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The Report Card: Washington thwarts Oklahoma's comback bid

Mike Anderson (Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports)
Mike Anderson (Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports)

DATE: Saturday, Dec. 20

A- — Washington

It's time to start including Washington when listing the best teams in the West. The 16th-ranked Huskies proved they belong in the group just behind Arizona and Gonzaga on Saturday when they withstood a valiant comeback from 15th-ranked Oklahoma and emerged with a 69-67 neutral-court victory.

Washington's win improved the Huskies to 10-0 with victories over San Diego State, UTEP and Oklahoma. That's an impressive enough resume for Washington to stake its claim to the title of biggest threat to Arizona in the Pac-12 and to feel good about its chances of breaking a three-year NCAA tournament drought.

The Huskies appeared to be in position to post an easy victory when they opened up a 37-17 lead but Oklahoma gradually clawed back by forcing turnovers and parlaying them into transition chances. But the Sooners never managed to tie or take the lead, even wasting four chances on one late possession as Washington clung to a two-point advantage.

B+ — Indiana

With Michigan free falling, Ohio State losing to the only good teams on its schedule and Michigan State not playing up to its usual standards, many of the teams expected to challenge to become the Big Ten's best team besides Wisconsin don't seem as formidable as expected. That could open up the door for an Indiana team that quietly is playing better than expected.

Troy Williams tallied 22 points and Yogi Ferrell had 20 as Indiana improved to 9-2 with a 82-73 victory over Butler at the Crossroads Classic. The Hoosiers are building an NCAA tournament-caliber non-conference resume, counteracting a bad loss to Eastern Washington with solid wins against the Bulldogs, SMU and Pittsburgh.

Defense and rebounding have been Indiana's biggest flaws so far this season, but the typically scoring-oriented Hoosiers (9-2) improved in both areas on Saturday. They held Butler to 39.1 percent shooting, harassed the Bulldogs into 3 of 13 from behind the arc and pulled down 15 offensive rebounds.

C — Ohio State

The ill-conceived schedule Thad Matta designed for his team this season has left Ohio State with ample work to do in conference play. The Buckeyes will enter the Big Ten schedule with no marquee wins and only one victory against an opponent in KenPom's top 150, a home win over No. 103 Marquette.

Ohio State is in this predicament because it didn't play in a holiday tournament and it scheduled nothing but drek besides Marquette, Louisville and North Carolina. With the Golden Eagles rebuilding, the Buckeyes had to either win at Louisville in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge or beat North Carolina on a neutral floor in Chicago to accomplish anything of significance before league play.

Having already fallen by nine at Louisville three weeks ago, Ohio State suffered an 82-74 loss to North Carolina on Saturday because it couldn't keep the Tar Heels off the offensive glass and it didn't score efficiently enough to keep up. D'Angelo Russell went 4 of 17 from the field as the Buckeyes shot 34.7 percent, trailed by double figures most of the second half and never mounted a serious charge.

F — Michigan State

All those Michigan State fans who bought NJIT shirts to commemorate Michigan's stunning loss earlier this month probably shouldn't wear them in public this week. The Spartans suffered an upset nearly as embarrassing Saturday evening when Texas Southern toppled the Spartans 71-64 in overtime.

Michigan State shot an atrocious 4 of 21 from 3-point range and allowed Texas Southern to scorch the nets for 53.2 percent shooting. If it weren't for the Spartans' 18 offensive rebounds, the Tigers might not have even needed overtime to win at the Breslin Center.

It certainly contributed to Michigan State's struggles that Branden Dawson missed Saturday's game with a fractured left wrist, but that's no excuse for such a listless performance. Texas Southern entered with a 1-8 record and had lost its last three games at Gonzaga by 40, at Florida by 25 and at Baylor by 26.

NOTES:

Top-ranked Kentucky throttled UCLA 83-44 Saturday in Chicago in a game that was even more lopsided than the margin of victory indicated. The Wildcats led 24-0 before surrendering a point, 41-7 at halftime and 43-7 before the overmatched Bruins finally reached double figures.

Notable stat line from an otherwise forgettable game: Kelly Oubre had 23 points and 10 rebounds in the Jayhawks 96-69 demolition of Lafayette. The highly touted freshman wing has hardly played most of the season because Bill Self has made him earn his minutes.

Quietly, Northern Iowa is assembling a resume that could get the Valley a second NCAA tournament team besides Wichita State. The Panthers bounced back from a loss to VCU by defeating in-state foe Iowa 56-44 to improve to 10-1 this season.

• Good night for the state of Utah. BYU survived a late Stanford rally in Provo to get a much-needed quality win and Utah fended off youthful UNLV in Las Vegas.

• Either Notre Dame may be better than we think or Purdue may be worse. The Fighting Irish got only 10 points on 3 of 13 shooting from star Jerian Grant yet they still rose up and throttled Purdue 94-63 behind Demetrius Jackson and Pat Connaughton.

• Even for a Missouri program that has endured more than its share of heartbreak historically, Saturday's loss to Illinois had to be especially brutal. Rayvonte Rice buried a step-back 3-pointer at the buzzer over the outstretched hands of two Tigers defenders as the Illini edged Missouri 62-59 in their annual Braggin' Rights rivalry game.

• The story of Louisville's 76-67 win over Western Kentucky was a skirmish that ended in Montrezl Harrell's ejection. It will be up to the ACC to decide whether the blow Harrell attempted to land will result in a suspension for the All-American candiate. 

• An improbable comeback from a five-point deficit in the final seconds of regulation enabled Villanova to earn an 82-77 win over Syracuse in a game it never led until overtime. Josh Hart buried a 3-pointer, fierce ball pressure forced an Orange turnover on the ensuing inbound pass and Ryan Arcidiacono found JayVaughn Pinkston for a game-tying layup.

• While Mick Cronin's absence due to an unruptured aneurysm was the big story of VCU's 68-47 victory over Cincinnati, the performance by the Rams shouldn't be ignored. VCU forced forced 15 turnovers and buried 15 of 31 threes as the Rams notched a quality win over a Bearcats team coming off a quality win over San Diego State.

• Nic Moore and Yanick Moreira combined for 36 points, forward Markus Kennedy made his season debut and SMU pulled away from struggling Michigan 62-51 in Ann Arbor. Now the Mustangs need to root for the Wolverines to snap their four-game losing streak and get it together because SMU really needs its victory to count as a quality win.

• Penn State held off Drexel to improve to 11-1. TCU throttled Texas-San Antonio to improve to 11-0. Are either of these teams legitimate NCAA tournament contenders? We'll find out once conference play arrives and they're tested regularly.

• One team that isn't good right now? Houston. The Cougars followed a stunning home loss to Arkansas Pine Bluff with an even more shocking upset at the hands of South Carolina State.

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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!

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