NCAAB: BYU, VCU and Other Mid Majors Making Statements

BYU, along with Saint Mary’s, are ready to push Gonzaga for the WCC title (photo: sports-logos-screensavers.com)

While everybody even remotely connected to college basketball was paying attention to the Champions Classic in Chicago this week, mid majors were making their own statements. Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker and Julius Randle were the headliners this week, but Tyler Haws, Treveon Graham and Semaj Christon made sure you would not forget about them.

To kick off the college basketball marathon on the ESPN family of networks, the BYU Cougars invaded Stanford after coming off a great home victory over Weber State last Friday. In a game that featured 52 personal fouls and 77 free throw attempts, Haws and Matt Carlino combined for 57 points while going 18-for-34 from the field in a 112-103 victory over a talented Cardinal team at Stanford.  Haws has the scoring ability to make a case for an All-America nod at season’s end. BYU is has the scorers and the skills to challenge Gonzaga for the West Coast Conference crown.

About 18 hours later on the other side of the country, 14th-ranked VCU headed down the road to 25th-ranked Virginia in the season’s first battle of ranked opponents (the night ended with four such contests, but VCU-Virginia was the first because they had dibs). VCU’s Graham was the only Ram in double figures scoring with 22 and came up with the game-winning 3-pointer from almost NBA range to seal a VCU 59-56 win against the Cavaliers. The vaunted Havoc defense Shaka Smart’s squad uses forced 19 Virginia turnovers, helping to alleviate being out rebounded by the Cavaliers 41-28.

In one of least noticed games of the week, two very talented squads in Tennessee and Xavier went toe-to-toe. Xavier’s Semaj Christon carried the load with 18 points while Tennessee’s Jordan McRae dropped in 23 points for the Volunteers. Neither teams are on most radars but by the end of the season, both should be in the NCAA tournament and both should expect to have successful regular seasons as well.

While all this has been going on, Saint Mary’s was expected to slip a bit because of the loss of Matthew Dellavedova. Instead the Gaels have opened the season with three great wins against mid majors with quality teams expected to finish first in their respective conferences. Louisiana Tech, Akron and North Dakota State have all ventured to Saint Mary’s only find themselves leaving with a loss on their resumes. Gonzaga has great competition with BYU and Saint Mary’s as talented as they have been in recent years.

So what does all of this mean? Simply put, the mid majors are making for some great stories and remarkable seasons while everybody else is focused on the power teams in the power conferences. This is always the case but it’s unfortunate. But this isn’t a tale of the under appreciated. It’s rather a reminder that there is great basketball being played all across the country.  That’s the beauty of college basketball.

While the freshmen of the country are great stories, let us not forget of the Doug McDermotts, Marcus Smarts and Russ Smiths. Kentucky and Kansas are fun but we’d be silly to exclude VCU, Wichita State and BYU from the conversation of great teams in the nation.

Don’t look now, but some of the best stories in college basketball are the ones that haven’t even been told yet by the teams that don’t receive much publicity. They’re not always on national television and won’t be making many magazine covers. They are the mid majors and they’re coming to a lower level arena near you.

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