Too bad Georgetown can't also lose to Hampton.

GW73,  I haven't seen Georgetown's schedule, its possible that they will play Hampton too, and also lose to them by a score of 82-78!! HA!

MG14 mentioned that COVID has caused George Mason to pause activities, a few days ago Richmond also had to pause their season because of COVID. The A10 now has 3 teams(Richmond, Mason and St.Joe's) who have shut down because of COVID!! ESPN shows that the La Salle-Howard game scheduled for today was postponed, so its possible that La Salle also has a positive COVID test. 

VCU at Penn State                        5  FS1
UNC-Greensboro vs. Duquesne  6  ESPN3
Seton Hall at Rhode Island          7   CBS SportsNetwork
Davidson  vs  UNLV                     9:30   ESPN2  - Davidson will look to avoid finishing last in the Maui Invitational, they've lost their first 2 games by a combined 3 points.

This does look like Gonzaga's best team yet though there is of course still much basketball to be played.

And how about hooking those horns!!  Three wins in three days over Davidson, Indiana and North Carolina to win the Asheville/Maui.  Between this weekend and January 2, Texas is scheduled to play Villanova, Baylor, Oklahoma State and Kansas.  It will be interesting to see if they can keep this up against great competition.

Shaka Smart is looking to take his 8th team to the Dance before the age of 44.  Very impressive.

Are they going to make up that Gonzaga-Baylor game at a later date? It looked like it was cancelled a few hours before it was supposed to start. Shaka Smart's Texas team is battling Villanova right now on ESPN(or ESPN2), Texas is down by 3 early in the 2nd half, this may be his best team at Texas. I've felt a little bad for Shaka Smart at Texas because it seems like he's always THAT close to getting fired since he's been there. 

#11 West Virginia at Georgetown   4:30   FS1  - This looks to be a complete mismatch!! Georgetown could lose by 25+. Bob Huggins West Virginia teams have always been a hard-nosed, defensive team but they have an imposing twin-tower-like(they aren't quite 7-footers) frontcourt, Georgetown will have a very hard time getting rebounds or scoring in the paint.  

Arnaldo Toro had 7p, 3r, 2s, 3 fouls, and 2 TO in 10 minutes of action for the Johnnies today in a win against Stony Brook. That's about the same as GW non-conference competition level, so not too surprising on that statline.
Kevin Marfo was in action today for the Aggies of Texas A&M. Here is a tweet they put out with a GIF of Marfo: https://twitter.com/aggiembk/status/1335691922782957568
Marfo has played just 12 and 14 minutes in his first two games so far, with 0p2r in the first one and 1p5r in the second one. Obviously he was the nation's top rebounder last season so this usage (coming off the bench) was puzzling - they don't have a true center on their roster. Unsurprisingly, he got the start today against UTRGV and put up 6 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals, and a block, to go along with 4 fouls (this seems to have always been a bit of an issue for him when he was with us)

No games for Jair Bolden, Shandon Brown, Mezie Offurum, Terry Nolan Jr., Justin Mazzulla today.

Some notes: on Mezie Offurum. I'll post more updates on the other players in the coming days
Mezie has played 32,21, 30,and 28 minutes in four games for Mount Saint Marys so far. here are his lines:
1p7r3a1b2s 1TO 1PF (W vs. Morgan State)
7p3r1a1b0s 3TO 5PF Fouled Out (6p loss to Navy)
3p3r2a0b1s 1TO 4PF (17p loss to MD)
6p4r1a1b1s 1TO 1PF (18p loss to VCU)

Fouls still seem to be somewhat of an issue for him, and even with the increased playing time in a lower conference he doesn't seem to be much of a natural scorer at 6'8" and his gifted size, at least so far. I remember the recruiting being very high on him so maybe things pick up against worse competition in conference play.

EDIT: Forgot to mention - we'll be in action against Darnell Rogers tomorrow, and I'll be keeping his name in these updates too. Here's a tweet from ESPN that went viral about him, with some nice words about Shawnta/GW in the replies: https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1331815701775065088?s=20
 

Last edited by SanDiegoColonial (12/06/2020 6:28 pm)

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/30465633/kentucky-men-basketball-worst-start-2000-01-loss-georgia-tech

Before the year I mused that maybe going exclusively 1 and done wasn't working so well as a formula for the bluest of blues bloods?

It is the worst start for Kentucky in decades! Such a blunt instrument, pure 1 and done roster building, take on as many guys as you can that you figure go 1 and done, which clears out space for your next class year after year, ensuring most guys instant playing time, without any thought to long term roster building, construction, how the pieces will fit together, meld, but how's that working in the back half of the decade for him? I posted the data before the year began showing the big drop from front of the decade to back half

Jay Wright, Mark Few and Bill Self are all putting together year after year better teams than Cal, granted the formula worked really well 10 to 6 years ago, but now the best 1 and dones are being more spread around, and look at the results.  As you noted T, is isn't like he's getting 3-5 top shelf guys every single year, and talent like that can of course win right away, a title, but that requires getting 3 to 4 or more truly Tier 1 Lottery guys and having them gel in a single season at a title caliber level.  

Coach K arms raced, the same formula, to mixed results, didn't he build his teams for decades around guys who stayed to be upperclassmen and veteran title teams to better results??  Hurley-Laettner-Hill back to back title teams etc, Scheyer (senior) Singler (Junior)  Nolan Smith (JR) Lance Thomas (Senior) 2010 title, e.g.
Neither K or Cal has made a Single Final 4 since 2014/15.

Interesting to see it all play out and maybe diminished results will lead to adjustments.  Those Nova titles, the UVA title, etc, all of them were veteran led teams, we're not seeing super young mostly Freshman teams having as much tourney success as we did 2010-15, and even then, for all the ridic loaded NBA talent Cal has brought in, it was 1 title almost 10 years ago, and again, no Final 4s in since 14-15.
 

Coppin St is up 5, in the 1st half on Georgetown.

Not sure Ewing can survive a season like this, things have slid south, but they are about to slide much further south this year

 

The Dude wrote:

Before the year I mused that maybe going exclusively 1 and done wasn't working so well as a formula for the bluest of blues bloods?

It is the worst start for Kentucky in decades! Such a blunt instrument, pure 1 and done roster building, take on as many guys as you can that you figure go 1 and done, which clears out space for your next class year after year, ensuring most guys instant playing time, without any thought to long term roster building, construction, how the pieces will fit together, meld, but how's that working in the back half of the decade for him? I posted the data before the year began showing the big drop from front of the decade to back half

Jay Wright, Mark Few and Bill Self are all putting together year after year better teams than Cal, granted the formula worked really well 10 to 6 years ago, but now the best 1 and dones are being more spread around, and look at the results.  As you noted T, is isn't like he's getting 3-5 top shelf guys every single year, and talent like that can of course win right away, a title, but that requires getting 3 to 4 or more truly Tier 1 Lottery guys and having them gel in a single season at a title caliber level.  

Coach K arms raced, the same formula, to mixed results, didn't he build his teams for decades around guys who stayed to be upperclassmen and veteran title teams to better results??  Hurley-Laettner-Hill back to back title teams etc, Scheyer (senior) Singler (Junior)  Nolan Smith (JR) Lance Thomas (Senior) 2010 title, e.g.
Neither K or Cal has made a Single Final 4 since 2014/15.

Interesting to see it all play out and maybe diminished results will lead to adjustments.  Those Nova titles, the UVA title, etc, all of them were veteran led teams, we're not seeing super young mostly Freshman teams having as much tourney success as we did 2010-15, and even then, for all the ridic loaded NBA talent Cal has brought in, it was 1 title almost 10 years ago, and again, no Final 4s in since 14-15.
 

I looked up the top 10-15 incoming freshman and you'll see players have signed with the likes of Oklahoma State, Stanford, USC, Florida State, Texas, Tennessee and Gonzaga, so the top 10-15 players aren't teaming up to attend Duke and Kentucky, Calipari and Coach K have to really "coach up" their players to win big like everyone else does. I think we may have had this discussion on the old board and you(or someone else) put up a graphic of the top 10 players going to different schools, it was the year Ben Simmons chose LSU over the BCS blue bloods, and this trend has continued. Jalen Suggs choosing Gonzaga instead of Kentucky or Duke really tipped the scales for them over Duke and Kentucky. If Suggs chose Kentucky, Kentucky would probably be ranked in the top 5 now. 

JC probably signed off on the waiver, and may even had something to do with Mezie ending up at his alma mater. Wishing him the best of luck there. Seems like he had a great game tonight against a decent St. Francis (PA) team. 19 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 assists. Happy for him. The potential was there when he started and scored 12 points in his first ever college game against Stony Brook, just couldn't do it consistently.

In other news, Kansas State lost to in-state D2 school Fort Hays State by 13 at home, 81-68. This is not a D2 powerhouse either, they were 0-3 going into this game (an exhibition for them). Things could definitely be worse!