2021-22 College Basketball Thread

[GeorgiaModerate]

LOL at Goodman’s comment:

https://mobile.twitter.com/GoodmanHoops/status/1468407183725498370

[GeorgiaModerate]

Illinois beating Arizona, really? Rutgers winning on the road against Seton Hall?

I expect Illinois will be favored in that game.

Rutgers is a stretch, but much stranger upsets have happened on the road (paging Texas Southern...)

[GeorgiaModerate]

With a minute left in the first half, Indiana led Wisconsin 42-20.  But the Badgers outscored the Hoosiers 44-17 the rest of the way to win by 5.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Texas and Seton Hall are currently in a long delay with under 4 minutes left and Seton Hall up by 2.  The issue appears to be that somehow the scorers have lost track of the number of fouls (whether for a player or team was not specified) and are having to review the entire game log to figure it out.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Illinois beating Arizona, really? Rutgers winning on the road against Seton Hall?

I expect Illinois will be favored in that game.

Rutgers is a stretch, but much stranger upsets have happened on the road (paging Texas Southern...)

I doubt Rutgers wins. Will Cal State Fullerton @ San Diego State tonight and Long Beach State @ USC on Saturday be such major blowouts that San Diego State point guard Jared Barnett and USC center Harrison Hornery be in their respective games for the final minutes?

Rutgers has just defeated #1 Purdue, 70-68.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Iowa State appears to be for real, blowing out Iowa by 20 to move to 9-0 after winning a total of two games last season.  T. J. Otzelberger has to be on the early list of Coach of the Year candidates.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Auburn gets off fairly lightly from the NCAA: 2-game suspension for Bruce Pearl, no further postseason ban (they self-imposed one last year), probation for a few years with reduced scholarships, show cause orders for a couple of assistants.

Now that this is behind Bruce Pearl, might Maryland make a run at him?  He's from the northeast, and Maryland is a better job.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Memphis lost at home to Murray State after leading by 14 at the half. As a long-time follower of the team I hate to say this, but Penny Hardaway is just not a capable coach at the college level.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Schedule alert: the start time for UCLA-Marquette is listed as 2:30 pm EST in the pick'em list, but the game is actually at 9:30 pm.

Also, I'm changing my pick in tonight's TCU-Texas A&M game to TCU.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Schedule alert: the start time for UCLA-Marquette is listed as 2:30 pm EST in the pick'em list, but the game is actually at 9:30 pm.

Also, I'm changing my pick in tonight's TCU-Texas A&M game to TCU.

Sorry about that. I remember reading and writing down 2:30 PM when I saw it on ESPN.com. Obviously I got it wrong.

ESPN must have had the time wrong on their schedule when you made the list.  I've seen it happen before.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Just ran across one of those weird coincidences in sports.  Eastern Michigan beat FIU in 4OT today, which is the second 4OT game already this season.  I was wondering what the record for OT is and discovered:

The NCAA record is 7OT, in Cincinnati's 75-73 win over Bradley in 1981.

The NBA record is 6OT, in a 1951 win by the Indianapolis Olympics over the Rochester Royals.  The final score of that game was also 75-73.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Alabama beat Houston 83-82 when a putback attempt on Houston's final shot was blocked as time ran out.  There was a big controversy as Houston coach Kelvin Sampson grabbed a referee and insisted that the call be reviewed for goaltending, which was not called.  However, goaltending calls/non-calls are not reviewable in college basketball.  I've seen the play from a couple different angles and it's really close, but not clearly goaltending IMO -- here's one if you want to judge for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge14yhIxFxI. 

[GeorgiaModerate]

What game will be the biggest blowout today?

In games between D1 teams, Iowa State-Jackson State looks like a pretty good bet.

[GeorgiaModerate]

What game will be the biggest blowout today?

In games between D1 teams, Iowa State-Jackson State looks like a pretty good bet.

What do you think the margin will be?

25 maybe?

[GeorgiaModerate]

What game will be the biggest blowout today?

In games between D1 teams, Iowa State-Jackson State looks like a pretty good bet.

What do you think the margin will be?

25 maybe?

If that’s the margin, I doubt it will be the biggest blowout in college basketball today.

Well, whatever the largest actual margin is, it probably won't be  that game.   Surprisingly, Iowa State only won by 10.

[GeorgiaModerate]

What game will be the biggest blowout today?

In games between D1 teams, Iowa State-Jackson State looks like a pretty good bet.

What do you think the margin will be?

25 maybe?

If that’s the margin, I doubt it will be the biggest blowout in college basketball today.

Well, whatever the largest actual margin is, it probably won't be  that game.   Surprisingly, Iowa State only won by 10.

Isn’t the biggest D1 blowout today almost certainly going to be USC-Long Beach State?

Sure looks like the best best among the remaining games.

[GeorgiaModerate]

#1 Purdue was in danger of losing its second straight game, but came back late to tie the game and then won going away in OT vs NC State.

Meanwhile, Baylor looks unstoppable against Villanova.  Maybe that will end up as the biggest blowout of the day.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Villanova had the #4 offense in D1 according to Kenpom, but Baylor just held them to 36 points, winning 57-36.  An incredible defensive performance.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Halftime score: Long Beach State 38, USC 38.

[GeorgiaModerate]

What game will be the biggest blowout today?

Barring something wild happening in the few games still in progress, it looks like the answer (among games between D1 teams) was Fairfield's 70-47 win over William & Mary, which I'm sure everyone expected.   Baylor's win over Villanova was a close second.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Pittsburgh, which looks pretty terrible this year, just lost at home to Monmouth.

[GeorgiaModerate]

WEEK 5 RESULTS

Illiniwek and PA tied for first at 20-9, a game ahead of me.  Full results:

20 Illiniwek, Pessimistic Antineutrino
19 GeorgiaModerate
16 NYE
14 JGibson

PA gained a game in the overall standings and now leads by three.  Year to date (101 games):

71 Pessimistic Antineutrino
68 GeorgiaModerate
65 Illiniwek
61 NYE
51 JGibson
21 Orwell
10 Utah Neolib

[GeorgiaModerate]

Butler @ Purdue 12:00 PM FOX (in Indianapolis)

No pick.

[GeorgiaModerate]

As expected, Baylor is the new #1 in the AP poll -- the fourth different #1 team in four weeks!

[GeorgiaModerate]

The SEC may not be traditional basketball powers but what I am saying is they changed their own fortunes for the future even excluding changes in membership.

Tennessee went out and got Hall of Famer Rick Barnes. Auburn decided Bruce Pearl was worth the baggage in order to finally be competitive. Texas A&M lured Buzz Williams out of the ACC for a massive rebuilding project. Alabama poached the 2nd hottest young coach east of the Mississippi to bring them to the next level. Arkansas got the 2nd hottest young coach west of the Mississippi. The only bigger names were scooped up by Oklahoma and Texas in anticipation of this move.

These schools are prepared to compete with Kentucky (and Florida and LSU) for the long haul.

Mississippi State, Georgia, and Vanderbilt also spent big to bring in big names though those outcomes are TBD/not looking as hot.

This is all thanks to the SEC Network making them kings.


Compare that to the ACC. Steve Forbes was a good hire. I guess Capel was OK but you really can't win at that job. Mike Young is OK but clearly not a long term solution at a program with little interest in the sport. Don't get me started on Chris Mack's underperformance. And the conference has three legends retiring to kick off the decade with hand picked replacements that could never fill their shoes.

When I was growing up, SEC basketball was pretty much a joke outside of Kentucky, with Tennessee a distant second and other teams VERY occasionally being decent.  There was a joke that you could fill in the final standings at the beginning of the season: Kentucky first, Tennessee second, and eight other teams tied for last.  That was pretty consistently true year after year.  Sprouts is correct that the SEC made a major -- and largely successful -- effort to raise its basketball profile into being one of the top conferences.

(Georgia basketball is still pretty bad most of the time, though.  Did you know basketball isn't even the second most attended sport on campus after football?  It's women's gymnastics.)