Cooper Flagg looks like the lovechild of Scheyer, right down to the goofy face while playing

Duke haters are in for a rollercoaster this year with him and Knueppel

Preseason Top 25
1. Kansas
2. Alabama
3. UConn
4. Houston
5. Iowa State
6. Gonzaga
7. Duke
8. Baylor
9. UNC
10. Arizona
11. Auburn
12. Tennessee
13. Texas A&M
14. Purdue
15. Creighton
16. Arkansas
17. Indiana
18. Marquette
19. Texas
20. Cincinnati
21. Florida
22. UCLA
23. Kentucky
24. Ole Miss
25. Rutgers

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Obviously Arizona State isn't good, but Duke would've been favored by ~15-16 at home, so beating them by 56 was an absolutely joy to watch. Especially given that Cooper didn't really do much all game.

Thoughts on the preseason Top 25:

- I would have Houston #1, not Kansas. Sampson's lost 19 games in the last 4 seasons combined and returns everyone but Shead from a team that won the Big 12 by two games last year. Obviously losing Shead is a big deal, but they'll still have a top 2 defense nationally, they'll still be at the top of the pack in turning teams over and grabbing offensive rebounds, they still have two terrific shooters from distance in Cryer and Sharp, and they'll still have potentially the best coach in America.

- I'm not *as* sold on Kansas as others. People forget they finished 27th last year in KenPom, 4 seed in the tournament. They're still no lower than, like, top 8 good this year with the depth they added... but in watching them with and without McCullar last year, they went 4-5 in games where he missed either the full game or most of the game due to injury. Storr can get hot, but he can also shoot you out of games, and he's not a net positive defender like McCullar was. Also, none of the three top returners are shooters, and Storr is more of a volume shooter-- Griffen will help in that regard, and so could Mayo in theory, but I'm not fully convinced Mayo is a high-major player and could certainly be a defensive liability. Self solved the depth problem at least, so I think they'll be better than last year, and the upside with the incoming talent is obviously there to see them as a 1 seed by year's end-- after all, they've been a 1 seed three of the last four years, lol-- but it's easy to see outcomes where this team is more like a 2 or 3 seed than a 1 due to defense and shooting. (Obviously me writing all this means Storr will get white hot when Kansas plays Duke in Vegas.)

- I'm a little surprised Duke isn't in the top 5, but I don't think 7 is completely unreasonable given that it's still a very young team and Scheyer has more question marks than any of the six coaches ranked above him. I ultimately think Duke finishes Top 5 and in the 1 seed range, thanks to the insane depth of talent on the roster and the combination of defense and shooting the team should have this year... but I get it.

Teams I'd have higher in the Top 25:
- Auburn. Broome is a POY candidate, they finished Top 4 in KenPom last year, and I think replacing KD Johnson with Pegues is a big improvement.
- Purdue. Painter has finished top 10 in KenPom in five of the last nine seasons, including three without Edey. I think the guy is one of the best regular season coaches in America. They return a now-upperclass backcourt from a title game run, and Kaufman-Renn is a huge breakout candidate. I'd definitely have them closer to top 10.
- Kentucky. I'm waving my hand at where the analytics have them projected preseason. I think Pope is a rock star coach with an insanely fun style-- he had BYU finish top 20 in KenPom last season in their first year in the Big 12, and this roster is notably better than last year's imo. It's both deep and old-- that's a great combo in the SEC imo. I'd have them in the back half of my top 20.
- Texas Tech. Uhhh, how are they not ranked? They return three terrific shooters, they add a PG in Hawkins who led the Big 10 in assist rate last year, they bring in JT Toppin who could be all-conference, and they have a coach that is a proven winner. I'd rank them above the likes of Florida/UCLA/Ole Miss.

Teams I'd have lower in the Top 25:
- UNC. I know, I know, biased, etc... but I think replacing Ingram/Bacot with Tyson/Lubin/Washington is a sizable downgrade. Hubert's never *not* had Bacot-- and Ingram was just so good on both ends last year, and Tyson, while an elite shooter, is not a high-major defender at all. Davis is a POY candidate, and the freshmen look great, but that frontcourt would have them closer to top 15 than 10 in my poll imo.
- Texas A&M. They finished 33rd, 33rd, and 35th in KenPom the last three years. They're old, and they're tough, but I think Top 15 is a big reach imo. I don't know where that type of improvement upside comes from.
- Arkansas. The talent is all there... but Cal has finished 23rd or lower in KenPom 4 of the last 5 seasons. Unlike A&M, they absolutely have Top 10 type upside on the roster... but I'd have them in the 20s to start the year.
- Ole Miss. This is a weird inclusion imo. This defense will be bad bad bad-- unless you believe the Beard/Adams reunion will magically turn them good, which I guess is possible. They wouldn't be in my top 30.

Should be a great season. Tons of really good non-conference games on the slate, and a nice combination among the best teams of stacked older lineups and teams with tons of talent upside. I'm really excited to watch.

More Christmas movies coming in 2025...

>- I'm not *as* sold on Kansas as others.

I see what you mean, but they still have a high ceiling and I figure people are trusting Self and even a little more depth. although I agree if Griffin and Storr go cold they could run into the same problems as last year.

>- I'm a little surprised Duke isn't in the top 5, but I don't
>think 7 is completely unreasonable given that it's still a
>very young team and Scheyer has more question marks than any
>of the six coaches ranked above him.

Scheyer hasn't maximized his talent to this point and Duke was overrated last preseason poll.

>- Auburn. Broome is a POY candidate, they finished Top 4 in
>KenPom last year, and I think replacing KD Johnson with Pegues
>is a big improvement.

bama-Auburn are going to be wars this season. especially with Aden
Holloway transferring between rivals.

>- Purdue. Painter has finished top 10 in KenPom in five of the
>last nine seasons, including three without Edey. I think the
>guy is one of the best regular season coaches in America. They
>return a now-upperclass backcourt from a title game run, and
>Kaufman-Renn is a huge breakout candidate. I'd definitely have
>them closer to top 10.

eh. we'll see if those guys can be leaders with their roles increased; it's a different game for the supporting cast when you have a single player be such a magnetic offensive and defensive presence the last three years.

>- Arkansas. The talent is all there... but Cal has finished
>23rd or lower in KenPom 4 of the last 5 seasons. Unlike A&M,
>they absolutely have Top 10 type upside on the roster... but
>I'd have them in the 20s to start the year.

maybe he is rejuvenated with lower expectations but he needs to rejuvenate his offense along with the location move.

--------

They were still a top 20 offense last year due to offensive rebounding, transition opportunities based on the ample turnovers they generate, and the 3-point shooting of Cryer and Sharp. I think shot creation limitations may hurt them in the tournament (again), but in terms of racking up regular season wins, which is what I'd base my poll on, I think they have plenty tbh.

>>- I'm not *as* sold on Kansas as others.
>
>I see what you mean, but they still have a high ceiling and I
>figure people are trusting Self and even a little more depth.
>although I agree if Griffin and Storr go cold they could run
>into the same problems as last year.

Yeah, like I said above, they could easily end up a 1 seed-- especially if Storr is more efficient and/or gives a shit on defense. But it's so much easier for me to bet on teams that are either elite at shooting or elite on defense... and it's kind of a weird roster in terms of them being elite at either imo.

>>- I'm a little surprised Duke isn't in the top 5, but I
>don't
>>think 7 is completely unreasonable given that it's still a
>>very young team and Scheyer has more question marks than any
>>of the six coaches ranked above him.
>
>Scheyer hasn't maximized his talent to this point and Duke was
>overrated last preseason poll.

Like I said, I don't mind the poll being lower on Duke than I am for that very reason-- and it's still hard for me preseason to get higher than, like, 4. But I do really like the intersection of shooting and defense and depth this year. If Scheyer can't deliver a 1 seed type season this year... there are very, very big question marks going forward.

>>- Auburn. Broome is a POY candidate, they finished Top 4 in
>>KenPom last year, and I think replacing KD Johnson with
>Pegues
>>is a big improvement.
>
>bama-Auburn are going to be wars this season. especially with
>Aden
>Holloway transferring between rivals.

The Holloway thing is so nasty. I love it.

>>- Purdue. Painter has finished top 10 in KenPom in five of
>the
>>last nine seasons, including three without Edey. I think the
>>guy is one of the best regular season coaches in America.
>They
>>return a now-upperclass backcourt from a title game run, and
>>Kaufman-Renn is a huge breakout candidate. I'd definitely
>have
>>them closer to top 10.
>
>eh. we'll see if those guys can be leaders with their roles
>increased; it's a different game for the supporting cast when
>you have a single player be such a magnetic offensive and
>defensive presence the last three years.

I definitely get that, but I also just... kinda think Purdue will figure it out. They were Top 10 with Hammons, Top 10 with Haas, Top 10 with Williams, Top 10 with Edey. Now they have Kaufman-Renn, who could absolutely rock, they have 7'2 Berg, who wrestled with Edey in practice all year last season, and they have 7'4 Jacobsen, who I *really* like long term and who could be better than expected right away. They won't be as good as they were with Edey, no doubt... but Painter's a guy who just knows how to make an elite offense. Maybe it doesn't work out, but for a preseason poll, it's hard for me to doubt what Painter can accomplish in a regular season at this point.

>>- Arkansas. The talent is all there... but Cal has finished
>>23rd or lower in KenPom 4 of the last 5 seasons. Unlike A&M,
>>they absolutely have Top 10 type upside on the roster... but
>>I'd have them in the 20s to start the year.
>
>maybe he is rejuvenated with lower expectations but he needs
>to rejuvenate his offense along with the location move.

He's reportedly starting Thiero, Aidoo, and Brazile together, so I'm... not completely optimistic, lol. Especially since Wagner wasn't really a shooter last year. I do think having Davis could be huge for them, and the upside is totally obvious... but yeah, it's just hard for me to go all-in preseason without seeing more of what Cal runs out there.

More Christmas movies coming in 2025...

I thought the transfer class hit on a lot of needs but I'm not sure there is a reliable shooter on the roster. SG Chaz Lanier was the big transfer to answer that, but he just went 2-12 against Indiana in an exhibition. maybe new additions Milicic or Dunbar get more combined minutes and show they can stroke it.

and without that pure shooter or ISO bucket-getter, we know a Barnes team will just load up their rock basket and see who has the stamina to crawl to 65 points first.

still should be a fun season with the experienced guys. last go-round with Zakai Zeigler and Jahmai Mashack, who are two of my favorite basketvols ever.

--------

We have more final fours than any other Big Ten schools hanging in our arena and the previous fuckface shithead bum coach (who will fail miserably at Depaul) had no appreciation for the history of this program


Time to get back to being dominant in both sports like we were from 2004 t0 2017


Diebler is the perfect guy for the job, son of an Ohio basketball High school coaching legend, brother of another Buckeye player, and someone whos wanted this job so badly he started off handing out cups of gatorade as a student assistant, film coordinator, assistant coach to head coach, a very Spolestra like journey. Im super excited for him and hope it works out


recruiting wise hes off to a great start, because Ohio high school coaches actually like him, when Chris Holtmann called, they double tapped the side button on their phones and put it back down


being unranked is downright disrespectful considering how this team played last year and returned mostly everyone, thats fine. Indiana and Purdue can both fall victim to us, like they did last year
...Gotta lockdown Bundalo and keep him from going elsewhere,



>Cooper Flagg looks like the lovechild of Scheyer, right down
>to the goofy face while playing
>
>Duke haters are in for a rollercoaster this year with him and
>Knueppel
>
>Preseason Top 25
>1. Kansas
>2. Alabama
>3. UConn
>4. Houston
>5. Iowa State
>6. Gonzaga
>7. Duke
>8. Baylor
>9. UNC
>10. Arizona
>11. Auburn
>12. Tennessee
>13. Texas A&M
>14. Purdue
>15. Creighton
>16. Arkansas
>17. Indiana
>18. Marquette
>19. Texas
>20. Cincinnati
>21. Florida
>22. UCLA
>23. Kentucky
>24. Ole Miss
>25. Rutgers

-------------------
I wanna go to where the martyrs went
the brown figures on the walls of my apart-a-ment...

<---
Fuck a sig, my presence is enough.

They were the best defense in the country-- they and Houston had the best two defenses by a lot-- and they rode that defense to a 2 seed in the tournament. ISU brings back their four top players from that team, and they bring in some nice transfer pieces to supplement.

Otz has majorly overachieved preseason expectation all three seasons at ISU. He's done an insane job. I don't see that stopping now.

More Christmas movies coming in 2025...

<---
Fuck a sig, my presence is enough.

<--- Big Baller World Order

Santa Clara vs. Saint Louis at the Octagon (3 PM ET, streaming on YouTube):

Josh Schertz has gone to Saint Louis and taken Robbie Avila with him. Santa Clara is very talented, Sendek's best potentially-- honestly could be a bubble team. And they're playing at the Pentagon in South Dakota. Can't wait for this one.

Texas A&M at UCF (7 PM ET, ESPN+):

A&M brings back basically everyone from a gritty, strong, kind of gross to watch team. UCF brings in a bunch of really talented guys, but all the best dudes have red flags, ranging from guys who never suited up last year due to getting arrested to guys booted from their team to guys who never stay at a school for more than one season. Will the talent shine through or will it be a disaster? Could be fun to find out!

Mizzou at Memphis (8 PM ET, ESPN+):

Speaking of disasters, Memphis has once again had a doozy of an offseason. Fired all the assistant coaches, had a player announce he's leaving the team only to come back-- the circus never ends. Mizzou had an awful season last year, but they bring in a lot of transfers and now have a pretty legit talented roster. Interested to see how these two start the year.

Ohio State vs. Texas (10 PM ET, TNT):

Very evenly matched game for the official start of the Diebler Era for Guru! Texas has the more talented roster, but I'm not a believer in Rodney Terry as a coach. Ohio State has a good if not deep backcourt and a front court that's raw but has a lot of potential. Can Diebler start the year on a good note?

Baylor at Gonzaga (11:30 PM ET, ESPN2):

Fascinating title game rematch. Really strong backcourts here, and Edgecombe could give Baylor an edge in terms of athleticism-- but man, Baylor has been *bad* on defense last couple years, and adding guys like Roach and Omeir, while great for offense, will not help. Graham Ike should absolutely go off for the Zags against what I imagine will be quite a light interior defense for Baylor... but the Zags have very real interior defense questions themselves. I think Zags having home court will mean a lot here, but yeah, it's a top 10 type matchup on Day 1. Can't ask for much better.

More Christmas movies coming in 2025...

Those other hyped up dudes just need to fit in where they can.

<---
Fuck a sig, my presence is enough.

regular season version, at least

too much on Taylor IV

--------

I, for one, am happy to see the A&M hype train almost immediately derailing. It's always the same thing! Why do people expect that bringing back everyone from a team that's always the same will yield different results?

I've no doubt they'll still be top half of the SEC and they'll still pull out some big wins when Taylor's on a heater... but they are who they are. And in a time when nearly every team is improving their perimeter shooting every year, Buzz feels content to roll out non-shooting lineups with regularity. Baffling.

More Christmas movies coming in 2025...

*Horns down gesture*

>Ohio State vs. Texas (10 PM ET, TNT):
>
>Very evenly matched game for the official start of the Diebler
>Era for Guru! Texas has the more talented roster, but I'm not
>a believer in Rodney Terry as a coach. Ohio State has a good
>if not deep backcourt and a front court that's raw but has a
>lot of potential. Can Diebler start the year on a good note?


I got scared when Texas started to push back with 5 mins left but then I remembered Doltman isn’t here anymore and felt better.

We locked in , got key stops and timely buckets

Juni Mobley is going to be a problem

LFG

https://x.com/bradyh_216/status/1853676078960713980?s=46

-------------------
I wanna go to where the martyrs went
the brown figures on the walls of my apart-a-ment...

good

<---
Fuck a sig, my presence is enough.

It's been such a disaster.

More Christmas movies coming in 2025...

>It's been such a disaster.

He's awful

<---
Fuck a sig, my presence is enough.

SMH. I was championing him the first time I saw him play at Cuse. Great role player who does nothing dumb and can really defend. Starts and plays almost the whole game as a soph most games, and still bounces to go sit the bench at Duke??!

I kinda hate this sport now. Granted Cuse brought in Donnie Freeman at his position, who is better. But Brown would still have a huge glue guy role alongside him, and presumably be the team leader, captain, etc. Instead he’s coming off the bench for Duke? Ridiculous.

... and I honestly expect Brown to start some this year. He started one of the exhibitions, IIRC, but Maluach was so goddamn good against Arizona State and his ceiling's so high, I get why Scheyer will probably default to having him begin games.

That said, Maluach kinda got picked on in ball screens against Maine-- which makes sense, given that he's very young and hasn't been playing basketball for very long. So I fully expect Brown to play a lot... and I fully expect Brown to be Duke's starting center in 2025/2026. He's the sort of guy Duke fans absolutely love.

More Christmas movies coming in 2025...

the last two years.

Really pissed me off that he transferred, loved his game.

But PF is a position Cuse is recruiting well….Freeman this year, Sadiq White next year.

And supposedly Brown didn’t want to play center, lol. He starts at Center for Duke next year, while Cuse has….nobody returning at center and no recruits coming in as of now…I’ll be double mad.

Vermont just beat UAB, and I get that playing away from Vermont doesn't always go well for them... but Vermont isn't a bad team. And Auburn is absolutely demolishing them.

More Christmas movies coming in 2025...

>Vermont just beat UAB, and I get that playing away from
>Vermont doesn't always go well for them... but Vermont isn't a
>bad team. And Auburn is absolutely demolishing them.

Vermont is usually solid and in the mix for the AE title when all said and done.

<---
Fuck a sig, my presence is enough.

don't watch Georgia Tech but looks like BP got himself a transfer gunner

--------

He'll give you 5 or 6 threes one game, and he'll shoot 1-9 the next.

That said, last year he didn't have a national player of the year candidate giving him wide open looks either. So it could definitely work out.

More Christmas movies coming in 2025...

Which, to be fair, is what Louisville is— a bunch of good mid-major type players. But they just don’t know how to handle the physicality of Tennessee whatsoever. They’ve turned Tennessee over fairly well, they just cannot convert against this monster defense.

More Christmas movies coming in 2025...

UL will be better than today but UT dominated them

--------

They exceeded the spread by, like, 30 points. So combine that with the game being at home, and I think that made for a strange spread.

That said, I don't know if I would've had Tennessee favored by more than, like, 5, maybe 6 heading into the game-- I think that's what it would've roughly been if that was Louisville's first game of the season-- so either way, it was a very impressive showing, and, imo, showed a clear ceiling to what Louisville is likely to accomplish this year. Too many mid-major players in a high-major league. Even the high-major transfers, outside of Hepburn, were guys that started their careers mid-major.

More Christmas movies coming in 2025...

<---
Fuck a sig, my presence is enough.

attacking the rim and getting transition opportunities -- team still has a frontcourt issue, so looks like it'll depend on if their guards are shooting well or not

Kansas settled for a lot of jumpers in the second half and can be a lot better

--------

https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/auburn-team-plane-forced-to-return-to-airport-after-players-fight-on-flight-to-houston-for-saturdays-game/

last game as his teammates hit shots

not a surprise one of the seniors wanted to kick his ass already

https://x.com/Blutman27/status/1855058185150718125?t=1zt0F_jPDBuTTY878264Vw&s=19

--------

13 was on fire.

****************
TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

Catch these hands at 20,000 feet.

<---
Fuck a sig, my presence is enough.

that was 25 years ago at this point

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

big shots back and forth down the stretch instead of the usual first month struggle ball

Auburn is deep, man -- any random guard or wing can hit 5 threes on you, any given night

Houston gave up too many easy shots to Broome (probably the last person on Auburn you want to just abandon on a PnR) and their last possession sets were not good

don't really have that dominant late-game bucket getter; Cryer can make those shots but Shead was better (in my opinion of watching four Houston games per year) and neither are elite

--------

... this will be something all year in close games against title contender type teams. I just... don't really expect them to play many close games like that this year, lol.

Auburn is definitely scary. Broome is gonna hunt for that NPOY, no question.

More Christmas movies coming in 2025...

>Cooper Flagg looks like the lovechild of Scheyer, right down
>to the goofy face while playing
>
>Duke haters are in for a rollercoaster this year with him and
>Knueppel
>
>Preseason Top 25
>1. Kansas
>2. Alabama
>3. UConn
>4. Houston
>5. Iowa State
>6. Gonzaga
>7. Duke
>8. Baylor
>9. UNC
>10. Arizona
>11. Auburn
>12. Tennessee
>13. Texas A&M
>14. Purdue
>15. Creighton
>16. Arkansas
>17. Indiana
>18. Marquette
>19. Texas
>20. Cincinnati
>21. Florida
>22. UCLA
>23. Kentucky
>24. Ole Miss
>25. Rutgers

-------------------
I wanna go to where the martyrs went
the brown figures on the walls of my apart-a-ment...

<---
Fuck a sig, my presence is enough.

>Cooper Flagg looks like the lovechild of Scheyer, right down
>to the goofy face while playing
>
>Duke haters are in for a rollercoaster this year with him and
>Knueppel
>
>Preseason Top 25
>1. Kansas
>2. Alabama
>3. UConn
>4. Houston
>5. Iowa State
>6. Gonzaga
>7. Duke
>8. Baylor
>9. UNC
>10. Arizona
>11. Auburn
>12. Tennessee
>13. Texas A&M
>14. Purdue
>15. Creighton
>16. Arkansas
>17. Indiana
>18. Marquette
>19. Texas
>20. Cincinnati
>21. Florida
>22. UCLA
>23. Kentucky
>24. Ole Miss
>25. Rutgers

-------------------
I wanna go to where the martyrs went
the brown figures on the walls of my apart-a-ment...

<---
Fuck a sig, my presence is enough.

Scheyer is really good at losing Duke's first big test of every season

--------

They shot 20% better from 3 than we did, we missed so many open shots, two players get hurt... and we were still tied with 20 seconds left. This never felt like one of those "what the fuck are we doing?" games. Just felt like a night when the shots didn't fall.

I even liked the call to just give the ball to Cooper and clear out end of the game, because he'd been exploiting the Kentucky defenders in iso much of the night-- it just didn't work out on those last two possessions. Sucks that that's all people will talk about, as I thought he'd had a really great game until then.

I'm still quite optimistic about this season. Maybe it's just because I think Pope is one of the premiere coaches in the country.

If Sion James's shoulder is fucked up, though, those freshmen on the bench better be ready against Arizona. They both looked *very* ball-watch-y on defense against Maine and Army and in the exhibitions, so I get why they're not playing... but Sion's been our second best perimeter defender, our backup PG, and one of our best dribble drive guys so far this young season. And I don't think playing at Arizona's pace on the road with a shortened rotation is wise.

More Christmas movies coming in 2025...