NCAA Basketball 25-26 Season

[JMarkJohns]

Reigning champ Florida flew to Vegas for the Hall Of Fame kickoff with its entire Title core frontline and brand new shiny scoring/shooting guards and Arizona behind their senior PG and freshman PF held their own, and, in fact, dominated that frontline inside as the pair went for 57 points without a single 3FG attempt.

Koa, the freshman PG, made NCAA history with a debut, becoming the first known freshman to go for 30-5-5 with 4 stocks in a debut in the “modern” era since 1980, and, some reports say maybe ever thanks to older rules regarding freshman redshirts.

He finished with 30 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, 1 block on excellent shooting, got to the line for 12 FTA, and in general controlled the lane with his down hill off the dribble attacks. By my tally he should have had 7 assists.

His game and frame remind me of Corliss Williamson, maybe mixed with a little loser Julius Randle, absent the 3-ball.

Interesting prospect.

BYU escaped late, UCLA escaped late, Auburn survived OT, so outside of Florida I think most ranked teams won.

 

[JMarkJohns]

Y’all better start paying attention to Arizona!

Just went into Storrs and took a hard fought win from #3 UConn!

#3 Florida
#11 UCLA
#3 UConn

All away from Tucson.

Should be ranked #1 next week if the voters care about resumes.

 

[JMarkJohns]

Ok, so that #1 vote thing took a few extra weeks, but after routing #22 Auburn by 29, in a game that would have been 40 points had the refs not gone foul/FT happy in the final 10 minutes, and with Purdue getting waxed, I think Arizona is finally getting the top-spot.

With Alabama looming in a second true Road Game vs a top-10(ish) team. Great matchup next Saturday. Contrast in styles with Arizona a physical beast and lane dominator and Alabama straight chucking from deep all game.

 

[JMarkJohns]

Been an interesting season thus far. To me there’s 4 teams who look head and shoulders above everyone else:

Arizona
Connecticut
Duke
Michigan

Of them, Duke and Arizona are undefeated with 4 ranked wins each, Arizona’s average ranked win is around 11 (3, 3, 15, 22) and Duke’s is 17 (7, 15, 20, 22).

One common opponent between them is Florida. Arizona won by 6 in a neutral Away, and Duke won by 1 at Home.

Michigan has been murdering teams lately, but also barely survived a very .500 stretch early on with close wins by like 1 and 4 points over Wake and TCU. They share a common opponent with Arizona in Auburn… Michigan won by 30 at Auburn, Arizona won by 29 at Arizona. But Michigan has just two ranked wins on the year, 12 and 20.

UConn has played really well, with the one home loss to Arizona by 4, but 3 ranked wins as well over 7, 13, 21…

Houston has looked solid, but beatable in a few wins before their bad loss. Purdue has been a bit hot and cold. Their only ranked wins are at 8 Alabama and 15 Tech, and they killed Tech, but they struggled with An Oakland team Michigan murdered and with a ver mid Memphis team before losing by a billion yesterday to Iowa State.

Those feel like the top-6, with Houston and Purdue legit 2nd Tier. Maybe ISU sneaks in there as well. Will be pushing a top-5 rank at 9-0 but only have 2 ranked wins, however, they are over 1 and 14, both Away games.

Feels like this will be the JMJ talking to himself thread until February. Haha

 

[Biggems]

Texas Women are ranked 2, but based on resume they should be 1.

UConn is 8-0, 2-0 against ranked teams....beating 20 Louisville and 6 Michigan

Texas is 9-0, 4-0 against ranked teams.....beating 24 Richmond, 3 UCLA, 2 So Car, 11 UNC

 

[JMarkJohns]

it’s always tough to overcome the preseason program bias.

I’ve snuck a few glances at SMU Ladies now that Adia is head coach. Curious if she’s learned from her mistakes at Arizona. There’s a lot of talent there if she can get out of her own way. She is good enough to recruit and coach a Title team.

 

[JMarkJohns]

Arizona dominates Alabama in Birmingham, winning by 21 despite foul trouble on Koa and Bradley.

Arizona is now the first team in 30 years to have have 5 Non-Conference Top-25 wins. Four of them are Away, and all four are vs Top-15 teams.

Last two ranked wins by 29 and 21.

Different freshman than Koa dominated, as Brayden Burries went for 28 after starting PG Jaden Bradley had to sit early in 2nd.

Sr PG Bradley
Fr 5* CG Burries
Fr International 5* SF Kharchenkov
Fr 5* PF Peat
Jr International 4* C Krivas

Sr SG Dell’Orso
Fr International 5* Aristode
Sr PF/C Awaka

Craziest part is neither Krivas or Aristode have hit a stride yet, as both missed last year with injury. And Burries has only recently turned the corner in the last 4 games.

Also have another International 4* PF in Sidi Gueye who barely plays plus they have a Sr PG via Harvard for just in case minutes.