2024-25 College Basketball Thread

We're going to have to deal with the fact that Liberty has the best men's basketball team in Virginia this year, which is annoying. Tech and UVA both stink. VCU is probably better than both. Liberty 7-1 after winning the Paradise Jam, beating Kansas State and McNeese.

 

After all the wholesale membership changes, C-USA somehow managed to keep its status as an extra-feisty one-bid league. Liberty and Louisiana Tech are both top 100 teams in KenPom and two more members are in the top 125. Only UTEP and Florida International fall below 200.

 

My level of college basketball awareness is a shadow of what it once was, for a multitude of reasons. Is it just generally understood that Dan Hurley is a stark raving lunatic and complete asshole and that he gets away with it because he wins? What he did yesterday was embarrassing.

 

He wins, and he graduates players, who seem to like him. He's going to coach you hard and push you to be your best possible version. He was this way at URI too, and pushed for things like a bigger media section (IIRC) so that he could invite more scouts for European and smaller leagues in to see his guys.

 

That all makes sense - thanks. I have a general awareness of him and his track record and wasn't under the impression that he was the kind of guy he appeared to be yesterday, and am willing to believe that a single episode might not be a completely accurate reflection of him.

 

To be clear - He is an absolute raging asshole toward refs, and his sideline antics are like that for most games. But it is seemingly coming from a place of "I want every possible advantage for my guys" vs. "look at me!"

 

He always struck me as coming from the Bobby Knight/Mike Krzyzewski mold but with the level of asshole turned down just enough in the right places, i.e. I don't think he's a raging prick toward his own players, and he seems way more chill toward the media and UConn students. It seems like it's just during games (and probably practice) where he's insufferable.

 

Might want to get an eyeball on Penn State-Clemson at 4 pm Eastern. The Nits are 6-0, Ace Baldwin and Zach Hicks are playing like All-Big Ten guys, and they even have a functional 7-footer in Northern Illinois transfer Yanic Konan Niederhauser. Mike Rhoades has put together a pretty nice ballclub.

There are few hitting the portal as hard as Rhoades in his first two years in State College. He has nine transfers on his 14-man roster, and eight of them make up his eight-man rotation.

 

To your point, there were seven freshmen on what became Shrewsberry's final team. None is still there. One went with Shrewsberry to Notre Dame. Other destinations: Ohio State, Mississippi State, Temple, La Salle, William & Mary and Florida Gulf Coast.

 

Not only that, his son was going to go to PSU before following his dad. Helluva shooter.