Busting Brackets
Fansided

NCAA Basketball: Biggest takeaways from 2019 2K Empire Classic

By Tristan Freeman

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 22: The Duke Blue Devils pose with their 2K Empire Classic tournament trophy after a 81-73 win over the Georgetown Hoyas at Madison Square Garden on November 22, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 22: The Duke Blue Devils pose with their 2K Empire Classic tournament trophy after a 81-73 win over the Georgetown Hoyas at Madison Square Garden on November 22, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 3
Next
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 22: Matt Bradley #20 of the California Golden Bears drives to the basket past Kai Jones #22 of the Texas Longhorns during the second half of their game at Madison Square Garden on November 22, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 22: Matt Bradley #20 of the California Golden Bears drives to the basket past Kai Jones #22 of the Texas Longhorns during the second half of their game at Madison Square Garden on November 22, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images) /

Cal – Matt Bradley is a future All-Pac 12 player

There’s very little positive to say about Cal Basketball at the moment. We all know the program is in another complete rebuilding job with first-year head coach Mark Fox and a revamped roster after several key players decided to transfer. But one player who chose to stay was sophomore Matt Bradley, who averaged 10.8 ppg as a freshman last season. That number has risen to nearly 20 ppg in the early part of this campaign, easily the best on the Bears.

The 6’4 guard struggled against Duke (7 points) but scored 22 of the team’s 45 total points against Texas. With two 20+ point games in wins already on his resume, don’t be surprised if Bradley makes a legit run at an All-Pac 12 team placement at the end of this season. If Cal pulls off a few upsets in conference play, it’ll be at the hands of the sophomore guard. So even if the Bears win/loss record isn’t great, they’ll at least have a foundational piece to work with going forward.

Texas – Offense continues to be a cause for concern

The Longhorns didn’t get much out of this event outside of a useless resume win over Cal. Losing to Georgetown isn’t a problem and at least to this point, the team hasn’t had that head-scratching non-conference defeat yet. So in their quest to make it back to the NCAA Tournament, things are okay. But the fatal flaw of previous Longhorn teams – the offense, just hasn’t improved much so far.

Texas hasn’t scored over 70 points in a game this season and still ranks in the bottom third of NCAA Basketball in scoring and shooting. The guards have led the way, including leading scorer Matt Coleman, Andrew Jones and Courtney Ramey. But unlike in previous years, the team doesn’t have a lottery pick that can singlehandedly carry Texas to a victory when needed. It’ll have to be a collective effort and unless a forward outside of Jericho Sims can develop into an offensive weapon, it’s not looking like that’ll occur. Without better offense, Shaka Smart’s seat will continue to get hot.

Home/NCAA Basketball News