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
I so wish I had gotten home sooner to post that UK was winning straight up. Not that anybody would have played along. I bet them with the points, to win outright, and half way thru the second half up 10 I checked the line expecting it to be unbettable, and they were only -240, so hammered them again. Sick. You just don't give UK 2/1 in games with NBA players all over the court, and well, that means you don't give them 3 or 4 to 1 either. Their sleep losses don't even count against their ability
Who, exactly, are the NBA players on Kentucky?
I like the Pope style of almost being one of the boyz, cutting up with them, not being an abusive hard arse, etc. Coaching is evolving and maybe hyper-evolving given the new landscape, and I think this works. I think it was a great hire.
We'll find out draft night and beyond. If they don't have any it will be one of the first years of my lifetime that they don't, and that covers some territory. Looks like they have 3 players within the top 100, 4 in some mocks. Admittedly, I started with that line last year about "NBA talent all over the court, stop giving them +200 in basketball games" ... and I kind of used it as a carryover for yet another team that wins 100% of the time when they are +200-ish dog or more. Looks like 4-for-4 in such spots this year, and I've bet them all. I can't find last years ats record but I remember late in the year betting them money line and points several times in substantial dog spots, and they won them all ... all but one outright I think, maybe all of them outright. Miss. State and Tenn. were two of them again, pretty sure.
It's a strange dynamic around the team lately, and its real. They can play with anybody -- PROVEN -- and this in a much stouter way than is generally meant when that is said. And their bad showings just don't work against them there, but they sure as hell are affecting the line, and way too much, making for remarkable overlays, imo. Anyway, their performance against outstanding and even great teams lately is terrific, and not cherry picked, and predictable (at least here it is).
Pope is good but they need to tweak that offense. They're literally getting pushed off the 3pt line by everyone now because there's no off-ball movement and no credible threat to the rim. I don't really see any 1st rounders on Kentucky. Maybe Brea plays himself up but feels more like a 2nd rounder to me.
PPP: points per possession
TO%: turnover %
OR%: offensive rebound %
- - - - - - - - - -
the bottom two are two of the Four Factors of basketball
Thanks!
Drake 19-2, 7-game winning streak, tied 1st with Bradley in the MVC, whom they've already beaten at their place.
Not going to be a deep-run team in the postseason like you guys' teams, but it's nice for us to have maintained competitiveness after the DeVries boys left for WVU.
If they make the tournament, might be an upset candidate against a more name team.
at the half
rock. chalk. can of whip ass
ESPN
rock. chalk. [strike]can of whip ass[/strike] largest blown lead in school history
lol KU
60-30 second half. Is that bad?
a whopping 1.52 ppp in the 2nd half for Baylor
jeeebus
lol UNC
hit the road Hubert
Regarding the question of where does UNC go from here, Bilas said that Hubert needs to keep coaching these guys up. Uh, I'm pretty sure that's the problem.
Does UK have any returning players at all? They keep saying no scholarship returners. Any walk-ons? And how rare is zero returners if that is the case?
Somebody better tell the Gameday guys that Coach K wasn't a one school coach.
I took the points and had a notion to take a little Razorbacks outright, but didn't. Darn it! Cal can do most anything except win multiple national championships or succeed in the NBA. 😀 Might be a few other things. Seemed he got virtually no cheers in the intro. Moderate booing.
Caleb Love broke Iowa St. 2025 Iowa St going to have group therapy sessions with 2022 Duke
This KU team is the most bipolar **** box team I can remember. Dejuan Harris may be the worst starting PG for a team of this caliber and KJ Adams is the most questionable starter I can remember. At times it looks like Flory Bidunga is a no brainer starter. Self is so god damn stubborn, KJ played like 17 minutes in the second of half against Baylor and Self didn’t think about making adjustments. The fan base is pissed.
Took Ole Miss - 3.5 figuring the gig was up on the aforementioned 100% outright win rate of UK as -200-ish dogs. Check. I'm moving like a champ on UK.
Drake at Murray State on ESPN2 last night. Pups win, now 21-2.
Didn't know it was on til halftime, so may have missed significant stuff (Drake up 10 when I came in. Ran it up to 19, won by 10).
Drake's a defensive-minded team. They extend pretty well, but would be in trouble against a team with athletic slasher-type players. Also don't seem to have a lot of size up front.
On offense, they're slow. Not plodding like the old Virginia teams under Bennett, but perfectly willing to take the clock down on each possession. The problem is, they don't seem to do much penetrating in the early part of the clock. Mostly around the perimeter til it's time to go.
On the plus side, they handle the ball well for the most part, and don't get in much foul trouble.
Assuming they're in some postseason action, I think they could give a power conference team a good game for 30-35 minutes, with the opponent pulling away.
Great fourth quarter comeback by San Francisco to end Saint Mary’s College’s perfect WCC season
