Barstool Basketball Mailbag: What's A Real Threat To College Basketball, Big East Polls, Season Predictions & 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

It made sense. I mean you can argue a couple things. But, it’s a preseason poll. It doesn’t mean shit really. Think about it. Jay Wright can’t vote for Villanova, so that’s how Butler gets a first place vote. I mean honestly, Jay Wright had to be the one to vote for Butler. They are the only team that ever beats Villanova now. Ponds as POY makes sense. Nova as the heavy favorite makes sense. Duke/Quinerly being co-ROY makes sense. No problems from me.

I think Kansas State is the 2nd best team. I know Bruce Weber, but the Wildcats return so much and I’m really trying to not just focus on the Elite 8 run considering it beat Creighton, UMBC, Kentucky. It wasn’t exactly a murderer’s row to get there. But, Dean Wade is a hell of a player. Brown might be the best 2-way player in the Big 12. I’d say they are the 2nd best team, West Virginia 3rd and then I’d probably go Iowa State.

Alright, so two similar questions coming up here. Individual player questions about two guys that a lot of people are sure talking about. First is Xavier’s Naji Marshall. He has the potential to be Xavier’s best player from the very beginning of the season. He’s exactly what you want in terms of size and length on the wing. He can bully ball into the post and finish there. Now, the question will be if he’s consistent shooting the corner three. He started to get better about it late last year, but teams are going to dare him to beat them from there. I think he has potential to end up first team All-Big East by the end of the year.

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Again, he’s going to be good. I mean it doesn’t take much to say that. Think about what Lindell Wigginton did last year. Played 31 games as a freshman, scoring over 16 per game. He was a 40% 3-point shooter and good at just breaking down defenses. He does need to get better at taking care of the ball, which isn’t necessarily a surprise since he was a freshman. Similar to Marshall, if he ends up first team All-Big 12 at the end of the season I’m not going to be surprised.

We’ll ignore that first part of the question. As for the G League. It’s not a full on threat just yet. We still have to wait and see who decides to take advantage of that compared to just going to college still. I do think it’s an intriguing idea. I want to find out more though in terms of where they came up with the $125,000 figure and more. I do think the bigger threat to college hoops would be what New Balance is doing with Darius Bazley. Getting a million to be an intern for a year and train for the NBA Draft. I do wonder how much we see shoe companies do things like this and take away the top-20 recruits or something like that. I mean it’s just so new and different we have no idea what to expect.

Not unless Coby White absolutely sucks. I know Seventh Woods has been around longer, but it’s not like he’s this extremely experienced player. Coby White is an incredible talent. I mean he’s going to be good. But, Seventh Woods needs to still develop as a player as well. Just let him help run the second team and come off the bench.

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No, I actually don’t. Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s an awesome coach and it makes sense. But, think about his personality. He’s not a high-profile job guy. He’s always been a different dude. Go read the long story involving his notebook and decision to leave Marquette for Virginia Tech. I truly think he’s happy at Virginia Tech and is starting to build something there, especially with that top-15 ranking this season. I also can’t see Buzz coaching out on the west coast. He’s got the ACC. He can keep Virginia Tech consistent.