Other People's NCAA Hoops - 2019-2020

[HereBeforeCoachK]

Maybe best suited to the Announcers thread, but I watched the last 8-ish minutes of this game. I think it was Kevin Harlan and Bill Raftery. What a breath of fresh air! No ESPN announcer pair holds a candle to these guys. The play by play guy Harlan was terrific and Raftery didn't feel the need to yammer on incessantly (I'm looking at you, Courtney Alexander - although could be recency bias since he was just so annoying last night!). My wife and I noticed...silence...and were appreciative. The action and the camera work especially during a pause when nothing needed explaining was so welcome.

Raftery is a gem....

[JasonEvans]

Not sure if folks have noticed but Bobby's Arizona State team is on a bit of a tear. They've won 7 in a row and 9 of their past 10 including wins over for-sure NCAA tourney teams Arizona and Oregon. The Pac 12 standings currently look like this at the top:

Ariz St 10-4
Oregon 10-5
Colorado 10-5
UCLA 10-5
Arizona 9-5

So, ummm, it is pretty tight there at the top.

Bobby's boys have a great chance to close the season strong and win the conference. They play at UCLA and USC this week (remember when UCLA was one of the worst major conference teams in the land back in December? They were 8-9 at one point earlier this year with some horrid losses) which will be tough but not at all unwinnable. They then close the season with home games against the two Washingtons, who are the weakest teams in the league. BracketMatrix has the Wildcats as a #8 seed at the moment, but it is not at all impossible to imagine them rising up a good bit if this win streak continues.

-Jason "Bobby's got a pretty nice recruit coming in next year in Marcus Bagley... I'll give you two guesses who his big brother is and the first guess does not count" Evans

[Monmouth77]

Not sure if folks have noticed but Bobby's Arizona State team is on a bit of a tear. They've won 7 in a row and 9 of their past 10 including wins over for-sure NCAA tourney teams Arizona and Oregon. The Pac 12 standings currently look like this at the top:

Ariz St 10-4
Oregon 10-5
Colorado 10-5
UCLA 10-5
Arizona 9-5

So, ummm, it is pretty tight there at the top.

Bobby's boys have a great chance to close the season strong and win the conference. They play at UCLA and USC this week (remember when UCLA was one of the worst major conference teams in the land back in December? They were 8-9 at one point earlier this year with some horrid losses) which will be tough but not at all unwinnable. They then close the season with home games against the two Washingtons, who are the weakest teams in the league. BracketMatrix has the Wildcats as a #8 seed at the moment, but it is not at all impossible to imagine them rising up a good bit if this win streak continues.

-Jason "Bobby's got a pretty nice recruit coming in next year in Marcus Bagley... I'll give you two guesses who his big brother is and the first guess does not count" Evans

I'm a Sun Devil man!

[JStuart]

Not sure if folks have noticed but Bobby's Arizona State team is on a bit of a tear. They've won 7 in a row and 9 of their past 10 including wins over for-sure NCAA tourney teams Arizona and Oregon. The Pac 12 standings currently look like this at the top:

Ariz St 10-4
Oregon 10-5
Colorado 10-5
UCLA 10-5
Arizona 9-5

So, ummm, it is pretty tight there at the top.

Bobby's boys have a great chance to close the season strong and win the conference. They play at UCLA and USC this week (remember when UCLA was one of the worst major conference teams in the land back in December? They were 8-9 at one point earlier this year with some horrid losses) which will be tough but not at all unwinnable. They then close the season with home games against the two Washingtons, who are the weakest teams in the league. BracketMatrix has the Wildcats as a #8 seed at the moment, but it is not at all impossible to imagine them rising up a good bit if this win streak continues.

-Jason "Bobby's got a pretty nice recruit coming in next year in Marcus Bagley... I'll give you two guesses who his big brother is and the first guess does not count" Evans

And doesn't Bobby hold the all-important Walton Belt, still?

[DukieInKansas]

Maybe best suited to the Announcers thread, but I watched the last 8-ish minutes of this game. I think it was Kevin Harlan and Bill Raftery. What a breath of fresh air! No ESPN announcer pair holds a candle to these guys. The play by play guy Harlan was terrific and Raftery didn't feel the need to yammer on incessantly (I'm looking at you, Courtney Alexander - although could be recency bias since he was just so annoying last night!). My wife and I noticed...silence...and were appreciative. The action and the camera work especially during a pause when nothing needed explaining was so welcome.

Kevin Harlan used to be the Chiefs radio guy. He was terrific. Mitch Holthus replaced him and he does a good job, too. Maybe coming from radio is a good thing.

[OldPhiKap]

And doesn't Bobby hold the all-important Walton Belt, still?

Yes. Go Bobby!

[BD80]

And doesn't Bobby hold the all-important Walton Belt, still?

I'm pretty sure they don't let Walton wear belts, or that he ever wears anything other than surf shorts. And Grateful Dead t-shirts.

[JasonEvans]

I'm a Sun Devil man!

Wow... how did I do that?!?! I was up too darn early this morning and my brain may not have been fully functioning when I posted that.

[Adaephon]

-Jason "Bobby's got a pretty nice recruit coming in next year in Marcus Bagley... I'll give you two guesses who his big brother is and the first guess does not count" Evans

So you're telling me I have to guess right on my second try? An interesting game.

[scottdude8]

I went to bed with Maryland down double digits at half on the road at Minnesota, with their best two players in major foul trouble. I wake up to see they came back thanks in part to a crazy buzzer beater. Ugh.

Every time I think the stars are aligning for us the universe just pulls them right back...

[jb75]

Bobby Hurley's ASU team loses at UCLA 75-72 on a last second three pointer. ASU and Bobby are fun to watch. Remy Martin had 30 in a losing effort. I hope ASU makes the Big Dance.

[JasonEvans]

Bobby Hurley's ASU team loses at UCLA 75-72 on a last second three pointer. ASU and Bobby are fun to watch. Remy Martin had 30 in a losing effort. I hope ASU makes the Big Dance.

At the moment, ASU looks like they are in good shape for the dance. One or two more wins should get them there.

Meanwhile, Bobby has a played named after a cognac?!?! Awesome!!

[DU82]

On to other games...

How does Maryland not have the ugliest uniform in this game? UA lets us down.

[Kjeffrey]

SDSU down by 10

[scottdude8]

Looks like Creighton is about to fall by double digits on the road to a .500 St. John’s team. Just goes to show that winning on the road in a good conference is HARD.

[curtis325]

Looks like Creighton is about to fall by double digits on the road to a .500 St. John’s team. Just goes to show that winning on the road in a good conference is HARD.

It's also hard in the ACC.

[JasonEvans]

Looks like Creighton is about to fall by double digits on the road to a .500 St. John’s team. Just goes to show that winning on the road in a good conference is HARD.

For a few weeks there was a run where all the good teams kept on winning... in the past week or so, all the good teams (except one or two) have lost a game or two. Starting to again resemble November when "there are no good teams" was the mantra.

[scottdude8]

For a few weeks there was a run where all the good teams kept on winning... in the past week or so, all the good teams (except one or two) have lost a game or two. Starting to again resemble November when "there are no good teams" was the mantra.

My thoughts exactly. I don’t think ANY fan base outside of Kansas and Kentucky are particularly happy about the state of their teams on March 1. And Kentucky is artificially inflated by a bad SEC.

Context is always key. College basketball is hard. And there are no dominant teams this year (even Kansas has its flaws, as we showed a while back and Baylor showed more recently). This year more than any, anything can happen.

[JasonEvans]

The Maryland swoon is getting worse. They are getting absolutely housed at Rutgers right now, down 16 with 14 minutes left. The Terps have had some very inspired comebacks this season, but it is possible those results hid what was a flawed team. The Terps are on the verge of losing their 3rd game in the past 4 with the only win being a 1 point victory at Minnesota.

[MChambers]

The Maryland swoon is getting worse. They are getting absolutely housed at Rutgers right now, down 16 with 14 minutes left. The Terps have had some very inspired comebacks this season, but it is possible those results hid what was a flawed team. The Terps are on the verge of losing their 3rd game in the past 4 with the only win being a 1 point victory at Minnesota.

This is a fairly typical late season swoon for a Maryland coached by Turgeon. I was surprised it didn’t happen a week or two earlier.