Running 2019-2020 college hoops thread

If San Diego State finishes with one or two losses, they'll be no worse than a four seed. Not sure that qualifies as a Cinderella...

 

OK, then, whatever you call a mid- major making the Elite Eight and, dare I dream, the Final Four for the first time.

 

Pac-12 teams could be knocking each other off all season, meaning another year with only a couple NCAA tourney bids.

UCLA had a nice win against Washington in Seattle ... then comes over and gags one up to the Cougs in Pullman, before about 1,100 people.

 

Roy's teams rarely show an interest in playing defense or doing the little things that make decent teams good and good teams great. Chapel Hill usually gets away with it because of more talent, offensive skill and the ability to push the pace to out-and-out torrid.

Usually. Too many key injuries and too little depth have left Roy with a massive challenge. So far ... it has been messy.

 

Based on ESPN rankings, UNC-CH had 5 of 6 recruiting classes between 2009 and 2014 in the top 10, but the program has just one since. They got unbelievably lucky with a point guard who was college-level elite but didn’t have pro game, so he stayed four years (Joel Berry), a graduate transfer from another ACC school (Cameron Johnson) and a son of a former Tar Heel QB who turned down guaranteed scholarship offers to commit as a walk-on — although one opened up for him just before he started school (Luke Maye). Without those three strokes of fortune, this year’s collapse happens two years ago. Roy Williams should probably tithe 20 percent of his paycheck to Maye for propping up the program and delaying a season like this (and for hitting the winning shot against UK in 2017).

Most schools would kill for recruiting classes like the program has had in the last five years (one top 10, three others between 11 and 20, average rank 16.4). But Williams has always been a coach who needed high-level talent and solid pieces from player 4 to player 10 in his rotation to overcome other deficiencies. He’s the Mike Shanahan of college basketball. You give those coaches John Elway, Shannon Sharpe and Terrell Davis or Tyler Hansbrough, Danny Green and Ty Lawson, they look like geniuses.
Give ‘em Jay Cutler, Tony Scheffler and Tatum Bell or Garrison Brooks, Brandon Robinson and Leaky Black, not so much.

 

They're going to be way underrated by the committee. Maybe a 7 seed that's worthy of a 4. They'll dispatch a 2 in the second round and get people's attention.

 

Roy Williams is a hell of a lot better than Mike Shanhan for a comparison. He's more like a Tom Landry. In football terms Williams has made six Super Bowls, won three and made it to three other Conference title games

 

They still got ranked by the AP at 25th. I wonder if the polls closed before the electorate knew the Oregon State result.

 

San Diego State is currently No. 1 in the NCAA Net Rankings and has five Q1 wins. Only Butler can match that. Even against a weaker MWC schedule, they would have to lose several games to fall into the 7 seed range. I don't think they're going to be a 1 seed, but if they enter the tournament at something like 30-2, they're sure as heck not going to be a 7. They won't fall past 4. They've already conquered their toughest MWC challenge, winning at Utah State. They'll need to avoid really bad losses, which means sweeping Wyoming, UNLV and Air Force for sure.

ADD: Buffalo was No. 15 in the NET last year and got a 6 seed, but the Bulls only had two NET Q1 wins (at Syracuse and at Toledo). Those 5 Q1 wins are going to be crucial for SDSU.

 

Roy has a very strong class coming in next year. If I'm correct on the timing, the current crop of freshmen was his first class that he could recruit without the NCAA cloud over him. It won't be long before he's back to having elite talent and not-quite-as-elite results.