All the Kentuckys are big time back

Hey now, Louisville lost to a D2 team in a scrimmage by ten last year.

https://gocards.com/sports/mens-bask...boxscore/23992

Only losing by 3 this year to a D2 team shows Louisville is coming back!

RIP to Bobby Knight, though I question whether "peace" will be found wherever he'll be stirring things up in the afterlife.

He had his place in an era, but it’s hard to respect looking back.

Nonetheless, RIP.

**** Bob knight. Good riddance you scumbag

Considered starting a thread titled ‘some 83 year old piece of **** died today’ but seemed uncouth

Not sure if there is any middle ground about liking or hating Bobby Knight. I was never a fan of his methods or his arrogance but I did respect his accomplishments.

otoh my uncle, an IU grad, thinks he's the best coach of anything ever.

Ahh he choked and punched a few people but that was mostly fun and games back in 70s/80s

What didn’t kill people made them stronger

RIP BK

RIP Coach Knight. He was the polar opposite of Dean’s ways but I still respect it. He made men out of boys, and pushed the line with players not cut out for his style. Most of his legends love him. The dudes we can’t even name complain about him or are dead from being pussies that turned into train wrecks after their days at IU.

I will admit he was a better X and Os coach than Dean and that is quite the praise. He was a d*ick but I feel if most of us met him would view him as a good man and legend they had the pleasure of meeting. I would extend Coach K the same. Met a dude at the Atlanta airport who K was the god father to. Told me yeah he seems an ass on tv and coaching but he’s a total family man and great friend. Most all of these guys are just normal dudes vs Pay Pal and Self. **** those guys.

They are already down to 22/1 from 30/1 on DraftKings. I'd have them #1 in the nation if I were ranking teams. They return all their best defenders from the #1 KenPom defense last year and added two elite shooters in the transfer portal including this guy who scored 20 ppg last year at a low major

Yeah, but Rick Barnes.

Can't deny that counterpoint. Regular season Rick flames out about as early and often as Painter.

I do want to give Tennessee's Santiago Vescovi the 23-24 Aaron Craft/Perry Ellis award of how the **** is he still playing

It was fun to watch them bully ball and punk dook out March Madness last year, but they remind me a lot of Butler under Brad Stevens. Just awful basketball to watch and needed a ton of luck of the draw and opposing teams making inexplicable decisions (the Pitt foul on the rebound wtf was that?). Depending on tough as nails defense usually doesn’t work out vs a fluid offense with shooters and athletes. Maybe they added that with some shooters, but I’ll believe it when I see it with Rick Barnes. He’s pretty predictable for a tough defense and blah offense.

You feeling any high hopes for this season, or will this be the end of Cal?

Shrug...I don't know. Ask me after the Kansas game. If UK wins or even keeps it close my hopes are sky high. If it looks like UK is a center away...well we have a center or two coming. I'm kind of expecting Kansas to solidly beat UK, but also depends on how it looks.

But I kind of think this year might be the end of Cal either way. Might actually be more likely to be the end of Cal if he makes a final four. He has always struck me as someone who wants to ride off in the sunset.

To make matters worse for Ellis, the guy looked mid 40s when he was still in college.

Not a whole lot for the opening night. I'll watch UNC of course, tune in to Zona to see if Caleb is still Calebing, and USC vs Kansas St might be the only real matchup to watch otherwise.

Looks like Vegas has us at 18.5. Implied score of 80-61.5.

I'll be disappointed if we win by less than 20.

Meh first game with basically an entirely new team. Season went awful last year when Bacot was hurt for a month and the only two scorers were Caleb and RJ and the defense knew it so we saw all of those boneheaded shots. I don’t think Bacot was ever healthy last year past November. He was finished by the end of the ACC tournament and couldn’t have played in a week for the NCAA’s if he wanted to.

Basically just win, don’t get hurt, show better ball movement and shooting than last year and some evidence that Hubert has a clue what he’s doing coaching. It’s put up or shut up. It’s just Radford so who cares if it’s a 10 point win or 30 point win for game 1? Personally I just want to see that Ingram has a better shot than I think he does and he’s not just another Leaky out there on offense, and that Ryan is like Manek and money from 3 any time he catches it. I expect Bacot, RJ, and Cadeau to be exactly what we think they are. Would be great to have shooters on the floor at all times that can also defend where the defense can’t just sag down and double Bacot all the time.

Purdue taking care of its bizness

Solid win. The second half was definitely better than the first half. A lot to like from Ingram, Cormac and Cadeau. I doubt it'll take long for Cadeau to replace Wojcik in the starting lineup. The rest of the bench was solid too. Maybe we will actually have depth this year.

And of course, Mando and RJ did their thing too.

Just one game but if Washington is actually healthy and physically in D1 bball shape then he’s probably out of there next year if Hubert only plays him 9 minutes and forces him to be a down low player vs the face up shooter he’s advertised to be. Hubert called him the best shooting big man out of high school he’s ever seen, yet all he does is put him on the block. Maybe he’ll adjust and bring that part of the offense along as the season goes on.

Only sure things about this team is Bacot can rebound with anybody, RJ and Ryan are shooters, and Trimble can d up any guard he faces. The rest is a work in progress.

Sparty tied with James Madison, 14 seconds left.