2020-21 College Basketball thread

Houston is going to be a very tough out. Defense and rebounding always keep you in the game. DeJon Jarreau is a tremendous player. Scores, rebounds, passes and plays unbelievable defense. The AAC might have been down a bit this year because of off-seasons by Temple and Cincy, and yeah, through no fault of their own they caught a break by playing double-digit seeds throughout the tourney, but you don't get to 28-3 without being pretty damn good.

 

I think until this season, Arizona had made the NCAA tournament every year since Lute arrived in 1985, and might have this year had it played in the Pac-12 tournament instead of sitting out in an attempt to mitigate potential NCAA penalties. So as far as the Pac-12 half goes, that tweet is pretty stupid.

 

Here's what you said.

To which I replied:

The stats back that up.

 

At this stage, they're all very tough outs.

 

Yeah. That's where I stand, too.

Thing is, Kelvin Sampson's teams have never really impressed me. Obviously, they play to his system and what he wants. I'm not at all against some contact and physicality in the game, but typically too many of his teams drag the game decades back and double-dog-dare officials to rein it in. In his defense, he probably has to do that against some of his opponents.

Not sure how it will work against Baylor. IMO, Gonzaga is too big, too smart and too fast to get caught in this. But that's why they play the games.

 

When my kids were little, we'd be watching a game and they'd ask me who was going to win. My standard answer: "That's why they play."

 

“The team that scores the most points.”

 

Just saw the postgame presser. Mulkey was clearly upset, but didn't say anything about the final play that would get her fined or toss officials in front of the train. Yet that horrid COVID rant ... yikes.

Go to the 7:30 mark for Mulkey:

 

Sean Miller probably sweated through his jacket watching the game on TV.

 

The Baylor shooter was fouled. Although it was not as egregious in real time as that still photo would have you believe. We can talk about that. That's fine. But then you have to go back to the sweet 16 game where the Baylor point guard clearly double dribbled towards the end of the game. Pick the ball up with both hands and stopped her dribble, then restarted it and I believe either she scored or dished and scored to help Baylor win. Let's not pretend that Baylor doesn't get calls. Baylor lost to UConn because their point guard pulled her hamstring last night.

 

Last night was the first time I really watched a full Houston game all the way through ... they are a nightmare on the offensive glass, sending four to the boards off every miss. They had so many third and fourth opportunities in the first half, it was ridiculous. Their offense got really, really stagnant when Oregon State made its run. They were incredibly dependent on the 3 and offensive putbacks with not much else going on. That's not going to fly against Baylor, which will push the pace and try to get Houston out of its comfort zone. I think it's going to take a very good 3 point shooting night for UH to have a chance to beat the Bears. I did come away very impressed with Jarreau. People keep pointing to the East Carolina loss to delegitimize the Cougs, but teams have stupid mid-season road losses in conference all the time, and the Pirates are known for catching top teams in their conference unawares in Minges. Shit happens.