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College Basketball Grab Bag: Oklahoma's Fury Road; Iowa's Unlikely Walk-On Hero

Our weekly college basketball roundup covers Oklahoma's potential takeover; surprising newcomers at Iowa and Northwestern; Player of the Year contenders; and Indiana's always-photogenic head coach.
Marco Garcia-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome to the VICE Sports College Basketball Grab Bag, where every week we'll round up the biggest news stories in the sport. Random stuff, too, because it's college basketball. Enjoy!

Is Oklahoma the best team in the country? The Sooners get to prove it

Oklahoma might be the best team in the Big 12, and maybe even the best team in the country, but the Sooners sure didn't get any breaks from their conference scheduling gods. The No. 3 Sooners open the Big 12 season at home against No. 11 Iowa State, then travel to No. 2 Kansas two days later.

That's possibly the toughest two-game stretch any program will have to play this year, much less any Top 25 team. The Big 12 is loaded at the top, and Oklahoma could make or break its conference season a single week into it.

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Kansas is the Big 12 favorite right now, given that the Jayhawks have won an incredible 11 straight conference titles, but Oklahoma—which was perhaps overlooked coming into this season—has the best chance yet to end Kansas' streak.

The Sooners play basketball a lot like the best team in the NBA, the Golden State Warriors. Oklahoma fields a relatively small lineup, embraces a fast tempo, and its two best players—Ryan Spangler and Buddy Hield—can both shoot and get to the rim. Moreover, the Sooners are flexible: they don't feature a typical two-guard, two-forward and a center offense where every player has a defined role.

Oklahoma's positional adaptability extends to defense: Spangler, Hield and some of their teammates can defend multiple positions. That should come in handy against Kansas and Iowa State: nobody has been able to stop the Jayhawks' offense this year, while the Cyclones have only shoot poorly against giant-killer Northern Iowa.

The Golden State revolution is well underway in the NBA, and a similar shift is beginning to take place in college basketball. Oklahoma has a chance to become the top-ranked team in the country this week, and if they they do, the school's play style figures to become more mainstream.

Time to flex, Sooners. —Photo by Marco Garcia-USA TODAY Sports

The season's best debut

Less than a week ago, Northwestern center Derek Pardon thought he wasn't even going to play this season. A true freshman, he was supposed to redshirt to gain experience for 2016-17—but when senior center Alex Olah went down with an injury, Pardon was thrust into the Wildcats' lineup.

Lucky for Northwestern. In Pardon's second college basketball game ever, he lit up Nebraska, helping the Wildcats come back from a 12-point second-half deficit to win by nine—on the road, without their senior center, and with their two best guards playing poorly.

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Pardon finished with 28 points and 12 rebounds. By contrast, it took LSU freshman sensation Ben Simmons seven games to score that many points, and Simmons came into the season as the obvious No. 1 choice in the next NBA Draft. Pardon's potential has been obvious—he stands 6-foot-9 but has an 7-foot-3 wing span; multiple people close to the program said he surprised Northwestern's coaches in practice—but he was so raw that after the Wildcats' first exhibition game, the coaches decided he wouldn't get enough minutes to warrant playing this season.

So much for that.

"We thought we got a gem with him," coach Chris Collins said. "He was an under-the-radar recruit that we felt had a chance to be really good, and his work ethic and his ability to be ready when called upon like he was when Alex went down was amazing."

Could Pardon be good enough to help Northwestern make its first-ever NCAA Tournament in the next few years? Possibly. Consider this: the Wildcats have been so bad at offensive rebounding in recent years that they literally have stopped trying to get them at times; in his first Big Ten game, Pardon grabbed seven.

Northwestern remains a March Madness longshot this season, but the Wildcats just found a player who can help them much sooner than anticipated. And they found him completely by accident. That's college basketball.

Walk-on magic arrives in Iowa City

Speaking of happy surprises: the Iowa Hawkeyes have found a walk-on who might be something special—and as a freshman, too. Nicholas Baer, a walk-on, inexplicably has become the school's best bench player.

Baer had 13 points, seven rebounds and six blocks (!) in 30 minutes against Drake. Of course, that's just Drake. He had 19 points and five rebounds in 23 minutes against Tennessee Tech. Of course, that's just Tennessee Tech.

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Baer than had 11 points, five rebounds and two blocks in 21 minutes against Michigan State. Of course, that's just … the top-ranked team in the country?

Baer was the catalyst for the Hawkeyes in their win against the top-ranked Spartans, their first against a No. 1 team since 1999. And he did it all over the floor.

Baer has the best offensive rating of any Iowa player, according to KenPom.com, and he has the best shooting percentage of anyone who has played at least 35 percent of available minutes. Standing just 6-foot-7, he's nevertheless dominating at the rim according to Shot Analytics:

This is highly unusual. Most walk-ons are better as outside shooters. They have to be, because that's the only way they can compete with the superior athletic ability of scholarship players. Only here's Baer, going against highly-skilled athletes who have been in college strength programs for much longer, and more than holding his own.

Iowa already had a solid team, but the Hawkeyes might have lucked into a great young player that recruiters and talent evaluators whiffed on. Baer has a chance to be the Big Ten's best walk-on since a plucky point guard named Spike Albrecht, who nearly led Michigan to a national championship three years ago.

Best week: Iowa

After nearly knocking off Michigan State at home in each of the past three years—and blowing a double-digit lead against the Spartans last year—Iowa finally took down its top-ranked Big Ten rival. The win came in the same month that the Hawkeyes blew a 20-point lead at No. 5 Iowa State. Again: that's college basketball!

Worst week: LSU

The Tigers had their last chance to pick up a decent non-conference win this week against Wake Forest, but they found a way to lose, falling to 7-5 on the season. Despite having Simmons, LSU might not even make the NIT. Oof.

TFW your finger indicates your probable NBA Draft position, and not your college team's ranking. —Photo by Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports

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Random Ranking

Each week, we'll do a random ranking of a certain category. This week, it's the National Player of the Year candidates after non-conference play:

1. Buddy Hield, Oklahoma: Hield has been dominant this year, and he statistically has been the best player in college basketball according to KenPom.com. He doesn't have brand name recognition, but if OU beats Kansas, he'll get it.

2. Denzel Valentine, Michigan State: Valentine was the best player in the country before going down to an injury that will sideline him for two-to-three weeks. He can still win the award.

3. Grayson Allen, Duke: Just like his doppelganger, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, Allen is making a surprising run to the top of the polls. He might not win, but he's averaging over 20 points per game for the Blue Devils.

4. Ben Simmons, LSU: Simmons probably won't win since his team is awful, but as a consolation prize, he'll be the top pick in the NBA Draft. He's averaging 19.3 points, 13 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game. Pretty good!

5. Kahlil Felder, Oakland: Obligatory mid-major addition Kahlil Felder is another player that won't win, but he's the most underrated guard in the country, averaging 26.8 points and 8.8 assists per game.

VICE Sports Tom Crean Photo of the Week

So Annie, are you okay? Are you okay, Annie? —Photo by TKMarco Garcia-USA TODAY Sports

As always: You're welcome, America. See you in 2016!