College Hoops Season 2023-24

the nearly-all-White Jays of Creighton manhandled the all-black Oklahoma State team last night. somehow the gym rats didn’t get the memo that White men aren’t supposed to be good at basketball, and they unleashed some of that privilege i’ve been hearing about.

it was a very nice bounce back after their first loss of the season, on Thursday, November 23rd versus Colorado State, a game where they Whitejays couldn’t throw the ball in the ocean.
 
I’m liking the early season tests a lot of these top teams are facing. Usually have to wait a month before big time games.
 
About as generous as you can get from legacy sports media:

Surprise Player of the Month: Reed Sheppard, Kentucky​

Perhaps lost among an absolutely loaded Kentucky recruiting class that included the No. 3, 5, 6 and 21 players in the class, Sheppard -- ranked a "mere" 79th in his class by 247Sports -- hasn't just been Kentucky's best player. According to Kenpom's Player of the Year algorithm, he's been the best player in the sport.
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No, Sheppard is not going to win player of the year (at least probably not). He's not going to continue shooting 68.8% from 2 and 63.3% from 3-point range. But the son of 1998 Final Four Most Outstanding Player Jeff Sheppard has been outstanding with big performances against Kansas (13 points on five shots) and Miami (21 points on 13 shots). He is also a premier defender, currently sporting the seventh-best steal rate in D-I. He hasn't even started a game yet. As John Calipari gets his big men back, it'll be interesting how his rotations change. Sheppard, though, has earned his spot and then some.
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Watching St. Thomas Tommies take it to a mostly diverse Western Michigan team. St. Thomas shares the ball and drains 3s. Their star is a 6’7 Guard by the name of Parker Bjorklund who already has 10pts with ten to go in 1st half. One of the old cuck announcers declared him “not overly fast, but very crafty” . Caste speak 101.
 
Bucky said:
Watching St. Thomas Tommies take it to a mostly diverse Western Michigan team. St. Thomas shares the ball and drains 3s. Their star is a 6’7 Guard by the name of Parker Bjorklund who already has 10pts with ten to go in 1st half. One of the old cuck announcers declared him “not overly fast, but very crafty” . Caste speak 101.
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He finished with 22pts on 7/12 shooting. 3/6 from deep. 4Rebounds.

6’9 Freshman Big Man, Carter Bjerke had 7pts and 5 rebounds off the bench. 2/3 shooting.

Guards Drake Dobbs had 7pts and 5ast

And Ben Nau chipped in 11 off the bench.

Good win to get them back on track.
 
booth said:
ESPN has Sheppard as a 1-and-done first-round draft pick.

www.aseaofblue.com

ESPN NBA Mock Draft now has Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham in first round

The Dilly and Reed backcourt has been nothing short of amazing.
www.aseaofblue.com www.aseaofblue.com
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Happy for the kid and I hope he keeps trending upward. One thing exciting about the NBA the last 5 years or so is that they are finally
drafting some american white guys. They have always went after the europeans while ignoring americans. It's slowly changing!
 
#1 Purdue got upset on the road at Northwestern last night, dropping their first game of the year, 88-92.

despite a HUGE rebounding advantage, the Boilermakers’ loss can be described with one simple stat: turnovers. Purdue had 17; Northwestern had only 3.

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Saint Mary’s traveled up to snowy Boise State for a Whiteout. both teams started four overachieving gym rats, and each plays several more off the bench. unfortunately, one side had to lose, and last night it was the Gaels who came up short.

the Broncos play very physical defense, and it unsettled the Gaels to start the game. Saint Mary’s didn’t score a field goal for the first 7 minutes. to add to the misery, they had an unusual amount of turnovers in that span, digging themselves quite a hole.

for the Broncos, Degenhart (of Chitwood University fame) was unguardable. his strength in the post was dominating the Gaels’ guards, and he finished with an efficient 17 (on 5-9 shooting). additionally, his versatility on defense disrupted Saint Mary’s motion offense.

my biggest concern for the Gaels is their continued struggles offensively. they just aren’t sharing the ball like is typical for Randy Bennett teams. last night they finished with only 8 assists in the game (to 14 turnovers). as such, they’re taking a lot of tough, low percentage shots, and it’s reflected in their low efficiency scoring output.
 
Big time upset for Northwestern!

I figured Degenhart would have his way with an undersized St Mary’s squad. They are off to a horrid start. I will give them that they have played much better competition than usual this early on.
 
Good win for Wisconsin. Klesmit had 21 1st half points! Wahl and Crowl dominated down low. Ighodaro being projected mid 1st round didn’t have an answer for them. Also agreed @Lunch Pail Guy . Those 2 have been more efficient on offense and it’s helped tremendously. Still not much from Essegian though. I feel he will transfer out.
 
Lunch Pail Guy said:
Wisconsin has been a remarkably better team since Hepburn and Storr stopped hogging the ball.
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this is a true statement.

fortunately for the Badgers, they managed to prevail today against #3 Marquette, despite Storr (5-14) and Hepburn (3-9) both jacking up a lot of poor shots today despite (because of?) Klesmit’s hot start. Wahl and Crowl both played well, finishing with efficient double digits scoring and leading the team in rebounding.

for Marquette, Kolek handled Wisconsin’s physical defense brilliantly (6 assists with just 1 turnover), though he shot poorly (4-11).
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Reed Sheppard got the first start of his Kentucky career today and responded in a BIG WAY. the true freshman has been incredibly efficient offensively off the bench, but he continued that run today as a starter, finishing with team-highs in points (25 on 9-17 shooting), rebounds (9), assists (6) and steals (2). the only blemish on his day were 3 turnovers. unfortunately for Wildcat fans, his teammates didn’t show up and lost at home to UNC Wilmington. ouch!

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Kyle Filipowski played BIG in the second-consecutive loss for the Blue Devils. the big sophomore finished with 12 points (4-9 shooting), and team-highs of 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 blocks with ZERO turnovers. my only question is this: how do you have THREE players , including one off the bench, who take more shots than your best offensive player?!? Cra-Zy.

and to wrap up the major upsets of the day, #18 Villanova lost to Drexel. LOL. i have no interest in this game, but losing to such a low quality team shows how poor the “talent” is when it doesn’t play well.
 
i just watched the replay of the Purdue at Northwestern game. WOW! what a fun game to watch! both teams played so hard, neither relented, both made big runs which were answered by their opponent’s huge shots. so good! and it didn’t hurt that both teams played so many of our guys for big stretches. best of luck to both teams moving forward.

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Gonzaga knocked off the HUGELY hyped backcourt of USC last night, in large part due to the play of slender true freshman wing, Dusty Stromer (of Chitwood University fame). Stromer was 4-9 from three and tied for a team-high 15 points, rebounded very well, and was the best perimeter defender in the game. he’s got a bright future.

also playing major roles off the bench were stretch fours Braden Huff and Ben Gregg. both athletes hit two three-pointers, with Gregg also playing stellar defense and hitting the glass hard especially in the second half, while Huff gave a big scoring lift in the first half.

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Creighton absolutely torched Nebraska in the first half this afternoon, behind Baylor Scheierman’s six 3-pointers before the break. as a team, they nailed 10 first-half trifectas. they took their foot off the gas pedal after the break, but they still cruised to a 29-point win.
 
20th ranked Illinois G/F Marcus Domask scored 33 points beating 11th ranked Florida Atlantic 98-89 ; who was led by 7'-1" Vladislav Goldin 23 points in just 19 mins of action!
 
Good to hear about Domask! A positive from the transfer portal, otherwise he’d still be at Southern Illinois. Domask was a prolific HS scorer in WI.

Wisconsin knocked off Michigan State pretty easily last night. Good efforts from Crowl,Wahl, Klesmit. Essegian even chipped in a 3, only played 4 minutes.. Their affletes played great as well. It seems Gard has finally got Storr playing team basketball. Big help.

On the flip side Coach Izzo has a 4-4 team.. It’s too early to write them off for the year, but their rotation is very Dark. So I’m enjoying them struggle. They definitely miss Joey Hauser.
 
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Currently watching South Alabama vs Mercer. USA has 3 overachievers in their rotation. Hair Jordan aka Ethan Kizer, 6’8 Big Man Thomas Howell, and 6’10 sharp shooter Julian Margrave(40 percent from 3). All 3 should continue to thrive this season and next if they choose to stay together.

Mercer has former Notre Dame Guard Robby Carmody starting and averaging 10 a game. They also have a wild haired freshman of their own, in Jake Davis, from Indianapolis area chipping in 10 a game. Mercer also has a 5’10 backup PG from Detroit in Benard that sees time.
 
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I forgot to mention another 6’8 gym rat in Elijah Ormiston. By way of Minneapolis, he has 12 second half points for South Alabama and I don’t think he’s missed a shot yet!

South Alabama has no problem playing gym rats at forward!
 
thanks for the updates, @Bucky and @TwentyTwo. it’s good news regarding South Alabama. i had no idea about that team!
 
No problem JC! Had the day off and noticed there was an 11 am basketball game, so I figured I’d check it out. Surprisingly there was more to cheer for than expected.
 
Kolek is putting on a Clinic against #12 Texas. ever since he transferred to Chitwood University, he’s simply EXPLODED! there’s a reason i call him the GM.
 
Clemson has been the surprise of the season thus far, to me. behind the strength of the three overachieving gym rats in their starting lineup, the Tigers are ranked in the top-25. and after tonight’s win over in-state rival South Carolina, they’re still undefeated, at 8-0 on the year.

PJ Hall has been outstanding for a while, and Syracuse transfer Joe Girard III has been a long-appreciated sharpshooter. but perhaps more than anyone else on the roster, it has been the performance of Ian Schieffelin that has prompted the rise. he has been a terror on the glass of late, snagging 10+ boards each of the past four games and shooting 50% from the floor this year.
 
In a battle for Utah, the Utes beat the #14 ranked BYU Cougars. In most years this would not be the preferred outcome, but as discussed earlier in this thread, the Utes start 5 White athletes. Out of their 8 players tonight, 7 were our guys. Gabe Madsen lead the way with 17 and Branden Carlson added 15. For the Cougars, they started 4 Whites but only 6 of 10 in their rotation. For any other program this is great, but at BYU we wouldn't typically see so many non-Whites.

Utah is now 7-2 and BYU 8-1. Hopefully both teams make the NCAA tourney.
 
Freethinker said:
In a battle for Utah, the Utes beat the #14 ranked BYU Cougars. In most years this would not be the preferred outcome, but as discussed earlier in this thread, the Utes start 5 White athletes. Out of their 8 players tonight, 7 were our guys. Gabe Madsen lead the way with 17 and Branden Carlson added 15. For the Cougars, they started 4 Whites but only 6 of 10 in their rotation. For any other program this is great, but at BYU we wouldn't typically see so many non-Whites.

Utah is now 7-2 and BYU 8-1. Hopefully both teams make the NCAA tourney.
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The rare five-for-five white guy team from a power five school is exciting. I'm with you; I hope the Utes are going places this season. They look good so far
 
Freethinker said:
In a battle for Utah, the Utes beat the #14 ranked BYU Cougars. In most years this would not be the preferred outcome, but as discussed earlier in this thread, the Utes start 5 White athletes. Out of their 8 players tonight, 7 were our guys. Gabe Madsen lead the way with 17 and Branden Carlson added 15. For the Cougars, they started 4 Whites but only 6 of 10 in their rotation. For any other program this is great, but at BYU we wouldn't typically see so many non-Whites.

Utah is now 7-2 and BYU 8-1. Hopefully both teams make the NCAA tourney.
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