Cavs fans College Basketball Viewing Guide: Feast Week!
This Week In College Hoops: Feast Week!
Outside of conference championship weekend, and the tournament, of course, this may be the best college basketball week of the year. The end of November is a great time to get a look at some of the best players who will be wearing NBA uniforms next season. There are multiple tournaments going on this week, and to see the best players thus far this season we will be focusing on The Good Sam Empire Classic, Battle 4 Atlantis, and the NIT Season Tip-Off. We will be looking at players like Chet Holmgren, Johnny Juzang, Jalen Duren, and more, so let’s get started.
The Good Sam Empire Classic
This new four-team classic will be taking place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The four teams competing are Central Michigan, Bellarmine, UCLA, and Gonzaga. Last night, the Zags took on Central Michigan and UCLA faced off with Bellarmine. However, the results of that game don’t really matter. The meeting everyone in the country wants to see is happening tonight when the Bruins of UCLA face off with Gonzaga in a re-match of last year’s incredible Final Four finish. The game is slated for a 10:00 PM ET tip-off and will be televised on ESPN.
While a lot of the other tournaments have some great players, there are really just two or three elite prospects in Las Vegas this week. Let’s just start it off with the possible 2022 NBA Draft number one pick Chet Holmgren. The freshman 7-footer has started out the season well for the Zags. Through four games he’s averaging just over 11 points per game, while also hauling in seven rebounds and four assists. As a big man, he’s very polished with his footwork and is a great shooter. It will be interesting to see how UCLA deals with the size of Holmgren and Gonzaga junior Drew Timme. It’s no secret that Holmgren needs to put on weight, a lot of it. However, he’s looked “as-advertised” thus far into the season, and I don’t see any player on UCLA being able to shut him down. This could be the Chet Holmgren break-through game.
Not to be outdone by his opponent, UCLA freshman Peyton Watson will look to break through tonight as well. However, unlike Holmgren, Watson has been disappointing thus far. In two games against North Florida and CSU-Bakersfield, he played at least 20 minutes, but only averaged 6.5 points. The more troubling aspect is that in UCLA’s other two games versus Villanova and Long Beach State, he only played a total of 14 minutes. It’s clear he’s not a finished product, and he has a lot of upside, but thus far he has not looked like a lottery player. He will be facing a very good Gonzaga defense, so now would be a good time for him to show the world he’s a future lottery pick.