Running 2022-23 NCAA Basketball Thread

Meanwhile, in the Ohio Valley Conference:

I've been trying to get in to college hoops for a couple weeks now and it's felt kind of futile. Michigan has been going nowhere all season, and probably since around the time Juwan Howard threw hands at the Kohl Center (Michigan's return to Madison is on the 14th). They have no nonconference wins of any repute, and though they have a winning record in the B1G, they are currently 71st in the NET rankings behind the likes of Marshall, Sam Houston and North Texas, with an impressively bad 2-8 record against Quad 1 teams. They won in Evanston midweek after getting nuked from space by Penn State, which ain't exactly the true test of a champion. In fact, Michigan's most ridiculous loss came against Central Michigan, which just happens to be my alma mater. The Chips haven't been to the tourney since my freshman year of college (2003) and I believe have only reached the MAC tournament title game once since. It appears the MAC doesn't do divisions for basketball anymore but traditionally, you can quickly write off the MAC West. Since that 2003 tournament, only one of the six MAC West schools has won the tournament (Western, twice) and only Toledo (three times) and Central (once) have even reached the championship game. The Chips, now in their second season after a coaching change, are still in rebuild mode. The one time I saw them this year was briefly, when they were playing at Minnesota, which is easily the worst team in the Big 10 (also primarily due to being in year two post coaching change). As it stands, Wisconsin, the only other D-1 that we run stories about ever, is also not in the tournament.

It's going to be hard for me to find an angle as it stands, currently.

 

The way I enjoy college hoops on nights when my team is off is to fire up the scoreboard app an hour after the first wave of games have started, pick a promising one to start watching and then running my own RedZone feed switching between tight finishes via (mostly) ESPN Plus.

 

Finally checking out the Iowa men’s team this season — I’ve already seen Caitlyn Clark and company a few times — and the Illini are giving the Hawkeyes all they want in Iowa City.

Plus, Illinois has a big man with the cool last name of Dainja!

 

Tennessee and Auburn played one for the ages today. The Dark Ages.
Victorious Vols: 27% overall FG%; 9.5% 3FG% (2-21); 59% FT% (10-17)
Tigers: 23.6% overall FG%; 11.1% on 3s (3-27)
It's the first game since at least the start of the 2010-11 season in which both teams shot ≤ 27% from the floor and ≤ 12% from 3.

 

Can’t we just give Vitale and Lee Corso a podcast or something?

 

Bruce Pearl may be one of the slimiest human beings under the sun, but Auburn got absolutely jobbed st the end of the game today.

 

Me as the clock ticked off on Indiana beating Purdue:

 

Duke-UNC yada yada.
This is dreadful basketball.
Both teams suck.

 

Meanwhile someone please come and get grandpa.

 

So maybe you should just GTFO, Jimbo. Coaching seems to have made you a very angry and bitter old man.

 

100% accurate. Somehow, they have > 15 consensus Top 100 recruits between them, and neither team strikes me as a viable player in the championship picture.