Men's college basketball rankings: Purdue beats No. 1, then gets to be No. 1

The best day of the college hoops season so far was Saturday. I’m still trying to regain my hearing from a day watching games in the basketball-crazed state of Indiana. I started at Kansas-Indiana inside Assembly Hall and then raced over to Purdue-Arizona at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. That was fun.

Bravo to all the coaches involved who made Saturday’s slate awesome. Keep scheduling like that!

In this week’s Top 25, I’ve got thoughts on some of the weekend’s best games, highlighted by Purdue’s Zach Edey helping himself and opening up shots for his teammates with his willingness to pass, Connecticut’s Donovan Clingan and KU’s Hunter Dickinson controlling the game from the middle of the floor, Houston’s Jamal Shead being a brainiac, Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner catching everything and Memphis point guard Jahvon Quinerly dropping some sweet lefty dimes.

Your weekly friendly reminder: The setup of this season’s Top 25 is that I’ll give nuggets on an unspecified number of teams each week. So if a team appears in the table but not the text below, that’s why.

Purdue

Arizona tried to dig against Zach Edey from either the post feeder or corner, and Edey has become smart at when to pass out. Purdue’s unselfishness makes it really tough to make such a strategy works. Because if the Boilermakers don’t have a great shot on Edey’s pass out, he’ll re-post and they look to get him back the ball. Against Arizona, three of his post-up shot attempts came off reentries when he’d passed out after the post double. He also set up three 3-point tries, two of which Purdue made.

Since Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer are the most frequent post feeders, it’s a tough strategy to pull off. Last season, it was worth the risk because Purdue shot 32.6 percent on spot-up jumpers, per Synergy. This team is at 40.4 percent.

Connecticut

The Nikola Jokic effect on basketball is running more offense through the center on the perimeter, and Donovan Clingan is proving he can be a trigger man in the middle of the floor for the Huskies. Clingan is able to execute dribble handoffs and has the ability to make reads. This is a luxury when your big man can handle ball pressure, see over the defense and find cutters:

Clingan is looking healthy — he had a foot injury in the preseason — and his fingerprints were all over the 76-63 win on Friday against Gonzaga. In addition to his box-score stats — 21 points, eight rebounds (four offensive), three assists, two blocks and a steal — he also had four screen assists, all coming from working in the middle third.

Arizona

Purdue was the first team to have real success against Arizona’s defense. Prior to that game, the Wildcats had held seven of their first eight opponents to either their lowest or second-lowest efficiency game of the season.

Arizona still looks like one of the best teams in the country, and there’s little reason to worry. The main takeaways for the Wildcats should be what they’d change next time against Purdue, because a rematch in April could definitely occur. Next time they might want to reconsider playing a deep drop coverage against Braden Smith and where they bring their doubles from against Edey.

Bill Self moved Hunter Dickinson off the blocks and to the perimeter in the second half to open up the floor, similar to how UConn is using Clingan. Teams are loading up on Dickinson in the post, and the Jayhawks looked much better pulling Dickinson away from the basket. Self ran only one post-up play for Dickinson in the second half, and his other two back-to-the-basket buckets came off pick-and-rolls.

This might be the answer for feeding Dickinson in the post. Because it’s organic and not a set, it’s harder for teams to be ready to bring a double team.

GO DEEPER

Indiana had Kansas on the ropes. But the Jayhawks had Hunter Dickinson

Houston was in the midst of a Wade Taylor IV storm on Saturday that could have turned into a regrettable loss. Texas A&M trailed by 21 and came back to tie it late because of some incredible shot-making from Taylor. The main reason Houston survived: the brains and calmness of senior point guard Jamal Shead.

In the final four minutes, Shead blocked a 3 at the shot-clock buzzer, realizing Taylor had no other option than to shoot; he made a late-clock iso 3 when A&M switched mid-possession from zone to man and he knew he had a mismatch, so he calmly let the clock tick down and then went at Solomon Washington; and then he made this read (in the video below) off a hammer play, seeing that Ja’Vier Francis had an opening at the basket and feeding him instead of passing it to LJ Cryer in the corner, who the play is designed for.

Then in the final minute, Shead got a stop on Taylor and the rebound, and hit Emanuel Sharp for what turned out to be the game-winning 3-pointer. Shead doesn’t put up huge numbers, but he’s one of the best point guards in the country.

North Carolina and Kentucky played an 81-possession game on Saturday. I was out of breath just watching it. One reason to like the Wildcats even more now that Aaron Bradshaw and Ugonna Onyenso are back is that their nine-man rotation should allow them to wear teams out. Who else can bring players like Rob Dillingham and Reed Sheppard off the bench?

Imagine trying to guard this when you’re tired:

GO DEEPER

So Kentucky might really be back, huh?

North Carolina

A terrific game against Kentucky ended with a thud when Elliot Cadeau passed the ball to Cormac Ryan when he wasn’t looking with UNC down three. Hubert Davis wouldn’t say after what he was running, so I did some searching, watching late-game situations from the last two seasons and plays UNC has run to set up a shooter off a screen. From the setup as Cadeau brought the ball up, it appears the Tar Heels were setting up RJ Davis to come off a stagger action.

But here’s why I’m a little skeptical that was the play. Whenever the Heels have run a staggered action this year, Armando Bacot is usually the second screener.

On the play against Kentucky, Bacot is set up on the left side of the floor, which makes me think he was either going to set a ball screen after Davis came off the stagger, or it’s possible he was going to set some kind of flare screen. The Heels used him in a similar spot for a hammer play that tied the Villanova game in the final minute earlier this season.

I’d bet whatever the Heels were running, Bacot was going to be the final screener.

I feel bad for whoever made the blunder — likely Cadeau or possibly Ryan — but it is stupefying how that happens coming out of a timeout. UNC’s main focus coming off that loss should not be the poor execution on that play, but rather its continued mediocre defense. For the Heels to be a real contender, they need to get better defensively. They rank 144th nationally in points allowed per possession.

The 79-77 loss at Memphis is no reason to worry about Clemson. The Tigers showed well in a tough road environment, and Memphis smartly focused a lot of attention on taking away Joseph Girard. The Tigers stayed attached to Girard, face-guarding him at times to try to prevent him from getting any clean 3-point looks. Girard made 26-of-56 3s in the previous seven games, averaging 18.1 points during that stretch and scoring in double figures every time out. Memphis held Girard to just two 3s and eight points. It was Clemson’s worst offensive game of the season, but Brad Brownell’s team still scored 77 points on 74 possessions.

Creighton

Ryan Kalkbrenner has made 29-of-34 2s in December, and one reason Kalkbrenner is such an efficient finisher is he has great hands. He catches the ball cleanly, keeps it high and doesn’t have to change his stride to finish. Kalkbrenner is the early favorite for catch of the year with this one from Saturday against Alabama, which he trapped on the back of his head with one hand:

Memphis

Penny Hardaway gives his experienced dudes a ton of freedom, and 25-year-old Jahvon Quinerly and 22-year-old David Jones are playing the best basketball of their college careers. Jones has been the star, averaging 20.3 points per game, and he again led the Tigers with 22 points in Saturday’s big win over Clemson, but Quinerly stole the show with his passing. He is one of the best off-hand passers out there, and these two left-handed dimes were some of his finest work:

Memphis could get even better with the addition of Kansas State transfer Nae’Qwan Tomlin. Tomlin should be prepared for Quinerly’s nifty passing; he spent a season catching passes from Markquis Nowell.

Dropped out: Northwestern

Keeping an eye on: Indiana State, Utah, Ole Miss, Alabama,  South Carolina, Duke, Grand Canyon, Ohio State, Mississippi State

(Photo of Zach Edey: Michael Hickey / Getty Images)