College Basketball 2023-2024

[bukie]

Technically, games start this upcoming weekend, but today there were a couple very high profile scrimmages, one between #4 Michigan State and #9 Tennessee (that Tennessee "won"), and one between #1 Kansas and #25 Illinois (that Illinois "won", theoretically extending Hunter Dickinson's career losing streak against Illinois).

Preseason AP top 25:

1	Kansas(46)	1548
2	Duke (11)	1466
3	Purdue (3)	1436
4	Michigan State (1)	1346
5	Marquette	1283
6	Connecticut (2)	1243
7	Houston	1117
8	Creighton	1099
9	Tennessee	1032
10	Florida Atlantic	1011
11	Gonzaga	830
12	Arizona	776
13	Miami (FL)	750
14	Arkansas	685
15	Texas A&M	597
16	Kentucky	530
17	San Diego State	529
18	Texas	493
19	North Carolina	474
20	Baylor	431
21	Southern Cal	427
22	Villanova	395
23	Saint Mary's	335
24	Alabama	163
25	Illinois	104

[Old Style]

I sure hope Aggie basketball lives up to the hype this season. I’m concerned about our shooting ability outside of Wade Taylor IV. 

[UMFan83]

This whole thing about marquee teams playing televised exhibition games against each other is new to me. Is this going to be an annual thing now? I know at least 1-2 of them were put on for charity. 
 

Good to see that Hunter Dickinson still can’t beat Illinois. 

[NOLA]

This will be Mussleman’s best team at Arkansas.  Lots of young talent again, but this season he has the size in the front court, too.

[Tim]

So we beat Kansas and don't even get credit for it? That sucks.

[Irrelevant Dude]

10 hours ago, bukie said:

Technically, games start this upcoming weekend, but today there were a couple very high profile scrimmages, one between #4 Michigan State and #9 Tennessee (that Tennessee "won"), and one between #1 Kansas and #25 Illinois (that Illinois "won", theoretically extending Hunter Dickinson's career losing streak against Illinois).

I didn't watch the Michigan St. game, but I did watch Kansas vs. Illinois and the teams played it largely as a real game (not what you would typically think of as a scrimmage).  While the Illinois win doesn't mean anything officially, what it tells me is they can absolutely compete with anyone in college basketball right now.  Whether they can play with consistency and actually improve over the course of the season is yet to be seen.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Not sure if Mizzou will be better or even as good as last year(they were abnormally good in close games including 2 buzzer beating 3s), but it should be fun continuing to have them play watchable basketball. With recruiting ticking up(it'll slip a bit but 247 has them with the 2nd ranked class atm) a year around the bubble would be fine with me especially given that this looks like the deepest the SEC has been in a while and last year was way ahead of schedule for Gates' first year in the program.

[Tryptamine]

I still think PG is a massive glaring hole for Illinois that is going to hold them back. 

[Old Style]

Went to the TCU scrimmage last night. My best friend’s son is a freshman on the NAIA team they played. Charles O’Bannon Jr. and Jameer Nelson Jr. both started for the Frogs. I feel old. 

[Old Style]

https://x.com/bobknightlegacy/status/1719842078862037032?s=46&t=HSpLwEygzZSfdikTz0-wiA
I wonder if he’ll be buried upside down. 

[Y2J]

21 minutes ago, Old Style said:

https://x.com/bobknightlegacy/status/1719842078862037032?s=46&t=HSpLwEygzZSfdikTz0-wiA
I wonder if he’ll be buried upside down. 

Man, this one sucks. I always liked Bobby Knight. 

[Rex Buckingham]

8 minutes ago, Y2J said:

Man, this one sucks. I always liked Bobby Knight. 

[Tryptamine]

1 hour ago, Rex Buckingham said:

I wouldn't have used the same ,gif,  but the message would have been the same

[bukie]

Lot of ranked teams in action yesterday in home buy games, only Michigan State was sluggish enough to be upset. Maybe James Madison is good this year, though.

[UMFan83]

DePaul loses at home to KenPom's 263rd ranked team Purdue-Fort Wayne in a game that apparently wasnt even as close as the 8 point final margin.  This might be the worst DePaul team in awhile and considering the recent run of DePaul basketball, that's saying a lot.

On the plus side for me Michigan looked surprisingly decent in what could have been a tough game against the Big South favorite.  Who knows how good they'll actually be but I'm kind of liking the dynamic and the relatively low expectations after the last 2 seasons.

[bukie]

16 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

DePaul loses at home to KenPom's 263rd ranked team Purdue-Fort Wayne in a game that apparently wasnt even as close as the 8 point final margin.  This might be the worst DePaul team in awhile and considering the recent run of DePaul basketball, that's saying a lot.

On the plus side for me Michigan looked surprisingly decent in what could have been a tough game against the Big South favorite.  Who knows how good they'll actually be but I'm kind of liking the dynamic and the relatively low expectations after the last 2 seasons.

Though it was a bad game, it was just one game so far. DePaul is again stuck in a really good Big East this year, but there's always Georgetown to keep them company.

[bukie]

Early on, it looks like Purdue and Kansas are a leg above everyone else, and Duke should be able to dominate a very weak ACC, to the point where I'd be surprised if those are not 3 of the 4 1 seeds come tourney time. Still a ton of things that can happen, but I'd be very surprised if those teams stay at full strength and don't stay at the top.

After that, though, who knows? The Big 12 has 14 teams now and 13 of them look legit (Central Florida is really in for a rough season, I think). The Big Ten has 14 teams, 1 of which looks unstoppable, 1 of which people think will be good but didn't look the part on Monday (MSU), and then you have maybe 10 teams that could be in the mix (sorry, Minnesota and PSU). The Big East is stacked, but I'm not sure that will result in one great team that emerges or 3-4 really good teams that beat up on each other all season (UConn, Creighton, Marquette, Villanova). The SEC has no really weak teams, but I'm not convinced they've got any really strong teams either, we'll see how Tennessee and Kentucky shake out. The ACC is terrible, but ESPN and pundits will use it to show how amazing Duke is for running the table or going 16-2 or something. And the Pac-End has one last hurrah among teams that probably won't play each other much going forward (USC, Arizona, Colorado, Stanford) to see if they can get one last championship for the league before it dissolved.

[PackLandVA]

My adopted Arizona Wildcats go into Cameron a knock of #2 Duke. Let’s not crown too many programs this early in the season.

[Old Style]

I was very happy to see Buzz Williams go into Columbus and beat Ohio State. This is easily A&M’s best team in many years. 

[Tim]

10 hours ago, PackLandVA said:

My adopted Arizona Wildcats go into Cameron a knock of #2 Duke. Let’s not crown too many programs this early in the season.

So you are a Packers and Arizona fan?

ewww

[Ding Dong Johnson]

1 hour ago, Tim said:

So you are a Packers and Arizona fan?

ewww

Next he’ll confess he also loves the Yankees and Lakers.

[PackLandVA]

1 hour ago, Tim said:

So you are a Packers and Arizona fan?

ewww

I moved to the Tucson area in 2019. So I adopted them as the “home team”.  Basketball has been fun to watch as they’ve been fast, big, an athletic since Tommy Lloyd arrived from Gonzaga. Jed Fisch has really turned a horrible football program around in just three years..

So, , yeah, Packers and AZCats! 😎

[Old Style]

 

[bukie]

Well that was about as fun a B1G game that Illinois played in several years. 

[Irrelevant Dude]

Illinois looked really rough to start the season, but they are coming together now.  After dominating Rutgers in Jersey, they just beat Florida Atlantic with an outstanding 98 point performance on a neutral court.  If they can pull off a win at Tennessee this weekend, they could conceivably jump into the Top 10.  Even if they lose, they are still a solid Top 25 team and seem to have much better chemistry than last year's group.  Domask was a real find in the portal, and is everything we expected Matthew Mayer to be last year and more.  Hopefully this is the year they finally make it past the first weekend in tournament.