Curious as to how the Pistons field a roster tonight. I think they’re +7 players added as of this moment and 4-5 out the door. Guessing they only have about 8 guys

will probably cost them a win

From Bill Simmons:

“Not sure Detroit should be allowed to make trades, sign free agents or hire coaches.”

Also seen online:

"Should the Detroit Pistons kill 5 of their players to trigger a disaster draft to improve their roster?"

The Lions had more wins than the Pistons in 2023, 11 to 10.
Currently, the Pistons have more wins in 2024, 4 to 3.

Break up the Pistons!

I have an embarrassing admission to make. Apologies to Coaches John Thompson, Dean Smith, even you Coach K

It is almost Valentine's Day and I have not watched one complete HALF of men's college basketball on TV. I have been to a couple of USF games in person but that has been about it on the men's side. I missed not playing the men's bracket last year so I will play one this year. Hopefully I have the same luck as the proverbial office secretary who knew nothing about college basketball every year but won the pool because she loved the shade of Carolina blue.

It looks like WVU will be hiring Mark Byington from JMU as their next coach.

Did a double-take when I scrolled through my Score app college basketball scores just now.

At the half, Pepperdine 56, Pacific 9.

It was 26-0 before Pacific scored.

And while Pacific sucks (6-25), it's not like Pepperdine is good (12-19).

Yikes.

Luka Doncic is having quite the run of games. 5 straight 30 point triple doubles (2nd player to ever do that), with the last 4 being 35 point triple doubles (first player to ever do that).

make that 6 straight 30 point triple doubles and 5 straight 35 point triple doubles

Lemme guess, the Mavs are 2-4 and giving up an average of 118 points in those games?

Ok just checked and it was 3-3 and 117.2ppg allowed. < thisclose >

Saw something about how some folks are thinking the NCAA tournament should go to 80 teams with the lowest 32 teams playing a first round game, and 48 teams advancing directly to the round of 64.

Mainly, this is at the behest of the big conferences, who want an ever bigger share of March Madness money to teams that are only like .500, but they do have a point in that less then a fifth of the teams qualify for the tournament.

However. Half the fun of March Madness is the teams we know very little about (nationally speaking) pulling off the upsets and breaking everyone's brackets.. So, I've come up with a compromise that hopefully gives the majors and mid majors what they want, while making sure the smaller teams get a fair shake (and also gives the NCAA more money to send out).

All conference champions (big or small) get put in the round of 64 automatically, along with the top at-large teams to make up the 48 teams.

That means 32 at-large teams get placed in the NCAA Tournament first round, but the losers in this round automatically get a seed in the NIT.

So, the NCAA has an additional 12 games to sell in their premier product (reminder, we're at the field of 68 now), the NIT gets a small boost because teams will want to end their season on a high after losing in the tournament, and the big and mid-major conferences will get a few more bids.

(Just to break this down:

Auto advancing to Round of 64: 32 Conference Champions (current amount), 16 At-Large Teams

Playing in NCAA Tournament First Round: 32 At-Large Teams)

One hidden benefit is that it makes mid-major and major conference tournaments a bit more impactful when one or both teams are already in the projected field. Win the tournament, automatically get placed in the round of 64 instead of having to play in the first round.

Let's go Morehead State Eagles. First into the tourny!

After seeing the Ole Miss men play basketball in the past six weeks I question how many teams really care about making the tournament, much less winning a meaningless game.

I've heard two coaches in the past week - one men and one women - basically question whether their players care about anything other than NIL money now (and one of those has a team going dancin)

That seems a bit extreme. There are plenty (probably most) of kids on these teams for whom this will be their last game. I expect the majority care.

You obviously haven't seen that Ole Miss team lately lol (might as well laugh, crying would do no good)

After an absolutely embarrassing performance yesterday Chris Beard spent a chunk of his postgame talking about hoping to work out ways to give refunds to everyone who attended.

Eastern Kentucky turned down an invitation to the NIT.

I don't think Luca is the reason the Mavs were 3-3 during that stretch nor do I think he is the reason for their horrible defense. But I get the Luca hate when people bring up his triple doubles. Sorry, we made the call back in 2017 that triple doubles are not a thing.

Any team playing Hardaway, Josh Green, Derrick Jones, and PJ Washington heavy minutes has no hope defensively.

So Porter Moser's agent tried to use the DePaul opening to leverage an extension with OU. The problem was OU wasn't sure they wanted Porter Moser and called his bluff. Moser may be out of a job entirely because he didn't really want the DePaul job. He just wanted more money and security.

Death, taxes, and Rick Barnes teams shitting the bed in March.

Juwan Howard officially fired at Michigan

I saw something today that referenced how "the top two 'major conference" NET-rated teams that didn't make the NCAA tournament now get auto-bids to the NIT"

When did that become a thing?

Last I knew was something like "regular season champion that loses conference tournament gets auto-bid"

Last October, I think. Having UAB, North Texas and Utah Valley make the Semis last year caused an instant reaction, I assume.

Armando Bacot has a REMINDER FOR THE ACC‼️😳 pic.twitter.com/YGmlGcl3ak

— The Field of 68 (@TheFieldOf68) February 4, 2024

What a gut punch for Brown...

Nothing could be worse than what happened to Kent State yesterday. Tip in with about 6 seconds left to take a 1 point lead, but one of their guys thinks they're still down and fouls the guy taking the inbounds pass who is just trying to race down court to get off a shot (he must have thought he was trying to escape the foul or something, total brain malfunction). He hits the 2 FTs, and Kent State loses.

"Did anyone say an old pacer?"

that was funny.

The coaching carousel in college basketball is going to be crazy this year. Michigan, Ohio State (just made their hire), Louisville, WVU, Stanford, Oklahoma State, Vandy, and Washington are all open. Iowa might open. OU might open up. And Andy Enfield reportedly wants to get back east and would be open to leaving USC.

There's a lot overlap with candidates these schools are interested in as well. Dusty May at FAU, Darian DeVries at Drake, Josh Shertz at Indiana State, Mark Byington at JMU, Kyle Smith at Wazzu, Dustin Kerns at College of Charleston, Will Wade at McNeese, and others make for a pretty deep group of potential coaches.

Ohio State named their interim as the full time guy. Vandy looks like they've locked in on Chris Mack. Louisville wants to take a swing a Scott Drew before they move down their list.

Byington still seems to be the likely hire at WVU but a deal isn't done. They want to see if May or someone else higher on their list ends up in play.

Coastal carolina finally moved on from the Cliff Ellis era by going with an unknown head coach (to me at least) Justin Grey from Western carolina. hope it works out

Cliff Ellis gets to retire back to his sarcophagus.

Yeah he was looking pretty old there at the end

I really like the sound of DeVries for WVU. Byington makes sense for us with him having good DC connections. I am intrigued at the possibility of Shaheen Holloway and the NYC connections, too.

Wisconsin got screwed in their draw.

Bracket committee couldn't resist setting up Texas vs Rick Barnes.

Of course for that to happen is that two teams known for bad March outcomes have to avoid crapping the bed beforehand.

That feels like a stretch.

UK gets a 3 seed against a team that scored 100+ points twice and shoots the 3.

Of course, as some have pointed out, every team can shoot the 3 aganst UK once they step on the court with UK.

Also the committee didn't think much of the Big East.

That's about the only reason I could think of that got Texas a 7 seed.

That's basically where NET had them, give or take.

They're 30 and one team ahead of them (Indiana State) didn't make the tournament. So when you get into separating conference teams & stuff, a +/- 1 seed from your NET isn't really much of a reach.

A realization that came for me when looking at those NET ratings. Georgia is #100, Miami is #101, Georgia Tech was #127, Michigan (all 8-24 of 'em) was #133.

There's only 362 teams, meaning that 2 of those are in the top 1/3rd of available teams ... and both of them pretty much sucked. There's an awful lot of REALLY shitty teams in the comically oversized "D1"

Hell, FSU was 96. They gave up over 100 and lost to LOUISVILLE...

Is this the first year that the play-in game is for a 10 seed? I know some surprise conference champs through a wrench onto things but that seems to he the highest I can ever remember.

Don't see many snubs outside of Virginia having no business in the tournament. Not sure how they pulled that off.

I agree ... and yet if they win the play-in I'll likely put them through to the S16.

Some really bad decisions by the committee this year. The Virginia selection makes no sense. OU, Seton Hall, Indiana State, or St Johns would have all been better picks. Then New Mexico as an 11 seed? Kansas as a 4? Auburn as a 4? Below Kentucky? They should have been in play for a 1.

The bubble shank with a couple late bid steals, but they choose one of the worst options for that last spot. Then the seeding this year is a mess.

I don't get their hate toward the Big East. By almost all the computer rankings, it was the 2nd or 3rd strongest conference.

Only if NET ranking is all you go by.

The 3-7 vs Quad 1 teams killed Auburn, and them any higher than a 3 would have been a joke.

Kenpom had them 4th and Kentucky 19th. T-Rank has them 5th and Kentucky 25th. BPI has them 4th and Kentucky 21st. Massey has them 5th and Kentucky 17th.

Allow me to rephrase: only if you consider computer ratings and nothing else.

3-7 vs Quad 1 (or equivalent) don't lie.

I'm not sure how many SEC teams get out of the first weekend tbh, I think the conference is soft as Charmin.

Speaking of the SEC, has there been any word about that Florida player? Just saw the aftermath and that looked like a bad one.