Coast to Coast: A Mountain West hero, an unlikely All-Star and a skid in Waco
What a time for basketball around the country. Six of the top 10 teams in the AP top 25 lost in a strong week for NCAA underdogs. In the NBA, a couple of blockbuster trades rocked the league.
I’ll take you through a few of my thoughts on this roller coaster ride of a week.
What’s wrong with Baylor?
After a 15-0 start, Baylor has sputtered out in Big 12 play. An 83-59 drubbing at Kansas bookended a 4-4 skid for the Bears. So why have the reigning national champions looked so mediocre since their sizzling start?
The absence of sophomore guard LJ Cryer probably has something to do with their recent duds. Baylor’s leading scorer remains out, and the first three games he missed were a disappointing 1-2 stretch.
Despite recent victories over Kansas State and Texas, the Bears have not looked like a convincing bet to repeat as national champions more than a month. Cryer was only out for two of the Bears’ four losses. Clearly, something else is at play.
Senior guard James Akinjo has hit a rocky stretch recently, posting a combined 5 points against a pair of Oklahoma teams and failing to hit a single shot against Kansas. In games the Bears have dropped, Akinjo averages 7 points per game. In games Baylor has won, however, the senior guard averages 14.3 points per game.
It seems the team’s success goes as Akinjo goes. For the Bears to reemerge as a credible national title contender, Akinjo will have to rediscover his shooting touch.
Andrew Wiggins. All-Star Starter.
What a ride it’s been for Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins. As a freshman out of the University of Kansas, Wiggins was the number one overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft. Wiggins had an enormous amount of hype among NBA observers, perhaps more than any other prospect since Lakers forward LeBron James.
Unfortunately, the veteran wing hasn’t quite lived up to expectations. Despite averaging a respectable 19.4 PPG over his career, Wiggins hasn’t done much else. He’s never displayed much of the playmaking ability that top-level wings must show today. On defense, he looks more like a traffic cone than a useful help defender.
Wiggins’ player efficiency rating for this season, ostensibly his best season, is 16.56. For context, a league-average player would sit at a 15, putting Wiggins just a hair above the mean. Still, it hasn’t all been bad for the “Maple Jordan.”
The forward scored 8,710 points on the Timberwolves, making him their third all-time leading scorer. With his All-Star selection, Wiggins became the third first-time All-Star to be named a starter in his eighth season or later, according to Elias Sports Bureau. Realistically, the lofty projections for the Canadian forward were always far too high.
Wild ways to win in Wyoming
Wyoming has bounced back from an eighth place finish in the Mountain West laset year to sit top of the league at 10-1. Sophomore forward Graham Ike has led the Cowboys’ turnaround. After an injury-hit freshman season, the forward from Aurora, Colo. has exploded to the tune of 20.6 points per game. That average puts him 10th in D1 NCAA rankings, a ranking he’ll hope to retain as the Cowboys head into the stretch run that’ll decide their NCAA tournament hopes.
No loyalty in the league
It’s easy to look at the recent rise in player movement around the NBA and mourn the loss of loyalty. Current Lakers forward LeBron James’ move to the Miami Heat kicked off an era of unprecedented player turnover that shows no signs of slowing. With all these moves, it’s easy to miss the lack of loyalty franchises around the league are showing in return.
Nowhere was this loss more clear than in Sacramento last week, the scene of a blockbuster trade. Budding star and Sacramento Kings guard Tyrese Haliburton was part of an exchange that moved Indiana Pacers center Domantas Sabonis to the Kings. It seems the only place on Earth this trade made sense was the Kings’ front office.
Haliburton was known around the league for wanting to be the guy to try to lead this franchise out of the doldrums. According to former Kings forward Matt Barnes, “the team was in shock, devastated; Tyrese was in tears.”
Recently named to the NBA Rising Stars Game, Haliburton came crashing down to the harsh reality of basketball last week. Welcome to the league, Tyrese.
Yoav Gillath is a freshman writing about NBA and NCAA basketball. His column, “Coast to Coast,” runs every other Tuesday.