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DATE: Sunday, Jan. 4
A — Chris Jones
Having endured plenty of criticism from Rick Pitino the past few weeks for his poor shot selection and his high-profile flop against Kentucky, Louisville point guard Chris Jones finally heard something new from his coach on Sunday night. Pitino described Jones' performance as "brilliant" after the senior point guard thwarted Wake Forest's upset bid with a huge second half.
Jones scored 20 of his 22 points after halftime, dished out 10 assists and only committed two turnovers to help visiting Louisville put away Wake Forest 85-76. The point guard put the Cardinals ahead to stay with a jumper with six minutes to play and sank all six free throws he attempted in the final five minutes.
The brilliance of Jones was a welcome sign for a Louisville team that probably won't contend in the ACC or make a Final Four unless he improves. Even before Pitino benched him against Long Beach State because of the flopping incident, Jones' shooting percentage was hovering near 30 percent and he had just six more assists than turnovers.
A- — Kansas
If you'd told Bill Self that he'd only drop one more non-conference game after Kansas' shellacking at the hands of Kentucky in mid-November, the Jayhawks coach surely would taken that. Kansas concluded one of the nation's toughest non-league schedules with an 11-2 record after pulling away late from UNLV for a 76-61 home victory.
While the recent struggles of Florida and Michigan State and a one-sided loss to Temple diminish Kansas' accomplishment a bit, only losing twice before Big 12 play nonetheless preserves the Jayhawks' status as the favorite in a deep Big 12. Among Kansas' other victims besides the Gators and Spartans are Utah, Georgetown, Tennessee and now a UNLV team that has beaten Arizona.
Kansas might have endured more late-game drama on Sunday were it not for the heroics of point guard Frank Mason. The sophomore used his strength and quickness off the dribble to thoroughly dominate his matchup with UNLV's Cody Doolin, sparking his team's late surge with a couple of big baskets and finishing with 18 points, seven assists, four rebounds and four steals,
C- — Washington
All the good that Washington did storming to an 11-0 start is beginning to unravel. The 21st-ranked Huskies followed up their surprising home loss to Stony Brook last week with a pair of losses on the road at Cal and Stanford this weekend.
Sunday's 68-60 overtime loss to Stanford had to be especially frustrating for Washington because it was a game the Huskies had chances to win despite a 14-minute field goal drought. Washington led by four with the ball with less than a minute to play but gave the Cardinal life when Andrew Andrews missed a jumper and Nigel Williams-Goss blew the front end of a 1-and-1. Chasson Randle took advantage on Stanford's final possession, using a ball screen to beat his man off the dribble, challenging late-recovering shot blocker Robert Upshaw and scoring a game-tying layup that forced overtime.
The good news for Washington is that its next three games come at home and each are very winnable. The Huskies should be able to get well at Washington State's expense next week before hosting Oregon State and Oregon.
D- — Cal
Splitting against the Washington schools at home wasn't a surprising result for Cal, but how the Bears did it was certainly stunning. Two nights after defeating 21st-ranked Washington, Cal suffered an inexplicable letdown in a 69-66 loss to hapless Washington State.
Jordan Mathews scored 24 points on 16 shots, but the Bears shot just 37.9 percent from the field overall. They had no interior offense and they lacked the perimeter firepower to make up for it with Jabari Bird still sidelined by injury, enabling Washington State to win on the road for the first time this season and on the road for the first time in conference play since Jan. 2013.
The outcome furthered Cal's reputation for schizophrenic play so far this season. The Bears have defeated Syracuse, Washington and Wyoming but lost to Cal State Bakersfield and now Washington State, two upsets that will act as anvils for their RPI the rest of the season.
NOTES:
• Lost amid all the discussion of UCLA's struggles during its five-game losing streak is that Utah is continuing to improve. The defensive-minded Utes held the visiting Bruins to their lowest point total since 1967 on Sunday in a 71-39 shellacking.
• Wichita State continues to win while looking alarmingly ordinary. The Shockers held off visiting Illinois State 70-62 despite surrendering 24 points to Daishon Knight. It was Wichita State's 20th straight league victory and its 24th in a row at home.
• The formula of stingy defense and offensive rebounding that served Old Dominion well under Blaine Taylor is now fueling the Monarchs' success under Jeff Jones. Old Dominion improved to 12-1 this season with a 61-54 win at Charlotte in the Conference USA opener for both teams. The Monarchs rebounded nearly half their misses and held the 49ers to 40.9 percent shooting.
• The teams expected to contend in the American Athletic Conference before the season were UConn, SMU, Cincinnati and Memphis. It might be time to replace the struggling Tigers with surging Temple. The Owls followed up their big wins over Kansas and UConn by edging Central Florida 84-78 behind 21 apiece from Will Cummings and Jaylen Bond. *
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!Follow @JeffEisenberg