Seems like the college basketball season commences earlier each year. I am looking forward to a much more athletic team for Ohio State than last year. Andre Wesson is the lone senior on the squad. Incoming class is highly rated, but they are still freshmen and that means some growing pains. We are bing picked to finish third in the Big Ten conference. That seems like a real reach to me. We open with the Cincinnati Bearcats here at home Wednesday evening. Cincinnati does not have the same team this season and that should make things interesting for the opener. They had several transfers with the coaching change. Cronin is now at UCLA.
With the hiring of Buzz Williams, I think the Aggies finally have a guy that can do some good, and also wants to stay. Probably won't see much from us this year, as a major rebuild is needed, but soon... we'll be coming for you blue-bloods!
Irish Basketball is picked 7th in the ACC. Hope is that the freshman, who were well regarded when being recruited, got better and we'll see the fruits of that growth. Also that the return of Rex Pflueger will bolster the leadership along with Sr.'s John Mooney and TJ Gibbs. Mooney is a really good college basketball player and was 3rd team All ACC last year. But we'll need to have that improvement from those freshman who are now sophs in order to make the NCAA's this year. Texas is picked 3rd or 4th in the B12, it seems like it's go time for Shaka Smart. So far he's not lived up to expectations, he's had some talent not like Bill Self, but we have had talent. He won the NIT last year so maybe that will carry over to this season and we'll be competitive at the top of the B12 and make a NCAA run. I think they are counting on Luke Yelich from John Beilein's staff at Michigan making a big impact on the team. We have 2 6'11" big men coming in this year as true freshmen. Both were top 50 players, but they are freshmen. I don't get the sense that Shaka's job is on the line with anybody except the fans though. He seems to be well liked by the community and the Administration.
The Gators are starting the season very highly ranked. Some good players returning, a good recruiting class and a grad transfer that some have listed as an All American. We are hopeful.
Those should be great games to start the season. Mich State is the pre-season #1. The others are all in the top 4. That's one of the great things about College Basketball, you see more of the top teams not afraid to schedule other top teams out of conference. Mainly because you don't have to go undefeated to get a high seed in the NCAA tournament.
Jay Bilas has his first top 68 rankings.. Skybox Teams That are ranked #3 Florida #8 UNC ...that's AJ's winter team. #14 Purdue #16 Arizona ...BearDownRick #21 Ohio State #30 Texas #33 Tenn #39 Alabama #41 Notre Dame #43 Michigan #63 UCLA Bilas Index: 1-68 team rankings, player ranks and more
Why does Duke always look like blue bloods on the floor and Kansas looks so sloppy? Kentucky managed to get by #1 Michigan State in their opening game. Coach Izzo always schedules toughies early in the season to prepare his team.
Because even among the elite members of the elite conference in college basketball, they are considered the Boogeyman.
Ohio State defeats the Cincinnati Bearcats in the opener for both squads 64-56. Both teams pretty ragged in first half. Bearcats caused us many problems with their suffocating defense. Things settled down in the second half. Coach Holtmann has his work cut out for him with so many new faces this season.
Texas got their win vs N.Colorado, the most encouraging thing was Andrew Jones who missed a lot of time battling cancer was back and scored 20 points in the win.
Gators beat North Florida 74-59 . Positives, after a slow start the first string opened a big lead, close to 30. Our Transfer Center Blackshear was everything we could have wanted. 20 points, hit from 3 point range, rebounded. Great pickup. When the subs were in North Florida closed the gap considerably, actually outscored us in the second half. However mostly over the last 5 minutes or so. Except for Blackshear who is a senior this is a very young but very talented team.
Well, it's not the Dali Lama, but at least we got that going for us; https://www.indystar.com/story/spor...QCQyVnNcfDxIRzjgmOXRuDW-rooTGUfcTgXpqwj-lkgTY
Sounds like the kid must have a pretty decent golf game if he's playing in Pro-Ams. Bet he hits it a long way off the tee box.
Did I read that ticker item correctly? Memphis has the #1 recruit/player in the country who was ruled ineligible, and Memphis just went ahead and played him anyway after receiving an injunction?