NCAA Basketball: 5 biggest winners and losers from week 1 of 2022-23
Winner – Philadelphia College Basketball
The Villanova Wildcats are, admittedly, a loser built into this bigger win for Philadelphia basketball. But Temple’s win over Villanova on Friday was a lovely reminder of how awesome the Big 5 and the importance of its place in the sport. Of course, the annual tradition isn’t as intimate as it once was with home games not always being played at the Palestra, but it’s still a fantastic college hoops tradition.
Villanova has played each of the four other Big 5 teams 66 times or more, it was their first loss since 2018. Damian Dunn and Khalif Battle were spectacular for the Owls, combining for 43 points on 14-of-29 shooting. Jamille Reynolds grabbed 12 rebounds along with his 14 points. Is this one of the most important things to happen in the sport in the last seven days? No, probably not. But I’ll never pass up an opportunity to give the Big 5 a chance to shine.
Loser – Makeshift Basketball Arenas
To be crystal clear, I have no fundamental issues with games being played in unique locations, i.e. aircraft carriers and baseball fields. With that being said, the offensive performances in these alternate locations not built for basketball was pretty abysmal in the first week. In the Armed Forces Classic, Gonzaga and Michigan State were a combined 7-of-34 from beyond the arc and neither team cracked 65 percent from the free throw line. If it weren’t for Drew Timme’s 9-of-14, the Gonzaga team stats would’ve been much worse than 41 percent from the field.
Meanwhile at the Brew City Battle, Stanford and Wisconsin were a combined 39-of-106 from the field, or just 36.7 percent. The Cardinal and Badgers were 6-of-36 from deep. If you’re keeping score, that’s 13 total 3-pointers between four high major college basketball teams in these unorthodox basketball locations.
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Doesn’t mean it won’t ever work, but these backdrops being so different is almost always going to result in really poor shooting. Not to mention…the great outdoors.