2023-24 College Basketball Thread

[willeyeam]

SC was too big for Iowa

[willeyeam]

[Orlando Penguin]

That would be a win for Kentucky if that happens.

[Orlando Penguin]

Alright, here we go...

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP -- PURDUE VS UCONN (-6 1/2)

Big Maple vs Cling Kong. Not since 1984 when we saw Olajuwon vs Ewing has two 7-footers gone at each other as headliners in the national title game. Back around Thanksgiving after watching Purdue win in Maui and seeing a good amount of other teams, I thought there were only two teams that had the tools to handle Edey -- North Carolina with Bacot and UCONN with Clingan. I'd imagine that Purdue will do what they can to get Clingan in foul trouble, though he hasn't fouled out yet this season. But to UCONN's benefit, Clingan can guard Edey without needing double help. That will allow UCONN's guards to hang with Loyer and Smith and potentially keep their shooting prowess at bay. When UCONN does double Edey, I think they'd do it more 'big to big' with Karaban and make someone like Kaufman-Renn be a bigger factor than he normally is in that offense. What UCONN can't do when they double is to do it from the near corner because Edey showed us in the NC State game that he'll kick it out quick to Jones and Gillis and those two showed how well they can knock down a 3. I'd also expect UCONN to apply early ball pressure, especially after watching Smith turn it over numerous times on Saturday. Plus, with ball pressure out front by bigger defenders, it'll make getting the ball to Edey as difficult as possible. UCONN showed us Saturday night that any one of their starters could end up being the star. Stephon Castle was the 5th-leading scorer on the team and all he did Saturday was score a career-high 21 points. So if you're Purdue, how do you defend this complex offense where everyone is a weapon? I think you make them run their offense thru Clingan and hope that they're not knocking down outside shots. Purdue's weakness on defense is the midrange and UCONN can be pretty lethal with those shots. They did have a cold streak against Alabama and that kept the Tide in play for as long as possible but even they succumbed to a big Husky run and didn't have other offense to fall back on. Purdue does have a midrange offense so if the 3's aren't falling, they can still look to that. But I don't think it's going to matter. UCONN just has too much firepower at both ends of the court plus the added motivation of not just repeating as champions but also setting a dominant precedent over their 2-year reign. Huskies cut the nets down tonight 81-65.
PICK -- UCONN

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

This blows

[dodint]

My wife turned it on, got bored, told me to change it.

[King Colby]

The whole tournament was pretty weak this year

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

Why was the women’s game at 3pm yesterday?


Without knowing if there’s a good reason, it seemed so odd. Even golf tournaments go later in the day in Sunday. I went hiking with my girlfriend and just assumed it would be later in the day to try to get the primetime audience. I understand I blame myself the most for not looking up the time beforehand but putting the women on at noon PT feels like such a weird decision

[Orlando Penguin]

Why was the women’s game at 3pm yesterday?


Without knowing if there’s a good reason, it seemed so odd. Even golf tournaments go later in the day in Sunday. I went hiking with my girlfriend and just assumed it would be later in the day to try to get the primetime audience. I understand I blame myself the most for not looking up the time beforehand but putting the women on at noon PT feels like such a weird decision

What time do the best-rated NFL games kickoff on Sundays? 4:25pm ET. The SC-Iowa game did an 18.5. And you could have your Sunday evening to do whatever and the networks got to run their primetime stuff. Just like during football season.

The men's game starting at 9:20 ET on a Monday sucks, though. It helped me tonight since I didn't get home until 8:45 but still, it's a bad time.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

but the Super bowl is still at 620-ish and I don’t think anyone has more of a grasp of how to perfect viewership than them


if there wasn’t a SNF games I would guess they’d move the second slot of games back 2 hours

[Orlando Penguin]

It took the best team in the country to be able to execute my requested defensive game plan of knowing that Edey will get his but don't let the supporting cast get loose. That was a strangling in the 2nd half.

[Orlando Penguin]

but the Super bowl is still at 620-ish and I don’t think anyone has more of a grasp of how to perfect viewership than them

That's because nobody in their right mind schedules anything opposite it anymore. All NHL & NBA games either end before gametime or don't start until 10-10:30pm ET. There might be one stray college game that starts after the game ends. Nobody counterprograms the Super Bowl because they know better. So there's zero competition for that time slot.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

Hurley rose up the ranks of all timers pretty quickly

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

Yes and I guarantee you that the women’s final had enough momentum to be that yesterday. My point is that knowing they’re top dog, the NFL thinks they can maximize viewership by having it at 630. That is the time I would expect any non-daylight requiring sport championship to be played on a Sunday


of course I’m not an ESPN exec, so I’m assuming they do have a good reason why, but I’m just annoyed that I didn’t see it because it was such a nice day lol

[Orlando Penguin]

The game is going to do a better rating if it's on a network. Watch how low the men's number is going to be and a lot of that will be because it was on TBS and not CBS, though the fact the game was on late and the competition died with about 8 minutes left will tank the rating too. I think if you polled the execs, they'd rather have it on primetime on ABC but there's still an entertainment division that has to be negotiated with and the ad dollars for those shows are a lot higher than those for a women's college basketball game. Now, this game doing an 18.5 will open the sales people's eyes and perhaps this is the push needed to open up the idea of putting it on network primetime on Sunday night. But then, was this year just an outlier? They're probably gonna need another year of decent popularity for it to get pushed into that time slot.

[LITT]

Thank god Zach Edey didn’t win. That guy sucks. Worst “good” player I’ve ever seen

[RonnieFranchise]

Truly sucks seeing a program you hate set up to maybe be a dynasty for a substantial portion of the rest of your life.

I guess maybe it’s good for the Big East but apparently the committee just sees it as UConn, a couple good other programs, and a bunch of UConn’s dodints.

OTOH if they had not brought UConn back maybe it would be A-10 level today, who knows.

[Orlando Penguin]

Thank god Zach Edey didn’t win. That guy sucks. Worst “good” player I’ve ever seen

What don’t you like?

[count2infinity]

It has been 24 years since a B1G team won the tournament (22 if you count Maryland, but I wouldn't as they were ACC at the time).

B1G basketball sucks.

[LITT]

Thank god Zach Edey didn’t win. That guy sucks. Worst “good” player I’ve ever seen

What don’t you like?

his footwork and body positioning are terrible, especially on the left block. he gets by just by being big. there were several times where he received the ball in the post, already had the defender beat with body positioning, and made the wrong move. it takes him too long to realize where he is and where the defender(s) is/are. hes just not good at beating a defender 1 on 1 with his back to the hoop. stronger and quicker defenders in the NBA will limit his ability to play with his back to the hoop

[Orlando Penguin]

Good analysis. There will be people out there who will lose their minds that he won't make an NBA roster but they don't see the same things that talent evaluators look for. You' hit it perfectly -- his one offensive move is a backdown followed by a jump hook or a dunk. He has zero shooting ability outside of about 7-8 feet and for as big as he is, if he faces someone of similar stature or stronger, he's going to get bullied.

[MWB]

The fact that he wasn’t immediately just doing a drop step with his right foot and going to his left the way Clingan was playing him was shocking. It was like he was forcing it to the right to set up the drop step move, which he used later… but there’s no need to set it up when it’s already there for you.

[LITT]

i saw someone comparing him to steven adams which i thought was completely unfair. edey has been in college for four years. adams was raw as a freshman but could move and showed athleticism. you knew you werent getting a finished product with adams. edey just doesnt have it

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

I'm kind of intrigued by Clark announcing she'll go to the WNBA next year mid-season. I'm sure she has her reasons for doing so but I think it would be better for her career to stay; just because the college basketball platform is so much larger than the WNBA. Kornheiser mentioned an interesting thought on his podcast about ESPN offering her a large chunk of NIL money to stay. I think the women's game will probably get a couple year bump from Clark but I know personally I probably won't watch any more women's games if Clark leaves unless there's a truly compelling storyline

[MWB]

Yeah, I thought the ESPN NIL angle was a good idea. She would stay more famous playing another year in college; in the wnba I think she’ll be one of the great players, but that doesn’t mean anything to most people.