Surprises in College Basketball This Year
There have been many surprises in college basketball, and I have separated them into two major categories.
Upsets by small schools over powerhouses
This season has seen small schools steal the show with some big upsets. Here are the top five small school upsets this year. One thing that surprised me about this list: 4 of the 5 teams are Big 10 teams!
1. Michigan is upset by NJIT 72-70 at Home
When I first read this headline on the day of the game, I thought that it must be a mistake. "NJIT wasn't even a school, was it?" I thought. I clicked on the article and saw that it was New Jersey Institute of Technology, and realized that I had never even known that New Jersey had an Institute of Technology, and that I definitely never knew them as a D-1 school. As I sit writing this blog, I see that NJIT just lost to LIU-Brooklyn by 16 points, and that LIU Brooklyn's only other win is against 1-8 Maine. I also remember that Michigan is one of the best college basketball programs in the country, and that they have made it to back to back Elite Eights.
2. UConn is upset by Yale 45-44 at Home
UConn, the defending champions, lost to Yale on a buzzer beater three. No, this is not a typo, Yale did actually beat the defending champs. Although they did lose DeAndre Daniels and Shabazz Napier, UConn still return many players from their championship team, and also added superb freshman Daniel Hamilton. Overall, this one was shocking, as Yale won despite only scoring 45 points on 32.7 percent from the field.
3. Purdue is upset by North Florida 73-70 at Home
This game surprised me quite a bit, because I thought Purdue had a chance at the NCAA tourney this year, after wins over BYU and NC State. For a second I thought that North Florida may be pretty good, after all they nearly beat Northwestern as well. But then I realized that Northwestern has never made the NCAA tournament (and won't even make the CBI this year) and I also realized the North Florida lost to South Carolina by 25 points.
4. Indiana is upset by Eastern Washington 88-86 at Home
Indiana has looked better this season than they did last year, but they clearly were not up to par in this game. Although Eastern Washington is good (a top 50 team in the RPI right now), they really aren't that good, and the game was at home, with one of the best home court advantages in the country. The Hoosiers played fairly well, other than two main problems: not being able to stop EWU's Drew Brandon, Tyler Harvey and Venky Jois (these three combined for 72 points!!!), and letting EWU rebound 15 of their 36 shots. Rebounding has been a huge problem for the Hoosiers all year long, and most likely will continue to be for the rest of the year.
5. Michigan pulls the upset by managing to only lose by 3 to Eastern Michigan at Home
Although many of you may think that I am making a mistake in saying that Michigan pulled the upset, however I am not. Eastern Michigan is a top 55 team, and Michigan, let's just say is not a top 55 team. I was, actually, slightly surprised that Michigan managed to keep this at a 3 point game. To look further into why Michigan is so bad, just think about their big men. Their starting big man is Ricky Doyle, who would probably only start on two other teams in the country, 0-8 Delaware and 0-8 Central Arkansas. To give some more perspective on Ricky Doyle, just know that he was about as highly recruited as Indiana's Tim Priller, the fan favorite who averages 0.4 PPG and 0.6 RPG, which are mostly inflated by his 2 point, 2 rebound game against Mississippi Valley State.
Now I will move on to the:
Top 4 surprise players this season
C Robert Upshaw, Junior, Washington
Robert Upshaw played one season at Fresno State, and averaged 4 points and 4 rebounds in about 16 minutes per game. He transferred to Washington, who is ranked, and is now averaging 9 points, 6 rebounds and 5 blocks per game. Sounds pretty impressive, huh? And all of that is in only 18 minutes per game. If he played 36 minutes per game (not a crazy amount), he would average almost 10 blocks per game!!! He is blocking shots this year at an incredible rate, and has moved himself up to be an NBA draft pick.
PF Jacob Poeltl, Freshman, Utah
You probably have never heard of this freshman Austrian big man, and probably very few Americans knew who he was before he began to star at #13 ranked Utah. He did not even have a player page on Rivals.com, yet still is averaging 11 points and 9.4 rebounds per game this year. He has turned from an unknown big man to one of the top freshman in all of college basketball. Utah looked good against Kansas, despite the fact that they lost, and Poeltl's 11 rebounds against MUCH higher rated Cliff Alexander were a large reason why.
C Chris Obekpa, Junior, St. John's
Obekpa has brought the country back in time with his old-style short-shorts. He is also averaging 10 rebounds per game, which is fantastic, especially when he only averaged 4.8 rebounds per game last year. But my favorite part about Obekpa, is that this year he decided to switch to old-fashioned shorts. Here is a picture:
PG Bryce Alford, Sophomore, UCLA
Bryce Alford is UCLA coach and former Indiana star Steve Alford's son. Most coaches, such as Bill Self with his son Tyler, put their son on the team just to make him feel good, and their son rarely sees more than 10 minutes all year. However, this is not the case for Bryce Alford. As a sophomore, he is averaging 18 points per game and 7 assists per game, the only player in the country to be doing this. He has been fantastic, after largely being a role player last year.
Upsets by small schools over powerhouses
This season has seen small schools steal the show with some big upsets. Here are the top five small school upsets this year. One thing that surprised me about this list: 4 of the 5 teams are Big 10 teams!
1. Michigan is upset by NJIT 72-70 at Home
When I first read this headline on the day of the game, I thought that it must be a mistake. "NJIT wasn't even a school, was it?" I thought. I clicked on the article and saw that it was New Jersey Institute of Technology, and realized that I had never even known that New Jersey had an Institute of Technology, and that I definitely never knew them as a D-1 school. As I sit writing this blog, I see that NJIT just lost to LIU-Brooklyn by 16 points, and that LIU Brooklyn's only other win is against 1-8 Maine. I also remember that Michigan is one of the best college basketball programs in the country, and that they have made it to back to back Elite Eights.
2. UConn is upset by Yale 45-44 at Home
UConn, the defending champions, lost to Yale on a buzzer beater three. No, this is not a typo, Yale did actually beat the defending champs. Although they did lose DeAndre Daniels and Shabazz Napier, UConn still return many players from their championship team, and also added superb freshman Daniel Hamilton. Overall, this one was shocking, as Yale won despite only scoring 45 points on 32.7 percent from the field.
3. Purdue is upset by North Florida 73-70 at Home
This game surprised me quite a bit, because I thought Purdue had a chance at the NCAA tourney this year, after wins over BYU and NC State. For a second I thought that North Florida may be pretty good, after all they nearly beat Northwestern as well. But then I realized that Northwestern has never made the NCAA tournament (and won't even make the CBI this year) and I also realized the North Florida lost to South Carolina by 25 points.
4. Indiana is upset by Eastern Washington 88-86 at Home
Indiana has looked better this season than they did last year, but they clearly were not up to par in this game. Although Eastern Washington is good (a top 50 team in the RPI right now), they really aren't that good, and the game was at home, with one of the best home court advantages in the country. The Hoosiers played fairly well, other than two main problems: not being able to stop EWU's Drew Brandon, Tyler Harvey and Venky Jois (these three combined for 72 points!!!), and letting EWU rebound 15 of their 36 shots. Rebounding has been a huge problem for the Hoosiers all year long, and most likely will continue to be for the rest of the year.
5. Michigan pulls the upset by managing to only lose by 3 to Eastern Michigan at Home
Although many of you may think that I am making a mistake in saying that Michigan pulled the upset, however I am not. Eastern Michigan is a top 55 team, and Michigan, let's just say is not a top 55 team. I was, actually, slightly surprised that Michigan managed to keep this at a 3 point game. To look further into why Michigan is so bad, just think about their big men. Their starting big man is Ricky Doyle, who would probably only start on two other teams in the country, 0-8 Delaware and 0-8 Central Arkansas. To give some more perspective on Ricky Doyle, just know that he was about as highly recruited as Indiana's Tim Priller, the fan favorite who averages 0.4 PPG and 0.6 RPG, which are mostly inflated by his 2 point, 2 rebound game against Mississippi Valley State.
Now I will move on to the:
Top 4 surprise players this season
C Robert Upshaw, Junior, Washington
Robert Upshaw played one season at Fresno State, and averaged 4 points and 4 rebounds in about 16 minutes per game. He transferred to Washington, who is ranked, and is now averaging 9 points, 6 rebounds and 5 blocks per game. Sounds pretty impressive, huh? And all of that is in only 18 minutes per game. If he played 36 minutes per game (not a crazy amount), he would average almost 10 blocks per game!!! He is blocking shots this year at an incredible rate, and has moved himself up to be an NBA draft pick.
PF Jacob Poeltl, Freshman, Utah
You probably have never heard of this freshman Austrian big man, and probably very few Americans knew who he was before he began to star at #13 ranked Utah. He did not even have a player page on Rivals.com, yet still is averaging 11 points and 9.4 rebounds per game this year. He has turned from an unknown big man to one of the top freshman in all of college basketball. Utah looked good against Kansas, despite the fact that they lost, and Poeltl's 11 rebounds against MUCH higher rated Cliff Alexander were a large reason why.
C Chris Obekpa, Junior, St. John's
Obekpa has brought the country back in time with his old-style short-shorts. He is also averaging 10 rebounds per game, which is fantastic, especially when he only averaged 4.8 rebounds per game last year. But my favorite part about Obekpa, is that this year he decided to switch to old-fashioned shorts. Here is a picture:
PG Bryce Alford, Sophomore, UCLA
Bryce Alford is UCLA coach and former Indiana star Steve Alford's son. Most coaches, such as Bill Self with his son Tyler, put their son on the team just to make him feel good, and their son rarely sees more than 10 minutes all year. However, this is not the case for Bryce Alford. As a sophomore, he is averaging 18 points per game and 7 assists per game, the only player in the country to be doing this. He has been fantastic, after largely being a role player last year.
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