Barstool Basketball Mailbag: Who Wins The Big East, Last Undefeated Team, Is UConn Back & 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
I’m still going with Villanova at this point. It’s more bunched up top than we thought coming into the year, but despite it all, I still trust Villanova, well really Jay Wright, the most. You can make a case for Marquette, St. John’s and Creighton to go with Nova, but I’ll lean Nova for now. I assume we’ll see a shift offensively to get Booth off the ball more and figure out how to find someone who can create and be the go-to guy. With Wright having a strong non-conference schedule, it’s going to end up paying off in the Big East, even if there are losses along the way.
Probably as it should be. They don’t really have a great nonconference, with the majority of wins coming against sub-200 teams. They lost to Providence, was was expected looking at the preseason schedule. They do have the win over Minnesota to replace the loss to IUPUI. As for an at large? No, not with this nonconference schedule. They need to win a handful of ACC games in order to get into an at large category. Bowman is a star. Tabbs has real potential as a freshman to be a great 4-year player. I just don’t see them getting enough wins in the ACC to overcome a weaker nonconference schedule.
No. UConn is improved, but a bubble team is not making UConn back. When UConn is a top-4 seed and consistently winning, finishing top-2/3 in the American and a Final Four threat then we’ll say UConn is back. But, that’s not this year. Now, that doesn’t mean Hurley isn’t having a great year, he is. He has the win over Syracuse which was enough to keep UConn fans happy. He has a big time recruiting class coming in next year, which is something to build on for his full recruiting year. Just remember, they don’t have a top-200 win outside of that Cuse game.
Advertisement
Penn State and Pat Chambers is a real intriguing fit for me. I’m not sure just how good Penn State basketball can actually be. They don’t have a recruiting base since they have to essentially take leftovers from Philly that Nova doesn’t get and the national blue bloods don’t get. Now, it worked out well since Chambers set up the pipeline with Roman Catholic, but that’s not a Penn State thing, that’s a Chambers thing. The loss to DePaul isn’t a huge deal. That was on the road and essentially lost at the buzzer. However, the Bradley game is terrible. There’s also some bad luck involved here. They were expecting to have Tony Carr back this year and he broke out and left for the NBA. They also didn’t have Mike Watkins for a few games to start the year. My thought process is always you don’t fire a coach unless you know for sure you’re getting someone better. I just don’t know who Penn State would even target.
Yeah, I think San Francisco is the 2nd best team in the WCC. I like them better than St. Mary’s even with Jordan Ford being a big time scorer and I like them better than BYU. Frankie Ferrari can play pretty much anywhere in the country and I’m a huge Kyle Smith fan. He’s going to end up at a major-6/7 school sometime soon. As for an at-large, it’s going to take a lot. Their nonconference isn’t great, it’s not bad. But, they don’t have that quality win. If they would have beat Buffalo then we could be talking differently. Right now the best win is Stephen F. Austin on a neutral court or Harvard at home. They have a chance to beat Stanford in a home game still. They’ll need to do that and then they’ll need at least one win against Gonzaga to be in consideration. Don’t sleep on San Diego or Pacific to finish in the top-2/3 in the WCC either. The WCC is improved this year.
Advertisement
I’d go:
ACC
Big 12
SEC
Big 10
Big East
Pac-12
AAC
I don’t think there really are going to be too many surprise NBA All-Stars. That’s just how it’s going to be when it’s a small selection and fans get involved. I do agree that Tobias Harris would be a surprise selection. If not him, I’d look at Nikola Vucevic.
Right now there are 9 undefeated teams in college basketball. We have Nevada, Kansas, St. John’s, Virginia, Michigan, Texas Tech, Buffalo, Houston and Furman. Right off the bat we can take out Texas Tech and Buffalo since they play Duke and Marquette/Syracuse respectively in the next week. I’ll take Kansas out since they have Villanova (home) and at Arizona State before the new year. Going to take Furman out right away as well since they have to go to LSU in their next game. That leaves Nevada, St. John’s, Virginia, Michigan, Houston.
I think Virginia gets to either Jan 12 against Virginia Tech or Jan. 19 against Duke undefeated. That would be wins over South Carolina (A), William & Mary, Marshall, Florida State (all home), Boston College, Clemson (aways) and Virginia Tech (home).
Michigan should also get to Jan. 19 undefeated. They have home games against Western Michigan, Air Force, Penn State, Binghamton, Indiana, Northwestern and a road game against Illinois.
Houston has six straight home games, but they have to go to Temple on Jan. 9. I think that ends up being their first loss.
Nevada has 4 road games before the Jan. 19 date that I set for Virginia and Michigan. My guess is one of those (most likely Utah State) is a loss.
St. John’s has to go to Seton Hall, Villanova and Georgetown along with hosting Marquette before that date, so I’ll rule them out.
I’m going to go with Virginia as my long form answer.
Advertisement
Jesus Christ. I really hope this is sarcasm. In his first 9 years at UK, Kentucky has made it past the Sweet 16, 6 times. They’ve made at least the Sweet 16, 7 times. Billy Donovan made it past the Sweet 16 7 times in 18 years at Florida. How is that an upgrade? This is the dumbest question we’ll receive this week. Enjoy the weekend.