Welcome to the latest edition of Talking Hoops With Ted Sarandis. We’re in the midst of a lighter week of action, but the Jimmy V Classic and early conference games give us plenty to talk about.
We begin with a light night in terms of the number of games, but not in important ones, as Tuesday night saw two teams ranked high in the polls go down. Texas Tech, who had lost three straight and didn’t look like the Texas Tech of the past couple of years, took out Louisville in the opener of the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden 70-57. The Cardinals become yet another team atop the polls to lose while in that spot. Meanwhile, Maryland also lost for the first time on the season, losing at Penn State 76-69.
From there, we look at one more big issue in college basketball thus far this season: scoring. A lot of low-scoring games have been played, and chalking that up to defense doesn’t pass the smell test. In particular, we look at North Carolina, who normally has high-scoring teams but has struggled just like mere mortal programs this season, especially when Cole Anthony gets a breather.
This leads into a look at deeper issues inside college basketball, including some contributors to this like early departures for the NBA Draft and transfers. Meanwhile, the NCAA has tried several things that they claimed would increase scoring – emphasizing freedom of movement, emphasizing hook-and-hold, dropping the shot clock to 30 seconds – and scoring is still down. It brought to mind this excellent column from our Adam Glatczak a few years ago that showed how foolish it is to rely on rule changes for this.
We then go on to a positive subject, the return to action of Texas guard Andrew Jones after a battle with leukemia. He has not only returned, as he has been among their leading scorers and has been passing the ball well.
Finally, we talk about the ACC not having the depth it usually does. After the top 5-6 teams, there is a bigger drop-off than usual, and most of those teams below the cut line don’t seem to know much about it. If the NCAA Tournament were held today, the ACC might have six teams make it, a little different story than usual.
We hope you enjoy the podcast and share it with your fellow college basketball fans. Be sure to tune in again soon for more of our coverage of college basketball.
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