2015-2016 College Basketball Thread

[Groundhog]

I don't know if Simmons is an NBA PG to be honest. He's a much better passer than he is ballhandler/floor general, but that might just be LSU's terrible halfcourt offense.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by wustin

Would Simmons turn the Sixers piece of shit franchise around? Watching him more and more, I think he has the potential the be a better point guard than Lebron with the way he plays.

Imagine:

PG: Simmons
SG: Cannon
SF: Covington
PF: Noel
C: Okafor

Saric and Embiid of the bench. And they should probably make some moves to bring in some veteran guards.

Assuming the Sixers win the lottery and get Simmons a more likely lineup would be something like:

PG: Smith
SG: Not on roster right now
SF: Simmons
PF: Noel
C: Okafor

I think either Noel or Okafor end up getting moved to balance the roster. I think Covington gets moved if they land Simmons. He's the perfect 3 and D for a championship contender. If they end up with Ingram instead I wouldn't be surprised if they tried him at the 2 initially ala Durant.

[wustin]

Ish Smith is an UFA this summer I think. He's played well enough to demand a decent contract, I think he'll be sought after highly.

[Eaglesfan27]

USC completes the sweep of UCLA tonight. First time in years that I think USC has a team capable of not only getting into the tourney but making a run to the sweet 16.

[MrBug708]

Fuck Alford. Him ignoring SoCal for the first two years essentially enabled players he didnt want, to just blow him out.

[nol]

Originally Posted by wustin

I think he has the potential the be a better point guard than Lebron with the way he plays.

Ben Simmons will be 20 years old when he's drafted. At age 20 LeBron averaged 27, 7, and 7.

[wustin]

Originally Posted by nol

Ben Simmons will be 20 years old when he's drafted. At age 20 LeBron averaged 27, 7, and 7.

I don't think Simmons would average anywhere near 27 points a game as a 2nd year pro but given the direction of the NBA's metagame I wouldn't be surprised if he averaged double-digit assists. Unless of course he goes to the Sixers or something.

[nol]

There are fewer, not more, players averaging double-digit assists compared to the past, plus basing someone's performance at point guard purely on assists per game is exactly the opposite of the way basketball is going. Did Steph Curry get worse as a point guard compared to the past two seasons

[wustin]

Then why even bring up Lebron's numbers? All I said was that he had the potential to a better point guard than Lebron. He has a knack for playing on the perimeter and he's not innately aggressive as Lebron. But everything about him is incredibly raw. Also his jumpshot is really ugly to look at.

I also think Ingram is a better prospect than Simmons. Duke isn't doing too well this year but they have the 2nd best offense in the nation.

[Thomkal]

Williams on In-Game Collapse | 120Sports.com

[wustin]

How long until Roy and Coach K call it quits

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by wustin

How long until Roy and Coach K call it quits

We have a large group of HoF coaches coming up on the end of their careers. The top 5 active coaches as far as wins go could be retiring within the next few years:

Beoheim (71), Coach K (68), Williams (65), Pitino (63), Huggins (62)

[Kodos]

Good game tonight, tarcone. I imagine the story will be different when we travel to Iowa, but happy with the win tonight.

[tarcone]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Good game tonight, tarcone. I imagine the story will be different when we travel to Iowa, but happy with the win tonight.

Yep, very good.
Indiana just took it to us in the 1st half. Killed us on the boards. And we couldn't stop anyone.

Makes for a great race to the end. I think Iowa has the easier schedule down the stretch.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Kudos to my Tigers! Tossed our top scorer off the team, then went out and won our second straight game with a win over the 21-4 South Carolina team! I expected far better from Frank's team given that they were embarrassed at home last game.

As bad as this season has been, I'm glad that Kim continues to take a hard stance on some of these players in regards to behavior. There's some really good freshman and sophomores on this team that are getting better, but we need to make sure that these upper classmen don't send them down the wrong path.

[Butter]

If anyone wants to get an early start on your Wednesday night hoops, #15 Dayton @ St. Joseph's on CBS Sports Network should be a good one. Basically a fight for the league title, as each team has a relatively easy road the rest of the way, SJU is favored by 1.5 even though Dayton has the highest ranking they've had in nearly 40 years.

Dayton has 2 injuries coming in, starting wing Charles Cooke (a James Madison transfer) has an ankle injury and is expected to play, but hobbled. Also, top PF Kendall Pollard is questionable with a bone bruise to his knee... they basically are trying to let him heal, but may press him into action anyway since UD will be favorites in the final 5 games even without Pollard.

St. Joe's has top A10 POY candidate DeAndre Bembry, who is capable of scoring in every way. Key for Dayton will be to force him to become an outside shooter, where he is only 27%, and to send him to the line rather than giving up layups, as he only is a 66% FT shooter. But Bembry can beat you in a lot of ways, as he averages 8 rebounds and nearly 5 assists a game.

If Cooke and Pollard are able to play at full health, and the Flyers can avoid turning the ball over (which they have been bad at this year), I like the Flyers in a close one. If Bembry goes off or any of the above don't take place, then I think St. Joe's wins.

Dayton hasn't won on Hawk Hill since the year 2000, and would be in the driver's seat for a conference regular season title (something else Dayton has never won) with a win... but St. Joe's would be the #1 seed owning the tiebreaker over Dayton with the win... so lots of motivation on both sides.... not to mention Martelli telling Andy Katz about 2 weeks ago that St. Joseph's is "the best team in the league".

With SJU losing already at home to VCU and St. Bonaventure, the #3 and 4 teams in the A-10, SJU has shown uncharacteristic vulnerability at home. But they have no problem getting up for games against the Flyers, and this will be a hard one for UD to pull out even at full strength.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Kudos to my Tigers! Tossed our top scorer off the team, then went out and won our second straight game with a win over the 21-4 South Carolina team! I expected far better from Frank's team given that they were embarrassed at home last game.

As bad as this season has been, I'm glad that Kim continues to take a hard stance on some of these players in regards to behavior. There's some really good freshman and sophomores on this team that are getting better, but we need to make sure that these upper classmen don't send them down the wrong path.

I taped this last night.. can't wait to settle in later and watch it!

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

I taped this last night.. can't wait to settle in later and watch it!

Seemed like the team responded well every time SC made a run. Rosberg has really caught fire of late.

[tarcone]

The kid from my hometown got his first start. Cullen Van Leer. He is struggling, but does other things.

As for the rest of the squad, Im hearing some things that need to be changed at Mizzou.

Like the team is very dumb. Cant run a set play. Watch Van Leer (who has a very high BB IQ) direct traffic when he is on the floor.

Also, I hear the Sophomore class does nothing to improve. They like to smoke weed and play Xbox.

[Butter]

Dayton goes down 79-70. Pollard didn't play, and UD shot 31 threes and only 7 free throws. Scored 7 points in the final 11 minutes of the first half. That'll do it.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by tarcone

The kid from my hometown got his first start. Cullen Van Leer. He is struggling, but does other things.

As for the rest of the squad, Im hearing some things that need to be changed at Mizzou.

Like the team is very dumb. Cant run a set play. Watch Van Leer (who has a very high BB IQ) direct traffic when he is on the floor.

Also, I hear the Sophomore class does nothing to improve. They like to smoke weed and play Xbox.

I believe most of this. Specifically, Gant, Wright and Isabell have all three clearly not taken positive steps. If they aren't improving, they're doing something they shouldn't be doing. Gant is clearly underachieving and is much more talented than he's shown thus far. There was two plays last night where the announcers noted that Isabell (who was the point guard on the floor) clearly didn't have any clue how the play he called was supposed to be run.

Even the freshman have taken huge strides in the course of their first season. The offense is much better when the freshman (Van Leer, Phillips, KJ Walton, and Puryear) are on the court. I think all four of those guys will push themselves in the off-season to improve. Hopefully the sophomores put their head back into the game too.

[digamma]

UNC's offense went to sleep in the second half and especially the last five minutes of the game last night. Not sure how Duke won that game or why that annoys me (I'm not a fan of either team).

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Seemed like the team responded well every time SC made a run. Rosberg has really caught fire of late.

Great start as well.. helped down the stretch. Rosberg has been lights out lately.. good win.

[Kodos]

Wow, Penn State has had a couple of nice upsets in recent weeks.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Wow, Penn State has had a couple of nice upsets in recent weeks.

As does Texas Tech. They've got three straight wins over ranked teams (Iowa State, Baylor, OU).

[HomerSimpson98]

Originally Posted by digamma

UNC's offense went to sleep in the second half and especially the last five minutes of the game last night. Not sure how Duke won that game or why that annoys me (I'm not a fan of either team).

Because Ol' Roy just rolls a ball out there and lets his guys do whatever the hell they want. Duke had no answer inside. NONE. SO what do the Heels do? Jack up 3s. Take stupid running contested shots. UNC kept Duke in the game far longer than they deserved and stole it at the end. Im not a Duke fan at all, but playing with basically just 5 guys was impressive.

[HomerSimpson98]

Originally Posted by cartman

As does Texas Tech. They've got three straight wins over ranked teams (Iowa State, Baylor, OU).

Good to see Tubby finally get some traction. He's a good dude. I'm thinking the Gophers wish they could have a do-over

[digamma]

Originally Posted by HomerSimpson98

Because Ol' Roy just rolls a ball out there and lets his guys do whatever the hell they want. Duke had no answer inside. NONE. SO what do the Heels do? Jack up 3s. Take stupid running contested shots. UNC kept Duke in the game far longer than they deserved and stole it at the end. Im not a Duke fan at all, but playing with basically just 5 guys was impressive.

Which makes the not going inside all the more silly. Didn't Plumlee have four fouls? Foul him out and play against the student manager if you must.

[HomerSimpson98]

Originally Posted by digamma

Which makes the not going inside all the more silly. Didn't Plumlee have four fouls? Foul him out and play against the student manager if you must.

Yeah, I even forgot about that. The Heels fans have to be losing their shit after that L

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by digamma

UNC's offense went to sleep in the second half and especially the last five minutes of the game last night. Not sure how Duke won that game or why that annoys me (I'm not a fan of either team).

Originally Posted by HomerSimpson98

Yeah, I even forgot about that. The Heels fans have to be losing their shit after that L

Commence annual crisis of confidence in Roy.

[MrBug708]

I hate Steve Alford

[Butter]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

If anyone wants to get an early start on your Wednesday night hoops, #15 Dayton @ St. Joseph's on CBS Sports Network should be a good one. Basically a fight for the league title, as each team has a relatively easy road the rest of the way, SJU is favored by 1.5 even though Dayton has the highest ranking they've had in nearly 40 years.

Dayton has 2 injuries coming in, starting wing Charles Cooke (a James Madison transfer) has an ankle injury and is expected to play, but hobbled. Also, top PF Kendall Pollard is questionable with a bone bruise to his knee... they basically are trying to let him heal, but may press him into action anyway since UD will be favorites in the final 5 games even without Pollard.

St. Joe's has top A10 POY candidate DeAndre Bembry, who is capable of scoring in every way. Key for Dayton will be to force him to become an outside shooter, where he is only 27%, and to send him to the line rather than giving up layups, as he only is a 66% FT shooter. But Bembry can beat you in a lot of ways, as he averages 8 rebounds and nearly 5 assists a game.

If Cooke and Pollard are able to play at full health, and the Flyers can avoid turning the ball over (which they have been bad at this year), I like the Flyers in a close one. If Bembry goes off or any of the above don't take place, then I think St. Joe's wins.

Dayton hasn't won on Hawk Hill since the year 2000, and would be in the driver's seat for a conference regular season title (something else Dayton has never won) with a win... but St. Joe's would be the #1 seed owning the tiebreaker over Dayton with the win... so lots of motivation on both sides.... not to mention Martelli telling Andy Katz about 2 weeks ago that St. Joseph's is "the best team in the league".

With SJU losing already at home to VCU and St. Bonaventure, the #3 and 4 teams in the A-10, SJU has shown uncharacteristic vulnerability at home. But they have no problem getting up for games against the Flyers, and this will be a hard one for UD to pull out even at full strength.

I would be interested to know how many times I have posted about Dayton in the past vs. how many times they have lost immediately after.

Seems like a lot. 2 game losing streak going into tonight's game @ St. Louis, who is terrible. UD forums are ready to go into full-on panic mode with a loss.

[nol]

Originally Posted by nol

LSU is losing 17-39 at halftime to College of Charleston. NBA teams may not want to wait until March before doing their scouting on Ben Simmons.

Not snarky then, definitely not snarky now. Hell, if LSU loses 2 of its next 3 and goes out early in the conference tournament the NIT is probably even out of the question.

[Butter]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

I would be interested to know how many times I have posted about Dayton in the past vs. how many times they have lost immediately after.

Seems like a lot. 2 game losing streak going into tonight's game @ St. Louis, who is terrible. UD forums are ready to go into full-on panic mode with a loss.

UD fights themselves... scores 2 points in the opening 9 minutes, then 14 total in the first half, but somehow manages to score a 52-49 overtime win in the ugliest game of the Archie Miller era.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by nol

Not snarky then, definitely not snarky now. Hell, if LSU loses 2 of its next 3 and goes out early in the conference tournament the NIT is probably even out of the question.

Is the NIT draw basically set in stone now? If they even have the chance to take LSU as an at-large, they still care about making money, so you'd think they'd jump at a chance to take LSU and Simmons for ratings.

And I'll still reiterate that even if there are front offices that dumb (and even Mike hired Rich Cho to modernize the Bobcats scouting a year or two ago), how much do you learn watching him in person vs watching his game tapes and holding private workouts? Especially when it's basically a binary choice vs Ingram? (Bender's still the wild card, but I don't think he's gotten enough minutes to get into the top 2.)

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

UD fights themselves... scores 2 points in the opening 9 minutes, then 14 total in the first half, but somehow manages to score a 52-49 overtime win in the ugliest game of the Archie Miller era.

Rick Majerus is looking down at that affront to modern basketball and smiling.

[nol]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

Is the NIT draw basically set in stone now? If they even have the chance to take LSU as an at-large, they still care about making money, so you'd think they'd jump at a chance to take LSU and Simmons for ratings.

And I'll still reiterate that even if there are front offices that dumb (and even Mike hired Rich Cho to modernize the Bobcats scouting a year or two ago), how much do you learn watching him in person vs watching his game tapes and holding private workouts? Especially when it's basically a binary choice vs Ingram? (Bender's still the wild card, but I don't think he's gotten enough minutes to get into the top 2.)

It looks like you technically don't have to be an above .500 team to get in (I don't think that's ever happened before though), and I don't really know about the ratings for LSU/college basketball, so maybe it's still possible. My main point has been that this whole situation has been a net loss for basketball pretty much from the jump. Probably should have seen the writing on the wall when a couple of their underclassmen elected to leave for the NBA when they were not guaranteed first-round picks rather than try and improve their stock on a team that would've been much more talented on paper than the one that made the NCAAs last season.

Simmons was just allowed to do the exact same thing he did in high school to a slightly less dominating extent. It certainly didn't do much to help NBA teams get a better idea of his strengths and weaknesses beyond what was readily apparent over the past couple years. It certainly didn't help Simmons' draft stock, as the other freshmen have largely been unimpressive enough that he could've played professionally or stayed in Australia or done anything else and still been in consideration for the top pick. It'd be tough to spin some 'personal growth' narrative about his time in college given that he apparently got benched for not going to class. It's probably even going to be a net negative for the coaching staff that persuaded him to buck tradition by coming to LSU, only to make it clear why the absolute best recruits tend to entrust their development to a very small number of programs in the first place.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by nol

It looks like you technically don't have to be an above .500 team to get in (I don't think that's ever happened before though)

Selection principles simply refer to "best available". Selection committee members are free to use whatever criteria the want to make that determination.

Every committee member nominates 32 teams.
Any team mentioned on all but one ballot is in, along with any regular season conference champions that don't get in to the NCAA.

The remaining slots are filled from "the nomination board", which is any team that got more than one, but less than all but one, votes in the initial round.
From that pool, each member picks eight teams to include.
The top eight candidates by total votes are then put up for a "cross-country" ballot ranked 1-8 with ordinal points assigned to them. Top 4 are in, bottom 4 hold over for another round of the same process. That continues until the field is filled.

[Groundhog]

I have to say, LSU's halfcourt offense is one of the least inspiring I've seen in a while, considering the couple of pieces they have. Token ball reversal on the perimeter, high pick-and-roll, then dump out to a wing for a long contested 2 or 3. Only time they don't look awful is when they aren't pulling the ball out of the net on the other end and get to run.

[mauchow]

Badgers pick another big win on the road. If we didn't have the early season garbage losses the Badgers would be in line for a top 3 seed but instead it's looking like somewhere between 5-11 depending on the rest of the season. Barring a disaster down the stretch the Badgers have punched their ticket. Not too many teams have the quality of wins as the Badgers do. They have some shitty losses too during the Bo stretch and early Gard time.

Badgers need to extend Gard now. What they've managed to do this season is amazing.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by mauchow

Badgers need to extend Gard now. What they've managed to do this season is amazing.

+1

I really like what Gard has done. Initially thought he might be one of those nice guys finish last types but he's really turned this team around.

Can he recruit?

[henry296]

Originally Posted by mauchow

Badgers pick another big win on the road. If we didn't have the early season garbage losses the Badgers would be in line for a top 3 seed but instead it's looking like somewhere between 5-11 depending on the rest of the season. Barring a disaster down the stretch the Badgers have punched their ticket. Not too many teams have the quality of wins as the Badgers do. They have some shitty losses too during the Bo stretch and early Gard time.

Badgers need to extend Gard now. What they've managed to do this season is amazing.

They made a good point on the broadcast, that there is a posting process that needs to happen before they can formally hire him.

I recall this same process slowed down the hiring of Paul Chryst when everyone knew he was going to leave Pitt for Wisconsin.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by henry296

They made a good point on the broadcast, that there is a posting process that needs to happen before they can formally hire him.

I recall this same process slowed down the hiring of Paul Chryst when everyone knew he was going to leave Pitt for Wisconsin.

Yeah, it's really no big deal though. Allows a bunch of hooligans to throw their resume in too.

[tarcone]

Wiscy is on fire.

I think Iowa peaked way to early. Im afraid this will be a lost season. I hope they can turn it around.

[mauchow]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Wiscy is on fire.

I think Iowa peaked way to early. Im afraid this will be a lost season. I hope they can turn it around.

Anything can happen in the tournament. If you're a top 3 seed your chances are a lot better than everyone else.

Iowa will be fine.

I still wish Uthoff was at Wisconsin. Bo obviously knew he would be a good player. Do you think Jared regrets missing out on two potential final fours? Tough to say. Badgers fans are obviously satisfied how it's been since JU left..

[tarcone]

Im not sure JU liked Bo. I imagine that played a part. And he is only 30 minutes from home.

I cant say if he regrets it or not. But I imagine it would be slight if he did.

[Groundhog]

Random fact: Uthoff's (much, much older) cousin Dean played for my local pro team down in Australia years ago, and it was a school visit by him and another American on our team back when I was around 10 years old that got me interested in and playing basketball initially.

[Thomkal]

Coastal Carolina somehow got the #3 seed in its final Big South season today. They started off this season with big losses to most of its non-conference schedule, then lost to two teams who would end up at the bottom of the Big South conference. But somehow they turned it around, and coming into today actually were still alive for the #1 seed. They won today, but didn't get the help they needed to get that seed. 18-10 is quite the achievement, but likely will need to get in the tournament final to get into one of the tourneys.

[cartman]

I thought Texas might start slow tonight against Kansas, because of the quick turnaround after the big win over Oklahoma on Saturday, but they are horrible tonight. Can't buy a basket, and Kansas is shooting lights out.

[Kodos]

Hoosiers secured sole possession of the Big Ten championship by beating Iowa at home on senior night. This team really bounced back after an embarrassing loss to Duke. Glad to see Yogi's hard work pay off. The game got scary in the second half. Glad IU was able to pull it out.

Good luck in the Big Ten tourney and the NCAA tourney, tarcone.

[mauchow]

Man, if only the Badgers didn't suck early on in the season and lose to Northwestern , then they'd still be alive.

Helluva job in Indiana this year by Crean. Solid players all around helps of course. I find it hard pressed to give COTY to Gard over Crean, sadly. Arguments can go either way still depending on if Badgers win out.