NCAA Basketball Thread 2024-2025
Quick OP here just to get us up and running
Things to watch for this year:
1. Can UConn 3-peat? Hurley won back to back championships with Clingan, Tristen Newton, and company. Can he make it a third with only one returning starter?
2. Who will be this years national player of the year? Zach Edey was the best player I've seen play college basketball in my lifetime. People throw the term generational talent around alot and Edey was truly a generational talent winning back to back national player of the year awards. But, now he's gone. So who can win the award?
- the 5th year guards in Mark Sears(Alabama) and RJ Davis(UNC) are a good spot to start. Both elite shooters and engines of an offense, they should lead two really good teams.
- the 5th year centers in Hunter Dickinson(Kansas) and Ryan Kallbrenner(Creighton) are also viable options. They'll be the anchors to what should be two really good teams.
- The phenoms: Cooper Flagg(Duke), Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper(Rutgers), VJ Edgecombe(Baylor), and Tre Johnson(Texas) lead a loaded freshman class.
3. Who are the contenders?
Spoiler
Lettuce college basketball
Been away, just saw Pups beat Green Bay to go to 11-0.
Of course, non-conference schedule not going to scare anyone, but it's a nice start. 28 in both polls.
Greg Gumbel, RIP. I didn’t even realize he was sick. Selection Sunday will be sad.
wtf, someone needs to be fired for this
what am i missing?
I'm assuming it's a re air and the final score is scrolling
I’ll take Zags +4
Is the bottom the women's teams, maybe?
Haha that's the only way this could've been more tilting, if I stopped the game and then realized it wasn't actually a spoiler.
I almost always record the games and watch them later, and when I turned on youtubetv it recommended Gonzaga/UCLA so I clicked on it assuming it was the original game from 5 hours earlier. So I didn't even realize it was a re-air until I saw the score.
I guess it's slightly less annoying that I didn't get to watch the 2nd half since they lost. But the last 14 mins or so were all within a 4 point window! Gonzaga/UCLA is always a great game.
No network needs the score crawl anymore. Everyone has a phone and can see any score at any time. All it does it spoil
Yeah it's crazy. Not only do we all have smartphones but we also all have smart TVs. At least make it something you can toggle on and off like closed captions so I don't have to put a ****ing towel over the top of my TV during march madness.
When Texas went from the B12 to the SEC in my head I thought - good, we should be a top 3-5 team in the league. Nope. Next 5 games:
@#13 Texas A&M
#2 Auburn
#1 Tennessee
@#12 Oklahoma
@#6 Florida
and for a really good kick in the nuts, former UT coaches currently:
#1 Tennessee
#8 Marquette
#16 Ole Miss
What the hell is #6 Florida @ #10 UK doing at 11 AM EST? I thought noon time was already for the bottom fillers.
I've soured a bit on Pope's (actually Fueger's) alleged genius video game offense. There isn't enough off-ball movement on their "zoom action" to generate open 3P looks when teams are prepared for it. If opponents are going over screens and face guarding out to the logo, it should be trivial to get an open slasher to the rim basically always. Then the defense gets to decide between conceding the layup or rotating. Drive -> kick -> swing. But instead of that it's really just a lot of two-man game between the zoomer / screener or slasher / weak side post player. In other words, it's not really possible to guard five-out to the logo but that's exactly what they're allowing teams to do against them.
Of course going nuclear on tough, closely-guarded deep grenade chucks works I guess lol.
Koby Brea not human
UK figured out that face guarding five out means free layups. They don't seem to have the secondary plan that basically every NBA team uses which is to kick out of a contested layup when the help arrives then swing if necessary. That's where some backside action helps since the defenders can[t ball watch.
Lol that UNC finish
Losing the ND ML being up 3 with 6 seconds and Elliot Cadeau taking the game tying 3 has to be the worst beat Ive ever taken
Unc live to make the tourney
EC comes through.
UNC seems very dangerously close to missing the tournament
They would be on the wrong side of the bubble if the tourney started today.
The Committee will get them in I reckon
