2020-21 College Basketball thread

That's not my read on the attitudes of K-Staters (as a grad, lifelong fan and regular team message board/FB/Twitter reader.) Everyone definitely wants him fired, but there's a lot of resignation that that's not going to happen this year. The football program wasn't allowed to fire a freaking WR coach because of the pandemic budget, so unless the right donors step up with the money ($2m until April 30, then $1m) Weber isn't going anywhere.

So there's a ton of apathy about basketball in general, a lot of somber acceptance of another year of Weber, a small bit of optimism around some of the gems in that freshman class (Pack and Bradford will be studs... for someone) and a lot of dark humor surrounding the team's uniquely shitty season and the team's unexpected recent victories.

 

I'm pretty excited that K-State is the key to some great transitive victory equations.

By running through that hilarious K-State-Fort Hays State game — where the Tigers won by DOUBLE DIGITS in Manhattan WITHOUT their Covid-restricted coaching staff — and K-State's win against Oklahoma you can get victories for 3-17 Newman University from the MIAA over I'm pretty sure most of the AP Top 25, everyone this side of Gonzaga and Baylor, obviously. Wins by OU against Alabama and Minnesota against Michigan and Ohio State really help, though I had to actually get some work done before I mapped that out entirely.

Sadly, the lack of robust non-con schedules — Newman didn't lose to or play any NAIA schools this year, as it usually does — keep you from going any lower on the K-State-FHSU path. Maybe that'll change once we get to the post-season tourneys and the pools get spread more like they would in a regular season.

 

Weber's going to leave a weird legacy in Manhattan. He won two conference championships, the only in MBB since the 70s, had some otherwise solid seasons and one good tourney run. But there have been a lot of fans against him from Day 1 despite the highs. And he's basically had to rebuild from scratch twice after teams of his recruits exploded. This season is certainly the worst in modern history, if not all time. (Or it was until they beat OU.)

A team of his recruits also won the conference and beat Kentucky in an Elite 8 run, though, so who the hell knows what to think.

He's been the most successful coach in the lifetimes of any fans 40 or younger, but has had simply inexcusably bad seasons, not just "missed the tournament" bad but "everyone on the team transfers" bad.

 

Good for them. A $2,000,000 buyout is nothing these days, but I applaud them if they resist.

 

Michigan basketball delights me nearly as much as Michigan football infuriates me. Made Luka Garza look human on both ends of the floor and turned a game they weren't shooting for shit into an 18-point home win over a top-10 team.

 

Minnesota ruined a lot of parlays last night.

 

Michigan State returns to the bubble after back-to-back wins over Illinois and Ohio State
The Spartans play Michigan twice next week but they’re likely in with wins over Maryland and Indiana

 

If they split the four remaining regular-season games, I'd bet they're in.
If they go 1-3 (split with UMd and IU, get swept by U-M), I got a feeling they'd need a win in the BTT to get in.
They're not holding the fleabag tourneys (NIT, etc) this year, are they?

 

I haven't watched much hoops, but did watch the first half of that one. Is that what Ohio State is? Because, it wasn't much.

 

My UM friends who were fretting over whether Juwan Howard could adapt to coaching in college are singing his praises now
I always thought Juwan would be a good coach at any level
And when you’re a guy who can set up a call for a recruit:
“Hey, this is LeBron. Coach Howard is the real deal.”
I don’t think you’ll have any problems with recruiting
Plus Marinelli was a great hire

 

Why would LeBron recruit a kid to Michigan? Isn’t he an OSU guy or a Duke guy? You think Ewing could get Malone, Bird, Barkley or Jordan to give a kid a call? Dream Team. You think kids being recruited today know anything that didn’t happen within the last 4 years? Or care? Howard does seem to have a nice grasp on the job. He’s got freshman playing well with seniors, not easy for a 2nd year coach.

 

Howard and James are former teammates and very tight