College Basketball 2025-2026

[Old Style]

 

The tournament is expanding to 76 teams next season. Not a fan. 

[Irrelevant Dude]

16 hours ago, Old Style said:

The tournament is expanding to 76 teams next season. Not a fan. 

Nobody is, but anything to make another dollar.  The same reason we will eventually see the MLB playoffs further diluded with additional teams that don't belong.

[Derwood]

We can FINALLY get the 10th place SEC team in. 

[javy knows my name]

All with losing records and big conferences lol

[SouthSideRyan]

On 4/29/2026 at 1:23 PM, Derwood said:

We can FINALLY get the 10th place SEC team in. 

It’s already happened 3 of the last 4 tourneys. The top 14 (out of 16)teams made it in 2025

Edited May 1 by SouthSideRyan

[Tryptamine]

Stojakovic withdrew from the draft and will return to Illinois, just about guaranteeing them a top 5 preseason ranking.

[champaignchris]

Dusty May to coach the Mavs. 
 

This is late enough in the year that I’m not sure any players could leave if they wanted to. 
 

I assume Michigan will go with an interim for the season unless they think one of the assistants is ready to take over permanently. Pretty rough way to go when they have what looks like a top-10 roster headed into the summer. 

[UMFan83]

14 minutes ago, champaignchris said:

Dusty May to coach the Mavs. 
 

This is late enough in the year that I’m not sure any players could leave if they wanted to. 
 

I assume Michigan will go with an interim for the season unless they think one of the assistants is ready to take over permanently. Pretty rough way to go when they have what looks like a top-10 roster headed into the summer. 

Do you think that because teams have spent their NIL allotments?  Because I'm pretty sure the portal still opens up for a specific time period after a coach leaves (have a lot of experience with this as a Michigan football and basketball fan)

 

This is gutting.  I wouldn't trade what happened last year for anything, those are lifetime memories and while there's no guarantee Michigan will go back to being a middle of the conference Big Ten team, it seems much less likely that they'll have a season anything close to last year any time soon.

[champaignchris]

10 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Do you think that because teams have spent their NIL allotments?  Because I'm pretty sure the portal still opens up for a specific time period after a coach leaves (have a lot of experience with this as a Michigan football and basketball fan)

 

Yeah. Between limited scholarship spots open and most NIL funds already committed, I don’t see anyone major leaving. Maybe someone on the fringes of the roster thinks they can get more playing time elsewhere, but I’d be surprised if anyone expected to be a contributor leaves. 
 

The timing hurts in terms of immediately finding a new permanent HC, but probably helps in terms of roster retention. 

[champaignchris]

If you’re Michigan’s AD, you at least have to give Billy Donovan a call, right?  
 

“Billy, how do you feel about taking an immediate run at ring #3?”

[sneakypower]

[bukie]

Juwan Howard redemption tour go?

 

Seriously, though, I think you just promote from within at this stage in the game, maybe Mike Boynton, just to hold on to what you currently have on the roster.

[UMFan83]

24 minutes ago, bukie said:

Juwan Howard redemption tour go?

 

Seriously, though, I think you just promote from within at this stage in the game, maybe Mike Boynton, just to hold on to what you currently have on the roster.

they're apparently working on hiring him as "interim coach".  Not sure how you work to hire an interim coach, I would have thought you just appointed one, but I'm guessing its to prevent that 15 day portal window opening until they've made a decision and probably gives him special consideration for the job and prevents him from being poached.

[Irrelevant Dude]

8 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

they're apparently working on hiring him as "interim coach".  Not sure how you work to hire an interim coach, I would have thought you just appointed one, but I'm guessing its to prevent that 15 day portal window opening until they've made a decision and probably gives him special consideration for the job and prevents him from being poached.

I assume there is more to it than just saying "hey, you're the head coach now."  Interim tag or not, he will be signing on for a full season with significantly more responsibility for a top basketball program in the nation and will need to be compensated accordingly.

[mul21]

11 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

they're apparently working on hiring him as "interim coach".  Not sure how you work to hire an interim coach, I would have thought you just appointed one, but I'm guessing its to prevent that 15 day portal window opening until they've made a decision and probably gives him special consideration for the job and prevents him from being poached.

I'd suspect there are probably some contract negotiations involved since he's taking on a much larger job and probably isn't willing to do it for assistant coach money, even if it is an interim gig.

[mul21]

Just now, Irrelevant Dude said:

I assume there is more to it than just saying "hey, you're the head coach now."  Interim tag or not, he will be signing on for a full season with significantly more responsibility for a top basketball program in the nation and will need to be compensated accordingly.

Jinx 😂

[gflore34]

21 hours ago, UMFan83 said:

Do you think that because teams have spent their NIL allotments?  Because I'm pretty sure the portal still opens up for a specific time period after a coach leaves (have a lot of experience with this as a Michigan football and basketball fan)

 

This is gutting.  I wouldn't trade what happened last year for anything, those are lifetime memories and while there's no guarantee Michigan will go back to being a middle of the conference Big Ten team, it seems much less likely that they'll have a season anything close to last year any time soon.

Besides, of course, the money, I wonder if May achieving everything he possibly could at the college level was a factor.  He had a once in a coaching lifetime season and it could have been difficult chasing that for the rest of career at the college level.