College Basketball Journal: Jayhawks take care of rival Kansas State, barely escape against Colorado

By Jared Keene

Last week, I talked about how Kansas really hadn’t recorded a signature win through that point in the season. Last Saturday, that changed. In a big, big way.

The Jayhawks traveled to Manhattan (No, not NYC) to take on in-state and Big 12 foe Kansas State, who was coming off wins against Texas and Baylor sandwiched around a loss to Oklahoma State.

The Wildcats, led by junior guard Jacob Pullen and senior guard Denis Clemente, are no slouch by any mean and should not be taken lightly by any team that plays them.

After a tremendous back-and-forth contest that featured tons of emotion among all the other typical rivalry-game components, Kansas senior guard Sherron Collins, who had 16 points, hit a layup with nine seconds left in overtime to propel the Jayhawks to an 81-79 victory.

Five Kansas players scored in double-figures, led by center Cole Aldrich’s 18 points and 11 rebounds.

Since the inception of the Big 12, the Jayhawks are 31-2 against Kansas State, who suffered their third loss in their last 10 conference home games.

Pullen led the now 11th-ranked Wildcats with 22 points while Clemente scored 13 on just 4-of-15 shooting.

The win against Kansas State moved Kansas back to the top spot in the country for the second time this season, as it fully deserved.

Wednesday night, however, the Jayhawks got quite the test from Colorado in yet another overtime bout.

Despite going an absolutely brutal 18-for-38 from the free throw line, Kansas outscored the Buffaloes 12-6 in the extra session to come away with a 72-66 win.

One would expect their game against Kansas State to be a close contest, but the Jayhawks should have blown out Colorado, who is ranked second to last in the Big 12.

Clearly Kansas needs to work on it’s free throw shooting because less than 50% for a game is just unacceptable. Wow.

On Monday, the Jayhawks will travel to Austin to take on Texas, who currently sits second in the conference and 10th overall in what should be a terrific contest. The Longhorns will be looking to get back on track, as they have struggled as of late. In their last five games, the Longhorns defeated Texas Tech and Oklahoma State and losing to Baylor, Connecticut, and of course, Kansas State.

Lets move on to the Big East, which currently has four teams sitting in the top-10: Villanova (2), Syracuse (4), West Virginia (6), and Georgetown (8, although, that‘ll change after Wednesday‘s loss to South Florida).

Last week, I mentioned that Syracuse should be a shoe-in for the top spot, but Kansas took care of that after its win in Manhattan.

In their past two games, the Orange have squeaked out a win over a weak DePaul team and massacred Providence.

The performance against DePaul was bad. DePaul is last in the conference and Syracuse probably should’ve won by 30.

Villanova’s next two games are very intriguing. Tomorrow, the Wildcats travel to take on Georgetown, and on Monday, they travel to Huntington to take on the Mountaineers.

Even though the Hoyas lost to the Dominique Jones-led Bulls (if you haven’t seen Jones play, he’s a tremendous talent) on Wednesday, they are still a very dangerous team, led by sophomore center Greg Monroe (15.4 points per game, 9.7 rebounds per game) and junior guards Austin Freeman and Chris Wright.

West Virginia, whose student section has recently come under fire for inappropriate behavior, is led by sophomore forwards Devin Ebanks and Kevin Jones and senior forward Da’Sean Butler.

The Wildcats will need to be on their game in each of those contests, as the Mountaineers and Hoyas will sure be looking to bring the pain knowing that they’ll be facing the conference’s top team.

Georgetown and West Virginia certainly have what it takes to knock off Villanova, but they will need to bring the heat throughout the whole contest and will also need to do their best to shut down dynamic Wildcat senior guard Scottie Reynolds, one of the country’s top players.

From the Big East to the ACC we go.

No. 9 Duke leads the conference at 17-4 (5-2 in the conference), but got rocked by Georgetown last Saturday by 12 in a game that President Obama attended and the Hoyas dominated.

The Blue Devils made a statement against a strong Georgia Tech team, posting an 86-67 victory on Thursday night. At No. 19, the Yellow Jackets is the only other team in the top-25 in the ACC. Weird, huh?

Duke will travel to good ole’ Chestnut Hill on Saturday to take on a rebuilding Boston College team, who, a few weeks ago, led the Blue Devils at halftime before eventually losing by 20. Lets see how BC responds at home.

The real story in the ACC, though, is how bad the University of North Carolina is this year.

The Tarheels currently rank third-to-last in the conference at 13-8 (2-4 in the conference). Yup, you herd that right, third-to-last. From a fan standpoint, that’s just straight up weird, as is the fact that they’re unranked and probably won’t make the NCAA Tournament.

UNC has just two wins in its last seven games, including a three-game losing streak to Clemson (by 19), Georgia Tech (at home by two), and Wake Forest (at home by 13). Most recently, it lost to surprise-team Virginia (No. 2 in the ACC) by 15 at home, as Cavalier sophomore guard Sylven Landesberg, one of the conference‘s best players, led the way with 29 points.

Yes, the Tarheels did lose a ton of firepower from last season’s national-championship squad, but they still have talent in potential lottery pick Ed Davis and senior forward Deon Thompson, among others.

“How can you go any lower?” UNC coach Roy Williams said to reporters after the loss to UVA. “Be honest: how can it be any worse than it is right now? We’ve got a lot problems, and staying in front of the basketball has been one from day one with this team.”

It really can’t get any worse, Roy. You hit it right on the nose.

Jared Keene is a Blogger for Boston Sports U18. He is also a Sports Correspondent for The MetroWest Daily News. You can read Jared’s College Basketball Journal every Friday during the season.He can be reached at jkeene11@gmail.com.