Last night in college basketball: The 4 best things about the Kansas State block Vine

Kansas State’s season opener against Southern Utah shouldn’t have been particularly notable. The Wildcats followed the lead of almost every major conference power by scheduling a home game against a low major team to start the season with what should have been an easy victory.

K-State got the job done with little trouble. Sophomore guard Nigel Johnson came off the bench to score 18 points and star Marcus Foster added 13 in a 98-68 win. If that’s all you knew about this game, you’d probably never think about it again.

Brandon Bolden changed all of that. Bolden was making his debut for Kansas State Friday as a 6’11 sophomore forward who sat out all of last season as a transfer from Georgetown. Late in the second half with the victory already in hand, Bolden decided to give college basketball its first indelible moment of the season by swatting Southern Utah’s John Marshall into oblivion.

Count your blessings that there’s someone out there dedicated enough to watch garbage time of a Kansas State game against a Big Sky team, because 12 million people aren’t wrong about this block.

After watching this approximately 150 times this weekend, I feel qualified to break down the four best things about this ridiculous rejection.

1. All ball

The Southern Utah coach might run down the sideline barking at the ref for a call, but there’s no way the whistle should have been blown. Bolden jumped up with his arm extended to the side and sent the ball right back in Marshall’s face. This is as clean as a huge block can get.

2. The staredown

This is up there with Allen Iverson taking an exaggerated step over Tyronn Lue in terms of outright disrespect. Don’t steal a lazy pass from Brandon Bolden unless you’re prepared to deal with the consequences.

3. The ref shrug!

As if to say “Nothing I can do here for you, bruh. You’re already dead.”

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

4. The Kansas State guard starting the next possession unfazed

Dude just watched a man die in vain and didn’t even flinch.

If there’s a better play this year in college basketball, I can’t wait to see it. Here’s what else happened during a busy opening weekend in college hoops:

The No. 1 Wildcats trailed, 38-33, Sunday afternoon in their second game of the season against the Buffalo Bulls. Things got very real very quick for Kentucky in the opening 20 minutes. It is not every day a premier rim protector like Willie Cauley-Stein gets crammed on like this:

Of course, Kentucky got its act together in the second half and still won by 19 points. When you’re as talented as the Wildcats, sometimes the difference between a blowout win and a frustrating first half is simply looking down at the front of your jersey and realizing, nah, Kentucky does not lose early season games to MAC teams like the Bulls.

Interestingly, the three Kentucky scorers who reached double figures all came off the bench. It happened while most analysts were quick to call for the premature death of John Calipari’s much hyped platoon system after Marcus Lee broke in with the starters in the second half.

While the thought of Calipari immediately bailing on the platoon system to help forge a massive second half comeback makes for a good story, it isn’t exactly what happened. Karl-Anthony Towns, Kentucky’s best freshman and a future top-five NBA draft pick, picked up a few quick whistles early and ended up fouling out after only 10 minutes. The Wildcats simply needed Lee’s energy defensively and on the glass, and Cal adjusted on the fly to give his team a quick lift.

It’s not like Calipari started burying guys in the second game of the season. Kentucky played 10 dudes on the night and no one played less than 18 minutes. Tyler Ulis, Trey Lyles and Devin Booker -- all freshmen -- were the three Wildcats in double-figures, while none of the starters played more than Cauley-Stein’s 26 minutes.

Kentucky faces Kansas in one of the marquee games of the season on Tuesday with its platoon system alive and well.

UNC pasted Robert Morris -- the same program that knocked out Kentucky in the first round of the N.I.T. two years ago -- Sunday by 44 points. We knew the Tar Heels’ front court would be loaded, and Brice Johnson (23 points) and Kennedy Meeks (21 points) lived up to the hype.

There was one alarming sign for the Heels, though. If you exclude the work of star guard Marcus Paige, North Carolina would have shot 1-of-11 from three-point range on the night.

Paige hit 3-of-5 from downtown, but it isn’t exactly comforting that he might be the only player on the team who can reliably hit a jump shot. Opposing defenses are going to crash down in the paint to limit UNC’s front court scorers if the Heels can’t shoot from distance. Right now, it appears to be a work in progress.

Also: why was there a crossbow in the kitchen next to freshman Theo Pinson?

Some things are better left unexplained.

This is a look at how the top-rated freshmen in the country performed this weekend:

Jahlil Okafor: The consensus Freshman of the Year (if not the consensus Player of the Year) showed why so many believe he’ll be the top pick in the 2015 NBA draft. Okafor finished with 19 points in Duke’s blowout win over Presbyterian Friday and then dropped in another 17 and nine against Fairfield Saturday. On the season, Okafor has made 17 of the 20 shots he’s attempted. Duke plays Michigan State Tuesday.

Stanley Johnson: The good: Johnson shot 7-of-10 from the field to lead Arizona in scoring with 17 points in the Wildcats’ 86-68 win over CS Northridge Sunday. The bad: he finished the game with only one rebound, one block and no other statistics. No assists, no steals, no nothing. We knew Johnson could score, but he’s going to have to be a two-way player if Arizona is going to reach its ceiling.

Leron Black: The Illinois freshman forward -- rated the No. 44 player in the class of 2014 by ESPN -- finished with 18 points and eight rebounds in the Illini’s 58-point win over Coppin State on Sunday.

Isaiah Whitehead: Seton Hall did what Duke could not last season by defeating Mercer, but the Pirates’ star freshman struggled in his college debut. Whitehead finished just 1-of-11 from the field and 0-of-5 from three to end the game with two points, two assists and four turnovers. Whitehead is the biggest recruit for Seton Hall in years, but one bad game is no big deal because he’s surrounded by a group of solid veterans. Senior Brandon Mobley scored a game-high 19 points while junior Sterling Gibbs added 17 points in the win.

Myles Turner: Two games, two blowout wins, two nice stat lines for Turner. Texas’ star freshman came off the bench to put up 15 points, six rebounds and two blocks in his college debut against North Dakota State, and then added 10 points, seven rebounds and six blocks in the Longhorns’ Sunday win over Alcorn State.

Buddy Hield couldn’t miss: The Sooners’ star guard took seven three-pointers in Sunday’s season opener against SE Louisiana. He made all seven. Between Hield’s big day and the news that TaShawn Thomas is eligible immediately, Sunday was a good one for Oklahoma.

Harvard’s top 25 ranking didn’t last long: The Crimson starting the season ranked No. 25 in the polls was almost an inconceivable achievement for an Ivy League team, but that’s what winning NCAA Tournament games each of the last two years will do for a program. Well, Harvard fell 58-57 to Holy Cross Sunday by turning the ball over 24 times. At least Bill Simmons is happy about it.

Finish of the week: Ole Miss lost to Charleston Southern on a tip-dunk at the buzzer:

SMU vs. Gonzaga on Monday

Wichita State vs. Memphis on Tuesday

Duke vs. Michigan State on Tuesday

Kansas vs. Kentucky on Tuesday

Utah vs. San Diego State on Tuesday