College Hoops Season 2024-25

Phall

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I'll start the thread for news and notes from this upcoming basketball season.

Kansas seems to be the slight consensus as preseason #1. They will be led by the timeless big man Hunter Dickinson (I've stopped trying to do the math on eligibility), and the Jayhawks have a handful of white players on the deep bench. Zach Clemence will at least be in the rotation.

UConn is the top-rated "white-friendly" team. Key starter Alex Karaban returns, top mid-major transfer Aidan Mahaney joins the backcourt via St. Mary's, and McDonald's All-American Liam McNeeley will surely contribute as a freshman. This should give the Huskies 2-3 white players capable of leading the team in scoring on any given night. Dan Hurley is not done with white players just because his walk-on son has graduated - top 25 center prospect Eric Reibe just signed to join the 2025 class.

Purdue loses a lot of production from last season but seems to be a slight favorite as Big Ten conference champion. Junior point guard Braden Smith tops the list for projected conference POY. Fletcher Loyer joins him at shooting guard, and however the rotation pans out, the Boilermakers have a white majority of scholarship players that will continue their tradition of being a CF favorite.

Other potential All American players are Creighton center Ryan Kalkbrenner and Duke phenom Cooper Flagg.

Robbie Avila from Saint Louis, Max Shulga from VCU, Tyson Degenhart from Boise State, Ian Schieffelin from Clemson, Grant Nelson from Alabama, and Alex Condon from Florida have at least been mentioned here in the past as key contributors for March Madness teams.

Not some comprehensive preview, obviously: please add other players you're looking forward to seeing!
 

Freethinker

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Two white guys coming together in their debut with Duke!
Duke will be must watch this year. Flagg was great as expected but Kon is really going to surprise some people. That dunk he had over the defender was sweet and shows he’s not just a shooter.
 

Bucky

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A lot of Star power this season amongst the Blue Bloods! Duke’s duo looks as advertised.
 

white lightning

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The dunk by Kon Kneuppal was great and he got fouled but the stupid ref swallowed his whistle.

The dunk at the end by Cooper Kupp was NBA Athletecism!. He took off from 2 feet way outside of the paint and dunked it with power!
 

El Gringo

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The dunk by Kon Kneuppal was great and he got fouled but the stupid ref swallowed his whistle.

The dunk at the end by Cooper Kupp was NBA Athletecism!. He took off from 2 feet way outside of the paint and dunked it with power!
Both of those dunks were awesome!! It’s great to be able to root for Duke again! Hopefully that woman announcer isnt a regular for their games. It’s was like listening to Kamala.
 

Freethinker

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As @Phall mentioned in the initial post, a lot to look forward to these season just like the last couple. There is a noticeable upswing in White star power in recent years.

Looking at preseason All-American team predictions, many are showing 3 of 5 White for the 1st team. FR Cooper Flagg, SR Hunter Dickinson and SR Ryan Kalkbrenner. If you dig deeper into Player of the Year for each major conference, you see a lot of our guys in the preseason top spots (looking at top 2 for each):

ACC - Flagg (Duke)
Atlantic 10 - Robbie Avila (St Louis) & Max Shulga (VCU)
Big East - Kalkbrenner (Creighton) & Alex Karaban (UConn)
Big Sky - Brian Goracke (Montana St)
Big 12 - Dickinson (Kansas)
Big 10 - Braden Smith (Purdue)
CAA - Ante Brzovic (Charleston)
Conference USA - Daniel Batcho (LA Tech)
Ivy - Caden Pierce (Princeton) & Xaivain Lee who’s Korean so some may find interest in him as a Caste buster (Princeton)
Mountain West - Tyson Degenhart (Boise St)
WCC - Augustas Marciulionis (St Mary’s)
 

Phall

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Freshman 6'6 guard Kasparas Jakucionis from Lithuania is said to be raising expectations for the whole Illinois team's ceiling this season. He's on draft radars as a potential one-and-done. The Illini also added up-transfers Ben Humrichous and Jake Davis and Croatian big Tomislav Ivisic. Brad Underwood has sneakily assembled a white-friendly squad for this season.

Cal landed former 5-star Andrej Stojakovic in the transfer portal from Stanford, where he had an underwhelming freshman season. He should get plenty of shooting volume for the Bears. Air Force transfer Rytis Petraitis is also likely to find a big role this year.
 
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