Around College Basketball, Barstool Style: Picks, Top-25 and Podcast with Former Providence Big Man Carson Desrosiers
Obviously there were a lot of eyes on football this weekend. Sup, Ohio State? However, these beautiful brown eyes were strictly on college hoops, which gave us some great games over the weekend.
We won’t spend much time looking at what happened over the weekend, but what you need to know is North Carolina is desperate for Marcus Paige to return and if you watched that game you’d understand my concern for that team with Roy Williams as head coach. Even without Paige you can’t lose to Northern Iowa (who lost its best player from last year and lost to Colorado State).
Duke bounced back nicely with wins at its home away from home in Madison Square Garden winning the 2K Classic over VCU and Georgetown. Xavier has the most impressive win of the season so far going on the road to beat Michigan on Friday night, leading the entire time. Then there was Miami, who has had the most impressive start to the season winning the Puerto Rico Tipoff with wins over Utah and Butler.
On to this week we have Thanksgiving (gimme that mac and cheese over stuffing) and the two biggest college basketball holiday tournaments in the Maui Invitational and Battle 4 Atlantis. We’ll look at Maui starting today and some of the other smaller ones going on with intriguing matchups. Later in the week, I’ll breakdown Battle 4 Atlantis and some of the other late week tournaments.
I’ll give you picks for the tournaments and against the spread as well as my top-25 and I sat down and recorded a podcast with former Providence big man Carson Desrosiers, which is below. Note, he says Cameron is a little overrated, talks about his favorite bars at Providence and how Dougie Buckets hit his 3,000th point in his face. Real great insight at being a Division I player.
Follow me for picks, analysis, fights and trolling @barstoolreags
Maui Invitational – Monday – Wednesday
First round matchups: St. John’s vs Vanderbilt, Indiana vs Wake Forest, Kansas vs Chaminade, UNLV vs UCLA
I’ve been saying all year this isn’t as sexy as a normal Maui Invitational, but there are some games you have to watch if you enjoy college hoops. If Codi Miller-McIntyre was healthy that Indiana/Wake Forest game would be a lot different; see Wake Forest winning. Indiana vs Vanderbilt in the semifinals is one of the best matchups of the week (if it happens, which it should). They both have two of the best offenses in the country and guys who can shoot lights out including Riley LaChance for Vandy, which is the most Vandy name ever. The bottom half of the bracket kinda sucks, but if you want to watch someone, Stephen Zimmerman for UNLV is a lottery pick after this year.
Monday’s ATS picks: Vandy -14, Indiana -11, UNLV +4
Tournament picks: Kansas over Vanderbilt in the championship game, Indiana over UNLV for 3rd place.
Legends Classic (Brooklyn) – Monday, Tuesday
Semifinals: LSU vs Marquette, NC State vs Arizona State
I got asked about this tournament because a couple of Stoolies (hi, @theballisorange) is heading to the event and wants to know who to look out for. Obviously the biggest name is Ben Simmons, one of the top-2 picks in the 2016 NBA Draft for LSU. But, that LSU vs Marquette is an intriguing matchup because both teams need that win. Marquette has struggled out of the gates getting dominated by those loveable Midwesterners from Iowa most recently. LSU doesn’t have a ton of chances for quality wins and this would be one of them.
Monday’s ATS picks: Marquette +6, NC State -1
Tournament Picks: NC State over LSU
Hall of Fame Classic (Kansas City) – Monday, Tuesday
Semifinals: Kansas State vs Missouri, North Carolina vs Northwestern
I have to say this doesn’t make it move. Northwestern could have given the Tar Heels a challenge but losing Vic Law for the season took away that chance. I expect Carolina to come out pissed off and just use pure talent (not coaching) to blow Northwestern out. Look for a big game from Justin Jackson, who is the most talented player on that roster in my opinion. On the flip side, Missouri is the worst team in the Power 5 conferences and Kansas State still has Bruce Weber as its head coach.
Monday’s ATS picks: UNC -10, Missouri +6
Tournament Pick: North Carolina (easily) over Kansas State
Barstool Reags Top 25:
- Kentucky
- Oklahoma
- Michigan State
- Maryland
- Iowa State
- Villanova
- Gonzaga
- Miami
- Kansas
- North Carolina
- Cal
- Arizona
- Duke
- Xavier
- Indiana
- Purdue
- Notre Dame
- Virginia
- UConn
- Cincinnati
- Oregon
- Vanderbilt
- SMU
- Butler
- Wichita State