NCAA Basketball: Top 10 mid-majors from first month of 2018-19 season
Honorable mentions
UC-Irvine Anteaters 7-2
Russell Turner’s UC-Irvine Anteaters are 7-2 and have won two of the last three Big West titles. Offensively the team averages just 72 points per game but are one of the better defensive teams in the country giving up just 65 per game, which is the 54th best number in the country.
They began the season on a six-game winning streak with a road win against Texas A&M, they also have a road win at Saint Mary’s. They will have a couple more chances to test their mettle in December with games against Montana and Butler.
The Anteaters have no players averaging double-figures but have six averaging between 8.8 and 9.7 points per contest, led by forward John Edgar, Jr. (9.7) and guard Robert Cartwright (9.6).
San Diego State Aztecs 5-2
Nevada has rightly so gotten most of the pub in the Mountain West but the San Diego State Aztecs are the conference’s second-best team with a 5-2 record. Brian Dutcher’s team has been a bit of a feast or famine team this year. In their wins, most notably over Xavier and Illinois State, the average margin of victory is 22.6 points and in their two losses to Duke and Iowa State, they fell by an average of 28 points.
The Aztecs have four players averaging more than 10 points and a fifth that is on the cusp at 9.6. They are led by a couple of seniors and a trio of sophomores. Senior guard Devin Watson leads the team in scoring with 15.9 points per game and assists with 4.7 and his classmate Jeremy Hemsley has knocked in 10.9 points, is second on the team in assists with 2.4 and a team-leading 1.4 steals per contest. The sophomore triumvirate of Jalen McDaniels, Matt Mitchell, and Jordan Schakel have combined for 36.8 points, 16.4 rebounds, and 5.1 assists.
Charleston Cougars 7-2
The Charleston Cougars are the reigning champs of the Colonial Athletic Association and despite losing arguably their best player Joe Chealey to graduation, coach Earl Grant’s team is off to a 7-2 start. The Cougars suffered back-to-back losses to Oklahoma State and LSU sandwiched in between a three-game winning streak and a current four-game streak. They have a victory over Rhode Island and wins over UAB and Memphis to finish fifth at the Advocare Invitational.
The two key players for the Cougars are junior guard Grant Riller and senior forward Jarrell Brantley. Riller has led the team in scoring in six of nine contests while being the leading assist man in all nine games. Brantley led the team pointwise in the other three games and has been the team’s top rebounder in six games. Riller’s 21.8 points puts him in the top-30 in the country in that category and his 5.6 assists are first on the team by a large margin, Brantley is 2nd with 1.3. Brantley pots 19 points per game while snatching 7.2 rebounds for the Cougars.
Charleston should head into league play with plenty of confidence, having finished the tough part of their schedule. Road games with VCU and Siena look to be Charleston’s toughest remaining games before CAA play.