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NCAA Basketball 2017-2018: Madness both in and on the court


Rhom

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Before going to church yesterday morning, my seven year old climbed into my bed and turned on the DVR of the Blue-White Scrimmage.

This same kid who fights to be allowed to stay up late to watch UK games sat up from the couch Saturday night with four minutes to play and said "Can we go to bed now daddy?"  :( 

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Andy Kennedy will step down after the season as head coach at Ole Miss, and will hopefully step directly into a broadcast booth or studio. Decent coach, but way too funny and sharp-witted to waste the rest of his career toiling on some small college sideline.

List of possible replacements includes some interesting names (personally I like Kermit Davis at MTSU a lot), but I hope we give Penny Hardaway a shot assuming Memphis doesn't jettison Tubby this year and hire him first. Sure, he's never been a college coach, but he's got a high school team in the top 5 nationally right now, and he's Penny freaking Hardaway. His name alone would get us more 4-star recruits than we've had in the last 20 years combined. 

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On 2/10/2018 at 8:16 PM, Ded As Ned said:

That's awesome!  Hope you get some good games

Me too... and last time I went to the tourney was at the 2012 final four(which turned out ok for your boys). Bourbon Street filled with blue the whole time. 

I'm also going with 2 Tennessee fans so that would be cool if they landed in Dallas.

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16 hours ago, Ferrum Aeternum said:

Andy Kennedy will step down after the season as head coach at Ole Miss, and will hopefully step directly into a broadcast booth or studio. Decent coach, but way too funny and sharp-witted to waste the rest of his career toiling on some small college sideline.

List of possible replacements includes some interesting names (personally I like Kermit Davis at MTSU a lot), but I hope we give Penny Hardaway a shot assuming Memphis doesn't jettison Tubby this year and hire him first. Sure, he's never been a college coach, but he's got a high school team in the top 5 nationally right now, and he's Penny freaking Hardaway. His name alone would get us more 4-star recruits than we've had in the last 20 years combined. 

I'm with you in that I hope Kennedy lands in the broadcast booth.  He's awesome!

I'm not convinced on Penny Hardaway though... I bet a lot of recruits don't even know who he is these days.  I recall some of Avery Johnson's own players at 'Bama didn't know he had played in the NBA (and had a ring) until after they had signed.

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21 minutes ago, Ded As Ned said:

I'm not convinced on Penny Hardaway though... I bet a lot of recruits don't even know who he is these days.  I recall some of Avery Johnson's own players at 'Bama didn't know he had played in the NBA (and had a ring) until after they had signed.

Penny has very deep AAU ties (he sponsored a Memphis-based team for years and has been the driving force behind the Bluff City Classic for the last decade or so). High school kids in this area certainly know who he is. For better or worse, he would lock down Memphis, which is why I think it will actually be the other U of M that ends up hiring him in the end. Also - while you have a good point re: Avery Johnson, the fact remains he's recruiting higher caliber players than Bama has gotten in the past. 

Either way it looks like there are a lot of good candidates out there. Steve Forbes (ETSU, former Bruce Pearl and Gregg Marshall assistant) is apparently #1 on our list, but he's going to be high on a lot of lists the way that team is performing this year. 

 

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24 minutes ago, Ferrum Aeternum said:

Either way it looks like there are a lot of good candidates out there. Steve Forbes (ETSU, former Bruce Pearl and Gregg Marshall assistant) is apparently #1 on our list, but he's going to be high on a lot of lists the way that team is performing this year. 

 

Do you get a feel on is he being forced out or just his own decision?  Article doesn't say much. Hope you guys do get a good coach.  I'm all for more SEC improvement in basketball.

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28 minutes ago, Ded As Ned said:

Do you get a feel on is he being forced out or just his own decision?  Article doesn't say much. Hope you guys do get a good coach.  I'm all for more SEC improvement in basketball.

I think it's mutual. The administration didn't give him an extension after last year (max 4-year deals in Mississippi so annual extensions are par for the course). So he probably knew he had to produce this season in order to stay around. It seems as amicable a parting as these things can be. He's had a pretty good run but it's probably the best time for both sides to move on to something new. The old "lousy facilities" excuse for mediocrity doesn't hold water anymore since our facilities now match up with just about anyone's.

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4 hours ago, Ded As Ned said:

I'm with you in that I hope Kennedy lands in the broadcast booth.  He's awesome!

I'm not convinced on Penny Hardaway though... I bet a lot of recruits don't even know who he is these days.  I recall some of Avery Johnson's own players at 'Bama didn't know he had played in the NBA (and had a ring) until after they had signed.

That was my first reaction as well.  I loved Penny Hardaway as a kid, he was one of my favorite players, but I'm 33 now so today's recruits are a generation removed from his playing days.  Actually ran across a bunch of old trading cards I had the other day that I haven't looked at in probably 20 years and had a bunch of Penny Hardaway in there from when he played for Orlando. 

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On 2/10/2018 at 1:42 PM, Triskele said:

I only saw the final minutes, but that seemed like a brutal loss for WVU.  I didn't realize how incredibly bunched up the Big 12 standings are.

There's about as big a West Coast Conference game as you'd ever see today with Gonzaga and St. Mary's ranked 11 and 12 nationally.  ETA:  Apparently this is the 6th time in WCC history that they've had ranked teams meet and it's been these two programs all 6 times.

Yes, that royally sucked.  Felt like WVU controlled the game for the most part but failed to step on their throats.  That's been a fairly common trend in WVU losses this season and doesn't bode well for the tournament.  WVU is good enough to beat anyone, but not good enough to take the foot off the gas and/or go cold for extended minutes.  There's still time to get some mojo before the tournament, but of the final 5, 2 of 3 are on the road and that's going to be tough.  

Have to pull for Iowa State and Oklahoma tonight to take out Kansas and Texas Tech, though I don't think either is all that likely.  Maybe I'll get one of two, but probably not both. 

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Kentucky's losing streak up to 4 games... not sure that even He Who Shall Not Be Named lost 4 in a row here... 

Had to look it up, but Gillespie did lose his last 4 games here.  Kentucky also hasn't finished with a losing SEC record since 1989

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4 hours ago, Ded As Ned said:

Kentucky's losing streak up to 4 games... not sure that even He Who Shall Not Be Named lost 4 in a row here... 

Had to look it up, but Gillespie did lose his last 4 games here.  Kentucky also hasn't finished with a losing SEC record since 1989

And remember... if not for a miracle at the end of the Vandy game, it'd be sitting at 5 games already.

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The Thameltoe says big bomb from FBI case could come soon and hit as many as 50 schools.

Quote

“This goes a lot deeper in college basketball than four corrupt assistant coaches,” said a source who has been briefed on the details of the case. “When this all comes out, Hall of Fame coaches should be scared, lottery picks won’t be eligible to play and almost half of the 16 teams the NCAA showed on its initial NCAA tournament show this weekend should worry about their appearance being vacated.”

Well... on the positive side, Kentucky wasn’t one of those 16. :D 

Youve got to be realistic about these things.

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Clickbait imo... too much could, should, maybe from anonymous source.  Tournament will be over in 2 months.  If there's anything to it, some teams and coaches will be punished next year, along with some bidirectional state school the NCAA brings the hammer down on.  Lottery picks?  They'll be gone to the pros.  

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I try not to pay too much attention to Buffalo until the MAC tournament starts, since its been 20 years since the MAC has had an at-large NCAA berth it's the only thing that matters (though, as I've mentioned in the past, the MAC tournament seeding heavily rewards conference standings, with 1-,2-,and 3-round byes available; the #1 and #2 seeds get passes straight to the semi-finals). But even so, I'm starting to think I may getting to do a roadtrip again this March (Buffalo never made the NCAA before, and then finally did so in both 2015 and 2016; I went to tournament games both times).

They're 11-2 in conference play, tied for first with Toledo, and the 3rd place team is back at 8-5. And many of their wins have been blowouts. They don't have any signature wins OOC (MAC teams almost never do), but they have the signature loss of going 67-73 against Cincinnati. They have a real strong chance at winning the MAC tournament and probably very little chance at getting an at-large berth, though they are #35 nationally by RPI.

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