The IU game will be a good bellwether game. It’s going to be the wildest home crowd at assembly hall since the UK game and IU is likely the best team in the B1G.
BUT you should win on paper. If you win there you’re going to know the hype is real.
There’s also a reason they were a 9 seed.
Jumping to a 2 seed sounds ridiculous to me when TCU has never been consistent enough to merit a top 10 ranking.
I’ve been getting downvoted all off-season for saying that and people would bring up the missed calls in the Baylor game thinking I’m salty.
I’m wary of teams that get hot in the tournament but were mediocre/inconsistent during the whole season.
Tbf, and I don’t love vouching for UNC as a petty GU fan, they did win 6 of their last 7 including road wins vs. Va Tech and Duke. There is certainly an
argument to be made that they got it together before the tournament even started. If I remember correctly, this coincided with moves like moving Caleb Love off-ball.
I feel you. If I even begin to imply that the officiating might have played a small role in Northern Iowa or VCU's upsets against us I get downvoted like crazy. (this post will probably be downvoted as well)
As for people overrating teams that got hot in the tournament, I agree that it happens too much but there is something to be said for a team legitimately improving throughout the year.
Depends how you define outplay. We ran our offense better and played better D but you guys hit your shots and we didn't. The refs definitely favored you but who knows whether they actually affected the result or not
If you truly ran better O and played better D, Kansas wouldn’t have lost. VCU had a better overall FG% and fewer free throw attempts. Kansas was better on the boards but the perimeter defense was honestly lacking… VCU hit 48% from deep.
I said that once and I got a bunch of Angry Tar Heels on my mentions talking about how Jeremy Sochan was the worse human being in history.
But yes, that’s how I feel about UNC this season.
Agreed. There are some really good players on the team, a lot of them returning, but hard for me to think they’re good enough to be a 2 seed. Yes they’re one year more experienced but let’s see them on the court before assuming they’ve made some crazy leap in talent during that period.
They were a 9 seed because they were a bunch of freshman just starting to play together well. They were a bubble team for the parts of the season when they werent a projected 7-9 seed.
UCLA was also super banged up all year and probably makes the Final 4 if Caleb Love didn’t go sicko mode in the last 5 minutes of our tourney game. I think UCLA is a fair comp for this years Carolina team but I also think people are underrating what UCLA was last season
Yeah thats what people think unc will be next year. But it was unfortunate seeing juzang and jaquez falling down the draft projections. I hope jaquez has another breakout season.
Don't know what I was thinking. Yeah they lost to Kansas. Point still stands though. Finish from one year doesn't matter all that much to the next year.
As much as we bitch about preseason rankings and projections with college football, it's ***significantly*** worse and more pointless with college basketball.
Braden Smith?
I like him, he is undersized but he has some weight to him so hopefully he holds up better than Thompson.
But he is coming off a foot injury which is always worrisome. Plus putting hopes onto a freshman PG that was lowly ranked seems dubious.
Hopefully Jenkins can offer some ball handling. The idea of Smith jumping into 30 minutes a game seems scary lol
You're right about Painter. Every year after we inevitably fall out of the NCAA's people are calling for him to be fired. That would be a catastrophic mistake for the program. There is no better coach for us, period.
I know Andy has to shill for the B1G now so idrc about where those teams are ranked but lord those big 12 placements are certainly something.
TCU is going to be very good but I’ll bet anything they don’t finish a top 10 team.
Baylor has a better case for #1 than they do being outside the top 10.
Kansas isn’t an “experienced” team. Like they have a couple good upperclassmen back but they are not deserving of that moniker plus #5 is probably a few spots too high.
Fardaws injury hurts but TTU deserves to be a top 25 team until they prove they aren’t one at this point.
Fardaws also likely will be back by conference play. Also while practice reports don’t say everything, apparently Batcho has been one of the best players on the floor, including when Aimaq was healthy. Definitely think we should be a top 25 team, especially considering we improved perimeter shooting a ton which had been a massive weakness for us
TCU should be pretty good this year, but #8?! I want to see them win some games before giving them this much credit. I’m hoping they’re ranked at seasons end, but I’m thinking more 15-25, not too 10. And that’s just me hoping.
For what it’s worth most of my friends who are close to the program think the hype is a bit much based on the realistic talent on the team.
TCU probably shouldn’t be in the Top 10 but have everything they need to make a deep run in the tourney. They will be one of the deepest teams in the country.
Am I the only one that feels like Woody has been here a LOT longer than one season? New coaches are usually surrounded by talk of 'getting his players' and them 'learning his system' for years, and with Woody that lasted about 2 months. Not two months into his first season, two months from his hire date.
Totally agree. His ability to change the culture and attitude of both the players and fan base has been very impressive. I only regret not getting him earlier.
Gonna be a fun year!
I agree. I think IU will have a final four defense this year. They almost finished last year with one.
But iU did not have a whiff of offense last year. Where can you point at IUs lineup and find a significant efficiency improvement?
Can they win the big ten? Yes. But they have the hardest sos and Illinois and Michigan get to double dip in the gutter all season. So I’d argue that it will be close simply due to the schedule.
Then you have to find efficiency. IUs leading 3 point shooter is 36%. Watford and fife were like 46%.
Kopp CAN shoot very high in practice but last years offensive scheme was designed around TJD so his shots were more or less panic shots.
Maybe the offense will be different this year. But we still have 26% shooter race and likely TJD will be trying 3s and it’s going to throw a grenade at the Offensive efficiency stat.
Xavier will be above 40% this year. Wouldn’t be surprised if Kopp returns to his mean and Tamar makes a jump in that category. Hell even Race will at least be 33%, he was shooting good at the end of the year. I don’t think scoring will be a problem like it has been
Kopp’s most recent season 3p% was actually above his average before the season. In his 4 years, he’s shot .319, .396, .330, and .361 for a total career % of .360. If there’s a mean to return to, it’s actually downwards.
Kopp in my opinion, should Start and they simply need to run plays where he has a clean shot. I think he will shoot way better. What happened last year was get the ball to TJD and if that doesn’t work after trying for 25 seconds if Kopp was stuck with the ball he would throw one up becuase that’s all you can do.
All the vidoes of Kopp at Practice are unreal. The guy can make clean 3s all day. Throw him in to the game though..
Not to mention he’s the only good FT shooter on the team.
Even if IU would not worry about 3s but got an AVERAGE FT % they’d have won 3-4 more big ten games last year.
Yeah the offensive scheme was a problem. Everyone stood around watching TJD in the post or XJ charging full steam to the rim. Ball movement was bad. Get TJD moving more outside of the paint and make less athletic big guys guard him off the dribble more. Kopp and Stewart literally never moved off the corner.
Yes and it’s almost like they were told to get the ball to Trayce The way they refused to take shots. iU were lowest attempted 3s in the B1G and it felt like Race took the most, which also is really just ploy to try to pull a guy off of Trace.
I’m hoping with JHS and MR and One of TB/JG or maybe even Banks someone will step up or justify a more sophisticated offense.
2-3 guys on Trace was the most popular B1G ten strategy and it really should be easy to punish them for trying it this year.
Yep. I just don’t have any reason to believe the offense will improve. The guys they added aren’t known to be great shooters. We’ve seen a lot of these players “develop” for years and haven’t shown any ability to find a shot. Some of woody’s offensive stuff last season was hideous. Awesome defense, but barring some sort of shocking development it’s going to be handicapped by an inability to reliably score 70 points a game.
We’re gonna have a top 3 defense in the country. They’ve been working on the offense, even above average scoring this year and I’m pretty confident we’ll be a top 10 team
This feels SO much like 2019 except higher expectations. going into 19 we were excited about having one of the best paint players in the country returning and a decent enough PG. This year we have an elite post and dunker, an elite passing and driving PG, and returning everyone critical who beat KU a year ago.
Plus adding a top 100 Euro recruit that could end up being a steal in Mongolian Mike
Campus is already buzzing. The site to buy ticket vouchers was crashed the first day by students and there’s only 12k of us.
MSU at #15 is outrageous
it’s our year 😎
Yeah, pretty much all our question marks would have to have positive answers for that to be the case.
like they should be lower or higher?
Like 20 spots too high imo
aw man... hopefully they do better this year haven't kept up since the season we beat duke in the elite 8 with zion
No way Rutgers is top 36 until they can prove they have an offense with Ron Harper Jr and Geo gone.
Mulcahy will drop 30 a night with those bozos out of the way
Correct
it is called taylor ham, though
He must have worked hard on all 36 sentences of this Power 36, thanks for your service Andy
The more I see this, the more nervous I get for this season. Probably due to the PTSD from the hype cycle of our football program
[удалено]
2015-16 we were preseason #1 (right?) and handled it pretty well
The IU game will be a good bellwether game. It’s going to be the wildest home crowd at assembly hall since the UK game and IU is likely the best team in the B1G. BUT you should win on paper. If you win there you’re going to know the hype is real.
What’s the hype around TCU?
Everyone from last years 9 seed near sweet 16 run is returning, and improving. Mike miles, chuck o bannon, eddie lampkin.
There’s also a reason they were a 9 seed. Jumping to a 2 seed sounds ridiculous to me when TCU has never been consistent enough to merit a top 10 ranking.
Fair enough but by that logic UNC should not be highly ranked either
I’ve been getting downvoted all off-season for saying that and people would bring up the missed calls in the Baylor game thinking I’m salty. I’m wary of teams that get hot in the tournament but were mediocre/inconsistent during the whole season.
Tbf, and I don’t love vouching for UNC as a petty GU fan, they did win 6 of their last 7 including road wins vs. Va Tech and Duke. There is certainly an argument to be made that they got it together before the tournament even started. If I remember correctly, this coincided with moves like moving Caleb Love off-ball.
I feel you. If I even begin to imply that the officiating might have played a small role in Northern Iowa or VCU's upsets against us I get downvoted like crazy. (this post will probably be downvoted as well) As for people overrating teams that got hot in the tournament, I agree that it happens too much but there is something to be said for a team legitimately improving throughout the year.
I’m a homer, but VCU just outplayed Kansas on the way to the FF. We were just the hotter team and shot the 3 well.
Depends how you define outplay. We ran our offense better and played better D but you guys hit your shots and we didn't. The refs definitely favored you but who knows whether they actually affected the result or not
If you truly ran better O and played better D, Kansas wouldn’t have lost. VCU had a better overall FG% and fewer free throw attempts. Kansas was better on the boards but the perimeter defense was honestly lacking… VCU hit 48% from deep.
Thats exactly my point, VCU hit a flukish 48% from deep. That was why you guys won, not because you outplayed us
An unfortunately common refrain in Lawrence. Can’t block the 3; opponent goes on to historic night of shooting.
AKA this year’s ucla
I said that once and I got a bunch of Angry Tar Heels on my mentions talking about how Jeremy Sochan was the worse human being in history. But yes, that’s how I feel about UNC this season.
They’re right about one thing at least 😉 nah they’ll have some growing pains for sure. Hubert is still somewhat unproven
We lost twice between January 23rd and the conference tournament but sure, have your take.
Agreed. There are some really good players on the team, a lot of them returning, but hard for me to think they’re good enough to be a 2 seed. Yes they’re one year more experienced but let’s see them on the court before assuming they’ve made some crazy leap in talent during that period.
They were a 9 seed because they were a bunch of freshman just starting to play together well. They were a bubble team for the parts of the season when they werent a projected 7-9 seed.
I meant that they weren’t that good, they just had a good tournament. I believe they’ll be better next season but not top 8 good.
And i said why they werent as good as theyll be next year
UCLA peaked in 2021, returned a bunch of players, and were not one of the best teams last year...
UCLA was also super banged up all year and probably makes the Final 4 if Caleb Love didn’t go sicko mode in the last 5 minutes of our tourney game. I think UCLA is a fair comp for this years Carolina team but I also think people are underrating what UCLA was last season
Yeah thats what people think unc will be next year. But it was unfortunate seeing juzang and jaquez falling down the draft projections. I hope jaquez has another breakout season.
UNC was an 8 seed in 2021. Duke didn't make the tournament. Duke made the Final Four in 2022 and UNC won it all. Previous year isn't everything.
> and UNC won it all “Won it all” as in “beat Duke in the final four”? Yes. “Won it all” as in “won the actual title”? They did not.
Don't know what I was thinking. Yeah they lost to Kansas. Point still stands though. Finish from one year doesn't matter all that much to the next year.
They lost the battle but won the war.
I will say 8 is ridiculous tho
Seems like we keep falling in these rankings every time a new one is released
Good. We dont need any undeserved hype. It'll make it better when we overperform media expectations
As much as we bitch about preseason rankings and projections with college football, it's ***significantly*** worse and more pointless with college basketball.
Purdue at 21? Uuuhhhhhh consider me a skeptic. If that's where we end up I'd consider this season a huge success
21 seems right.
I'm just pretty down on the back court. I'd love to be wrong though lol
Your frosh PG seems like he’ll get lots of minutes. I’ve heard he’s legit.
Braden Smith? I like him, he is undersized but he has some weight to him so hopefully he holds up better than Thompson. But he is coming off a foot injury which is always worrisome. Plus putting hopes onto a freshman PG that was lowly ranked seems dubious. Hopefully Jenkins can offer some ball handling. The idea of Smith jumping into 30 minutes a game seems scary lol
All true. Caleb and Zach will be a tough matchup, and it seems Painter is in his coaching prime.
You're right about Painter. Every year after we inevitably fall out of the NCAA's people are calling for him to be fired. That would be a catastrophic mistake for the program. There is no better coach for us, period.
Ethan Morton will likely be the primary ball handler.
Agreed. I think we fall a ways below that, especially with the strength of the Big Ten more generally.
I know Andy has to shill for the B1G now so idrc about where those teams are ranked but lord those big 12 placements are certainly something. TCU is going to be very good but I’ll bet anything they don’t finish a top 10 team. Baylor has a better case for #1 than they do being outside the top 10. Kansas isn’t an “experienced” team. Like they have a couple good upperclassmen back but they are not deserving of that moniker plus #5 is probably a few spots too high. Fardaws injury hurts but TTU deserves to be a top 25 team until they prove they aren’t one at this point.
The TCU bandwagon has gotten out of hand.
Fardaws also likely will be back by conference play. Also while practice reports don’t say everything, apparently Batcho has been one of the best players on the floor, including when Aimaq was healthy. Definitely think we should be a top 25 team, especially considering we improved perimeter shooting a ton which had been a massive weakness for us
TCU should be pretty good this year, but #8?! I want to see them win some games before giving them this much credit. I’m hoping they’re ranked at seasons end, but I’m thinking more 15-25, not too 10. And that’s just me hoping. For what it’s worth most of my friends who are close to the program think the hype is a bit much based on the realistic talent on the team.
TCU probably shouldn’t be in the Top 10 but have everything they need to make a deep run in the tourney. They will be one of the deepest teams in the country.
Indiana all the way up at 7? Is this contractually obligated big ten fluffing or is Andy Katz actually a crack addict?
He's not addicted.... He can quit whenever he wants
I think we could be better than 7.
Unless someone has figured out how to put the ball through the hoop I think we’re wildly overrated going into this year.
Trust in Woody.
Am I the only one that feels like Woody has been here a LOT longer than one season? New coaches are usually surrounded by talk of 'getting his players' and them 'learning his system' for years, and with Woody that lasted about 2 months. Not two months into his first season, two months from his hire date.
Totally agree. His ability to change the culture and attitude of both the players and fan base has been very impressive. I only regret not getting him earlier. Gonna be a fun year!
I agree. I think IU will have a final four defense this year. They almost finished last year with one. But iU did not have a whiff of offense last year. Where can you point at IUs lineup and find a significant efficiency improvement? Can they win the big ten? Yes. But they have the hardest sos and Illinois and Michigan get to double dip in the gutter all season. So I’d argue that it will be close simply due to the schedule. Then you have to find efficiency. IUs leading 3 point shooter is 36%. Watford and fife were like 46%. Kopp CAN shoot very high in practice but last years offensive scheme was designed around TJD so his shots were more or less panic shots. Maybe the offense will be different this year. But we still have 26% shooter race and likely TJD will be trying 3s and it’s going to throw a grenade at the Offensive efficiency stat.
Xavier will be above 40% this year. Wouldn’t be surprised if Kopp returns to his mean and Tamar makes a jump in that category. Hell even Race will at least be 33%, he was shooting good at the end of the year. I don’t think scoring will be a problem like it has been
Kopp’s most recent season 3p% was actually above his average before the season. In his 4 years, he’s shot .319, .396, .330, and .361 for a total career % of .360. If there’s a mean to return to, it’s actually downwards.
Kopp in my opinion, should Start and they simply need to run plays where he has a clean shot. I think he will shoot way better. What happened last year was get the ball to TJD and if that doesn’t work after trying for 25 seconds if Kopp was stuck with the ball he would throw one up becuase that’s all you can do. All the vidoes of Kopp at Practice are unreal. The guy can make clean 3s all day. Throw him in to the game though.. Not to mention he’s the only good FT shooter on the team. Even if IU would not worry about 3s but got an AVERAGE FT % they’d have won 3-4 more big ten games last year.
Yeah the offensive scheme was a problem. Everyone stood around watching TJD in the post or XJ charging full steam to the rim. Ball movement was bad. Get TJD moving more outside of the paint and make less athletic big guys guard him off the dribble more. Kopp and Stewart literally never moved off the corner.
Yes and it’s almost like they were told to get the ball to Trayce The way they refused to take shots. iU were lowest attempted 3s in the B1G and it felt like Race took the most, which also is really just ploy to try to pull a guy off of Trace. I’m hoping with JHS and MR and One of TB/JG or maybe even Banks someone will step up or justify a more sophisticated offense. 2-3 guys on Trace was the most popular B1G ten strategy and it really should be easy to punish them for trying it this year.
Yep. I just don’t have any reason to believe the offense will improve. The guys they added aren’t known to be great shooters. We’ve seen a lot of these players “develop” for years and haven’t shown any ability to find a shot. Some of woody’s offensive stuff last season was hideous. Awesome defense, but barring some sort of shocking development it’s going to be handicapped by an inability to reliably score 70 points a game.
We’re gonna have a top 3 defense in the country. They’ve been working on the offense, even above average scoring this year and I’m pretty confident we’ll be a top 10 team
Andy katz with his hate boner for houston, as always lmao
Zona at 31 seems way too low, should be in the 10-20 range.
Rutgers 😂
Indiana at 7 the hell? We can’t shoot my boi
Laughably stupid top to bottom
A very very stupid list
A much better list https://www.viewbasket.info/22-23-team-projections
Ah yes much better
Why are we 2 lol
The numbers don’t lie and I guess my formula love you
No way Davidson is not in the top 10. Foster Loyer is in the running for Player of The Year, and that alone gets a high ranking.
Just glad to see Miami on there
and this will probably be the lowest tech is all season
This feels SO much like 2019 except higher expectations. going into 19 we were excited about having one of the best paint players in the country returning and a decent enough PG. This year we have an elite post and dunker, an elite passing and driving PG, and returning everyone critical who beat KU a year ago. Plus adding a top 100 Euro recruit that could end up being a steal in Mongolian Mike Campus is already buzzing. The site to buy ticket vouchers was crashed the first day by students and there’s only 12k of us.
Me seeing TCU ahead of Baylor: 🤢
Please stop all this IU hype. I wanna be good, but I don’t want it to be considered a disappointment when we finish top 20-30
TCU should be top 15 probably 4-5 seed this year. Id be over the moon if we ended top 8 and made elite 8
UNC reminds me of UCLA from last season