10 takeaways from college basketball’s first full weekend of conference play

The conference grind portion of the 2019-20 college basketball season has arrived.

Conference play is here, which means the beautiful nine-week journey that carries us through the otherwise depressing as hell depth of winter has begun. Let’s talk about the 10 biggest things that happened during the first weekend of the grind.

1. Cassius Winston and Michigan State are “back”

In the middle of a season that has been largely defined by the disappointing performances of the teams that were supposed to be the best in the sport, Michigan State exists in its own category. The Spartans were a near-unanimous preseason No. 1 team that lost three of its first eight games and began the New Year without a single victory over a team in the current AP top 25 poll.

Tom Izzo’s team has now won seven straight, a run capped by Sunday’s 87-69 torching of arch-rival and 12th-ranked Michigan. That decisive win came just three days after Sparty put a 76-56 beatdown on an Illinois team with NCAA tournament aspirations.

At the heart of this turnaround (if you want to call it that) has been senior star Cassius Winston, who has now scored 21 or more points and dished out six or more assists in each of his last four games. He gave one of the best performances of his college career on Sunday, lighting up Michigan to the tune of 32 points and nine assists over 38 minutes of floor time.

While Winston and Michigan State were struggling in November and the first half of December, no other player really stepped up and established himself as the early front-runner to win national Player of the Year. Oregon’s Payton Pritchard, Dayton’s Obi Toppin and Duke’s Vernon Carey Jr. have all received their fair share of love, but it’s been more “if you had to pick someone today” love as opposed to “he’s clearly been the best player in the sport” love.

Despite everything that happened in the season’s first eight weeks, Michigan State still seems like a team that is going to be among the three or four trendiest national title picks come March. And now suddenly, it seems like every postseason national Player of the Year award may wind up going to the same guy who picked up each and every preseason honor.

2. The Big East will be the most competitive conference to follow all winter

The “best” conference debate is always a subjective one, but I don’t think there is going to be much pushback this winter against the notion that the Big East title race is going to be the most competitive in college basketball. Of the 10 teams in the conference, there isn’t one at the moment with a fan base that doesn’t have at least mild hope that their team will wind up hearing its name called on Selection Sunday.

No one doubts the legitimacy of teams like Butler, Villanova and Seton Hall, but it’s the bottom half of the league that sets it apart this season. The Big East team with the worst overall record, 9-6 Providence, suddenly has life after reeling off consecutive wins over Texas, Georgetown and DePaul. The three 0-2 teams at the bottom of the league standings — DePaul, Georgetown and St. John’s — all won 10 or more games during the non-conference portions of their season.

After just one week of league play, it’s already apparent how intense every night of Big East play is going to be for the next two months.

If every Big East Friday night winds up being like the first one, they’re going to be worth canceling plans for.

3. San Diego State is still undefeated and is absolutely for real

One of the most well-known active streaks of futility in college hoops is that no team from the Western United States has won the national championship since Arizona last cut down the nets back in 1997. The program most likely to end this drought has always been one of the top tier teams from the Pac-12 or, in recent years, Gonzaga. While the Bulldogs are the current No. 1 team in America and Pac-12 squads like Oregon and Arizona certainly seem capable of playing deep into March, there’s a new legitimate West Coast challenger in 2019-20.

San Diego State is 15-0 and one of just two unbeaten teams remaining in college basketball. The Aztecs have been at their best when the lights have been the brightest this season, smashing Creighton by 31, beating Iowa by 10, blasting Utah by 28, and most recently going on the road and handling preseason Mountain West favorite Utah State with relative ease.

So how did the Aztecs go from a team no one was talking about two months ago to one that now has people asking whether or not they can enter the NCAA tournament without a loss?

For starters, Washington State transfer Malachi Flynn has been one of the best guards in the country. The junior is averaging career-bests in points (15.9 ppg) and assists (5.1 apg), saved SDSU with a shot at the buzzer against San Jose State, and just lit up Utah State All-American candidate Sam Merrill to the tune of 22 points, five rebounds and four assists.

With Utah State going through a little bit of a 2018-19 Nevada funk, San Diego State has emerged as the Mountain West team most worthy of fear from the rest of the country. The Aztecs play the type of team defense — No. 12 in Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted defensive efficiency rankings — that can carry a squad without an obvious draft pick to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament. They’ve also built a solid first half of the year resume that includes five Quadrant 1 wins, which is currently tied for the most in the country. Oh, and the Aztecs are also No. 1 in the NET Rankings at the moment.

The basketball world scrambling to CBS Sports Net to see whether or not Brian Dutcher’s team can keep the dream of an undefeated season alive has the potential to be one of the more fun (and unforeseeable) storylines of the weeks to come.

4. Penn State appears to be (finally) tournament bound

Pat Chambers is the only power conference coach in America to have gone at least eight seasons at a school without a single trip to the NCAA tournament and to still be employed by said school.

It’s looking more and more like the ninth time is going to be the charm for Chambers at Penn State.

Playing a home game at The Palestra in Philly on Saturday, the Nittany Lions notched a significant early Big Ten victory with a thrilling 89-86 take down of No. 23 Iowa. Penn State also knocked off then-No. 4 Maryland last month, giving them two wins over ranked conference foes less than a week into the new year.

Lamar Stevens (16.4 ppg, 7.0 rpg) has been as good as expected for Penn State, but the difference between this year has been the elevated support the senior guard has received. Sophomore Myreon Jones has taken a massive step forward, St. Bonaventure transfer IZaiah Brockington is also averaging double figures, and senior forward Mike Watkins is nearly averaging a double-double and has clearly saved the best basketball for the end of his college career.

Unless something goes horribly awry over these next two months, it appears Penn State’s patience with Chambers is going to be (finally) be rewarded.

5. North Carolina does not

A disaster season for North Carolina found a new bottom on Saturday when the Tar Heels allowed Georgia Tech to come into the Dean Dome and roll to a 96-83 victory. Considering the fact that the Yellow Jackets led 27-4 at the under eight timeout of the first half, Carolina finding a way to score 83 points may have been the most impressive takeaway from the contest.

That note was small consolation to Roy Williams, who didn’t hold back in his postgame press conference.

“I want to apologize to all the North Carolina fans, the people that care about our basketball program, former players, everyone that cares about us,” Williams said. “We stunk it up tonight, and it’s got to me my responsibility. It’s the most negative I’ve ever felt about myself. The most negative I’ve ever felt about any team. We weren’t ready to play.

“If I had any idea what caused that I would have already changed it. It’s the most disappointed and most upset I’ve ever been in my life coaching a basketball game, and it’s not even close.”

Williams need just one victory to pass UNC icon Dean Smith on the career wins list, a monumental event in Chapel Hill that suddenly seems difficult to predict.

While rumors continue to swirl about Cole Anthony’s immediate future, it’s important to remember that the Tar Heels weren’t overly impressive when Anthony was fully healthy and engaged. Even if that soon to be millionaire chooses to come back and finish his one season of college hoops on the court, it may not be enough to keep UNC from missing out on the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2010.

6. Pacific and Saint Mary’s played the best game nobody saw

The best game of the weekend took place well after most of the Eastern half of the United States had gone to bed.

Damon Stoudamire’s Pacific Tigers outlasted visiting Saint Mary’s in a quadruple overtime thriller that featured a massive second half comeback and a banked in three at the buzzer of overtime No. 2 that extended the game.

“I don’t think I’ve played in a game like that before and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game like that before,” said Pacific’s Gary Chivichyan, who hit the memorable shot at the end of the second overtime. “That was probably one of the best basketball games I have ever witnessed in my life.”

While Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s and BYU are once again the class of the West Coast Conference, the middle of the league has evolved to a point where games like this one (as well as Pepperdine pushing the Zags to the brink on the same night) are going to become more of the norm.

If the first two months of this season has taught us anything, it’s that West Coast action from the Pac-12, Mountain West and WCC is going to be worth losing sleep for this winter. Not, like, a ton of sleep, but definitely “oh man, I’m moving a little slower than I should be this morning but watching Herb Sendek coach basketball at 1 a.m. was awesome” sleep.

7. Speaking of that ...

As mentioned, Pepperdine pushed No. 1 Gonzaga to the brink late Saturday night. And even when the Zags got things under control, the Waves were able to respond with arguably the best dunk of the weekend.

That’s senior forward Kameron Edwards punching one in right on the head of Corey Kispert. Edwards scored 14 points and snagged 10 boards in the 75-70 loss.

8. This should be the year Duke wins the ACC

One of the more staggering current college basketball facts is that Duke hasn’t even won a share of the ACC’s regular season title since all the way back in 2010. The Blue Devils have been the preseason favorites to win the conference seven times since then and now.

Despite the embarrassing loss to Stephen F. Austin still being relatively fresh in the collective mind of the basketball world, Duke looks a clear cut above the rest of the ACC as we shift into the heart of conference play. The Blue Devils have won their first three league games by a combined 86 points, and two of those contests have been away from Cameron Indoor. They shouldn’t face another significant challenge until Louisville — which looks like less of a threat in the league after it was manhandled at home by Florida State on Saturday — comes to Durham on the 18th.

9. If you’re going to take a bad loss, take it on Friday

The most significant conference upset of the weekend is one that hasn’t warranted a ton of discussion on this Monday. That’s because pretty much nobody was watching it. The lesson, of course, is that if you’re a Big Ten or Big East (or whatever) team looking to bury a woeful performance this winter, make sure it happens on one of those awkward Friday night games on the schedule.

On this most Friday night of the season, Ohio State allowed what had been a super average Wisconsin team to come into the The Schottenstein Center and walk out with a 61-57 upset of the No. 5 team in the country. Buckeye big man Kaleb Wesson was phenomenal (22 points and 13 rebounds), but when Wisconsin committed two or three defenders to shutting Wesson down, no one else for OSU was able to step up as a reliable second scoring option.

Suddenly, an Ohio State team that seemed as rock solid as any squad in the country just a few weeks ago has turned into something of an enigma. They’ll have a chance to answer some of these newly unearthed questions Tuesday night when they hit the road to take on Maryland.

10. The tales of Wichita State’s demise appear to have been greatly exaggerated

After an uncharacteristically subpar 2018-19, Wichita State appears to be back with a vengeance this season. The Shockers destroyed Ole Miss 74-54 on Saturday to improve to 13-1 on the year. Their lone loss is a 12-point defeat at the hands of West Virginia that looks much better now than it did at the time.

With Cincinnati struggling mightily in year one under John Brannen and Memphis losing at home to Georgia and still adjusting to the realization that James Wiseman isn’t coming back, the AAC really needed Wichita State to regain its footing this year. The Shockers are not only stabilized, but they appear to be the class of the conference at the moment.