Barstool Sports College Hoops Mailbag - Volume 4
It’s Friday which means a couple things. First, you’re not doing any work/going to class. If you’re still in college know that I hate your guts and you’re probably enjoying some beers on this lovely afternoon. Second, we’re one week away from real college basketball, which means St. John’s is still undefeated for at least a week. Third, it’s weekly mailbag time – the highlight of everyone’s week.
We got another great batch of questions this week and if you want to be part of the best mailbag on this here Internet tweet me @barstoolreags or e-mail barstoolreags@gmail.com With the introductions out of the way, let’s jump right into the questions of the week.
So, Connor wants to get weird with it right away. Let’s get weird with it. Every year there’s a gritty guy who warms the hearts of most of the nation. Those guys in the past (usually go to Duke, because all white guys go to Duke), have been Wojo, Aaron Craft, T.J. McConnell among others. So, who are the grittiest guys in college basketball? Here’s my starting five.
PG: Mike Gesell (Iowa)
SG: Ryan Arcidiacono (Villanova)
SF: Alex Caruso (Texas A&M)
PF: Andrew Chrabascz (Butler)
C: Kaleb Tarczewski (Arizona)
Some AAC love this week with someone wanting to know about the Cincinnati Bearcats. With SMU not eligible to make the NCAA Tournament, the question is can a team like Cinci and Tulsa step up to get multiple bids. The Bearcats get head coach Mick Cronin back after missing pretty much all of last year due to health. On top of that they lose one of their top seven players from a team that lost to Kentucky in the Round of 32 last year. They will be a typical Cincinnati team. They want to beat the living shit out of you and make the game as physical and ugly as possible. The three main guys are Octavius Ellis, Troy Caupain and Gary Clark. Clark, just a sophomore, should be the star of the team by season’s end. There shouldn’t be any problem making the Tournament again, but I don’t see Cincinnati better than a No. 7 seed and an early exit.
Simple answer here. Yes. Yes, you should be very worried because I’m not high on this Duke team this year. They won’t suck, but they for sure aren’t a top-5 preseason team. Tyus Jones was way too important to Duke for everyone to think Derryck Thornton (who should be a high school senior) can just step in and be steady. You’ll hear me preach all year about point guard play and how it’s important in college basketball, especially early in the year. Duke doesn’t have that. If you’re running Matt fucking Jones or Grayson Allen at point, you’re in for a long year, even if you have Brandon Ingram and one of the more under the radar recruits in Chase Jeter. There’s a lot of question marks here for Duke and frankly a top-5 preseason ranking is pretty laughable. Luckily their nonconference schedule blows with only three tough games, so they’ll pile up wins putting up a false look about how good they are.
It’s not going to surprise anyone who listened to the podcast earlier in the week but I think the ESPN Top 100 list blows. Denzel Valentine at 3? Melo Trimble at 4? Get the fuck outta here. I’m actually fine with them putting Ben Simmons at one over Kris Dunn as I agree with that. Simmons can do more than Dunn can, simply because of his height and talent. But, Valentine at three and Trimble at four is a joke. Valentine wasn’t an All-Big 10 selection last year and will now have to be the guy for Michigan State. That’s not a role he’s comfortable in and is better suited to be the second or third option. He’ll struggle with inconsistency, he should be in the teens for the ranking. You heard me talk about Trimble, I don’t think he’s the best player on Maryland (Robert Carter Jr. is). He turns the ball over way too much and there’s no real reason for him to be ranked this high besides the fact Maryland is a preseason top-3 team and you have to feel like someone from that team is represented. Again, Trimble is an inefficient scorer, struggling to shoot and takes bad shots. He went a week last year without making a bucket, that can’t get overlooked. Personally the top 5 for ESPN Top 100 should be Ben Simmons, Kris Dunn, Skal Labissiere, Kyle Wiltjer and Buddy Hield.