2015-2016 College Basketball Thread
 

I watched the LSU Tigers play my local professional team the Sydney Kings last night - although we were missing our imports (Josh Childress and Celtics 2nd rounder Marcus Thornton) as well as our starting PF.

Ben Simmons was the reason everyone was at the game, and he lived up to the billing. He did a bit of everything, bringing the ball up and running the offense, shooting from 3, and attacking the basket. We have some solid post players on our team and you can see he needs to work on his strength as he was getting pushed away from the hoop on contact, but he had the touch to finish anyway after the foul. Ended up with a line of 25-6-8 - it was an up-tempo game, 95-93 final score, 10 minute quarters.

LSU looked to him just about every possession he was on the court - although maybe that was partly because he was in Australia playing in front of Aussie fans. Quarterman woke up in the 2nd half and started to take on the scoring load as LSU fought their way back into the game, but most of his shots were off of Simmons passes.

In the end the under-manned Kings won on a jumpshot with a few seconds left, after a Quarterman 3pt shot tied the game. Each year we get college teams downunder playing this type of exhibition games and it's rare that our pro teams lose, although it does happen from time-to-time.

Since it won't last, I'm going to bask in the "Maryland ranked #1 in the preseason" per ESPN. :)

5-star SG Markelle Fultz is going to make his announcement tonight among Louisville, Arizona and Washington. And to the surprise of most college hoops observers, it looks like he's going to pick the Huskies.

Romar has performed a remarkable roster sweep and kickstarted his recruiting to a higher level. He did a great job of building up Washington into a Pac-10 power earlier in his tenure around guys like Brandon Roy & Jon Brockman and later Isaiah Thomas & Terrence Ross, but the team has hit the skids lately after some poor recruiting decisions.

The roster has been almost completely revamped from last year with several players transferring and only 3 scholarship players returning, joined by a top-10 recruiting class of 8 (!) new players, with 6 of them rated 4-star talents.

Romar already has a probable 4-star committed for the 2018 class in Jontay Porter, younger brother of stud 2017 prospect Michael Porter Jr. Both are godsons of Romar, as he and Porter Sr. are very close. He's also doing very well with local 4-star 2017 prospects Jaylen Nowell and Daejon Davis.

It's been a wild ride for Washington basketball over the last few months, from a terribly disappointing ending to a once-promising season following the dismissal of C Robert Upshaw, but things look much better now and tonight could be a real cherry on top of that positive momentum.

He basically resurrected his career at UW with his recruiting. He'll never be a great X's and O's coach, but getting the talent back could sustain UW for a nice run again.

That's probably underselling his coaching a bit too much (and over-stating his recruiting a bit), but yes - he's known more for his recruiting than his coaching acumen. I'll note that he's done a pretty good job of turning 3-star recruits into NBA players.

He landed Fultz as expected. The 2016-17 roster is looking stacked...

Harvard's starting point guard tore his ACL and is out for the year. It looks like he hasn't had to enroll in classes formally yet, which is important since the Ivy League doesn't allow redshirts. If true, he'll take the whole year off from school and come back next year.

Ooooofffff. Can he take classes elsewhere and get them transferred in just so it's not a total waste of a year?

Sure, why not? Go to a local Boston CC and see if Harvard will accept GE credit for classes there heh heh.

The degree program doesn't really work that way in terms of credits. He'll graduate at the end of his next academic year.

(And confirmed that Siyani will in fact take a voluntary leave for the academic year.)

Time to rehab while doing volunteer work in Peru! :)

I know. Just seems like such a waste.

Well the other option is to go to school and lose his last year of eligibility. There are some requirements for students who take voluntary leaves. You typically can't just sit on a beach (or in Siyani's case, in the snow (he's from Minnesota)).

So, interesting doings at University of Dayton the last week.

Seemed to be a normal offseason when there started to be rumors that star forward and candidate for A10 Preseason POY Dyshawn Pierre was no longer enrolled in classes.

A couple of days later it turns out that he was not. Because he had been recommended to be suspended from school for a semester for a sexual assault that allegedly took place in April.

The assault was reported in May, a couple of weeks after it happened. In the report, the girl talks about how she doesn't want to see him go to jail, but does want to see him "punished". The entire incident as laid out in the police report is very he-said/she-said, as obviously both sides have entirely different interpretations of the encounter. And with no DNA evidence as the girl didn't report for 2 weeks, the prosecutor declines to bring charges.

Fast forward to last week, when Pierre apparently went before a University Hearing Board and was given his punishment of suspension.

Then, sometime late last week it is reported that Pierre had hired an attorney to fight the suspension (Dyshawn Pierre of Dayton Flyers will fight suspension). Same attorney who represented Ray Rice in his fight against the additional suspension and Jonathan Vilma in Bountygate... and also Dez Wells in a similar situation at Xavier... which ended with Wells transferring to Maryland.

Reports are Pierre will be back for the second semester, which would see him eligible around Christmas, but others are saying that Pierre lawyering up to fight the suspension likely means he has played his last minutes at UD.

Difficult for UD, as their big non-conference games will come over Thanksgiving at the Advocare Invitational in Orlando, opening with Iowa and really needing to win that game to get the schedule boost of playing Notre Dame, Wichita State, and/or Xavier later in that tournament.

We'll see.

Interesting. The para-judicial non-judicial stuff that the feds are tasking colleges with... ugh. But enough about my job.

At some point doesn't Brown get a lifetime achievement award or something?

NCAA bans SMU Mustangs for 2016 postseason, suspends Larry Brown for 30 percent of team's games

Not 2015-16 related (I'd guess UMass is around .500, outside hope of an NIT berth), but we got some huge commits for 2016 this week. 2 kids from New Orleans in a package deal, but either would normally be our top recruit - one's a top 60 combo guard, the other a 6'9 high motor guy who people have ranked between 70 & 150. Then added another borderline 3*/4* 6'8 PF who grew up locally, and we really seem to be at least a co-favorite for another top 50 G in Bruce Brown. It's probably already a top 20 class, and if we get Brown we might even end up fringe top 10, although there are always a few schools that'll jump us late - I don't think we'll still be ahead of Kentucky when it's all said and done ;)

I'm really looking forward to this season. The kids I coached as part of the Georgia Stars are going to be college freshmen. A few made it to big programs and were high recruits. It'll be fun to watch them continue to grow.

A couple of the kids:
Malik Beasley: He was on the team when work got very busy for me and I had to not coach as much but you could tell he was going to be a solid player. One of the best wings we had. Great pickup for FSU.
Noah Dickerson: Dominate post when he joined the team when he was 14. When he got going, he was a man among boys. Worked with him in the post. Definitely has to skills to make an impact down low for Washington.
Will Jackson: Didn't work with him much, as he played above his grade most of the time, but watching him in practice and the games that I saw, he's a solid point with the ability to run a team. He'll be at Georgia.
Lemonte Turner: Good guard with skills with a funky stroke that he makes at a good clip. He'll be sitting out at Tennessee, which is a shame. He should be a good one.

Saw quite a few other players while on the circuit and looking forward to seeing them as well, especially Mickey Mitchell who'll be at Ohio State. He was dominate and had crowds gathered to watch him play in 8th grade, but I'm not sure if he developed early and has reached his max or still has more room to grow.

Really miss being around the players and the game. All the kids above were great to be around and work with. Really wish them all the best, even the ones that lost we to in championship play. ;)

A quote from the Frazier kid involved in the SMU scandal


There's a part of me that wants to say "oh c'mon, you signed up for a class but never did anything (cause someone else was doing it for you) but you 'didn't know'?" That beggars belief.

There's another part of me that says "sigh. yeah, I can actually believe this"

Good way to get that commitment, I guess.

Shame on Louisville for hiring strippers to do this when everyone knows you're supposed to conscript the female undergraduate population to serve as escorts for the recruits.

Local news here regarding the Dayton Flyers.

All-Atlantic 10 second team Dyshawn Pierre is suing the university over a what I believe was a ten game suspension regarding allegations of sexual assault.

Basketball player sues Ohio college over suspension | www.whio.com

Maybe they should've found strippers/escorts who weren't named Rodney or TooTall.

One week until the season kicks off!

MBBF... what's the scoop on Missouri this year? They can only go up from last season.

It's brutal watching that pathetic football offensive unit.. I'm hoping their basketball team is more competitive this season.

Coastal Carolina starts their last Big South season in Hawaii in a tournament against Nevada and Hawaii. Hard to say what kind of season the Chants will have-battling injuries already and lost top two scorers from last season to graduation. Think it will be a down year for them, but we shall see. Never know how the new players on the roster will turn out.

Looking forward to the start of the Shaka Smart era at Texas. His first game at the helm is tonight against Washington in Shanghai.

UTEP opens the season against Loyola (New Orleans) on Saturday. It should be an interesting season as we had a lot of turnover on the roster. For the last few years we've been very big, but haven't had great guard play. This year we're overflowing with quality guards and are thin up front.

We haven't had a chance to see what the team really looks like as Floyd suspended four players for our exhibition games (and possibly the first couple regular season games), have had a couple of guys out or with limited minutes due to injuries, and have had a couple of guys sitting out due to the NCAA looking at transcripts. We're picked to finish 3rd in CUSA by the coaches, but I think we can finish higher if our bigs show up to play...lower if they don't. Dominic Artis, a transfer from Oregon, has looked great so far at PG and should be our most exciting player.

Indiana hosts Eastern Illinois tonight. Yesterday, we got a big commit in De'ron Davis out of Colorado. Adds some nice size to the team.

Kinda sick of the part of our fan base that cares more about getting rid of Crean than they care about winning. We get a nice commit, and their reaction is "great, another couple years of Tom Crean." Guess I should just avoid the message boards.

First game of the season is in the books. Eastern Michigan beat Vermont 70-50. Only several thousand more games to go until March Madness!

I get that it makes sense to have 1-2 more "scrimmages" before any real showdowns (Tuesday nights Duke/Kentucky, Kansas/Mich St, even OU/Memphis & GTown/Maryland), but wow tonight's slate is brutal. You've got Iowa St/Colorado early, UNC/Temple, an intriguing Baylor/SFA game and a whole lot of what look like 1/16 matchups. Edit - throw Gonzaga/Pitt in there too.

I'm expecting Texas to win comfortably, but I'll be interested to see all the new kids suiting for for the Huskies. There's a ton of athleticism and talent in that 8-man recruiting class, and while it will take a while for them to gel and learn Romar's rotating man defense and figure out their roles offensively, I think this will be a dangerous team to face in the latter half of the season.

Marquese Chriss is a human pogo stick at PF with good shooting range. Dejounte Murray is a smooth, athletic wing that can pass, get to the hoop and shoot it from mid-range. Matisse Thybulle is still rather raw offensively but is the best athlete of the bunch. Dom Green is a terrific 3-point shooter. David Crisp is an undersized 2, but fearless and with a great shot from deep as well. Noah Dickerson is on the short side for a post, but has a knack of getting his shot off and hitting the boards.

Anyway, should be fun to see.

Alford is waiting for the call..

Dear god, no.

I watched a kid on your team play throughout HS. Curious to see if he starts to get more PT. Colton St.-Cyr fwiw.

W&M starting their first season without the career leading scorer Marcus Thornton that was drafted by the Celtics this spring.

Starting out good so far, up double digits at half over NC State.

Thornton is playing pro for my local team down here in Australia. Had a shaky start but has looked real good the past couple of games, now that he has realized he is quicker than the guys guarding him and is attacking rather than jacking up threes.

Watching Simmons' first game with LSU. He could've had about 7 assists in the first 5 minutes if guys made open looks.

Curious to watch how Howland does at MSU

I've watched approximately 14 minutes of Ben Simmons college basketball career and I'm sold. I don't know who I'd compare him to (maybe a young Lamar Odom?). It's almost like you're watching the small forward version of Jason Kidd with a jumper.

In LSU's games in Australia during the offseason he was putting up near triple-doubles against professional players, so I'm not surprised he's looking good tonight. Plays with incredible patience, and looks to make the play with the pass before the shot.

The Pitt/Gonzaga game was cancelled for some reason?

Humidity causing the court to be too slippery.

9 points 10 rebounds 4 assists at the half for Simmons on 4-4 shooting.

ah well-that sucks for those two teams.

Didn't realize they were your local team! I've been keeping an eye on his play (scores). I was happy to see that he's settling in. Will have to check in with you now and then :).

W&M holds on to win 85-68 vs NC State. Impressive start to the season.

I was hoping the new shorter shot clock would limit Bill Walton's airtime, but no such luck.

I wouldn't say they "held on". From what I understand, State was dead in the water after five minutes. Losing Lacey apparently is really going to suck because in their first game without him, the team folded badly when under adversity. Someone's gotta take the reins or this season will get ugly really fast (and of course, the timing of this couldn't have been better given the optics of Gottfried getting an extension until 2020 today...not saying he doesn't deserve one, but it looks awful to get an extension and then get blown out...)

But between the fact that 150+ French people died tonight and I'm in the midst of likely the busiest stretch of work in my professional career, I can't really devote the energy to be all that outraged about tonight's outcome. Disappointed, sure, but it just isn't that important to me atm.

Watched Mizzou tonight. They have a kid from our local HS playing. The team looks good this season. Beat a solid Wofford team. They have some quality freshmen on the team. One big man away from being really good.