Villanova showed us. And lastly, may we hope some of these premier non-conference matchups in December match up to the battles we saw this week between Kansas, Marquette, Purdue, Tennessee, Gonzaga, and UCLA in Maui, as well as Villanova-UNC, FAU-Texas A&M, and Michigan State-Arizona among others.