College Basketball 2024-2025

[Bobson Dugnutt]

19 hours ago, Bobson Dugnutt said:

So much for this idea. Morez in the transfer portal.

Aaand there goes Tre White. I love what Brad Underwood did for the program but as the rumors of his assistant coach son’s reputation in the locker room grow louder and the pattern of turning over the entire roster every year grows longer, I’m starting to wonder if a fresh voice might be needed before things start going south.

[Tryptamine]

1 hour ago, Bobson Dugnutt said:

Aaand there goes Tre White. I love what Brad Underwood did for the program but as the rumors of his assistant coach son’s reputation in the locker room grow louder and the pattern of turning over the entire roster every year grows longer, I’m starting to wonder if a fresh voice might be needed before things start going south.

I mean the players seem to straight up hate Underwood's kid. If Dad wants to save his job in the next few years he needs to dump the kid and soon.

[Derwood]

Tennessee is 0 for 13 from 3 in the first half. Just completely outclassed so far

[gflore34]

Thought Auburn was fairly vulnerable yet, I've never really believed in MSU.  Thought they way over performed, it really was a great coaching job by Izzo.  Sucks Pearl is going to the Final Four, I'm fairly confident they'll get blasted.

Edited March 30, 2025 by gflore34

[Derwood]

First time there have been all #1's in the FInal Four since 2008

[soccer10k]

Was 14-1 before the tournament that all four 1 seeds would be in the FF.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

I am struggling to remember a more boring tournament.

[Hot Sauce]

16 hours ago, Ding Dong Johnson said:

I am struggling to remember a more boring tournament.

Unfortunately I don’t see this changing any time soon. NIL has effectively killed Cinderella and at a time when the tournament was starting to get more unpredictable.

On a related note, Southern Illinois’ two top scorers have entered the transfer portal. Mid-major programs can no longer retain their best players. 

[soccer10k]

The tournament has been fine. It’s definitely not the best but I feel comfortable saying it’s not the worst tourney.

I don’t particularly care that it’s all 1 seeds in the FF. If this starts becoming more routine, then sure. But just last year a 4 and an 11 made the FF, and 8 double digit seeds won first round games. And 2023 we had a FF with teams seeded 4, 5, 5 and 9, a 15 seed made the S16 and a 16 seed won a game.

Maybe this year is a sign of things to come but it might also just be a blip. Need to give it a couple more years to find out.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

33 minutes ago, Hot Sauce said:

Unfortunately I don’t see this changing any time soon. NIL has effectively killed Cinderella and at a time when the tournament was starting to get more unpredictable.

On a related note, Southern Illinois’ two top scorers have entered the transfer portal. Mid-major programs can no longer retain their best players. 

I think the expiration of Covid-era transfer rules will cool this down a fair amount, and I think this year is a touch fluky to begin with.  Even if a bunch of 12-14 seeds didn't win, that still means the 1 seeds had to make it through harder paths against power conference foes and that's not very likely on average.

 

Also the transfer portal moves players in all directions, not just upwards mobility to power conference schools.  Using Southern Illinois as an example again, 4 of their Top 6 players in minutes were transfers.

[Hot Sauce]

2 minutes ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

I think the expiration of Covid-era transfer rules will cool this down a fair amount, and I think this year is a touch fluky to begin with.  Even if a bunch of 12-14 seeds didn't win, that still means the 1 seeds had to make it through harder paths against power conference foes and that's not very likely on average.

 

Also the transfer portal moves players in all directions, not just upwards mobility to power conference schools.  Using Southern Illinois as an example again, 4 of their Top 6 players in minutes were transfers.

SIU practically began with a clean slate under Nagy. I believe only 3 players returned from the previous season. Kennard Davis was one of them. 

I might be just an old head who hates the new normal, but at some point maintaining continuity matters and it isn’t good to continually turnover 80% of your roster from year to year. Any mid-major star isn’t going to remain with his school from freshman to senior season and that’s a shame. 

[Ding Dong Johnson]

As usual, the NCAA totally horsefeathered things up. All they had to do was let athletes have a taste of their billions.

[Irrelevant Dude]

2 hours ago, Hot Sauce said:

Any mid-major star isn’t going to remain with his school from freshman to senior season and that’s a shame. 

This is not limited to mid-majors.  Illinois can't keep anyone.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

[gflore34]

On 3/31/2025 at 3:47 PM, Irrelevant Dude said:

This is not limited to mid-majors.  Illinois can't keep anyone.

Not just Illinois, Tre Holloman, key part of MSU’ success entered the portal.  Like nearly everything else, it’s about the dollars. Although I can’t see Holloman commanding top dollar and getting them anywhere.  Illini may get a commitment from Josh Dix, though not the same position, I’d trade Morez Johnson for Dix.

[mul21]

Woof.  Morez Johnson to Michigan.

[gflore34]

4 hours ago, mul21 said:

Woof.  Morez Johnson to Michigan.

WTFever, you can always find another Morez Johnson, Boswell, far more important, is running it back.  Word is Johnson got 1.3 million whereas, U of I’s offer was .6 million, so much for his lack of offensive development BS excuse.

Edited April 3, 2025 by gflore34

[mul21]

15 hours ago, gflore34 said:

WTFever, you can always find another Morez Johnson, Boswell, far more important, is running it back.  Word is Johnson got 1.3 million whereas, U of I’s offer was .6 million, so much for his lack of offensive development BS excuse.

I don't blame the kid.  And I think he's a tough guy to replace.  There aren't a lot of guys as big and athletic as he is who are willing to do the dirty work down low.  Kid is a beast on the boards and I'm sad to see him go, especially to Michigan.  I also have a little bit of concern about what that does for recruiting in state with him being the Illinois Mr. Basketball last year.

[javy knows my name]

I've been streaming all the CBS games on airplay the whole tournament, but today when I do it it goes to a blank screen - kinda like if you use a bad HDMI adaptor. Anyone else experiencing this? Are they blocking airplay for just the final four? Is that even possible?

[soccer10k]

Suck it, Duke.

Houston outscored them 25-8 over the last 8:17 of the game. Can't believe they came back. Was also 15-3 over the last 3 minutes after Flagg hit a 3 to push it to 9.

Edited April 6, 2025 by soccer10k

[Regular Show]

People have been waiting for this moment and I'm happy Duke obliged lol. 

[soccer10k]

When you consider the stakes, that it was a national semifinal, that's got to be a top-5 collapse ever right?

-Up 14 with 8:17 left
-Up 9 with 2:17 left
-Up 6 with the ball with 1:14 left and they used almost the full 30 seconds before shooting so Houston got the ball with 47 seconds left.

Edited April 6, 2025 by soccer10k

[17 Seconds]

[javy knows my name]

Couldn't have happened to a more obnoxious, self-important program! I'm only sad I didn't get to see it

[Derwood]

National media will never stop glazing teams with star players who are white, so it's always fun to see said teams go down in flames in nationally embarrassing ways