最新杏吧原创

So what does the highest competitive level college basketball look like this season? Alabama 100, Illinois 87 in Birmingham, Ala., Wednesday night was an excellent representation.

The Crimson Tide were at their best, flying up and down the court, attacking the rim and kicking the ball back out for 3-point shots.

Forward Grant Nelson got Alabama started by hitting his first three 3-point jumpers. His teammates joined the splash party and the Crimson Tide rolled to a 36-19 lead.

The Illini finally gathered themselves and answered the onslaught. Alabama suffered some inevitable cold spells while hiking up all those long-distance shots (34 in all) and Illinois got within eight points with 3:35 to go.

Ultimately the Illini could not contain Alabama鈥檚 dribble drives. The Crimson Tide got into the lane again and again and again 鈥�- and they made good decisions when they got there.

Here are some things to note:

• Elite Illinois freshman Will Riley looked physically overwhelmed in the first half. Then in the second half he went right at the Crimson Tide while scoring 15 of his 18 points. Give this young man another year of weight training and he will be a huge problem in the Big Ten. His skill set and his competitive drive are tremendous.
• Kylan Boswell (17 points, seven rebounds, three assists), Tomislav Ivisic (14 points, 10 rebounds) and Kasparas Jakucionis (13 points, six assists) were up to this high-end challenge.
• Alabama put up those 100 points while getting zero points from star guard Mark Sears. Coach Nate Oats had plenty of other guys cooking in this game, including Aden Holloway (18 points), Labaron Philon (16 points, nine rebounds, seven assists) and Latrell Whitesell Jr. (16 points).

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think they are quite as high in terms of their rate of rate of 3-point shots as there were last year,鈥� Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. 鈥淭hey still shoot a lot. I hope we get to shoot a lot. It鈥檚 a credit to Nate in terms of being able to keep moving the needle forward, keep finding out what鈥檚 unique, what wins.

鈥淚 think it shows how good a coach Nate is. I think they had five or six losses first semester last year. They really went through it and then all of a sudden (they) get going, get hot. It showed how he could keep that team together. They did it with a ton of 3s. they did it playing fast.鈥�

Writing for the Illini Inquirer, Jeremy Werner noted the contrasts between the teams:

Alabama looked like a team that returned three starters from a Final Four team, while Illinois looked like a team that replaced all but one scholarship player from last season's Elite Eight squad. The Illini looked like it hadn't played together that much. Both the offense and defense were discombobulated after Alabama's initial run. The Illini did show some fortitude and toughness in battling back in the second half, but this team and its veterans have to find a way to come out with more poise and readiness against such high-level competition. Alabama is an elite offensive team, but the Illini defense was pretty putrid. However, this always was the biggest test on the nonconference schedule and an expected loss for a team expected to go through growing pains during a really tough nonconference slate. But with Alabama holding Illini at arm's length the entire game showed that the Illini聽will indeed go through聽those growing pains.

Missouri plays Illinois on Dec. 22 and Alabama on Feb. 19. Consider Truman forewarned.

THE BASKETBALL DIARIES

Here is what folks are writing about college basketball:

Dan Wolken, USA Today: 鈥淢ark Pope? Yeah, he鈥檚 the real deal, too. Just a couple weeks into the college basketball season, he鈥檚 already made Kentucky basketball fun again.聽 It鈥檚 been awhile . . . one thing you can already see: There鈥檚 a major vibe shift around Kentucky basketball.聽Freed from the tension of John Calipari鈥檚 stubbornness, his deteriorating relationship with Kentucky鈥檚 administration and his antagonistic posture toward a fan base that cares like no other in sports, Big Blue Nation will not find this kind of basketball difficult to embrace.聽It鈥檚 beautiful, it鈥檚 energetic, and most of all its drama-free.聽Yeah, Kentucky needed a change. They got it. And it looks as if they鈥檙e really, really going to like it.聽 Nothing against Calipari, a Hall of Fame coach whose first 10 years there were phenomenal. But the whole operation got stale, it got contentious, and his last four seasons were a slow-motion train wreck that ended with some embarrassing NCAA tournament defeats.鈥�

Joe Rexrode, The Athletic: 鈥淧ope isn鈥檛 just taking over a legendary program; he loves the place, having co-captained (Rick) Pitino鈥檚 absurdly loaded 1996 national championship team. Pope clearly wasn鈥檛 Kentucky鈥檚 first 鈥� or second 鈥� or third 鈥� choice. He has to prove himself. Instant likeability points. Word from inside the program is that he鈥檚 as lacking in self-importance as he appears to be publicly. He鈥檚 emphasizing outreach to former players. He鈥檚 honoring history, showing his team clips of legendary Duke-UK matchups stretching back to the 1970s before Tuesday鈥檚 tilt. The fun of Pope is in the basketball itself. This roster, which was completely empty when he arrived, is not loaded with first-round picks. But it鈥檚 well-constructed. The Wildcats play a five-out system built around cutting, passing and long-range shooting. It鈥檚 a joy to watch.聽

Isaac Trotter, 247 Sports: 鈥淎uburn's processes on both ends have become even more streamlined. Offensively, the Tigers are mixing excellent rim pressure with fewer turnovers and far more 3-point attempts. Over 47% of Auburn's shots have been 3-pointers in the early going. That's a 10% jump from last year.聽Auburn also has done a much better job of defending without fouling. The Tigers look like a complete wagon on both ends.鈥�

CJ Moore, The Athletic: 鈥淭exas A&M鈥檚 offense has benefitted from the addition of聽SMU transfer Zhuric Phelps, who missed the season-opening loss at聽UCF. Phelps is leading the team in scoring, and the Aggies rank 10th in adjusted offensive efficiency since his return, per Bart Torvik. Phelps has made it so that聽Wade Taylor IV聽doesn鈥檛 have to carry the offense. Taylor, whose efficiency numbers were down last year, went 4 of 15 in the opener against UCF. In three games with Phelps, he鈥檚 shooting less and has a 67.4 effective field goal percentage. The聽Aggies have struggled early on in recent season, and the UCF loss felt like a sign that was happening again, but it probably wasn鈥檛 worth judging this team until Phelps was in the lineup.鈥�

Joe Lunardi, : “I might not always agree, but there's a reason the NCAA men's basketball selection committee insists November results mean just as much as late-season games. Let's go back a week to the final media timeout of the Champions Classic. Kentucky had come from double digits down to tie Duke. The underdog Wildcats managed to win those last four minutes, not only notching the first major victory of the Mark Pope era but creating the kind of bracket disruption not normally seen this early in the season. Combined with Alabama's unsurprising loss at Purdue, the door opened for two new No. 1 seeds: Auburn and UConn. Former top-liner Duke drops all the way to a 3-seed in the shuffle, while Kentucky leaps three lines to join the Blue Devils. This week's other big winners are Wisconsin, which smoked Arizona at home, and Nevada, which ran its record to 4-0 against a quality mid-major slate.”

Gary Parrish, : “Before Tuesday's loss at Marquette, Purdue had won 39 straight regular-season nonconference games, a streak that dated to December 2020. So rather than bang on Purdue for nearly losing by 20, it's probably more reasonable to applaud the Boilermakers for being willing to challenge themselves in a true road environment four days after playing Alabama at home. Not all programs would do it.”

Mike Lopresti, : “Wisconsin outran No. 9 Arizona 103-88, after losing every inch of an 18-point lead. It was the first time the Badgers broke 100 against a ranked opponent in 55 years and the most points a Big Ten team had scored in a p-10 opponent yenon-overtime game against a toars since 1992. ‘This is a night we will never forget,’ guard Max Klesmit said. Leading the parade was John Tonje with 41 points, needing only 14 shots to do it. Then again, he had 21 of Wisconsin’s 41 free throws. Tonje is a sixth-year transfer who scored only 21 points all of last season while fighting injuries at Missouri.”

MEGAPHONE

鈥淚'd never had time to just sit down and kind of reflect on my game and what I wanted to be and where I can improve. I think it was best for me to just learn the game, take hours of film and self-reflection, figuring out what I want to get better at and where I see myself going.鈥�

Former Missouri guard John Tonje, after pouring in 41 points against Arizona, on his injury-marred season in Boone County.