2012-13 College Basketball Thread

[gutterking]

I didn't find a thread for this already, but I've been gone for quite a while so I may have missed it.

Anyway, who's been keeping up with college hoops this year and how is your favorite team doing?
My Lobos are 10-0 and sitting at #18 right now, so I couldn't be more stoked for a team that was supposed to be having a down year without Drew Gordon

And a couple of talking points:
Does anyone else think it's a little uncool not to reward Duke with the #1 ranking after so many quality wins, when Indiana only has a couple? I understand the concept of giving the #1 team the benefit of the doubt until they lose one, but Duke has been very impressive this year.

And wtf is going on with UCLA? They must be setting a record for transfers per season. Something has to be going on there to have so many players jumping ship. Maybe the locker room still smells like piss.

[schecterc1lh]

I agree about duke, they have impressed me much more than Indiana. My team is OK state, and so far we are 6-1, including beating NCST when they were #6, and looked pretty good from what i have seen. Ranked #23, and will play gonzaga dec31st, so we will see how good we are then!

[BuckshotJenkins]

My team Syracuse is notorious for playing no one during their pre-conference schedule. No huge singular standouts on the team, but a very large number of good contributors. They'll be among the Big East leaders come March. Just gotta hope they don't lose their center if they're a #1 seed in the big dance...like the last damn two times.

Dammit.

Pessimism. I grew up with it. Might be in the water there.

[gutterking]

Originally Posted by BuckshotJenkins

My team Syracuse is notorious for playing no one during their pre-conference schedule. No huge singular standouts on the team, but a very large number of good contributors. They'll be among the Big East leaders come March. Just gotta hope they don't lose their center if they're a #1 seed in the big dance...like the last damn two times.

Dammit.

Pessimism. I grew up with it. Might be in the water there.

I like Syracuse this year just for beating up on San Diego State. New Mexico and SDSU have had a rather unfriendly rivalry in the last few years.

[sleewell]

GO SPARTANS!!!!

[Pepi]

IU is getting better and better

[SnowStorm]

I haven't watched much yet but glad to see Indiana is good again. I'm a fan of Tom Creen.

[PurpleTrails]

Originally Posted by gutterking

And wtf is going on with UCLA? They must be setting a record for transfers per season. Something has to be going on there to have so many players jumping ship. Maybe the locker room still smells like piss.

Big time UCLA fan here. In a nutshell, Howland lost control of the team a few years ago, and if our AD wasn't totally incompetent he would have been fired last year at the latest. Howland is an over-controlling asshole who runs an ineffective offense that tends to minimize the ability of talented players to score, plays favorites lacking in physical talent (see Wear twins this year, Nikola Dragovic in years past) over younger guys with more upside, and has so demoralized the team that they put forth no effort for him.

The fanbase was split yesterday on whether it was better that the team finally put some effort into defending a bad Texas team to fuel a comeback victory, or if they had continued to suck so we could have lost another totally winnable game and potentially hastened his exit.

It's arguable that Howland totally underachieved in the years we went to the final four. We would also likely be better off with a team made up of the guys who transferred in the last four years than the ones who are there now.

Oh, and the locker room now is really nice. The Pauley rebuild really upgraded that end of things.