2024-2025 General MBB Preseason Discussion

brevity

brevity

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We have existing threads for what Duke is up to, but this is a thread for every other men's college basketball team, from now until opening night in early November.

There's a lot of nationwide preseason stuff to eventually share, but for now, let's start with some strange news out of Chapel Hill:

www.fayobserver.com

UNC basketball’s Zayden High will not play for Tar Heels in 2024-25 season

UNC made an announcement about sophomore basketball player Zayden High on Tuesday evening. Here's what we know.
www.fayobserver.com

Zayden High is no longer enrolled at North Carolina, the school announced Tuesday evening.

Because High is not enrolled, he will not be eligible to play his sophomore basketball season for the Tar Heels, who won the ACC regular-season championship and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
Click to expand...

High is a 6-9 forward who might have provided some depth to UNC's piecemeal frontcourt. Isaac Schade of Locked on Tar Heels went live with this in the below video, and I think he's still talking:


His take is that High will re-enroll in the spring, but redshirt for the whole season, and return in 2025-2026. Make of that what you will.
 
This hurts a little less with their late addition of Tyzhaun Claude, the GT transfer.

I have a pretty good idea of what to expect on our perimeter battle with UNC. I have no idea what to expect inside. What is Hubert basketball without Armando Bacot?
 
brevity said:
We have existing threads for what Duke is up to, but this is a thread for every other men's college basketball team, from now until opening night in early November.

There's a lot of nationwide preseason stuff to eventually share, but for now, let's start with some strange news out of Chapel Hill:

www.fayobserver.com

UNC basketball’s Zayden High will not play for Tar Heels in 2024-25 season

UNC made an announcement about sophomore basketball player Zayden High on Tuesday evening. Here's what we know.
www.fayobserver.com



High is a 6-9 forward who might have provided some depth to UNC's piecemeal frontcourt. Isaac Schade of Locked on Tar Heels went live with this in the below video, and I think he's still talking:


His take is that High will re-enroll in the spring, but redshirt for the whole season, and return in 2025-2026. Make of that what you will.
Click to expand...
It'll be interesting if any actual details come out about this, but I doubt it... so all we can do is think about how this impacts Carolina on the court. With that in mind, it's worth recognizing that High likely would have had a non-trivial role on this year's UNC squad, even if it was to provide depth. Lest we forget, High was a Top 100 level guy in the 2023 class, and was listed at 6'9'' and 225 lbs by UNC on last year's roster. Believe it or not, that would've made him the third biggest guy in this year's UNC group, behind only Jalen Washington and freshman James Brown who is unlikely to be expected to make an early impact.

I think it's very likely High would've been expected to be ahead of the new transfer, Tyzhaun Claude, in the rotation: Claude only stands 6'7'' and only managed 17 mpg at Georgia Tech (although his 5.2 rebounds per game in that limited run is potentially intriguing). This means that UNC is down to three guys who could roughly be classified as "bigs" that are expected to play significant minutes this year: Washington, Ven-Allen Lubin (the transfer from Vanderbilt) and Jae'Lyn Withers. This could place even more pressure on Cade Tyson to play significant minutes at the 4, which while potentially explosive from an offensive standpoint would leave UNC very exploitable on the defensive end.
 
So their starting frontcourt will likely be Jalen Washington and Jaelyn Withers, with Lubin coming off the bench and maybe Cade Tyson and Drake Powell playing some minutes at the 4. That has to be terrifying for their fans, and not in a good way. Their backcourt will be elite, possibly one of the best in the country (although I'm not completely sold on Cad'oh and they have a poor history of developing freshmen into immediate contributors) but it's going to be tough to overcome that weak frontcourt unless Washington makes an enormous leap.
 
UrinalCake said:
So their starting frontcourt will likely be Jalen Washington and Jaelyn Withers, with Lubin coming off the bench and maybe Cade Tyson and Drake Powell playing some minutes at the 4. That has to be terrifying for their fans, and not in a good way.
Click to expand...

Disagree, it is always good for their fans to be terrified.
 
hallcity said:
The new scoreboard doesn't look quite as humongous as I expected.View attachment 17887
Click to expand...
There do not appear to be any changes to the support beams above the new scoreboard. Or if there are they did a good job matching the paint. That could mean that the new scoreboard is no heavier than the previous one, or that both are well within the load capacity of the two cross-beams and the three main beams they attach to. I imagine the new scoreboard could actually be lighter with newer more compact components, even though it is bigger.
 
Know your enemy. It took a long time -- maybe because of the Zayden High issue, whatever that is -- but UNC finally has an official 2024-2025 roster.

Last year of eligibility

RJ Davis (6-0 guard): 21.2 pts, 3.6 reb, 3.5 ast in 34.8 mpg last season
Jae'Lyn Withers (6-9 forward): 4.2 pts, 3.6 reb in 12.4 mpg
Tyzhaun Claude (6-7 forward): 4.8 pts, 5.2 reb in 17.4 mpg for Georgia Tech

Two years of eligibility

Seth Trimble (6-3 guard): 5.2 pts, 2.1 reb in 17.1 mpg
Jalen Washington (6-10 forward): 3.9 pts, 2.6 reb in 8.3 mpg
Ven-Allen Lubin (6-8 forward): 12.3 pts, 6.3 reb in 28.2 mpg for Vanderbilt
Cade Tyson (6-7 wing): 16.2 pts, 5.9 reb, 1.6 ast in 31.6 mpg for Belmont

Three years of eligibility

Elliot Cadeau (6-1 guard): 7.3 pts, 2.2 reb, 4.1 ast in 23.8 mpg

Four years of eligibility

James Brown (6-10 forward): RSCI #93
Ian Jackson (6-4 guard): RSCI #6
Drake Powell (6-6 wing): RSCI #11

Non-scholarship athletes

Elijah Davis (6-3 senior guard): 2.6 pts, 1.2 reb in 7.3 mpg for Division III Lynchburg
Russell Hawkins (6-1 sophomore guard): walk-on
John Holbrook (6-8 freshman forward): walk-on

According to Jon Rothstein, UNC returns 56 percent of their scoring from last year (I calculated 52 percent then, and now it's 51 percent with High gone), still 3rd in the ACC.
 
Anonymous men's hoops insider Trilly Donovan wants to start a national dialogue on the stuff that matters: the 2024-2025 All-Name Team, a celebration of some of the coolest names in college basketball.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1832476328056013139

In case you can't click over to his Google Doc, or simply don't want to, here are his candidates. I put them in alphabetical order by last name, so that you could see the Wright brothers (All and Always, not Orville and Wilbur) next to each other. The few brave readers of DBR's least popular thread are already aware of those names, along with Miami-to-Villanova transfer Wooga Poplar and Siena women's player Ana Conde. (Sadly, Trilly Donovan's list is men-only. We may have to wait for anonymous women's hoops insider Skim Milkey to compile a separate list.)

ACC:

Churchill Abass (Wake Forest)
Omaha Biliew (Wake Forest)
Lee Dort (California)
Papa Kante (Pittsburgh)
Kon Knueppel (Duke)
Ven-Allen Lubin (UNC)
Sir Muhammad (Notre Dame)
Kario Oquendo (SMU)
Nijel Pack (Miami)
Mylyjael Poteat (Virginia Tech)
Chance Puryear (SMU)
Kowacie Reeves (Georgia Tech)
Dontrez Styles (NC State)
Divine Ugochukwu (Miami)
Chance Westry (Syracuse)

Other conferences:

Fletcher Abee (UNC Asheville)
Achor Achor (Kansas State)
Sultan Adewale (Albany)
Favour Aire (Bryant)
Pip Ajayi (Bucknell)
Posh Alexander (Dayton)
Marvel Allen (Dayton)
Bubz Alvarez (South Dakota State)
Denver Anglin (Rice)
Atiki Ally Atiki (New Mexico)
Tobe Awaka (Arizona)
Ace Bailey (Rutgers)
Solo Ball (Connecticut)
Oumar Ballo (Indiana)
Yanis Bamba (Wichita State)
Love Bettis (Northwestern State)
Flory Bidunga (Kansas)
Finley Bizjack (Butler)
Annor Boateng (Missouri)
Anton Bonke (Providence)
Bowen Born (Colorado State)
Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk (South Carolina)
Churchill Bounds (Wagner)
Monty Bowser (Northern Arizona)
Pharrell Boyogueno (Gardner Webb)
Koby Brea (Kentucky)
Kheni Briggs (Albany)
Blue Cain (Georgia)
Brewer Carruth (Southern Miss)
Enoch Cheeks (Dayton)
Alpha Chibambe (UMBC)
Kiir Kiir Chol (Sacramento State)
DQ Cole (Oakland)
Pharoah Compton (San Diego State)
Mookie Cook (Oregon)
Supreme Cook (Oregon)
Bijan Cortes (Wichita State)
Dain Dainja (Memphis)
Bangot Dak (Colorado)
DanQuez Dawsey (Lamar)
Mister Dean (USC Upstate)
Duke Deen (Bradley)
Egor Demin (BYU)
Tito Deng (Jacksonville)
Ebrima Dibba (Cleveland State)
Seal Diouf (Georgetown)
Garwey Dual (Seton Hall)
Darlinstone Dubar (Tennessee)
Clemson Edomwonyin (Drexel)
Godswill Erheriene (Seton Hall)
Federiko Federiko (Texas Tech)
Frankie Fidler (Michigan State)
Boogie Fland (Arkansas)
Major Freeman (Siena)
Wyatt Fricks (Marshall)
Legend Geeter (Detroit Mercy)
Gob Gob (UMKC)
Pasha Goodrazi (San Jose State)
Richard Goods (Hampton)
Juansee Gorosito (Ball State)
Magoon Gwath (San Diego State)
Chucky Hepburn (Louisville)
Moses Hipps (Boise State)
Cli'Ron Hornbeak (Kent State)
Quel'Ron House (Jacksonville State)
Pop Isaacs Jr. (Creighton)
Kasparas Jakucionis (Illinois)
Jizzle James (Cincinnati)
Gibson Jimerson (Saint Louis)
Rokas Jocius (UCF)
Puff Johnson (Penn State)
Trap Johnson (Montana State)
Nelly Junior Joseph (New Mexico)
Koat Keat (UC Santa Barbara)
Yaya Keita (Oklahoma)
DarKaun King (North Alabama)
Iverson King (Presbyterian)
Po'Boigh King (North Carolina Central)
Miles Klapper (Idaho)
Yaxel Lendeborg (UAB)
Lefteris Liotopoulos (St. John's)
Tamin Lipsey (Iowa State)
Miro Little (Utah)
Zocko Littleton Jr. (Rider)
Langston Love (Baylor)
Orlando Lovejoy (Detroit Mercy)
Hunter Jack Madden (Abiliene Christian)
Sincere Malone (Nicholls)
Zeke Mayo (Kansas)
Briggs McClain (IU Indy)
Matthew McCool (Marist)
Dug McDaniel (Kansas State)
Armani Mighty (Central Michigan)
Selton Miguel (Maryland)
Smurf Millender (UTSA)
Vyctorius Miller (LSU)
Polo Minor (Oregon State)
Gediminas Mokšeckas (Campbell)
Bube Momah (Lehigh)
Gods'Love Nwabude (Eastern Michigan)
Shy Odom (Vermont)
Great Osobor (Washington)
Chop Paljor (Arkansas Pine Bluff)
Brody Peebles (Belmont)
J.P. Pegues (Auburn)
Clash Peters (Georgia State)
Labaron Philon (Alabama)
Wooga Poplar (Villanova)
Leigh Rickwood-Pitt (Northern Arizona)
Apostolos Roumoglou (Richmond)
Lolo Rudolph (Cal State Fullerton)
Bubba Russ (Florida A&M)
Blaize Sagna (Stetson)
Diogo Seixas (Central Arkansas)
DJ Shine (Queens)
Cam Slaymaker (Idaho State)
Primo Spears (UTSA)
Dusty Stromer (Gonzaga)
Silas Sunday (Hofstra)
Saxby Sunderland (Chicago State)
Pablo Tamba (UC Davis)
KyKy Tandy (FAU)
Nendah Tarke (Towson)
Kur Teng (Michigan State)
Saint Thomas (USC)
Blaise Threatt (Weber State)
Tony Toney (UAB)
UU Turay (Utah Tech)
Milos Uzan (Houston)
Ace Valentine (UMBC)
Steele Venters (Gonzaga)
Camp Wagner (Indiana State)
Kerwin Walton (Texas Tech)
George Washington III (Richmond)
Pop Weathers (Texas A&M Commerce)
Bash Wieland (Chattanooga)
Greedy Williams (UNC Wilmington)
Money Williams (Montana)
Creed Williamson (Little Rock)
Foster Wonders (Green Bay)
Knute Wood (Tennessee State)
Rollie Worster (Nebraska)
All Wright (Valparaiso)
Always Wright (Rhode Island)
Atin Wright (North Texas)
Titus Yearout (Idaho)
Zakai Zeigler (Tennessee)
 
brevity said:
Anonymous men's hoops insider Trilly Donovan wants to start a national dialogue on the stuff that matters: the 2024-2025 All-Name Team, a celebration of some of the coolest names in college basketball.
Click to expand...

Voting is already in. The five players selected for the 2024-2025 All-Name Team:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1833693420537217480

Gob Gob (UMKC)
Po’Boigh King (North Carolina Central)
Always Wright (Rhode Island)
Supreme Cook (Oregon)
Jizzle James (Cincinnati)

Good to see one in-state player on the list, but UNCW’s Greedy Williams was robbed! Probably lost votes because people think he’s a ball hog.
 
Andy Katz has put together a few lists for the upcoming season.

Top 16 bigs

1. Hunter Dickinson, Kansas
2. Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton
3. Johni Broome, Auburn
4. Graham Ike, Gonzaga
5. Derik Queen, Maryland
6. Norchad Omier, Baylor
7. Great Osobor, Washington
8. Oumar Ballo, Indiana
9. J'Wan Roberts, Houston
10. Yaxel Lendeborg, UAB
11. Coleman Hawkins, Kansas State
12. Cliff Omoruyi, Alabama
13. Grant Nelson, Alabama
14. Robbie Avila, St. Louis
15. Jonas Aidoo, Arkansas
16. JT Toppin, Texas Tech

Top 16 wings

1. Cooper Flagg, Duke
2. Alex Karaban, Connecticut
3. Ace Bailey, Rutgers
4. Dawson Garcia, Minnesota
5. Liam McNeeley, Connecticut
6. Tucker DeVries, West Virginia
7. Johnell Davis, Arkansas
8. Hunter Sallis, Wake Forest
9. AJ Storr, Kansas
10. Jaxson Robinson, Kentucky
11. Payton Sandfort, Iowa
12. Bryce Hopkins, Providence
13. Tyon Grant-Foster, Grand Canyon
14. Tyson Degenhart, Boise State
15. Rylan Griffen, Kansas
16. Tramon Mark, Texas

Top 16 guards

1. Dylan Harper, Rutgers
2. RJ Davis, UNC
3. Mark Sears, Alabama
4. Caleb Love, Arizona
5. Braden Smith, Purdue
6. Dajuan Harris, Kansas
7. Bruce Thornton, Ohio State
8. Wade Taylor IV, Texas A&M
9. Tamin Lipsey, Iowa State
10. LJ Cryer, Houston
11. Ryan Nembhard, Gonzaga
12. Kam Jones, Marquette
13. Tyrese Proctor, Duke
14. Kadary Richmond, St. John's
15. Matthew Murrell, Ole Miss
16. Zakai Ziegler, Tennessee

Top 16 three-point shooters

1. Koby Brea, Kentucky
2. Mark Sears, Alabama
3. Payton Sandfort, Iowa
4. Kam Jones, Marquette
5. RJ Davis, UNC
6. LJ Cryer, Houston
7. Johnell Davis, Arkansas
8. Trevin Knell, BYU
9. Matthew Murrell, Ole Miss
10. Walter Clayton Jr, Florida
11. Nijel Pack, Miami
12. Caleb Love, Arizona
13. Zeke Mayo, Kansas
14. Josh Hubbard, Mississippi State
15. Wooga Poplar, Villanova
16. Dominick Harris, UCLA

He also ranks UNC-Duke as the top rivalry and Cameron Indoor Stadium as the second best arena behind Allen Fieldhouse.

Someone at Keeping It Heel lost his marbles about the "flat-out disrespect" of RJ Davis in the list of top guards. Curious, I looked at the list, and he was ranked... 2nd. Much like one of those ill-advised DBR front page articles (like today, with JD King doubling down on interpreting Dan Hurley's state of mind), the author here tries to self-defuse the situation he created, but he's pretty ticked off about seeing a Rutgers freshman at #1, and now it's out there for others to see.

Put it this way. It's a big world of college basketball beyond Durham, or Chapel Hill, or wherever a favorite team resides. It's a better world, too. Imagine if you just stopped watching the NCAA Tournament out of principle if your team wasn't playing or was no longer playing. I understand a general cooling-off period, or maybe skipping a championship game if you just weren't feeling it (Indiana-Maryland 2002 comes to mind), but to ignore everyone else entirely is denying yourself some pretty good entertainment -- at a time when the season is about to end, and there's nothing as good in the sports world for the next several months.

It's nice that Andy Katz ranked Cooper Flagg #1 among wings, but I would have been fine if he didn't. Frankly, I don't really understand the uniformity of opinion with Flagg as the top pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. The overwhelming favorite, sure, but unanimous? Nobody disagrees? You can't find one person -- true believer or crusty contrarian -- who might suggest VJ Edgecombe, or the Rutgers pair, or even Khaman Maluach?
 
Wow, there seems to be as many former ACC players in that list as ACC players (Garcia, Love, Poplar). I always thought Andy Katz was kind to the ACC.
 
brevity said:
Andy Katz has put together a few lists for the upcoming season.

Top 16 guards

1. Dylan Harper, Rutgers
2. RJ Davis, UNC
3. Mark Sears, Alabama
4. Caleb Love, Arizona
5. Braden Smith, Purdue
6. Dajuan Harris, Kansas
7. Bruce Thornton, Ohio State
8. Wade Taylor IV, Texas A&M
9. Tamin Lipsey, Iowa State
10. LJ Cryer, Houston
11. Ryan Nembhard, Gonzaga
12. Kam Jones, Marquette
13. Tyrese Proctor, Duke
14. Kadary Richmond, St. John's
15. Matthew Murrell, Ole Miss
16. Zakai Ziegler, Tennessee

Someone at Keeping It Heel lost his marbles about the "flat-out disrespect" of RJ Davis in the list of top guards. Curious, I looked at the list, and he was ranked... 2nd. Much like one of those ill-advised DBR front page articles (like today, with JD King doubling down on interpreting Dan Hurley's state of mind), the author here tries to self-defuse the situation he created, but he's pretty ticked off about seeing a Rutgers freshman at #1, and now it's out there for others to see.
Click to expand...
Setting aside the religious wars about ranking freshmen above "proven" college players, I will be very surprised if RJ Davis makes more All-American teams than Mark Sears does. Going 4-20 (0-9 from three) in the head to head matchup in the NCAAs doesn't scream "I'm better than him!".
 
brevity said:
Top 16 three-point shooters

1. Koby Brea, Kentucky
2. Mark Sears, Alabama
3. Payton Sandfort, Iowa
4. Kam Jones, Marquette
5. RJ Davis, UNC
6. LJ Cryer, Houston
7. Johnell Davis, Arkansas
8. Trevin Knell, BYU
9. Matthew Murrell, Ole Miss
10. Walter Clayton Jr, Florida
11. Nijel Pack, Miami
12. Caleb Love, Arizona
13. Zeke Mayo, Kansas
14. Josh Hubbard, Mississippi State
15. Wooga Poplar, Villanova
16. Dominick Harris, UCLA
Click to expand...

Pie bet says Kon Kneuppel has a higher 3-point FG% than half the guys on this list.

This may be my riskiest pie bet ever -- as K2 has never played a second of college ball -- but he's gonna be a shooting stud, I am sure of it.
 
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