You have to have the talent to get lucky. Luck alone won't even get you in the door.
My revised Top 25 (+5) from May
- Thread starter ThePhog08
- Start date
You have to have the talent to get lucky. Luck alone won't even get you in the door.
After the beast down low their second best player seems to be Jett Howard, the 40th ranked prospect in this class. I will wait and see.
Kansas is easily a top 10 team. Not sure who the poster who was worrying about KU’s defense. That won’t be a issue.
It will take some time but will easily be a top 10 team.
It will take some time but will easily be a top 10 team.
One thing I love about the Champions Classic is we get to dive right in and see where we're at.
How do you feel about your chances with Duke? Arguably their best player may be out, but for stuffs and giggles lets say he's playing.
UK is number 1 and can’t convince me otherwise. If Wheelers nothing special, then you must be hard to please. He was top 5 for the Jerry west award and nobody pushes the ball like he does.
Two teams not on this list, that I would absolutely have in my top 35, Florida State and LSU.
FSU was hamstrung by injuries last year. Still lots of talent on that team. Caleb Mills is a stud. Cleveland is uber talented. Fletcher can do a little bit of everything. Warley could be a nice breakout player. Baba Miller has high upside, likely a future 1st rounder. Green/Gainey should be productive transfers. I expect FSU to be a top 4 team in the ACC.
People are quick to dismiss LSU because practically the whole team left. Yet, they're brining in the 3 of the top 4 scorers from Murray State, a team that was ranked in the top 25 and won a game in the NCAA Tournament. And Mwani Wilkinson and Adam Miller return. Also, bringing in a trio of 4-star recruits. And Hayes, Fountain, and Coleman are solid transfers, too. Not saying they're a lock top 25 team, but I'd be surprised if they missed the tournament.
FSU was hamstrung by injuries last year. Still lots of talent on that team. Caleb Mills is a stud. Cleveland is uber talented. Fletcher can do a little bit of everything. Warley could be a nice breakout player. Baba Miller has high upside, likely a future 1st rounder. Green/Gainey should be productive transfers. I expect FSU to be a top 4 team in the ACC.
People are quick to dismiss LSU because practically the whole team left. Yet, they're brining in the 3 of the top 4 scorers from Murray State, a team that was ranked in the top 25 and won a game in the NCAA Tournament. And Mwani Wilkinson and Adam Miller return. Also, bringing in a trio of 4-star recruits. And Hayes, Fountain, and Coleman are solid transfers, too. Not saying they're a lock top 25 team, but I'd be surprised if they missed the tournament.
Solid. Honestly i had the same thoughts about kentucky till i saw them in the bahamas. And it’s hard to tell much from those trips, but there was more ability and skill on the roster than i realized.
Before that i would have had us near the bottom of the top 10 but now i’m thinking top 3.
I’m usually pretty reserved about this. My biggest question is Cal. I think we have the roster though.
Before that i would have had us near the bottom of the top 10 but now i’m thinking top 3.
I’m usually pretty reserved about this. My biggest question is Cal. I think we have the roster though.
After last year UK is a hard sell for me. They, UK, were a two seed and lost in the first round.
I ain't over that yet. I am still pissed. It was not necessary.
Cal shut them down like a water faucet late in the game after UK had a decent lead built up. UK sucked in March, hell they lost to UT in the second game of the SEC Tourney. . . . .
The SEC sucked last year and UK came in third. Geeze.
Thats what i meant when dude jept compring them by their seeds.
Also bacot>creighton center
And Davis>>>creighton pg
Idk maybe they will be really good. Im just saying you cant discount UNCs title run and just call them a run of the mill 8 seed.
No i didnt mean to say they couldnt be good this year, i jist meant you cant discount UNCs title run when evaluating them
Oh sorry i thought u were complaining about unc being too high bc of their tourney seed last year.
I think both should be good, i expect unc to be a bit better but who knows.
edit: i quoted the wrong post and am too lazy to fix it. Oh And sorry i called u a dude.
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Man, I'm feeling some sort of smug after KU-ILL scrimmage reports..
Tried telling you homers.
Smh, lol ..
Man, I'm feeling some sort of smug after KU-ILL scrimmage reports..
Tried telling you homers.
Smh, lol ..
What are you hearing?
All I've seen is this, from an Illinois staff writer:
A couple things I've heard about the Illinois-KU scrimmage today...
They started off with a 20-minute segment like a true first half. After that, they played three 10-minute segments and some situational stuff. Mixed lineups a lot. Was told it'd be hard to call a winner. Very competitive and pretty evenly matched...
Doesn't seem like cause for alarm. That said, I don't expect this team to be great out of the gate. And they might never become great. But they'll be solid as always.
Y'all always seem to start slow, but peak at the right time.
Sounds like the Ill were decidedly the better team and Kansas had issues at the 5..
It's just a scrimmage, and I think Kansas will be fine. I just don't see them being Top 10 this season. With Bill, anything feels possible, but I'd be stoked with a S16 finish.
Not making the top 35 or even being on of @dukedevilz other 2 that should be on the list.
A true low for the Spartans.
A true low for the Spartans.
They are probably worth mentioning, actually.
I think Hoggard, Walker, and Akins could be a really nice backcourt. Not excited about the frontcourt. How do you feel about MSU's chances?
I’ll break it down into pros and cons, I have a few thoughts on this team
Pro Category
• Guard Experience. We’re bringing back 3 guards who all had some great, great moments. And I think best of all, they each give you a little something different to exploit different matchups.
• PF Experience. Joey Hauser and Malik Hall, for all of their shortcomings, have played a lot of basketball at this level and have had their moments of stardom
• Shooting. Last year wasn’t great but we excelled from deep, and that was with Christie being pretty bad. Everyone 1-4 outside of AJ is an above average shooter at this level at minimum IMO
• Ball Movement Improvement. I expect it to improve compared to last year. Even if we were better on offense than defense last year, I think having good shooters bailed us out of some ugly offense, and I truly believe Gabe Brown/Max Christie caused a lot of that. I’m more of a guess, but I think the ball just flows better this year.
• Offensive Options. We have 4, maybe 5 guys that have shown the ability to play some elite offense. None consistently, but we’re bringing back 3 guys who have scored 24 or more against legit competition.
Con Category
• Defense. Oh boy, not good. Few will remember MSU started last year in November top 5 in defense. Then Marcus Bingham got COVID, and just wasn’t that guy for the rest of the season. We got bitched around down low. I think the 2p% against us was one of the worst of the Izzo era. And now the guy who couldn’t get minutes on last years team is the starter. And his backup is a guy who’s been offensively raved about but just can’t defend. Outside of that, our guards were not good at containing dribble penetration consistently. I need to see major, major improvement there
•Rebounding. Man, these weaknesses used to be staples of MSU. Yeah, the rebounding has fallen off a bit. Specifically the wing and guard rebounding has just been terrible. I’m hoping turning Malik into more of a wing will help with that, but I’m not hopeful. I think Pierre Brooks getting more minutes may help with this. Overall, defensive rebounding needs to get better, and we’re losing our starting and backup center from last year. I’m not super confident.
•Depth. This team has some issues, specifically on the wing. Supposedly we are going to go with a lot of 3 guard lineups, but MSU has 1 guy who I would call a natural wing on the roster, Pierre Brooks. We have 9 guys, and with Akins out, 8. An injury anywhere would kill us.
•Inconsistency. With the offensive options comes inconsistency. All of our options have had multiple games where they were non factors on offense, almost unplayable. I can’t pick out a single guy who I’m confident makes an all conference team.
X-Factor
Mady Sissoko is so clearly to me the X-Factor of this team. A good Mady Sissoko can put a significant dent in our defense/rebounding issues. No player being worse/better than I expected matters more than Mady. If he’s better than I expect, say 8/8/1 with 2 blocks and plays about 25 a game, MSU is a top 25 team. If he struggles, I think we may struggle to make the tournament.
Ceiling-Sweet 16
Floor-Outside of the bubble
Prediction-Somewhere between 3rd and 7th in the Big Ten. 6th-8th Seed
Gonzaga
Houston
North Carolina
Kentucky
Baylor
Tennessee
UCLA
Creighton
Arkansas
Texas
Duke
San Diego State
Villanova
TCU
Auburn
Illinois
Kansas
Florida
Virginia
Indiana
Texas Tech
Dayton
Alabama
Wyoming
Miami
Did you miss the part where we drug our nuts on K, twice? That team came together at the right time. Just like Roy used to do with em... at UNC not KU
I'm just glad some folks are doubting the Heels. Don't like all the preseason hype.
Did you miss the part where we drug our nuts on K, twice? That team came together at the right time. Just like Roy used to do with em... at UNC not KU
I'm just glad some folks are doubting the Heels. Don't like all the preseason hype.
I'd say falling just short was very Roy at KU-like. 😁
Baylor with those three gaurds will be hard to beat come tourney time.
Keyonte George will be big 12 player of the year. Flagler and Cryer are great college gaurds.
Hate Drew, he was dirty as heck early in his career, but I think he's cleaned that up some.
The SEC will be the best conference at the top this year, with 3 legit title contenders.
Keyonte George will be big 12 player of the year. Flagler and Cryer are great college gaurds.
Hate Drew, he was dirty as heck early in his career, but I think he's cleaned that up some.
The SEC will be the best conference at the top this year, with 3 legit title contenders.
Do Gonzaga and Kentucky get penalized for poor showings in exhibitions?
Erased that lead pretty quickly, but it wasn't a good sign to be in that position. I know everybody loves Harris, but he's still underwhelming to me. Just not ideal to have a PG who is no threat to score. Especially when scoring is questionable at a few other positions.
Harris isn't the problem.
Maybe the starting lineup was a nod to their defense and it just backfired.
I mean, it's Pitt State.
Harris/McCullar/Wilson/Adams/Udeh means Wilson and McCullar (?) are the offense?? .. that's certainly a choice.
Of course, I got UK at -3 ranking. That's 4 better than #1 if you count zero. 😆
Pretty absurd lineup. Surprised that Rice isn't getting minutes. Thought he was showing out in practice.
Dick and McCullar look great.
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