College Basketball Thread 2018

If Virginia is hitting its threes, it's unbeatable. Unless they're playing Duke when Zion is on the floor and Duke is actually hitting its threes.

Huge game down in Tallahassee tonight between the Hokies and Noles. Winner gets a double bye in the ACC Tournament, which is frankly probably a much bigger deal to a shallow Tech team that could use the extra rest. No Justin Robinson yet. I doubt he plays until next week. I don't think there's any reason to trot him out there against Miami on Friday, because that game will pretty much be meaningless. Tech could in theory drop behind Louisville in the standings, but that would take the Hokies losing twice and Louisville winning at JPJ. Pretty unlikely.

 

What really impressed me about UVA last night was the shots were open. The UVA shooters were not rushing the shot or were many contested. Syracuse always contests shots. It's what makes that matchup 2-3 so hard to play against.

 

They looked unstoppable last night. Salt might be my favorite player in the country.

 

One thing that does give me hope for this UVA team to get past the low postseason bar set by its predecessors is its versatility. One of the adjustments Bennett made at halftime was putting Mamadi Diakite and Jay Huff on the blocks to force the baseline guys in the 2-3 to stay home. Those two provide much more of an offensive threat than Jack Salt and Isaiah Wilkins provided last year, which was part of the issue in That Game. (I also continue to not understand why Bennett only had Jerome post up the little guy once.)

They can do a lot of situational/lineup-based subbing too, though. Kihei Clark and Braxton Key didn't get much run last night, but they'll be needed against smaller teams. One of the main strengths of the team is that they have the versatility to go big or small without sacrificing much. That said, I've seen enough of Clark and Salt on the floor together this year. That throws away too much offense. But the Death Lineup that destroyed Louisville and Syracuse in their own gyms is Jerome-Guy-Hunter-Diakite-Huff.

 

Jack White would be on a slow boat back to Australia if Wake had pulled that out. What a fuckup.

 

Hokies still had no Robinson, and Blackshear was in foul trouble all night. Yet they took Florida State to OT on the road in a building where hardly any visitor wins. Encouraging.

 

It'll be Michigan at Michigan State for the Big Ten title Saturday night
Both teams thank Purdon't for stumbling at Minnesota

 

I don't feel like looking it up, but I'm pretty sure this is the first time UM/Sparty have ever met the last week of the season with the league title on the line, mainly a result of both teams rarely being good at the same time.

And of course, the "league title" now only matters for tournament seeding; in eight days it'll be forgotten.

 

Can't remember them having the two best coaches in the league in a long time, either.

 

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