College Basketball - Nov/Dec '15

Post by **Shirley** » Sat Nov 14, 2015 11:04 am

College hoops is back!

I watched most of UVA's game last night against a weak Morgan State team. Of course, Virginia won easily so one shouldn't read too much into it, but a few observations:

1. Darius Thompson, a soph transfer from Tennessee, is much better than expected. He's big and athletic and seems to do everything pretty well. If you had no prior knowledge of the team and just watched that game, you'd have pegged him as UVA's best player.

2. UVA is ridiculously deep, particularly at the guard spots. Big too.

3. UVA has outstanding hair this year. Lots of guys, particularly Gill, Perrantes, and Thompson have gone with big, not-quite-an-afro, hair. Makes them look even taller.

Joe K · Post by **Joe K** » Sat Nov 14, 2015 11:42 am

I've seen a few basketball pundits suggest that this year's Kentucky team could be more like the teams from 2013 (mediocre and then fell apart when Noel blew out his knee) or 2014 (mediocre until March then nearly won the title) than last year's team or the 2012 championship team. I don't see that happening, and I expect them to be a mainstay in the top-10. Simmons or Skal will probably be the #1 pick in the draft, but I wouldn't be surprised if Jamal Murray is the most impactful freshman in the country this year. He was an absolute stud for Canada in the Pan-Am Games, while playing with and against many professionals. I love the backcourt pairing of Murray and Tyler Ulis, who I think was better than Andrew Harrison last year and should've got more minutes, and the frontcourt should be solid, although not nearly as deep as last year. The only parallel I see to the 2013 team is that a major injury to a starter could derail this year's team but in fairness, you could say that about almost every team in the country.

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Sat Nov 14, 2015 12:05 pm

My gut is that this is just a very down freshman class, which is bad news for Kentucky/Duke/the Sixers and good news for everyone else.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Sat Nov 14, 2015 12:20 pm

La Salle is going to be somewhere between not good and bad. Somehow, 25% of our roster is currently concussed.

DSafetyGuy · Post by **DSafetyGuy** » Sat Nov 14, 2015 12:54 pm

Wisconsin lost to Western Illinois.

With a game against the Badgers in a few weeks, I would normally feel that is good for Syracuse. Of course, after watching the Orange last night, they got enough problems of their own to worry about (beat Lehigh by ten, 34 of 52 FGA were threes - Boeheim said they were going to shoot more threes this year, but almost 2/3 of FGAs against a Patriot League team?).

Joe K · Post by **Joe K** » Sat Nov 14, 2015 2:23 pm

Rex wrote:My gut is that this is just a very down freshman class, which is bad news for Kentucky/Duke/the Sixers and good news for everyone else.

I agree that this year's class likely won't be as good as last year's (although, like I said, I'm really high on Murray). But I'm very optimistic about Kentucky in part because they aren't quite as stacked 1-9 as they were last year. I know that sounds illogical, but I thought last year's team was almost too deep and that, as a result, certain players (Towns, Ulis, Booker, especially) didn't get as many minutes as they should have. Part of that is that I think there's an implicit promise in Calipari's system that if you're a top-flight recruit who sticks around for 2+ years, you won't lose your starting spot to an incoming freshman, which led to the Harrisons starting over Ulis and Booker, who were better players. (It's tough to second-guess a 38-1 team, but I sort of think a team that played only seven players (Ulis, Booker, Aa. Harrison, Towns, and Cauley-Stein starting, with An. Harrison and Lyles coming off the bench) would have been even better.) This year's team isn't nearly as deep but once they get Briscoe back, they should have a solid rotation of 6-7 reliable players, similar to the 2012 team which got all its key minutes from only 6 guys.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 9:22 am

Shirley wrote:College hoops is back!

I watched most of UVA's game last night against a weak Morgan State team. Of course, Virginia won easily so one shouldn't read too much into it, but a few observations:

1. Darius Thompson, a soph transfer from Tennessee, is much better than expected. He's big and athletic and seems to do everything pretty well. If you had no prior knowledge of the team and just watched that game, you'd have pegged him as UVA's best player.

2. UVA is ridiculously deep, particularly at the guard spots. Big too.

3. UVA has outstanding hair this year. Lots of guys, particularly Gill, Perrantes, and Thompson have gone with big, not-quite-an-afro, hair. Makes them look even taller.

WTF, Hoos!

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 9:23 am

"How would you rate George Washington's performance last night?"

"I'd give them A-10!!!!!!! Wooooooo!!!!!!!"

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 9:24 am

as soon as I learned that GW's gym is called the "Smith Center", I knew UVa wouldn't show up.

wlu_lax6 · Post by **wlu_lax6** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 9:53 am

Tonight is the first time in 30 years that the Terps and Hoyas have played in the DC area. Georgetown losing to Radford takes some shine off the game, but still a hot ticket (resale is ~$150).

WaPo wrote:The Terrapins and Hoyas have met just three times since 1980, with the last coming during the Old Spice Classic in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., in 2008. The schools haven’t met in College Park since December 1973, when Maryland dominated Georgetown with a 115-83 win at Cole Field House. Members of that team will be honored as part of the festivities Tuesday night — as will Maryland teams from 1974-75, 1993-94 and 2000-01 — the last three teams to beat Georgetown.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 9:55 am

Come on WLU! YOu had this!

Post by **Shirley** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 12:03 pm

A_B wrote:
Shirley wrote:College hoops is back!

I watched most of UVA's game last night against a weak Morgan State team. Of course, Virginia won easily so one shouldn't read too much into it, but a few observations:

1. Darius Thompson, a soph transfer from Tennessee, is much better than expected. He's big and athletic and seems to do everything pretty well. If you had no prior knowledge of the team and just watched that game, you'd have pegged him as UVA's best player.

2. UVA is ridiculously deep, particularly at the guard spots. Big too.

3. UVA has outstanding hair this year. Lots of guys, particularly Gill, Perrantes, and Thompson have gone with big, not-quite-an-afro, hair. Makes them look even taller.
WTF, Hoos!

Yeah. Well, first of all, GW looked pretty damn good. That's a dangerous team. They have big, aggressive wings in Garino (from Argentina), Watanabe (from Japan), and Cavanaugh (transfer from Wake). All of those guys can (and do) drive and shoot threes. They have a big bruiser in Larson and a quick PG in Jorgenson. That's a good squad.

And they played very well against UVA. They did what you have to do against the pack line - move the ball very quickly and confidently and when you get your chance, attack (or shoot).

On the flip side, UVA's defense was a half step slow all night. They just weren't sharp defensively and once GW got some confidence, it was a problem all night.

GW was clearly the better team and deserved to win. UVA plays a really tough schedule this year so I wouldn't be surprised if they lose a bunch more games this year even if they are as good as last year (which they aren't yet).

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 3:12 pm

Bill Raftery has trademarked "ONIONS" and "WITH A KISS"

DSafetyGuy · Post by **DSafetyGuy** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 5:29 pm

A_B wrote:Bill Raftery has trademarked "ONIONS" and "WITH A KISS"

Saw the first one on twitter yesterday.

Post by **brian** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 5:43 pm

DSafetyGuy wrote:
A_B wrote:Bill Raftery has trademarked "ONIONS" and "WITH A KISS"
Saw the first one on twitter yesterday.

Your cease and desist letter is in the mail I assume.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Wed Nov 18, 2015 9:25 am

I'm biased, but UK's backcourt made Duke's backourt look silly last night. Jefferson and Plumlee did a good job up front, but that game was decided by the guards.

Joe K · Post by **Joe K** » Wed Nov 18, 2015 9:45 am

A_B wrote:I'm biased, but UK's backcourt made Duke's backourt look silly last night. Jefferson and Plumlee did a good job up front, but that game was decided by the guards.

Ulis totally controlled the game on both ends of the court. Like I mentioned earlier in this thread, I'm really looking forward to seeing Ulis's playing time increase over last year, as he was probably the best playmaker on the team last year. I think he played all 40 minutes last night and badly outplayed Thornton and Allen.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Wed Nov 18, 2015 10:00 am

Joe K wrote:
A_B wrote:I'm really looking forward to seeing Ulis's playing time increase over last year

Will you re-joyce?

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Wed Nov 18, 2015 10:13 am

Kentucky should probably worry that Marshall Plumlee was the best player on the floor for the first 20 minutes. Duke should probably worry that it's a whole 12 months until next year's freshman class arrives.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Wed Nov 18, 2015 10:24 am

Rex wrote:Kentucky should probably worry that Marshall Plumlee was the best player on the floor for the first 20 minutes. Duke should probably worry that it's a whole 12 months until next year's freshman class arrives.

Uk has a habit of chasing blocks, which leads to the things that Plumlee did last night. Towns was terrible about it early last year, but then got better as the season went along. I'm not really concerned about that going forward.

Joe K · Post by **Joe K** » Wed Nov 18, 2015 10:42 am

A_B wrote:
Rex wrote:Kentucky should probably worry that Marshall Plumlee was the best player on the floor for the first 20 minutes. Duke should probably worry that it's a whole 12 months until next year's freshman class arrives.
Uk has a habit of chasing blocks, which leads to the things that Plumlee did last night. Towns was terrible about it early last year, but then got better as the season went along. I'm not really concerned about that going forward.

Other than Marcus Lee, Kentucky's big men really didn't do much. The fact that they were able to easily beat a team as talented as Duke despite that is pretty encouraging. They might struggle with Ben Simmons or with a huge front court like Gonzaga in the tournament, but Kentucky's superior guard play should be enough against almost anyone they play.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Wed Nov 18, 2015 11:23 am

UK just added Monk to next year's class.

Joe K · Post by **Joe K** » Thu Nov 19, 2015 10:39 pm

So far the Ben Simmons hype seems to be fully justified. He looks ridiculously good. LSU's games against Kentucky will be must-see as it may be the only time all year Simmons faces defenders who have any chance of containing him.

wlu_lax6 · Post by **wlu_lax6** » Fri Nov 20, 2015 9:04 am

A_B wrote:UK just added Monk to next year's class.

Don't see Tony Shalhoub being great on the post.

Post by **Shirley** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 1:31 pm

Big 10 - ACC Challenge kicks off again tonight. Sort of. For some reason, they like to start the first night with completely uninteresting games before getting to the good stuff on Tuesday and Wednesday.

As a reminder, the ACC won the first 10 challenges. The Big 10 then won the next 3 and it's been fairly even since. I think the total record for the ACC stands at 10-4-2.

The matchups (and my predictions):
Monday, Nov. 30
Clemson at Minnesota - Neither is very good, but Clemson's not going to win at Minny.
Wake Forest at Rutgers - Rutgers is by far the worst team in either conference

Tuesday, Dec. 1
Maryland at North Carolina - Tough call here. I'm still not sold on UNC really knowing how to win.
Virginia at Ohio State - What's wrong with the Buckeyes this year?
Michigan at NC State - Another really tough call. I'll go with the Wolfpack, because they usually play better in bigger games.
Purdue at Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh hasn't played anyone yet, so they're hard to read.
Northwestern at Virginia Tech - Buzz Williams is a good coach (but the Hokies are still a year or two away)
Miami (Fla.) at Nebraska - I'm assuming we get the Puerto Rico Miami, which looked like a top 5 team.

Wednesday, Dec. 2
Indiana at Duke - The Hoosiers might be reaching for the panic button
Louisville at Michigan State - The Spartans probably should be #1
Notre Dame at Illinois - Illinois has struggled against a tough schedule
Wisconsin at Syracuse - Yet another traditionally good B10 team struggling.
Florida State at Iowa - FSU is dangerous, but I don't trust them yet
Penn State at Boston College - BC has showed some signs of life, but they are still bad

So, let's see, that adds up to ... 9-5 ACC. I'm guessing it won't be that wide of a margin.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 1:44 pm

So, Monmouth off to a good start. Kinda. Really weird results.

Post by **Shirley** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 3:32 pm

Yeah, Monmouth is 3-1 against the power conferences, right?

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 3:44 pm

I still had to catch myself reading that Maryland-North Carolina matchup even though I've written about Maryland and the Big Ten too many times to count.

DSafetyGuy · Post by **DSafetyGuy** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 4:38 pm

Shirley wrote:Big 10 - ACC Challenge kicks off again tonight. Sort of.
Monday, Nov. 30
Wake Forest at Rutgers - Rutgers is by far the worst team in either conference

Tuesday, Dec. 1
Virginia at Ohio State - What's wrong with the Buckeyes this year?

Wednesday, Dec. 2
Indiana at Duke - The Hoosiers might be reaching for the panic button

Wake Forest looked quite good out in Maui. Danny Manning is turning into a very good head coach very quickly.

Going from memory on Ohio State's roster, but the graphic shown when they played Memphis was "1 senior, 1 junior, 4 sophomores, 7 freshmen." They looked to be one of the dumbest basketball teams I have seen in a long time, which is saying something considering Memphis didn't look much better.

Indiana is a terrible defensive team. I really enjoyed watching them gag away a lead to Wake in Maui with Yogi Ferrell exhibiting some fantastic hero ball fail.

howard · Post by **howard** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 7:45 pm

Shirley wrote:Yeah, Monmouth is 3-1 against the power conferences, right?

They are champions of Los Angeles (beat UCLA and USC.) (Well, they played USC twice, lost in LA, won on a neutral court in a tourney, which is kinda weird scheduling.)

Post by **Shirley** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 9:08 pm

Wake might squeak this game out against Rutgers. They started the second half absolutely asleep defensively. I'm pretty sure Rutgers scored on their first 8 or so possessions, quickly erasing a 5-point deficit. By the time Wake woke, Rutgers had the lead and a lot of confidence. Wake has battled back and is holding a 1-point lead with about 5 seconds left.

Rutgers missed an open three (why a three?), and now Wake can ice it at the line...

Ballgame. Wake steals an ugly win in NJ.

Post by **Shirley** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 9:08 pm

Wake might squeak this game out against Rutgers. They started the second half absolutely asleep defensively. I'm pretty sure Rutgers scored on their first 8 or so possessions, quickly erasing a 5-point deficit. By the time Wake woke, Rutgers had the lead and a lot of confidence. Wake has battled back and is holding a 1-point lead with about 5 seconds left.

Rutgers missed an open three (why a three?), and now Wake can ice it at the line...

Ballgame. Wake steals an ugly win in NJ.

Rush2112 · Post by **Rush2112** » Tue Dec 01, 2015 12:32 am

howard wrote:
Shirley wrote:Yeah, Monmouth is 3-1 against the power conferences, right?
They are champions of Los Angeles (beat UCLA and USC.) (Well, they played USC twice, lost in LA, won on a neutral court in a tourney, which is kinda weird scheduling.)

Evidently winning the bench game as well.

Post by **brian** » Thu Dec 03, 2015 2:38 am

That's gotta suck for you to put all that work into actually registering and kinda sticking to the topic of the thread just for me to remove your spam link. Also Kobe sucks. Also so do you. Also so do the Patriots.

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Thu Dec 03, 2015 8:49 am

Saw a stat this morning that Tom Crean is 3-17 against top 10 teams when his Indiana team is unranked.

OK, wow, Crean is bad! But wait... what should it be?

Clearly, if it was 11-9 he's considered to be an upset master. What should the "norm" be? 6-14? 5-15?

ETA the tweet:

duff · Post by **duff** » Thu Dec 03, 2015 8:57 am

Brontoburglar wrote:Saw a stat this morning that Tom Crean is 3-17 against top 10 teams when his Indiana team is unranked.

OK, wow, Crean is bad! But wait... what should it be?

Clearly, if it was 11-9 he's considered to be an upset master. What should the "norm" be? 6-14? 5-15?

ETA the tweet:

That stat is ridiculous. His team is unranked for a reason. They shouldn't be beating top 10 teams. If they want to show how bad of a coach he is, then find better information.

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Thu Dec 03, 2015 8:57 am

Brontoburglar wrote:Saw a stat this morning that Tom Crean is 3-17 against top 10 teams when his Indiana team is unranked.

OK, wow, Crean is bad! But wait... what should it be?

Clearly, if it was 11-9 he's considered to be an upset master. What should the "norm" be? 6-14? 5-15?

ETA the tweet:

Can't find a way to research this exactly. About what ranking would Indiana be right now?

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Thu Dec 03, 2015 8:59 am

As an example, the teams rated 41-50 at the end of last year's RPI went a combined 11-39 against the TOP 25. Teams between 51-60 (Indiana was 58) went 7-21

duff · Post by **duff** » Thu Dec 03, 2015 9:02 am

And does anyone else think that Jeff Goodman looks like a squirrel getting ready for winter?

I can't find a good picture to display. Noticed this while watching the Purdue-Pitt game on Tuesday. Really enjoyed the game. Purdue looked like world killers in the first 10 minutes of the first half and the last 10 of the second. Still can't believe that the bring Hammonds off the bench.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Thu Dec 03, 2015 9:04 am

Ben Simmons is a man. 43-14-7 with 5 steals and 3 blocks.