The [College Basketball] thread that thinks it knows better than Bilas (details in OP)

WuShock

Welcome to the College Basketball Thread. Somehow, Wichita State is a lock for the tournament even though they didn't win their league. I don't even know what to think anymore. Still bracing for the inevitable 10-seed.

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WuShock

Fred VanVleet reminds me a lot of Mark Jackson, and somebody else referred to Tekele Cotton as "Tony Allen with a better shooting touch." Throw in Ron Baker (and the only thing that has been able to stop Ron Baker this year is his own sprained ankle) and WSU might have the best 1-3 unit in Division 1.

I now wait for the Aaron Craft apologists' rebuttal.

I Zimbra

Hey, I grew up in Wichita going to games at the Roundhouse with about 500 other lonely souls. Internet High Five! Pretty sure I'll be going to the UNI game in Cedar Falls next month.

I have UW Badger season tickets this year, and this year's team is shockingly fun to watch by Big 10 standards. They start five shooters, move the ball well, and Dekker makes some fairly ridiculous dunks. They even run a little bit, which is usually anathema for a UW team. The downside is that they only go 7 deep and then the talent levels falls off a cliff.

Bogey

GO UCLA BRUINS!

WuShock

Wisconsin has been fun to watch this year. I hope they stay durable through the B1G schedule, which involves Michigan State and the blackjacks they take onto the court with them (a strategy usually also adopted by Southern Illinois).

As for UCLA, the tilt with USC should be fun, just because I think Enfield is a flash-in-the-pan coach.

I Zimbra

Oh yeah, this is a really great site for finding out where all your favorite college players are playing now. My favorite Shocker, PJ Couisnard, is putting up some ridiculous numbers for the (undefeated!) Shreveport/Bossier Mavericks of the ABA. The ABA is hilariously carny and is well worth reading about. $10000 and you can have your very own genuine semi-pro basketball team. As a result it's not unusual for more than half the teams in the league to fold in the course of any given season.

WuShock

Poor Cooz ... he deserves better than that.

I Zimbra

Yeah, dude was a swiss army knife of a player in college, but doesn't really have a position in the pros. He hasn't exactly kept himself in great shape, either.

KU is...improving, I guess. This is pretty clearly Ellis and Embiid's team rather than Wiggins', which is just fine. They complement each other so well in the frontcourt and have been great running the high-low. The motion stuff that Self likes to run has been stalling out a lot; players just aren't moving off the ball and cutting like they should. Shaky outside shooting is a real problem, too. I'm hopeful that they can come together, but I really see this a Sweet 16 or maybe Elite 8 team.

WuShock

Ellis should end up being the rock of that team. He's leaps and bounds more mature than Embiid or Wiggins, and if they want to make any sort of March run, he'll have to turn into a leader. Wiggins will probably end up being McLemore v2.0 - all the talent in the world, but only half the desire. What I'm mostly jealous of is Embiid. That guy is what we all wanted Ehimen Orukpe to be at WSU.

WSU isn't running that deep themselves right now. They're trying, but Darius Carter has pretty much won the starting 5 job, with Lufile supporting and Kadeem Coleby really kind of underachieving. Nick Wiggins is streaky, and you get the feeling Wessel still doesn't trust his hand to shoot after the injury.

Romanian My Escutcheon

I was gonna do this after the NCG on Monday. Oh well.

Go Knights!

Romanian My Escutcheon

Oh, and lest we forget, fuck Duke.

I Zimbra

WuShock wrote: »

What I'm mostly jealous of is Embiid. That guy is what we all wanted Ehimen Orukpe to be at WSU.

My dad spent 2 years telling me how good Orukpe was going to be when he finally got on the court. Bummer it didn't pan out that way, but at least I have something to give him shit about.

Romanian My Escutcheon wrote: »

Oh, and lest we forget, fuck Duke.

Forever and always.

Jabari Parker is a baller, though.

Ringo

Something something Carolina something rollercoaster ride

Xehalus

I must find a team to root for this year

also

Fuck Duke

Ringo

Notre Dame beats Duke to win its ACC opener!

WuShock

Media Conclusion: ACC is super-tough you guyz. We should rank all of them, just to be safe.

And Kansas State is TOTES better than Wichita State, 'cause they beat Gonzaga and Okie State. :P

WuShock

This is my "righteous indignation / media conspiracy theory" season of the year, in case you didn't know.

Romanian My Escutcheon

When has sports media ever been right about anything?

Ringo

Ugh, Tar Heels. Ugh

WuShock

Ringo wrote: »

Ugh, Tar Heels. Ugh

In the spirit of full disclosure, I should tell/remind you that I have several legitimate reasons to root against UNC:
1. My brother got his PhD from NC State.
2. Roy Williams is an evil, vindictive, glad-handing huckster who has no problem whining to the NCAA when a recruitment doesn't go his way (Maurice Evans).
3. Okay, I have two, but I think that's enough.

Duke, KU, UNC, Oklahoma State, AND Oregon all lose in the same weekend?! It truly must be Christmas!

WuShock

Also, the UNI game was the suckfest I figured it would be. They have 11 stiffs and 1 actual athlete, and they bring bludgeoning weapons onto the court with them. WSU shot sub-40% for the game and was up 20 with a minute remaining.

Illinois State on Wednesday should be another back-alley brawl. Although since Karate Kid Carmichael graduated it should be less interesting.

I Zimbra

Fun game at the Kohl Center last night. Iowa's coach got T'd up for arguing a call (i.e. yelling directly into a ref's face) and then bumped a second ref and got tossed. He then proceeded to go completely stone bugfuck crazy and try to go after a third official and had to be held back by his assistants. Brust hits all 4 technical FTs and Iowa goes on to lose by 4 points. Justice. They also did some pretty excellent heeling by setting up their huddle (which had like 12 assistants and graduate assistants, WTF?) right in the middle of the lane when they were trying to do some ridiculous TO game that involved shooting free throws.

KU looked like complete dogshit but only lost by 4, so that's something. They are clearly struggling badly with the motion offense and Self keeps forcing it. Asking freshman to make the kind of quick reads and decisions that are required is just a losing proposition.

WuShock

Apeshit coaches are always fun. Glad you got to see it.

SDSU is a tough out. I hate to say it, but it was a ballsy move scheduling them, and I can understand why they're still top-20. I think they pull it together by the end of the season, go in as a 4 or 5-seed, and overachieve a bit (relative to the seeding, I mean).

What has to be scarier is that they have to go to Viejo Arena in two years. I was there for the WSU game a couple of years ago, and it's a nasty place to play.

WuShock

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, the Illinois State men's basketball program:

Or maybe even UNC.

Sorry Ringo.

DJ Eebs

Well...that's about how I'd expected that Illinois/Wisconsin game to go

I Zimbra

WuShock wrote: »

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, the Illinois State men's basketball program:

Or maybe even UNC.

Sorry Ringo.

I think you could apply that to pretty much all the Valley outside of WSU this year.

KU hung tough against Oklahoma last night. Wiggins made two absolutely terribly decisions in the closing 2 minutes and turned it over both times. I love him as a Jayhawk, but he would be absolutely killing in a simpler offense. I can't even imagine what he could do in Calipari's drive-and-kick scheme with some shooters around him. At least Selden was tuned up last night and Frankamp finally gave some decent minutes.

WuShock

Don't forget 22/11 from Ellis.

I Zimbra

Pssh, I just expect that from him now. He was forcing some shots up against double/triple teams, which is not a good look for him.

WuShock

Sorry, I just got out of ICU after the heart attack that Saturday night's game gave me. Did I miss anything?

I Zimbra

Wiggins first half double-double alert: 11 points 12 rebounds.

Stupid turnovers will doom this KU team.

Xehalus

Wiggins seems to be good at basketball

17 points 19 boards

WuShock

I was wondering if Iowa State was really that good, although I have no reason to doubt The Mayor. Wiggins may have had his eureka moment with Self's system. If so, watch out.

Raijin Quickfoot

Fuck Duke... That is all.

Lnrt87

Representing KU here. The boys are looking better in conference play but have another tough test in Oklahoma State Saturday. I just keep telling myself they are young and try not to go into a rage when they commit stupid turnovers.

WuShock

Wisconsin down, and then there were three. We have the Trees this weekend, though. Fortunately, at home.

I'm usually not one for pity on other Valley teams, but Bradley was horrible tonight, and that used to be one of the flagship programs.

WuShock

Ohio State is officially in free-fall. Minny isn't a bad team, but Ohio State couldn't hit water falling out of a boat last night.

And I think Craft had more turnovers last night (5) than Fred VanVleet has had in the last month. Just sayin'.

The 'FredEx' nickname is gaining traction in the local circles. I like it, except that I'm not sure I want there to be any link between FVV and Freddie Mitchell. That being said, I think it's a much better nickname for a point guard than for a wide reciever.

Lnrt87

KU has won 5 in a row and are leading the conference. Life is good! So long as we don't have a letdown at TCU on Saturday that is... It was cool that the Wichita State players were at the KU Baylor game last night.

WuShock

They dodged the trap question in the interview nicely, too. The big scandal floating around the twitter feed this morning was Cleanthony 'cheating' with those nachos.

I Zimbra

Chris Mullin is looking pretty rugged these days. Don't drink, kids.

The more I think about it the crazier this run is: 4 wins against ranked teams, 2 in the top 10. I'd take KU's frontcourt against anyone in the country right now and it's not even close. Still, it's hard for me to take them seriously as a tournament team unless they can cut down on the turnovers.

I love that this is basically a state of Kansas basketball thread.

a5ehren

Well my team sucks a big fat one, so yeah. Not much interested in CBB this year for me.

That said, apparently Quicken Loans is going to offer $1B (yes, with a B ) to anyone who does a perfect bracket this year.

WuShock

Watching Michigan State/ Indiana. This game is so offensive that Family Guy will be ripping it off for months.