2020-21 College Basketball Discussion and Pick'em Thread

[GeorgiaModerate]

It looks like things are moving toward a start:

https://twitter.com/GoodmanHoops/status/1304465970409467905

https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status/1304424489028071425

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/HotlineJosh/status/1327028818041835520

[GeorgiaModerate]

I'll keep score again unless someone else wants to do it.  Will make my picks later.

[GeorgiaModerate]

VCU-Tennessee is off:

Tennessee's games on Wednesday against Charlotte in the Volunteer Classic and against VCU on Friday as part of the same event were canceled. The Volunteers are also one of four teams in the Jimmy V Classic and are set to face No. 1 Gonzaga on Dec. 2 in Indianapolis. The school said participation in that event hasn't been ruled out yet.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/30373832/tennessee-volunteers-pause-activities-rick-barnes-tests-positive-coronavirus

[GeorgiaModerate]

For the record, here are the rules (the same as in the other pick'em games):

You can post your pick for a game any time up to the start time of the game.  This is a hard cutoff; picks after game start time will not count. 

You don't have to pick the whole list at once, i.e. you could just post your picks for the first day's games and then follow up with the others later -- as long as each game is picked by its start time.

You can also change any pick (up to the game start time), but please do this by making a new reply with the change, and not just editing your OP; otherwise it's too easy for me to miss.

Make your picks by either bolding the winners from the list of games, or listing your winners.  I recommend the former because it's easy to leave out a game if you're listing them.  Picks with partial names will be counted if the intent is unambiguous; for example, in a hypothetical game between Georgia Tech and Florida State, "Florida" or "Georgia" would be counted as there's only one team those could match, but "Georgia State" would not be counted because it could be either one.

If you leave out a game, I (or others) may point it out to you to correct, but this is not guaranteed to happen.  Ultimately, you're responsible for getting all your picks in.

Each correct pick is worth one point.  I'll post an update after each week's games are complete with the weekly results and overall standings.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Baylor-Seton Hall is off.

[GeorgiaModerate]

#6 Kansas @ #1 Gonzaga (in Fort Meyers, Florida)
Colorado State @ Oregon State

#1 Gonzaga @ Auburn (in Fort Meyers, Florida)
Belmont @ George Mason (in Washington D.C)
Boise State @ #17 Houston
Navy @ Maryland
Seton Hall @ Louisville
VCU @ Tennessee canceled
Colorado @ Kansas State

Notre Dame @ #13 Michigan State
LSU @ Saint Louis
Oklahoma @ UCF
South Carolina @ Liberty (in Kansas City, Missouri)
Rhode Island @ South Florida (in Uncasville, Connecticut)
VMI @ Penn State
Tulsa @ TCU (in Kansas City, Missouri)
Virginia Tech @ Temple (in Uncasville, Connecticut)

Richmond @ #10 Kentucky
#2 Baylor @ Seton Hall canceled
#17 Houston @ #14 Texas Tech
Temple @ Rhode Island (In Uncasville, Connecticut)
South Florida @ Virginia Tech

[GeorgiaModerate]

COLLEGE BASKETBALL IS BACK!!!

I'm watching St. Mary's-Memphis on ESPN2.  In a perfect 2020 start to the season, one of the Memphis players entered the game with his shirt on backwards, and had to fix it at the next stoppage of play.

(As far as the game itself, St. Mary's got off to a hot start and led 8-0, but since then Memphis can do no wrong and leads 42-26 at the half.)

[GeorgiaModerate]

Well, Kansas State just lost on their home court to Drake.  I might change my pick in their game with Colorado, but haven't decided for sure yet.

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/UCF_MBB/status/1331682536943042561

[GeorgiaModerate]

I don't expect this to go on for too long — you run into the same problems as college football with interstate travel, except 1. there's fewer players on the roster, so one positive test can wipe out a game and 2. a positive test means the next 2-3 games at minimum are canceled or in doubt. A conference-only schedule could work, but trying to do all the out-of-conference tournaments is... not how I would've started the season.

I don't either, but I suspect at least some of these teams are operating under the assumption that they're extremely likely to miss a fair amount of games, either from their own COVID issues or their opponents'.  So they're trying to get these early games in if possible, in order to get a head start on meeting the minimum necessary for the tournament (13 games).

[GeorgiaModerate]

Georgia State beat Georgia Tech last night 123-120 in four overtimes.  It was GSU's first ever win over an ACC school.

[GeorgiaModerate]

I'm changing my pick in Colorado-Kansas State to Colorado.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Observation of the day: Gonzaga is really, really good.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Yesterday's Colorado State-Oregon State game was apparently canceled.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Temple is pausing for two weeks, which knocks out a couple of games from this weekend's list.

[GeorgiaModerate]

First major upset of the season:

https://twitter.com/GaryParrishCBS/status/1332390357959577601

[GeorgiaModerate]

A couple of suggestions:

1. You have 45 games this week.  That's a lot, and starting from Monday leaves little time to get picks in.  I suggest that in future weeks, you limit it to 25 games (same as the football pick'ems) and skip the early part of the week.  That is, start selecting games for the upcoming week from the upcoming Sunday and work backward through the week until you have 25.

2. That format makes for some very long posts.  How about using a more compact listing, something like:

Wednesday:

Team X @ Team Y, 6:30pm
Team Z vs Team A (at New York), 8:00pm

Thursday:

Team B @ Team C, 7:00pm
Team D @ Team E, 9:00pm

...etc...

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/GaryParrishCBS/status/1333141795937656832

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/OU_MBBall/status/1333189009141624832

[GeorgiaModerate]

WEEK 1 RESULTS

Six of the original 22 games were canceled.  dfw took the week at 12-4, with three people a game behind.  Full results:

12 dfw
11 Donerail, GeorgiaModerate, NY Express
10 CraneHusband, Jgibson

With such a small group of players, unanimous and single-dissenter games will be quite common, so I'm not going to list them unless the group gets bigger.

YTD results (16 games):  See above.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Today's games:

Seton Hall
App State
St. John's
Auburn

[GeorgiaModerate]

Seton Hall vs. St. Joseph's today was canceled.  Seton Hall picked up a game vs. Iona to replace it.

[GeorgiaModerate]

UConn-Vanderbilt has been canceled.  My picks for today:

St. Mary's
BYU
Georgetown
Marquette
Duke
Kansas

[GeorgiaModerate]

For today:

VCU @ Penn State
St. Joseph's @ Villanova postponed
Florida @ Oklahoma canceled
West Virginia @ Gonzaga
Seton Hall @ Rhode Island
Colorado @ Arizona postponed
Illinois @ Baylor
Oregon State @ Washington State