2020-21 College Basketball thread

Miami has a starter with the last name McGusty. I assume they beat out Iowa State and Tulsa in recruiting.

 

The last time Tom Izzo missed the NCAA Tournament was in 1997, his second season
His top players were Ray Weathers, Quinton Brooks and Jamie Feick
He’s going to miss it this season
That’s what happens when you make mistakes recruiting

 

It’s hard to get a good game in that league. According to KenPom, Va was 12th in conference schedule strength on Sunday. Playing FSU jumped them to 7th overnight.

 

So Duke is going to keep the narrative going a bit longer huh?

 

How much of this is Duke improving?
How much will be blamed on Jalen Johnson, that his "opting out" is addition by subtraction?
How much of this is Virginia not being quite that good?

Not all surprised that Virginia lost in Tallahassee, but the margin did surprise me a little. But while Virginia isn't nearly as good as it was 2-3 years ago, are they not not even that good?

 

That was a helluva game tonight in Cameron. Both teams shot ≥ 50% from the floor. Clutch shot after clutch shot. As much crap as Virginia takes for being different and often dull, I can think of several ACC programs that would like to have enjoyed their success over the past eight years. A couple of them are in Trumpandemic-induced pauses now.

 

This is not encouraging. I still wonder how conference tournaments are going to happen.

 

The last 3 minutes of Maryland Rutgers is taking 20 minutes and it’s a free throw shooting contest.

 

Two smart places BC can go. But will they?

Bruce Pearl. He's an alum. Grew up nearby. Auburn is happy it decided he wasn't too toxic. And, as a Globe columnist put it, BC GOTTA win the press conference this time.

Ed Cooley. He was willing to listen to Michigan last year. Got a raise, but the Friars are having a tough year, and the fanbase is turning on him. In his hometown, no less. He's been an assistant at The Heights. But is his association with Skinner just as toxic to TPTB at BC as Pearl's NCAA issues?

 

BC can’t and isn’t going to spend the kind of money it would take to get Pearl.

 

Exactly right. Nor should they. Is it worth it to get a little better if you cheat and caught? Not as far as I can tell.

Gonna be interesting to see what they do.

 

Cooley seems like he's plateauing at PC - not sure why BC would be happy with him, especially since they weren't content with the now-great-in-hindsight success that Skinner was having there. I'm a mod at a URI message board though, so I might be biased on Cooley. Most of our board thinks Mark Schmidt would be a good hire, although he's not an especially sexy one. It isn't easy to win at St. Bonaventure though.