2019-2020 College Basketball Discussion and Pick 'em Thread

[GeorgiaModerate]

It seems like the right time to start a thread for the new college basketball season.  The AP preseason rankings will be released tomorrow, and the initial kenpom.com ratings are out.  The consensus favorite is Michigan State, which features the expected player of the year, guard Cassius Winston.  But there are a host of other plausible contenders that include usual suspects like Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, and North Carolina, as well as Louisville, Florida, Villanova, and defending champion Virginia.

One of the more intriguing (IMO) teams to watch is Memphis, with former star and NBA great Penny Hardaway in his second season as coach.  They have the nation's top recruiting class (the first time in years it hasn't been Duke or Kentucky) featuring center James Wiseman, who is forecast to be the freshman of the year and possible #1 NBA draft pick.  On paper they have a huge amount of talent and potential, but with a team full of freshmen and a second-year coach, they could finish almost anywhere.

Some people in the college football pick 'em game have expressed interest in having a similar one for basketball.   Post here if you're interested, and also if you're willing to choose the weekly slate of games.  I'll volunteer to keep score.

[GeorgiaModerate]

The preseason AP top 25:

1. Michigan State
2. Kentucky
3. Kansas
4. Duke
5. Louisville
6. Florida
7. Maryland
8. Gonzaga
9. North Carolina
10. Villanova
11. Virginia
12. Seton Hall
13. Texas Tech
14. Memphis
15. Oregon
16. Baylor
17. Utah State
18. Ohio State
19. Xavier
20. Saint Mary’s (Cal.)
21. Arizona
22. LSU
23. Purdue
24. Auburn
25. VCU

https://apnews.com/APTop25CollegeBasketballPoll

[GeorgiaModerate]

The AP preseason All-America team:

G Cassius Winston, Michigan State, senior (unanimous pick)
G Markus Howard, Marquette, senior
G Myles Powell, Seton Hall, senior
F Jordan Nwora, Louisville, junior
C James Wiseman, Memphis, freshman

[GeorgiaModerate]

The preseason AP top 25:

1. Michigan State
2. Kentucky
3. Kansas
4. Duke
5. Louisville
6. Florida
7. Maryland
8. Gonzaga
9. North Carolina
10. Villanova
11. Virginia
12. Seton Hall
13. Texas Tech
14. Memphis
15. Oregon
16. Baylor
17. Utah State
18. Ohio State
19. Xavier
20. Saint Mary’s (Cal.)
21. Arizona
22. LSU
23. Purdue
24. Auburn
25. VCU

https://apnews.com/APTop25CollegeBasketballPoll

The coaches' poll looks very similar, at least at the top:

1   Michigan State (30)   792
2   Kentucky   734
3   Kansas (1)   687
4   Duke (1)   683
5   Louisville   670
6   Florida   619
7   Gonzaga   544
8   Maryland   536
9   Virginia   532
10   Villanova   531
11   North Carolina   503
12   Texas Tech   417
13   Seton Hall   403
14   Oregon   344
15   Memphis   331
16   Ohio State   280
17   Arizona   229
18   Baylor   228
19   Utah State   218
20   Saint Mary's   163
21   Xavier   149
22   Purdue   123
23   Auburn   105
24   LSU   86
25   Tennessee   78

https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/college-basketball-rankings-michigan-state-leads-preseason-coaches-poll-ahead-of-kentucky-kansas-duke/

[GeorgiaModerate]

The regular season starts a week from tomorrow.  Some notable games through the first weekend:

Tuesday, Nov. 5:

Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden:

3 Kansas vs 4 Duke, 7:00 pm
1 Michigan St. vs 2 Kentucky, 9:30 pm

Others:

5 Louisville @ Miami (FL) 6:30 pm
20 St. Mary's @ Wisconsin 9:00 pm


Wednesday, Nov. 6:

Notre Dame @ 9 North Carolina, 7:00 pm
Cincinnati @ 18 Ohio State, 8:30 pm
11 Virginia @ Syracuse, 9:00 pm


Friday, Nov. 8:

24 Auburn @ Davidson, 6:00 pm
16 Baylor @ Washington, 9:30 pm


Saturday, Nov. 9:

Texas @ 23 Purdue, 7:00 pm
Rhode Island @ 7 Maryland 9:00 pm


Sunday, Nov. 10:

Florida St. @ 6 Florida 1:00 pm
Illinois @ 21 Arizona 9:00 pm

[GeorgiaModerate]

Thanks to sjoyce for volunteering to choose the games!

[GeorgiaModerate]

I'm definitely going to play, but will wait until closer to next weekend to post picks.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Just for fun, my picks for the Champions Classic are Michigan State and Duke.

[GeorgiaModerate]

And the season is underway!  Baylor is playing Central Arkansas on ESPN+.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Nothing personal, sjoyce, but I really hope you're not as good at picking basketball as football.

[GeorgiaModerate]

What a debut performance by Cole Anthony!

On the other end of the spectrum, the UVA-Syracuse game is painful to watch so far. 

EDIT: Under 10 minutes to go in the first half, UVA leads 10-2.  Yes, Syracuse has two points in ten minutes.  Time to turn it off.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Auburn vs. Davidson
Illinois-Chicago at Memphis
Vermont at St. Bonaventure
Akron at West Virginia
Illinois at Grand Canyon - the Illini will be in a big hole if they lose this one
Bowling Green at LSU
Northern Kentucky at Missouri
UNC-Greensboro at Kansas
Baylor vs. Washington
Arizona State vs. Colorado

Oklahoma vs. Minnesota
San Diego State at BYU
Iowa State at Oregon State
NJIT at Providence
Texas at Purdue
UC-Irvine at Pepperdine
Tulsa at UT-Arlington
Rhode Island at Maryland
Boise State at Oregon

Boston College at South Florida
Florida State at Florida
Columbia at Wake Forest
Colgate at Clemson
UC-Santa Barbara at UCLA
Illinois at Arizona

[GeorgiaModerate]

If anyone still wants to make picks, just a reminder that the first game (Auburn-Davidson) starts in an hour.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Auburn beat Davidson 76-66.  Memphis up by 40 (not a typo) early second half.  LSU trailing Bowling Green mid first half.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Northwestern lost by 10 at home to Merrimack College, which is in its first D1 season and lost by 20 to Maine in their previous game.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Northwestern lost by 10 at home to Merrimack College, which is in its first D1 season and lost by 20 to Maine in their previous game.

Most exciting thing about this time of the season is that you learn about schools that you never knew existed.

Also, did you see Utah beat Mississippi Valley State 143-49?  that's just cold.

Miss. Valley State also lost today to Central Michigan 134-78.  I think we can safely say they're a bad team.

[GeorgiaModerate]

WEEK 1 RESULTS

A big logjam with everybody within 3 games, and a 3-way tie for first followed by a 5-way tie for fourth:

19 dfw, GeorgiaModerate, Sunrise
17 Illiniwek, JGibson, sjoyce, Sprouts, YE
16 RINO Tom

There were 9 unanimous picks, all correct except Florida:

Memphis-UIC
LSU-Bowling Green
Missouri-N. Kentukcy
Kansas-UNCG
Providence-NJIT
Maryland-Rhode Island
Oregon-Boise State
Florida-FSU
UCLA-UCSB

There were 6 picks with one dissenter:

Auburn-Davidson
West Virginia-Akron
Illinois-Grand Canyon
Baylor-Washington (dissenter was correct)
Wake Forest-Columbia
Clemson-Colgate

[GeorgiaModerate]

DePaul bout to lay a SMACK DOWN on Iowa.

Sure looks that way so far!

[GeorgiaModerate]

Interesting top 25 game tonight: #13 Memphis with their super-talented freshmen at experienced #14 Oregon (technically a neutral site since it's in Portland, but effectively a home game for Oregon).  Oregon is favored by 4.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Halftime: Evansville 34, #1 Kentucky 30.

[GeorgiaModerate]

These announcers are terrible.

[GeorgiaModerate]

I love college basketball. 

[GeorgiaModerate]

Radford @ Georgia Southern – 6pm – ESPN+
West Virginia @ Pitt – 6pm – ESPNU
Alabama @ Rhode Island – 6:30pm – NCBSN
Gonzaga @ Texas A&M – 8pm – SECN
UC Irvine @ Boise State – 8pm
BYU @ Houston – 8pm – ESPNU
Minnesota @ Utah – 8pm – Pac12
Cal Baptist @ Cal – 9pm
UNLV @ UCLA – 10pm – Pac12

Old Dominion @ Northeastern – 12pm
Belmont @ Boston College – 1pm – ACCN
Washington @ Tennessee – 4pm – ESPN+
Louisiana Tech @ Creighton – 5pm – FS2
Kent State @ Wright State – 6pm – ESPN3
UIC @ Bradley – 7pm – ESPN3
Wofford @ Butler – 7pm – FS2
Santa Clara @ Stanford – 9pm
Southern Cal @ Nevada – 10pm – CBSSN

Marquette @ Wisconsin – 12pm – FS1
New Mexico State @ #21 Arizona – 1pm – Pac12
Florida @ UConn – 2pm ESPN
Seton Hall @ Saint Louis – 3pm – ESPNU
Ball State @ Indiana State – 3:30pm – ESPN3
Rider @ Arizona State – 5pm – Pac12
UT-Arlington @ #15 Oregon – 7pm – Pac12

[GeorgiaModerate]

Halftime: Duke 36, Georgia State 34.

[GeorgiaModerate]

WEEK 2 RESULTS

A dominating performance by YE, who won the week by a 3-game margin!  This week:

20 YE
17 RINO Tom, sjoyce, Sunrise
16 dfw
15 Illiniwek, Sprouts
14 GeorgiaModerate
12 JGibson

The average score was 15.9, down from 17.6 in week 1.

There were seven unanimous picks, of which we missed three:

Gonzaga-Texas A&M
Northeastern-Old Dominion (wrong)
Wright St.-Kent St. (wrong)
Butler-Wofford
Stanford-Santa Clara
Florida-UConn (wrong)
Oregon-UTA

There were eight games with a single dissenter.  The dissenter was wrong in all of them:

Georgia Southern-Radford
Cal-Cal Baptist
UCLA-UNLV
Creighton-La. Tech
Bradley-UIC
Arizona-NM State
Seton Hall-St. Louis
Ariz. St.-Rider


Overall standings:

37 YE
36 Sunrise
35 dfw
34 sjoyce
33 GeorgiaModerate, RINO Tom
32 Illiniwek, Sprouts
29 JGibson