2021-22 College Basketball Thread

[GeorgiaModerate]

Army @ South Carolina 3:00 PM ESPN/SEC+
Drake @ St. Louis 3:00 PM (in Las Vegas)
Louisville @ Kentucky 6:00 PM ESPN
Murray State @ Auburn 6:00 PM SEC
Boston College @ Wake Forest 6:00 PM ACC
Arizona @ Tennessee 7:00 PM ESPN2
Middle Tennessee @ Chattanooga 7:00 PM ESPN+
Brown @ Rhode Island 7:00 PM ESPN+
Boise State @ Washington State 8:00 PM
Clemson @ Virginia 8:00 PMACC
Virginia Tech @ Duke 9:00 PM ESPN2
Illinois @ Missouri 9:00 PM (in St. Louis)

Howard @ Yale 2:00 PM ESPN+
Fresno State @ Weber State 6:00 PM ESPN+
Butler @ St. John's 6:30 PM
Seton Hall @ DePaul 8:30 PM

We're all mostly in agreement this week.

[NewYorkExpress]

We're all mostly in agreement this week.

Yeah, the week before Christmas doesn't have the best schedule most years. Next year I'll either skip it or combine it with another week.

[I’m not Stu]

USC @ Oklahoma State will not be played.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Louisville-Kentucky is off due to the Cardinals pausing all basketball activities due to COVID cases.  The schools said they will try to reschedule, which would be a good thing.  This is always a fun rivalry game.

[NewYorkExpress]

Seton Hall/DePaul on Thursday canceled due to COVID issues within DePaul's program.

As per Big East Covid regulations, this will be treated as a forfeit in favor of Seton Hall.

For the purposes of the Pick'em, this will be treated as "no contest".

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.backingthepack.com/nc-state-basketball/2021/12/20/22847369/nc-state-iarp-ruling-ncaa-violations-dennis-smith-jr-wolfpack-basketball

In the latest fallout from the ongoing saga of the pay-for-play shoe scandal, NC State avoids a postseason ban. They do have to vacate all wins from 2016-2017, lose a scholarship for 2021-2022 and 2022-2023, get a year's probation, and are fined $5,000.

In addition, former Head Coach Mark Gottfried (technically still employed as Head Coach at Cal State Northridge, I'd expect for him to be formally fired any day now), and former Assistant Coach Orlando Early received Show-Cause penalties for their roles.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Another pick-em game, Drake-St. Louis, has also been canceled.

[I’m not Stu]

Who chooses the pick-em games?

[NewYorkExpress]

Who chooses the pick-em games?

I do. Do you have a complaint?

[I’m not Stu]

Who chooses the pick-em games?

I do. Do you have a complaint?

Could you please add other games because of the cancellation of many games?

[GeorgiaModerate]

Who chooses the pick-em games?

I do. Do you have a complaint?

Could you please add other games because of the cancellation of many games?

I'll just comment as the scorekeeper that you generally don't want to add late replacements because it doesn't give the players enough time to react to the changes.  NYE usually chooses more than 25 games (the default size) anyway, so there's some room for cancellations.  This week is just unusually light on the schedule, which is typical for the pre-Christmas week.

Feel free to join the game any week.  Just publish your picks in this thread by bolding the winner of each game, or listing your winners.  Picks can be posted or changed up to the start time of a game.

[GeorgiaModerate]

#10 Alabama lost to Davidson 79-78, an upset but not a terrible loss.

[I’m not Stu]

I bet Oregon State loses to Nicholls State.

[GeorgiaModerate]

I bet Oregon State loses to Nicholls State.

That wouldn't have surprised me (Nicholls isn't bad this year) but Oregon State actually won handily, 83-61.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Two more of tonight's pick'em games have been canceled: Brown-Rhode Island and Boston College-Wake Forest.

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/MattNorlander/status/1473675928274452480

[Donerail]

Louisville-Kentucky is off due to the Cardinals pausing all basketball activities due to COVID cases.  The schools said they will try to reschedule, which would be a good thing.  This is always a fun rivalry game.

UK has scheduled a game against WKU tonight in Rupp to replace the Louisville game. They originally attempted to get Bellarmine, but a minor revolt by ticket holders, who were not getting refunded, and possibly the four letter scuttled that plan. Still not a rivalry game, but Western beat UL a few days ago, so it's better basketball.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Louisville-Kentucky is off due to the Cardinals pausing all basketball activities due to COVID cases.  The schools said they will try to reschedule, which would be a good thing.  This is always a fun rivalry game.

UK has scheduled a game against WKU tonight in Rupp to replace the Louisville game. They originally attempted to get Bellarmine, but a minor revolt by ticket holders, who were not getting refunded, and possibly the four letter scuttled that plan. Still not a rivalry game, but Western beat UL a few days ago, so it's better basketball.

That could be an interesting game.  WKU is decent this year, and Kentucky likely won't get up for them as much as they would for Louisville.  These replacement games can be traps; Alabama scheduled Davidson in a similar situation and ended up losing to them at home.

[GeorgiaModerate]

A halftime score that looks like a misplaced NFL game: Green Bay 29, Minnesota 28.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Everybody picked Virginia over Clemson, but the Cavaliers got clobbered at home 67-50. 

And another bad loss for Georgia, sigh (86-84 at home to East Tennessee State).

[GeorgiaModerate]

Howard-Yale is off, so we have two remaining pick'em games today: Butler-St. John's and Fresno State-Weber State.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Howard-Yale is off, so we have two remaining pick'em games today: Butler-St. John's and Fresno State-Weber State.

Butler-St. John's is off too.  Hang in there, Fresno and Weber, we're counting on you!

[GeorgiaModerate]

WEEK 7 RESULTS

In a rather anticlimactic week, 7 of the 16 games were canceled, and we were mostly in agreement on the remaining ones.  NYE and I took the honors at 7-2, while everyone else was 6-3.  This means that I've pulled into a tie for the overall lead with PA.  Year to date (132 games):

91 GeorgiaModerate, Pessimistic Antineutrino
86 Illiniwek   
81 NYE   
67 JGibson   
21 Orwell   
10 Utah Neolib   

Hopefully things will go better next week. 

[NewYorkExpress]

Schedule for Week Nine

Wednesday, January 5, 2022

DePaul @ St John's 6:30 PM

Alabama @ Florida 7:00 PM

Ole Miss @ Tennessee 7:00 PM SEC

VCU @ Dayton 7:00 PM

Chattanooga @ Wofford 7:00 PM ESPN+

Creighton @ Villanova 8:30 PM

Texas Tech @ Iowa State 9:00 PM ESPNU

North Carolina @ Notre Dame 9:00 PM ESPN2

Fresno State @ San Diego State 10:30 PM

Thursday, January 6, 2021

Ohio State @ Indiana 7:00 PM

Maryland @ Illinois 7:00 PM ESPN2

Iowa @ Wisconsin 9:00 PM

SMU @ Cincinnati 9:00 PM

Washington State @ Colorado 9:00 PM

Saint Mary's @ Santa Clara 11:00 PM ESPNU

Friday, January 7, 2022

Marquette @ Georgetown 6:30 PM

Brown @ Harvard 7:00 PM ESPN+

Xavier @ Butler 8:30 PM

Colorado State @ Boise State 10:30 PM

Saturday, January 8, 2022

St. John's @ Providence TBD

Villanova @ DePaul TBD

Wyoming @ Fresno State TBD

Wichita State @ Houston 12:00 PM

UConn @ Seton Hall 12:00 PM

Virginia @ North Carolina 1:00 PM ESPN

Arkansas @ Texas A&M SEC

Texas @ Oklahoma State 2:00 PM

Kansas State @ West Virginia 2:00 PM Big Twelve/ESPN+

Rhode Island @ Davidson 2:00 PM ESPN+

Michigan State @ Michigan 2:30 PM

Kansas @ Texas Tech 4:00 PM ESPN2

Baylor @ TCU 5:00 PM Big Twelve/ESPN+

Iowa State @ Oklahoma 6:00 PM

Tennessee @ LSU 6:00 PM

Saint Mary's @ BYU 10:00 PM

Sunday, January 9, 2022

Northwestern @ Ohio State TBD

Wisconsin @ Maryland TBD

Minnesota @ Indiana 12:00 PM

Yale @ Harvard 2:00 PM

Iona @ Monmouth 2:00 PM

Cincinnati @ Memphis 3:30 PM ESPN3

[NewYorkExpress]

A quick note for those of you who noticed the schedule for week nine.

I stated at the beginning of the season that when all conferences reached in-conference play, we'd have a maximum of 45 available games to pick.

Obviously, COVID cancellations will likely leave us with fewer than that number on any given schedule, so expect larger numbers of games on weekly schedules going forward (as Week Nine shows).