Barstool Basketball Mailbag: Jabari Parker, Temple Basketball, Taking Over As Commissioner & More
Basketball is a year round sport, so due to that we’re going to do a year round mailbag. We’re still going to run this every Friday like we do during the season, but we’ll be talking about college hoops, transfers, NBA Draft, NBA and recruiting questions. That’s right you get an NBA and college hoops mailbag all rolled into one every Friday. Reminder you can always submit questions on Twitter @barstoolreags
So first things first. I will eventually take over for Mark Emmert. It’s my life calling. I’ll still blog when I’m commissioner of course, but I’m determined to be in charge of college hoops. So after that, NCAA violations will be a bit different when I take over. We’re going to update the rule book to make it not in the 1950s anymore. The one thing we will do is not hurt current athletes and coaches. For instance, let’s just use Louisville since that’s the school suffering sanctions right now. Louisville wouldn’t get punished. But, Pitino/Jurich/coaching staff, they would be the ones to get hurt. They’d get suspended from the NCAA for a certain amount of time depending on the violation. But, we’re not going to penalize those that had nothing to do with the violations when they occurred. If the school can’t self-police then we’ll step in.
Yeah, Temple can make the NCAA Tournament, but I’d bet against them getting there. I don’t think they are a top-3 team in the American, which we’ve seen sort of be the cut off point for this league. It’s also a weird year for Temple with Fran Dunphy in his last year, McKie on staff but taking over next year. Those things just never seem to go well. And no, I don’t think either get drafted.
I think the American is maxing out at 3 bids. I would guess Cincinnati, UCF and Houston get in from the American. I’d be surprised to see four get in. While the American is getting better, there’s still a question about how good the top of this league is this year. So with that in mind, I’ll set the line at 3.5 and take the under. As for the A-10, I still think it’s just a 2-bid league. Last year we saw 3 get in but one was somewhat of a stolen bid in Davidson and St. Bonaventure was a first four team. This year I think you see 2 out of Davidson, George Mason and Rhode Island make it.
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The ACC. It’s not even close. They have three top-10 teams. They have 5 top-15 teams. They have 8 top-25 teams. They have 10/11 teams that are legit NCAA Tournament teams. There’s not another league that can touch that. The SEC is deep as well, but they don’t have that high-end talent like the ACC does.
I’m going to put out conference previews here soon, so I’ll go more in depth with it then. I do agree that there are 4 teams that really seem to have the ability to win this thing and I won’t be surprised. But, in the preseason I’d vote for Michigan just over Michigan State to win it. Yes, Wagner, Robinson and Abdur-Rahkman are gone, but there’s still talent there.
A chance? Yes. But I’m not buying it. The loss of Tony Carr was that important to the team. Now, they’ll still be good defensively. Josh Reaves is a top-5 defender in the country. They have rim protection too in Mike Watkins. But, I just don’t know if they’ll be good enough offensively or consistent enough offensively to challenge a NCAA Tournament bid. Also, look at the Big 10 last year. Nebraska was 4th in the Big 10 and was barely a bubble team. That sort of feels like Penn State’s ceiling this year.
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Uhh, hope? I really don’t know. They are in a weird spot with Jabari because he wants to be a starter but the Bulls should start Lauri and Wendell Carter. Start building that frontcourt of the future. I also think Jabari is at his best at the four spot. Putting him at the three with these two just doesn’t make sense. Just try to get him to buy into that Manu role where he can play starters minutes but come off the bench. Don’t read too much into preseason either. Let’s see what happens during the start of the regular season and if he changes a bit.
So I’ll go with the following as my favorites:
Toronto Raptors (Over 54.5) - This team won 59 games last year and got arguably better by bringing in Kawhi for DeRozan. That’s ultimately the key here. If Kawhi is healthy and playing like Kawhi, over hits with ease.
Indiana Pacers (Over 47.5) - ne of my favorite rosters this year is the Indiana Pacers. They somewhat remind me of the Raptors from last year in terms of having a bench that is made for the regular season. I think you see Oladipo have another big year, so I’ll take the over.
Minnesota Timberwolves (Under 44.5) - I just don’t see it with this team. They have no clue exactly what they want to do and there’s plenty of arguing within the locker room. Let’s not rule out the chance Jimmy Butler gets traded or murders someone on the team or fights the entire team. I’m just going to take the under.