Virginia isn’t going to be very good this season. It’s a bridge year before they have some good recruits coming in. Not writing them off yet as far as getting to the tourney, but they just don’t have any impact players right now.
They lost basically all their offense and didn’t replace it.
Aside from the obvious fact that everyone involved in this sport should be in prison, the one-and-done experiment is a disaster and needs to end yesterday. It only worked when Calipari was getting 10/10 of the top recruits and he only managed to ship once doing that. Remember back when people would chastise him for recruiting all of the best players because he knew they’d leave after one year? So many of the great exploiters in history made their fortunes on the backs of rivals living in mental prisons. Now everyone has come to the party, but there isn’t enough one-and-done talent to spread around; it’s super concentrated into just a few players ranging from “rough around the edges” to “completely raw” (see: boom/bust rates on NBA lottery picks). That Duke/Kentucky game was some of the worst basketball I’ve ever seen and it’s the showcase game to start the season.
Pretty excited for this season since it looks like there is a lot of parity at the top. Illinois has a pretty strong team with Kofi coming back and think they will be one of those top tier teams with a reasonable chance. That is until they lose to some in-state team in the big dance. Shit, it will be better than trying to watch them play football.
One and dones have been a disaster for FSU. Jon Isaac, Pat Williams, and Scottie Barnes are mostly doing really well in the NBA, but did fuck all for FSU in their year there. So you have next to nothing to show for landing some blue chip talent.
Speaking of FSU, could they be a darkhorse team? I like the makeup of their roster with solid guard play and a nice mix of vets and highly touted youngsters.
At the same time, FSU has been very good for a while now, so I wouldn’t say they have “next to nothing.” They just haven’t been able to get over the hump in the Dance. The year that they maybe could have was 2020, unfortunately.
Yah, Coach Ham has definitely been destroying it on the recruiting trail and getting not only 5 stars, but a lot of guys ranked 30th-100th nationally as well.
My point was that those 1 and done guys mentioned were not very integral to the overall success, and would have gladly traded them for 3 guys ranked around #50 who would stick around 3-4 years.
And yah, 2020 was brutal b/c I’m an FSU and Creighton fan, and both probably had their best teams ever and will prob never get back to that level.
Creighton was 33 pt faves but down 10 at half to Pine Bluff, who were a Ken Pom bottom 5 team. At least FSU is still rolling, but Ham won’t have too many years left and who knows after that.
Never doubt FSU as long as Hamilton is there. As a Virginia fan, I’m always like “how are we going to replace player XYZ?” and they almost always do. Don’t think this year will be too good, but Tony Bennett has some recruits on the way next year. FSU always seems to bring it, no matter who they have.
Hamilton is the second-best coach in the ACC - hopefully he grooms a replacement.
Right, they are way too raw. It’s like putting uncut diamonds on the showroom floor or untrained animals in the circus. Regardless of how much potential they have, neither of those things work without a lot of shaping and polishing into a deliverable product.
Yah, so basically FSU did a lot of the polishing, but without seeing the end results. And recruiting those guys probably scared off other solid propsects, not to mention the minutes going towards them that could’ve developed other guys.
Arkansas continues its ascension in year 3 under Eric Musselman. We lost our top 4 scorers but with Musselman’s ability to play the transfer game its possible the drop off is nil.
Currently sitting with the #2 recruiting class with a decent chance at another 5 star in Anthony Black, this program is morphing into it’s former prominence under one of the goat basketball coaches of all time Nolan Richardson.
Getting ready to wipe the smirk off Cal’s face. Come at me Chuckles.
If anyone is interested in prop bets between teams I’m interested.