Welcome to Glass Slipper! Quinshon Judkins, thank you for everything; please enjoy the show.

- Jacob Rhee

Here are my 10 biggest takeaways through 11 weeks of the men’s college basketball season.

1. Full bloom.

Uh-oh. Cooper Flagg’s play was eyebrow-raisingly inconsistent to start the year, but he’s taking week-to-week leaps now. A 25-7-6 line on absolutely absurd 63-55-89 splits in his last six contests. The rest of America might be in grave danger here.

2. Heart over height!

Some draft analysts are going to argue that Rob Wright is too short to have success in the NBA, and it’ll send me into a world of ripping-hot rage. Half of the top eight teams in the Eastern Conference start a point guard that’s under 6-foot-3; let’s graduate from this height requirement stuff. Obviously, it helps to be tall. It means you’re closer to the rim. Great observation, experts! Watch Wright operate in the pick-and-roll, and tell me he doesn’t belong in the league.

3. Changing the narrative.

What if I told you that one of the five best three-point shooting squads in the nation also had a historically dominant defense? You’d grab my shirt collar - blank March Madness bracket in the other hand - and demand that I tell you the name of the school.

It’s Houston.

I’m not ruling out the possibility of these dudes just romping their way to a ring. They’re more than capable.

4. Tom Izzo’s experiment.

Michigan State has climbed all the way up to No. 8 in the AP poll, after being left out of the preseason rankings entirely.

The Spartans are the deepest team in the sport. Izzo is rolling with a 10-man rotation, and no one averages 14 points per game. It’s kind of amazing.

I can’t say I really understand how this is leading to wins, quite frankly. John Calipari gave minutes to bunch of different dudes on that iconic Kentucky roster in 2014-15, and it worked because he had nine(!!) five-stars at his disposal. Izzo is deploying unspectacular recruits for brief bursts of time, and he has MSU sitting at 16-2. We’ll see if this thing is effective in the tournament.

5. The Curtis Jones show.

I’m in love. Listen to him talk for two minutes, and you’ll understand. He’s such a relaxed and fun kid, yet his game is so full of confidence and fight.

I picked Iowa State to win it all back in October for a reason.

6. Tailspin.

RJ Davis and Caleb Love were 88 seconds away from a title in 2022. Fast-forward to now, and each is having an awful campaign on a mediocre team in their final season of eligibility. Oh, how things change.

7. Properly rated.

The media needs to stop trying to convince us that Dana Altman is underappreciated. Like, stop. The guy is at Oregon, with the Nike headquarters in his backyard; Phil Knight is literally funneling recruits to the program. It’s Year 36 as a head coach, and Dana has the same number of national championship appearances as me. He gets more than enough credit.

8. I still don’t believe in Auburn.

Yes, the Tigers are the unanimous No. 1 squad in the country. I’m telling you, it’s fake chemistry. I can smell it.

When you’re shoving that bracket into the paper shredder in nine weeks, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

9. A new era.

We’re finally about get a definitive answer on whether or not the NBA three-point revolution has gone too far. Louisville guard Reyne Smith is shooting 41% from distance, on almost 10 attempts a night. Respectfully, he’s not good at any other aspect of basketball. I seriously think I’m beating him in a game of one-on-one.

Remember when Ricky Rubio was defending James Harden by standing behind him in 2019? If you’re trying to guard our friend Reyne, that’s an appropriate tactic to utilize. I’d love to see what would happen if you gave him a wide-open pathway to the hole. He’d carefully check his surroundings, inch forward, and then disintegrate into a puddle of uncertainty at the free throw line.

Smith does not take twos, he averages under one assist per game, and the Aussie is a 190-pound defensive liability. If he gets a chance in the league, Adam Silver needs to rethink some things.

10. My updated National Player of the Year ladder.

1) Cooper Flagg, Duke

2) Johni Broome, Auburn

3) Curtis Jones, Iowa State

4) PJ Haggerty, Memphis

5) Braden Smith, Purdue

6) Kam Jones, Marquette

7) Trey Kaufman-Renn, Purdue

8) Kasparas Jakucionis, Illinois

9) Keshon Gilbert, Iowa State

10) Jeremiah Fears, Oklahoma

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