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.