Official 2022-2023 College Basketball Thread
 

The season tips off this morning, with about 7,523 games on the schedule for today

Be sure to watch every one of the 7,523!

I have Iowa going all the way this year.

Tom Izzo has outcoached John Calipari on the last possession of regulation and the 1st overtime.

Yeah, Cal got pantsed a bit there

SI

getting hyped for the Texas/Gonzaga match up tonight. Kenpom has them 2 and 3 in his rankings.

Gonzaga is getting an absolute asskicking.

Turnovers done 'em in, was just looking at the boxscore after watching some of that one earlier, most other stuff is even/similar, but the posessions lost killed em

was not expecting that result at all. Best Texas team I've seen in a while

7 Mountain West teams have started off 3-0, including UNLV, which upset #21 Dayton a few days ago. One of only two conferences to start off that well - the other being the Big Ten.

Runnin' Rebels are looking pretty good defensively, as evidenced by their tops in the conference +8.67 turnover margin and OPP FG% of 38.4

The Maui Tournament is always awesome but I miss chemically-altered Bill Walton tremendously.

Chemically-altered? That's his normal state

SI

This is true but he was extra loose in Maui.

Thursday morning I'm headed down to Portland with my son to watch games in the Phil Knight Invitational and the Phil Knight Legacy tournaments Thursday through Sunday.

Games we know we get to see so far:

WVU vs Purdue, Gonzaga vs Portland State, Iowa State vs Villanova, and UNC vs Portland.

Those are just the games we'll see on Thursday. Later on we might get to catch Duke, Florida, Michigan State and others depending on how how the brackets go.

Watching Caitlin Clark take on UConn today before the Duke Purdue men's final.

BTW, before the ACC/Big10 challenge starts, I just want to apologize in advance for FSU. Apparently the glass slipper stopped fitting, fell off, broke and shards of glass have stuck in the team's collective foot.

FSU flat-out sucks. Some of it is related to the Baba Miller suspension (which is BS, par for the NCAA course), but even when he comes back in mid-January, they will still suck. 1-7 on the season - with only 3 of those 8 games being against P5 teams (combined record 11-10) - and I doubt they will get to 8 wins. If Purdue doesn't win by at least 40 Wednesday night, it will only be because they rested the starters after 15 minutes.

I don't know what happened, but I feel bad for Leonard Hamilton. This team, and the entire season, is/will be cheeks, as they say.

Oh, and Louisville has a chance to be historically bad as well. Doesn't appear to be shaping up to be a banner year for the ACC.

Good argument for separation of church and state.

Portland State - 36
Portland Bible - 0

I can’t believe I’m actually watching this…�� pic.twitter.com/IddhojwS4x

— Adam Nelson (@HD_DirtKing) December 1, 2022

My boss invited a couple of us to the Louisville/Miami game. Louisville is one of the worst major college basketball teams I've ever seen. They weren't competitive. They lost their 1st 3 games by 1 point (to Bellarmine, Wright State and App State) and they've lost the next 5 by mostly 25+ points.

FSU is 1-9 but at least they played Purdue to a 10 point loss and Virginia to within 5. These two stellar ACC programs play next Saturday.

The Houston/Alabama game was fun to watch. 15 point lead at home for the #1 team and they couldn't hold it.

On a completely different note, we're getting pretty close to Louisville threatening to have one of the worst P5 basketball seasons in history. I don't know who are the worst, but this team has a chance! 0-9, having just lost to 1-9 FSU (now 2 wins and looking better, although the injuries/suspensions have destroyed this season). They play 3 more mid-majors before UK, and then it's all ACC from that point. If they don't beat WKU, Florida A&M (which should be a win), or Lipscomb in the next 10 days, this team could go winless. The turnovers are unbelievable, but really, they suck all over. Nearly every team stat, they are in the 300s (except FT %).

God damn it Houston. 40 years since Phi Slama Jama and they are still frustrating as hell. They are going to be better off playing as underdogs come tourney time maybe surprise some teams. They definitely need to work on some better offense I know they are a you f team this point in the season but damn hey are chaotic on offense. Still one of the best defenses in all the NCAAs but you got to be able to score late.

What's the consensus on UConn? They had been in the desert for a while and last year they had a high-ish seed but got bounced in the first round

SI

There are a million ways Texas' great start to the basketball season could unravel. I didn't have this one on my bingo card...

BREAKING: University of Texas head men's basketball coach Chris Beard was arrested and charged with assault on a family member early Monday, Austin police confirm. We are attempting to learn more.

— Tony Plohetski (@tplohetski) December 12, 2022

Sounds like the Longhorns will be in the market for a new coach by the end of the week

Texas coach Chris Beard arrested on third-degree assault charge against family member - CBSSports.com

Yeah, I'm thinking that if it wasn't really serious, Beard would have been able to play the "do you know who I am" card and not getting charged with 3rd degree assault and some language about strangulation.

SI

That's basically what the Nebraska interim coach was arrested for a few weeks back.

The current chatter circulating is that he assaulted his daughter's boyfriend.

Good. Fuck that guy.

Looks like he was arrested for strangling his fiance at 4:18am.

I don't see how he coaches another game at UT. He has to be out and will sit a few years until a small school decides to let him rehab his image.

EDIT: yeah he's gone

Here is the official arrest report for Texas men's basketball coach Chris Beard (I removed the victim's name) pic.twitter.com/kROHOvJfxQ

— Anwar Richardson (@AnwarRichardson) December 12, 2022

Chris Beard's photo published, now in jail.

NEW: Authorities have released a booking photo of University of Texas basketball coach Chris Beard after his arrest early today on a domestic violence charge. Authorities say a woman alleges she was assaulted and chocked by Beard.

— Tony Plohetski (@tplohetski) December 12, 2022

Just wanted to say if you ever get the chance to go to this tourney it's 100% worth it.

We stayed in an Air BnB across the river in Vancouver which was about a 15 minute drive to the Rose Quarter each day. The two tourneys split most of the games between the Moda Center (formerly the Rose Garden) and the Veterans Memorial Coliseum, which is next door and maybe a 50 yard walk once you exit Moda. So we were able to easily go back and forth for different games.

We watched WVU, Gonzaga, Duke, UNC, Purdue, Villanova, Xavier, Iowa State, and the Iowa women all play that weekend.

The Coliseum is dated and feels like a beefed up old high school gymnasium but we did have 2nd row seats directly behind the WVU bench.

Moda is one of the oldest NBA arenas but is still a fantastic place to watch basketball.

10/10 experience and my son asked me as we were walking out of the last game if we can come back next year even if WVU isn't playing in it.

Special thanks to my wife, who not only got me the tickets as a birthday gift despite having zero interest in basketball and not wanting to go, but also gave up a family Thanksgiving so that we could do this.

Was watching the Texas A&M - South Carolina women's basketball game. After 1 quarter, A&M had 9 fouls and 6 points.

It got me thinking, when was the last time a D1 game (men's or women's) had a team with more fouls than points?

Turns out, it was November 11, Utah Valley - Utah women's game. Utah Valley scored 27 points while committing 31 fouls.

I would not recommend looking at women's basketball box scores. I can't imagine how demoralising it must be to score under 30 points in a 4 quarter game.

Dude, girls/women's basketball is hard to watch. The problem is, they don't treat women as if they have the skill to play a clean game. It's better in college, but even high level HS girls bball is not much more than rugby, with refs just waiting around for a scrum and calling a jump ball. My daughter played 5 years of varsity bball and there would be no less than 20+ jump balls in nearly every game.

If they would call the girls game like boys and make them learn how to play something other than tackle basketball, the sport would be better for it. You can't do anything about the relative size of girls to boys (short of lowering the goal), so shooting percentages are always going to lag, but there are things they could do to make it a more watchable game.

As far as I can tell after scrolling through men's games, it hasn't happened this year. There still plenty of obliterations only a handful of teams held under 30 points.

Meanwhile, A&M has 26 points and 21 fouls with 5 minutes left, so they're likely safe. That 12 point explosion in the 2nd quarter saved them.

As unwatchable as about 80% of girls teams in Georgia are each year (the good ones exist but boy they're scarce), I can't imagine watching it now that they've added a shot clock (new this season).

Let's force teams that can't shoot a lick to shoot more often, what could possibly go wrong?

That's a big thing here too. We don't have a shot clock but there's a push for it. The only thing about it is I fucking hate the four corners crap which often turns it into a 3 quarter game. There's really no attempt to play basketball, just run clock with a lead. The worst offenders will often do it for the last minute-plus of each quarter too.

Of course, our teams sucked so bad we had the opposite issue - the rare lead at the end of the game, girls would just barrel down court and throw up wild shots like we were down double digits instead of protecting the lead.

Ohio State has a bastardized mix of veteran portal and pre-portal transfers and a really talented Freshman class. It's a team that could gel into a really good team but I expect them to get ground down in the Big Ten. I think they would be much more successful in a different Conference, any other Conference.

It also looks like there is going to be another surprise one and done. No one expected Malaki Branham to be a one and done star last year and even fewer would have expected it from Freshman Brice Sensabaugh. There's no doubt that he's heading that direction, though. I don't think he was even a top 50 recruit but he's a walking bucket and his rebounding and passing are getting better every game.

I would not recommend looking at any women's teams (outside of the top AP eight teams) box score if they are facing South Carolina. The only reason I got as far as eight is out of respect for the UConn program.


Yup and yup. If you go to a girls game and a boys game back to back, the difference in how the two games are called is startling.


It is the same for the boys but I agree with what you are saying. It goes back to the above. There is a pretty large boys and girls high school basketball tournament going on locally with the three locations within 45 minutes of our house. I have seen more of the girls as there are more girls teams than boys and most of the local boys teams I have either seen already or I know are not of the highest quality. Most of the offensive movement of the teams have been pretty good but the number of girls who are still taking set shots from the three point line is ridiculous.

UL vs UK - Payne vs Pain!

The Texas A&M-Florida matchup started 1-0 before the tip off, because A&M was assessed a technical foul for causing a delay of game by leaving their uniforms at the hotel.

GT upsets #12 Miami and Georgia upsets #22 Auburn, minutes apart. Both underdogs were at home too.

That's some weird shit to have happen, especially with those two teams.

Duke got blown out tonight, too.

Chris Beard officially fired.

they never should have gotten rid of Rick Barnes

Hmm. So the school did not believe the fiancée's statement that came out for eleven days after he was arrested that he did nothing wrong, it was all her fault and "It was never my intent to have him arrested or prosecuted."? I wonder why she may have added that last part. Maybe he did not do anything wrong. I don't have any reason to not believe her latest statement compared to what she said the night of the incident. Either way it is not a big deal because Beard is in his second season of a seven-year fully guaranteed contract that pays him more than $5 million per year. No worries.

Or.

Texas fires Chris Beard amid domestic family violence charge


Uh oh.

In case anyone is wondering why the Big Ten will have a horrible NCAA tournament this year (as usual)... through 29:47 minutes of basketball, Purdue has been called for 3 fouls.

If you read the letter they sent his attorney, they said it was irrelevant whether he was convicted and that his underlying conduct, which he admitted, was the reason. Sounds like the argument was to at least let the criminal process conclude before firing him and they said we don't need to.

Give me a break. All this says is I don't know jack shit about basketball. Purdue also forces very few turnovers and isn't very good defensively. The reason why? They don't play a high-intensity/aggressive/hand check defense like you see from most of the Big Ten. They don't pick up full-court and go for steals and generally are happy to sit back and let teams shoot over them. They have had a low foul rate out of conference and in conference by design.

Starting with the Nebraska game, everyone has started to employ a foul them all the time because they can't call them all defense vs Purdue and it's effective. Just watch the first possession on how Zed Key guards Edey, and remember this happens for 34 minutes a game that he plays.

The defense between the teams in the first possession literally tells you the story of why Purdue is going to have fewer fouls than essentially anyone they play. The difference in pressure on the perimeter and our bigs aren't typically leaning on opposing post players because no one really plays through the post anymore like Purdue does.

Best part? Fouls ended up 13-9 in Purdue's favor lmao

I'm somewhat familiar with the game :p

So you agree with me that Big Ten officials should actually call some fouls? My complaint isn't specifically with Purdue, it's with the style of basketball dictated by the officiating in the Big Ten. If Purdue is that handsy on defense and tries to run through picks in the NCAA tournament, they pick up plenty of fouls. Yes, they'll should draw more fouls as well (assuming they get a ref crew that will call a low post player correctly) but half the team will be in foul trouble.

A little aggressive on my side - my bad. You are right I want them to call more fouls. I also think the teams/coaches are to blame as well. They could handle this on their own in the offseason if they made a concerted effort or joint statement about how they want their league played and officiated. I know it would never happen in my lifetime, but fans of this conference are going to be suffering watching these horribly officiated games multiple times a week. There are only a few teams in the Big Ten that I look forward to watching and enjoying the game as an actual basketball game.