College hoops 2020-21

Don't look now, but the season has begun. And Kentucky's latest assembly of one and dones has already lost a home game to the Richmond Spiders. Lots of new faces in the KFC Yum! Center too, so get your programs, folks. It's gonna be an interesting ride. Oh, the mighty Racers hung 173 on Greenville at The Bank after Samford scored 174 and Missouri-KC a paltry 138 against them. I haven't watched too much hoops (too much good footy on right now), so I can't offer much in the way of assessment of the landscape. Louisville MIGHT be better, although the jury is still out on the defense, as it often is early in the season. Kentucky appears shooting challenged at this point, although Cal usually has that fixed by at least the start of conference play. They've got great length and athleticism, and that may be enough. Still gotta score.
Haven't seen Indiana yet, but I gotta believe it's do or die time for Archie. He's had ample time to rebuild and it just hasn't happened. And this year, the football team is stealing the attention and headlines, rightfully so.
To me, it's just premature to speculate on outcomes with COVID still running rampant through teams at given intervals, knocking out players and, at times, entire staffs. If the promised vaccines start soon, things may get sorted out in time to figure out the tournament, but it'll still be a crapshoot, personnel wise. And all of it may be played in and around Indianapolis. The programs that can navigate the uncertainties and day to day curveballs the best may well prevail instead of the most talented. Oh, almost forgot. Rick Pitino's first outing as the head coach of the Iona Gaels occurred last night at the Prudential Center in Jersey. They lost to Seton Hall, 86-64. Enjoy!

 

I bought season tickets this year for the Billikens. Hope they let me attend a game. The Billikens had a nice win over LSU this weekend.

 

The question for IU is going to be if they can find perimeter shooting consistency to prevent teams from packing in the lane and can they hit free throws. If do those two things well they will have a good season.

 

Well, IU made me look clairvoyant by not being able to shoot from the perimeter or hit free throws yesterday and managed to beat their 10 year low water mark in getting only 44 points against Texas. It was U-G-L-Y for Hoosier fans.

 

It’s official, Bill Walton is now the worst analyst in any sport I have had the privilege of watching. Literally, give me anyone other than Walton. I watched three IU games this week and I’m certain he talked about each game less than the 20 other subjects per half he chose to talk over the game about. The other commentator literally sounded embarrassed to be part of his meandering commentary.

 

HD, the Zags stopped being a mid-major a long time ago. They barely lost in the National Title game 3-4 years back, and were in the Top 4 in March when the pandemic struck. Mark Few is as good a coach as there is and 5 Star kids go to a small Jesuit school in Spokane of all places.

 

Christmas in March!! The brilliance of the last few days highlighted how much the tourney was missed. Talking points heading into the Sweet 16:
Misery of the Big 10 where only Michigan survived of the 9 teams invited . Conversely the Pac 12 had a dream start w/both the LA Schools and Oregon schools advancing and in dominating fashion. 101 year old Sister Jean of Loyola told an interviewer the Ramblers would take down #1 seed Illinois w/defense and it happened. Oral Roberts became the second ever 15 seed to reach the Sweet 16 w/wins over Ohio State and Florida. My bracket is trashed (had Illinois over Gonzaga), but just having March Madness back is joy to behold.

 

I can't remember the last time Kentucky, Louisville and Indiana all missed the big dance in the same season. It's probably been sooner than I can recall, but, man. And no Duke. And my musings about the Hoosiers have come to pass. I thought more of Illinois, Maryland and Virginia than they deserved. The plethora of "football" schools succeeding in the tourney is somewhat irritating to me, but there have been some very good games, and more than a few surprises. That tends to even out somewhat the second weekend, but there seems to be one surprise Final Four guest every other year or so. Who will it be this year?

 

Can’t answer the Kentucky, Louisville, Indiana, Duke query James, but the last time UK, UL, & Duke didn’t make it Indiana went undefeated in ‘76 as Gonzaga is looking to be the first to repeat that feat ironically. As for the surprise, likely the Midwest region winner, no? The 2 seed Houston is still alive (they’ve certainly not looked that good). That leaves Loyola, Oregon State, Syracuse having to like their chances. My revised Final 4 is Gonzaga, Baylor, Loyola, and Florida State @MicahMan. That last one has to be the toughest one w/Michigan, Bama being really good (UCLA’s 2 major player losses finally catches up to them).

 

Joe, I had paid absolutely no attention to college basketball this year, so I just zoomed through making picks on what felt good. And it felt good to say FSU would win it all, so that's what I did! Alas, it did not turn out that way and I'm left with only Gonzaga from my final 4 picks.

 

Speaking of the Women’s tourney watching my Lady Cats take it to mighty UConn for the entirety of the game last night was a joy. On to the Final where Stanford (who beat us twice this season already) awaits in an all Pac 12 Final. Only thing to say is the motto of the school: BEAR DOWN ARIZONA!!

Men’s Semi’s today, have to think the 2 best teams in the country will advance, but Houston and Ucla are gritty teams that will look to spoil the Zags-Baylor showdown.

 

What a great game!