O.J. Mayo took just 12 shots Saturday.
And he looked great taking just 12 shots.
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| What a shock: O.J. Mayo controls his shooting and the Trojans win. (US Presswire) |
And there's gotta be a lesson in there somewhere, right?
Anyway, this is the Monday Look Back ... reminding you that less can be more.
Best game of the weekend: Apparently Anthony King thought he was in a high-stakes game of make-it/take-it because that's the only explanation for the Miami senior grabbing the ball after a North Carolina State basket and throwing it to Gavin Grant in the final seconds of overtime to allow the Wolfpack to come from four points down with less than 20 seconds remaining Saturday and win 79-77. Seriously, all King had to do was inbounds it to anybody with the same color jersey as himself and he was headed to a second overtime. Instead, he threw it to Grant. And Grant laid it in for the win. And that's two strange at-the-buzzer victories for N.C. State this season, the other coming on those controversial free throws back in November against Villanova.
Worst game of the weekend: John Calipari garnered a few laughs last week by labeling Saturday's matchup with Southern Miss a "danger" game in what must've been the first time in history the coach of the imminent top-ranked team tried to warn people about the dangers of playing a school that was 5-8 against Division I opponents with losses to Savannah State and McNeese State. I mean, the whole thing was silly. And it didn't take long past tip-off for Memphis to prove how wildly paranoid its coach can be as the Tigers started running and dunking their way to an 83-47 victory that showed Southern Miss isn't nearly as dangerous as it is dreadful.
Win to brag about: If you were planning on getting a win at Fifth Third Arena it might've been wise to notch it in November. Back then, it wasn't too hard. Even Belmont and Bowling Green did it. But Cincinnati has turned into a different team over the past month, getting home wins over Syracuse and Villanova before bouncing Pittsburgh by a 62-59 margin Saturday at the place I still like to call The Shoemaker Center. The Bearcats have now won six of their past seven home games with the lone loss in that stretch coming to Memphis.
Loss to hide from: There's nothing terrible about losing to Southern California, even by a 72-63 margin. But UCLA didn't need to lose at home to USC. On national television. While allowing the Trojans to shoot 61 percent from the field. That's very un-UCLA like. And it's why Ben Howland immediately went to his office after fulfilling all media obligations Saturday to watch the film not once but twice. No kidding. By the time I filed a column and got something to eat, Howland had already watched the film two times and there's no guarantee he's not into his seventh or eighth viewing by now.
Player who deserves improper benefits: While rejecting the clichéd temptation to call him Tre Smith, I'll tell you that George Mason's Dre Smith set an NCAA record Saturday by making 10-of-10 3-point attempts in the Patriots' 96-75 victory at James Madison. He finished with 34 points, and afterward JMU's Juwann James was asked what he was thinking as Smith got going. "Hopefully, he'll miss one," James told the Daily News Record. "That's what I was thinking. He gotta miss one." Or not.
Player who should lose his scholarship: It's usually a good sign when Jeff Pendergraph takes double-digit shots. He had done it three times this season entering the weekend, and the result was three Arizona State wins in which the junior forward got 25 points and 10 rebounds (against LSU), 16 points and 13 rebounds (against Montana State) and 26 points and eight rebounds (against California). So when I looked at the ASU box score and saw Pendergraph took 10 shots Saturday at Stanford I assumed he had big numbers. But I was wrong. Because Pendergraph missed 7-of-10 shots and finished with just seven points and three rebounds in 24-foul plagued minutes, all of which helped Stanford record a 67-52 victory.
Why I'm smarter than you think: Every Wednesday I do a video segment with Jason Horowitz called Parrish's 3-pointers. On last week's episode, Jason asked if there was a Top 10 team that could collapse and I told him there was indeed, and that the team was Texas A&M ... which went out and lost by 15 to Texas Tech later that night and backed the effort Saturday with a 75-54 loss at Kansas State. That's a collapse by anybody's standards, but in fairness I didn't necessarily expect it to be so sudden and drastic.
Why I'm dumber than I think: I spent a part of the Friday Look Ahead explaining how my "obvious" prediction was North Carolina over Maryland, and I was so confident I didn't even ramble and try to get cute with it. I just wrote that North Carolina was "at home" and Maryland "was terrible" and it would result in a blowout. Then I moved on to other things. But what I failed to consider is teams that don't guard well (like the Tar Heels) are always vulnerable, and so Maryland's 82-80 win sure had me feeling stupid late Saturday afternoon.
Three things you should know before you go
1. Drake's 79-73 victory over Illinois State pushed the Bulldogs to 7-0 in the Missouri Valley Conference. Consequently, they'll appear in the AP Poll this week for the first time since the 1974-75 season and take a national ranking into Tuesday's game at Creighton.
2. Oregon State fired Jay John early Monday after a 6-12 start. The move isn't much of a surprise because there was no way to survive given the quality of his team relative to the rest of the Pac-10. John was either out now, next week or at the end of the season. But it's been clear for a while that John wasn't going to coach the Beavers in 2008-09. So the school went ahead and finalized the deal and now the search for a permanent replacement begins.
3. If you're an RPI junkie (and really, who isn't?), it's worth noting that the current top five is Tennessee, Memphis, Kansas, North Carolina and Michigan State.
On tap: On Monday, Eddie Sutton will go for his 800th career victory when San Francisco plays at Gonzaga. On Tuesday, Tennessee will try to avoid an upset when it visits Kentucky. On Wednesday, Texas A&M will have a chance to get back to its winning ways when it hosts Baylor. On Thursday, two of the better teams in the Atlantic 10 will battle when Dayton meets Xavier at Cintas Center.
Final thought: There are only two undefeated teams left and USC has played both tight. So I couldn't let Tim Floyd go Saturday after his win over UCLA without asking one last question: Who's better, Memphis or Kansas?
"Oh gosh, I'd never share that one because I just have so much respect for both teams," Floyd answered with a laugh. "I just think they're both special. ... So I couldn't pick one. But I'd like to buy a ticket to the game."
