The Report Card: Two bad losses highlight Pac-12's rough night
DATE: Sunday, Dec. 28
A- — Alabama
From Maryland's Mark Turgeon, to Seton Hall's Kevin Willard, to Indiana's Tom Crean, many of the coaches that entered the season under the most pressure to win are off to good starts. Add Alabama coach Anthony Grant to that list after the Crimson Tide's 56-50 victory over visiting UCLA on Sunday evening.
This is far from a vintage UCLA team but Alabama's defense was still impressive. Norman Powell went 1 of 8 from the field and Bryce Alford missed two wild 3-point attempts in the final 38 seconds as the Bruins shot just 30.8 percent from the field for the game. Ricky Tarrant provided all the offense Alabama needed, scoring 24 points and outscoring UCLA in the first half by himself 18-17.
Alabama's victory improves the Tide to 9-3 with no bad losses and now a pair of decent wins against UCLA and Arizona State. Meanwhile the Bruins (8-5) have dropped three straight against Gonzaga, Kentucky and Alabama with road games at Colorado and Utah and home games against Stanford and Cal still to come before the toughest stretch of their schedule concludes.
C- — Harvard
Harvard lost any realistic chance at an at-large NCAA tournament bid a week ago when it was throttled at Virginia 76-27. Now it's fair to wonder whether the Crimson is still the prohibitive favorite to win the Ivy League after it fell 56-46 at Arizona State on Sunday afternoon.
This was a road game for Harvard and the Sun Devils are a decent Pac-12 team, but there were some disturbing signs for the Crimson. They followed up their anemic shooting performance at Virginia with another clunker, shooting 6 of 23 in the second half on Sunday. They also had no answer for Arizona State's interior size and strength or ability to attack the rim off the dribble.
Most Ivy League teams won't be as big, strong and athletic as either Virginia or Arizona State, but it's still fair to wonder at this point if Harvard is quite as good as the previous two seasons when it won the Ivy League and a game in the NCAA tournament. With Yale boasting a 9-4 record and a win at UConn and Columbia also off to a solid start, the Crimson could have more competition than expected.
F — Kansas State
Between the strength of the Big 12 and its poor performance in non-conference play, Kansas State already had an uphill battle to make the NCAA tournament entering Sunday's game against Texas Southern. The Wildcats steepened the climb considerably when they blew a late lead against the Tigers and lost at the buzzer to fall to 7-5 so far this season.
Kansas State led by four in the game's closing seconds when Jevon Thomas made the mistake of fouling Tonnie Collier on a 3-point attempt. Collier sank the first two and missed the third intentionally, enabling Chris Thomas to score a game-tying put-back with 0.9 seconds left after Kansas State's Nino Williams crumbled to the ground on the box-out.
Even then overtime was assured with a successful inbound pass, but Thomas made another costly mistake, throwing a long pass to Marcus Foster that landed out of bounds without anyone touching it. Gifted an inbound opportunity under the basket, Texas Southern took advantage as 6-foot-9 Jason Carter caught a lob pass in the paint and beat the buzzer with his layup.
F — Washington, Cal
Here's one small silver lining for UCLA: Its loss at Alabama wasn't even close to the Pac-12's worst on Sunday evening. 13th-ranked Washington lost for the first time this season at home against Stony Brook of all teams. Cal suffered an even worse home loss against lowly Cal State Bakersfield.
Even though Washington was unbeaten and had a ranking next to its name, Cal's 55-52 loss was probably more surprising since its opponent was considerably worse. Cal State Bakersfield entered Saturday's game 2-10 with losses against Arkansas Pine Bluff, UC Riverside, Portland State and South Dakota, among others, but the Roadrunners led by as many as 17 in Berkeley and emerged with a win despite scoring only one basket over the final 10 minutes.
Washington's 62-57 loss at Stony Brook isn't much better considering the America East contenders were 0-6 on the road entering Sunday including a one-point loss at Canisius in its previous game. The Huskies were terrible down the stretch, scoring just two points in the final 6:36 and allowing Stony Brook to outscore them 10-0 in the final 3:41. The missed their last eight shots, committed four turnovers in the final six minutes and shot a season-low 34.3 percent.
NOTES:
• Devin Thomas’ tip-in as time expired propelled Wake Forest past Richmond 65-63. Codi Miller-McIntyre scored 17 points to lead the Demon Deacons.
• Buffalo has now led Kentucky and Wisconsin at halftime on the road. The Badgers trailed by one at the break on Sunday but pulled away for a 12-point victory behind 25 points and 11 rebounds from Frank Kaminsky.
• Tulane entered Sunday's game at St. John's with a 9-2 record, but the Green Wave were no match for the Johnnies. Sir’Dominic Pointer had 24 points, seven steals, four assists, four rebounds and four blocks as St. John's rolled to an 82-57 rout.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
