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
close game != great game
That's good, the "Houston you have a problem" angle hadn't occurred to me. And that event is close to me. My mother died that night, not too long after quite an emotional comment right after Bill Russell's last game that went thru me like a spear. And so I was onto it: what is winning championships all about (especially when you are on the road in Game 7 and about half as good as the other team of Chamberlain, West, Baylor, etc.)?
You really teed me up here, Redeye.
There is an anomaly that comes with being the GOAT in the championship countdown game. Whenever I don't have the winner in a championship game and I take a stab, it is zero percent. Let me write that in mathematical notation: 0%. For life. It's happened about 3 times in the last decade or so that I can think of that I just absolutely got nowhere crunching it but took a stab anyway, notably both San Fran/KC Super Bowls, and now this Gator/Cougar showdown.
From my perspective there was just no calling it. A friend called and asked the "gun to the head" question. Fukk. "Well, you know Guy Lewis wasn't much of a coach ... he wouldn't start Olajuwon against Worthy and Jordan and got behind 14-0 ..." I started in. lol. Yada, yada.
Seriously: Youston versus Gators. Florida was showing pure championship pedigree just a inch below Duke (but was far more tested), as I commented on early in the tourney when I bet the Chompers to title. Houston, the winning ugly, defensive battle of attrition style team with the near-miracle win in the semis, but so tenacious it's kind of like being in there with a pit bull in the late rounds. Who leads the nation in both points allowed and defensive FG%? They make playing Arkansas look like a game of H-O-R-S-E. Ask Pitino.
The coaches. You got a guy there that is kind of an old hard luck Schembechler type. Dead on him in that respect. Then you got the whippersnapper. Shakespearean angle: Florida.
The line further threw me off. I thought it would be 3-ish, maybe 2.5. So I said to my friend, "It has to be wrong, but Houston." Because it was a stab from a spot of zero traction in a championship game.
It was wrong. Taking Houston in the spot amounted to a hedge for me opposite the Gators to title bet. A fun way to watch a championship game; instead of stressing out, just pure enjoyment and profit. There is a way in which a wager destroys the purity of the fan experience, sure enough, so it settled that issue for me in this instance.
But it was the Russell dynasty and the UCLA dynasty sort of running concurrently that put me in that outlier spot that what's-his-name wrote about: the perfect place at the perfect time. You pay your dues, having the matching personality type for it (INFJ or "5-with-4-wing" Enneagram, "The Investigator/Specialist"), imagining favorite announcers to be your father ... and it happens. It's a thing.
I remember being in the ERupption Zone 20 years ago seeing Rajon Rondo handing out props to Joe Crawford and Ramel Bradley as he went to the draft early.
Kind of wild to see him actually finishing his undergrad degree
The Athletic's top 10 tortured fan bases:
1 - Rocky Top
2 - Zags
3 - Purdue
4 - Illinois
5 - BYU
6 - Xavier
7 - Missouri
8 - Houston
9 - Cincinnati
10 - Creighton
Gonzaga is ridiculous lol.
BYU? Kind of a nothing program with no claim to greatness. Now they’re actually becoming something out of nowhere. Seems like a dream situation
Houston. Another national power is “tortured”? Idk if i see eye to eye with this fella
here's the article's preamble:
Easily the most hype exhibition game I have ever seen in my lifetime, and not even close.
1. This is a hype team with Pope actually being able to have year to build a team.
2. First time I remember an exhibition game with a legit opponent
3. The legit opponent is preseason #1.
Cheapest seat I see this weekend for exhibition basketball Purdue@UK is 65. Cheapest seat for football Tennessee@UK is 59.
After watching Purdue@UK...
Can Mark Pope coach football as well as basketball?
What does that even mean?
How did Aberdeen play?
It means UK fans are done with the football coach, and I was joking that I would take Pope for both sports. His tenure is quite similar to Calipari, took UK to some great heights, but stayed a year or two too long.
Aberdeen actually had the most minutes. Probably because the projected starting PG is out for a month, so Pope wanted to give Aberdeen more playing time. Just seemed solid. I am very happy to have him especially if he is supposed to be the first guard off the bench,
Who is the best player in college basketball now?
Pretty loaded class
.jpg?w=3800&h=2000)
Heard all the top 7 are worth watching
But yeah, no clear #1 standout prospect to watch at this moment, but that can easily change
It means UK fans are done with the football coach, and I was joking that I would take Pope for both sports. His tenure is quite similar to Calipari, took UK to some great heights, but stayed a year or two too long.Aberdeen actually had the most minutes. Probably because the projected starting PG is out for a month, so Pope wanted to give Aberdeen more playing time. Just seemed
Crazy he will be coming off the bench again, heh ...
All to move to a less successful program during his tenure in college.
😀
