College Hoops Season 2024-25

[Phall]

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!

 

[Logos5]

Two white guys coming together in their debut with Duke!

 

[Freethinker]

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]

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

 

[white lightning]

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]

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]

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]

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.

 

[Booth]

Duke begins its season tonight. This will probably be Cooper Flagg's only year of playing, so I will watch him all I can in college.

Duke Blue Devils 2024-25 Regular Season NCAAM Schedule - ESPN

ESPN has the full 2024-25 Duke Blue Devils Regular Season NCAAM schedule. Includes game times, TV listings and ticket information for all Blue Devils games.

www.espn.com

 

[Phall]

Will Tschetter lost almost 20 lbs this offseason to play faster and higher. At 6'8 230 lbs now, he will be a force in the Big Ten!

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1853632269652512843

 

[Bucky]

Nice dunk!

Knueppel(22pts) and Flagg(18pts, 7reb, 5ast)as advertised!

Braden Smith also picking up where he left off! 12pts, 8reb, 15ast!

South Dakota State with a big caste matchup already! Led by Oscar Cluff 14pts 14rebounds! Great game from the Aussie Big Man. Transferred over from Wazzou, and a dominant 1st game as SDSU starting Center.

Jackrabbits also had major contributions from true freshman Guards Joe Sayler 18pts and Owen Larson 14pts!

Men's hoops Day 1 takeaways: Flagg, Kansas, court-storming and more

A slow burn in the Duke phenom's college debut, plus the first court storm, other impressive freshmen and more from the 2024-25 season's opening night.

www.espn.com

 

[TwentyTwo]

Man y'all sure do a good job of previewing the College Basketball season. Seemed to have started a little early....
Lots of reason for optimism.

Creighton's opener tonight Ryan Kalkbrenner SCORED 49 POINTS (20-22 FG) "5th Most in Big East Conf. History! + 11 rebounds in a 99- 86 win over Texas- Rio Grand Valley....
Not a bad start for the 7' foot 1" Senior Center!

 

[white lightning]

Man y'all sure do a good job of previewing the College Basketball season. Seemed to have started a little early....
Lots of reason for optimism.

Creighton's opener tonight Ryan Kalkbrenner SCORED 49 POINTS (20-22 FG) "5th Most in Big East Conf. History! + 11 rebounds in a 99- 86 win over Texas- Rio Grand Valley....
Not a bad start for the 7' foot 1" Senior Center!

Not a bad start. Lmao. He was sensational. The man is so talented. Gonna be fun to watch this fall and winter.

 

[Phall]

Not a bad start. Lmao. He was sensational. The man is so talented. Gonna be fun to watch this fall and winter.

I watched a bit of the second half. It was a perfect storm! Close enough for him to play hard, but far enough away, talent-wise, that he could put up a record performance. Kalkbrenner should be a frontrunner for Player of the Year.

Crelghton is ranked #15 before any substantial results shake out. They were playing 4/5 white guys during the second-half stretch I watched. Pretty nice to see!

 

[white lightning]

 

[Leonardfan]

As only a casual follower of college basketball it really does seem that their has been an uptick in White athletes in the game.

 

[Bucky]

Helluva performance from Kalkenbrenner! Definitely going down as an all time great College Big. I believe he will be a 10 yr pro as well.

 

[Phall]

Andrej Stojakovic had a 15-6-1 line on 5/17 shooting, 2/9 threes against bodybag Cal Polytechnic. He will need to improve to live up to the potential that his name implies.

Max Klesmit scored 26 for Wisconsin in their opener: he'll be the best player on a team that starts three whites out of five.

Alex Condon scored a career-high 23 points to lead his Florida team.

Payton Sandfort of Iowa has a younger brother, Pryce, who just went for 22-4-1 (6/8 threes). Payton put up a 17-8-7 line for an Iowa team that isn't as white-friendly overall as its football team at the moment.

Can St. Mary's recover after losing Aidan Mahaney to UConn in the transfer portal? Augustas Marciulionas: 27-3-7. Paulus Murauskas: 23-11-2. Mitchell Saxen and Harry Wessels are figuring out who will start over the other at center.

Gabe Madsen had the top line tonight (25-4-1) for a Utah Utes team that starts two whites, two blacks, and a unique Asian (Mike Sharavjamts), then brings two more white players off the bench (including Gabe's twin brother Mason).

 

[Bucky]

Nice bounce back game from Klesmit, only had 9 on 1/7 shooting from deep in 1st game! Looks like Badgers will Start Klesmit at Guard as well as Nolan Winter at PF and Steven Crowl at C.

Off the bench Carter Gilmore is still hanging around. Glue guy, if he can hit a 3 once in a while, be even more valuable.

Looks like former walk-on Jack Janicki is deep in rotation, but has been getting minutes early in the season. Sharpshooter from Minnesota at 6’5

 

[Bucky]

Iowa nearly dropped a 100 on affletic Southern!

 

[Freethinker]

I'm a day late, but wanted to comment on UConn's debut. Alex Karaban was a total beast in his first game as "The Man" this year. 20 points (on super efficient shooting), 6 rebounds, 7 assists and 7 blocks! Freshman sensation Liam McNeeley also had a good debut. 18 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double. Transfer guard Aiden Mahaney had a quiet debut. Hopefully he gets settled in and returns to form.

Overlooked in Creighton and Kalkbrenner's monster game was Steven Ashworth. The sharpshooting guard had 25 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists. Most of his points came from the free throw line where he shot an unreal 17 for 17!

Finally, wanted to mention a local team (for me) from the NY tristate area, Rutgers. A top 25 team with high expectations due to top recruits Harper (black) and Bailey (black) joining the program. However, if they are to go far this year, it will be because they have 3 key White contributors. NJ native and team co-captain Zach Martini, joins after a successful 3 year run at Princeton. He debuted with a solid 8 points and 5 boards. The other White starter on opening night was junior guard Jordan Derkack. Jordan is also a NJ native, transferring back home after 2 years at Merrimack where he averaged 17 ppg last year. This year, he'll be more in a supporting role and debuted with 8 points and 5 boards as well. The 3rd player to highlight is 5th year sharpshooter PJ Hayes IV. PJ has had quite a path to get here. From Minnesota where he starred in HS. Played 3 years at DII program Black Hills State (SD) before transferring up to San Diego University (10.5 ppg). In his Rutgers debut, he received starters mins off the bench and scored 12 points. Rutgers won't be the top rooting option in the Big 10, but you can certainly do worse.

 

[Freethinker]

Michigan State should also be highlighted as "better than usual" for this year. They start 2 White athletes, whom they acquired through the transfer portal. Senior forward Frankie Fidler, who came over from Omaha and is averaging over 10 points per game so far. The other starter is 7'0" Pole Szymon Zapala, who started with Utah State and played last year at Longwood before arriving in Lansing. The rugged big man should provide some inside scoring, rebounds and blocked shots. Off the bench, junior Jaxon Kohler gets solid minutes and lead the team with 20 points and 13 rebound last night. Maybe he should start or get more PT going forward? Carson Cooper is a junior center who backs up the position. Again, not too shabby as the Big 10 is consistently the best large conference for allowing White athletes to play.

 

[Don Wassall]

"Student" athletes go at it on a plane:

REPORT: Plane Carrying Auburn Men's Basketball Team Diverted Due to In-Flight Brawl Among Players

The plane carrying the Auburn Tigers to had to divert after a fight erupted between players in the cabin, according to a report.

www.breitbart.com

 

[Bucky]

Lol first names confirm they were hitler youffs

Auburn recovered from TNB to beat Number 4 Houston! I’m sure they will be good rest of season, and avoid any future meltdowns! At least they are solving it with their fists, as a silver lining?

Auburn stuns No. 4 UH day after in-flight scuffle

Led by Tahaad Pettiford's 21 points, No. 11 Auburn upset No. 4 Houston 74-69 on Saturday night, a day after the Tigers' flight was forced to turn back because of a scuffle involving two players.

www.espn.com

 

[Booth]

The University of Florida will redshirt 7'9" freshman Oliver Rioux this year. UF has 6 whites on their team this year, several from different countries.

The world's tallest teenager, 7-foot-9 Olivier Rioux, plans to redshirt at Florida this season

The world's tallest teenager might have to wait a year to become the world's tallest college basketball player. Florida coach Todd Golden said Thursday that Olivier Rioux, a 7-foot-9 freshman who owns a spot in the Guinness record book, is planning to redshirt. Had the popular Canadian played...

sports.yahoo.com