Big Monday Thoughts

The first Big Monday of the year was a major success. 4 ranked teams made up two awesome matchups in the ACC and Big 12. First, (5) Duke visited (25) Miami in Coral Gables. Duke came back from a double digit deficit in the second half to get past Miami on the shoulders of Gary Trent Jr. going 6-9 from 3. In the second game, (6) West Virginia had a total meltdown and lost against (10) Kansas. There's a lot to digest from this slate of games. 

For Miami, they looked really good in the first half and part of the second. At the end it was just Duke being too dominant offensively to be stopped. Miami was a fringe top-20 team heading into the game, and nothing from last night really changes my opinion of them. With Miami I see a team that rides too much with momentum and emotion. It can be really good if they're feeling it, but really bad if they aren't. We saw both of Miami yesterday, and it didn't end well. 

I thought the Duke performance was really encouraging. They were down by double digits, but they didn't rattle like we've seen them in other ACC road games against NC State and Boston College. Duke has so much talent. That's clearly obvious. It was all about defense with them. Giving up 75 against Miami is heading in the right direction. I'm still really high on this Duke team. The way any of their starters can get 30 points is a great characteristic to have. 

Now on to the second game. I was able to watch more of this game than the Duke game due to park district basketball obligations, so I know a little more about how this game actually played out. My first thought isn't about how Kansas won the game, but about how West Virginia lost it. West Virginia also had a double digit lead with about 10 minutes in the second half remaining, and they looked dominant. Their defense was great, and they were getting easy shots off turnovers. Then it all went wrong. West Virginia looked lost on offense, Kansas rallied back, and Kansas won, reclaiming supremacy over the Big 12 for the time being. I don't know if West Virginia just panicked or if this will be a recurring trend, but I do know that this has happened in two straight games against top 10 opponents. This has always been the issue with the Mountaineers. They can't score in the half court. Their last three shots from the field against Kansas were Jevon Carter step back threes. You gotta get something better than that. 

Kansas stole this win, but you must credit them for not giving up. Devonte' Graham was fantastic and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk was cash from 3. It looks like Kansas is starting to figure things out. It's that or we all just overhyped West Virginia.