It’s been a while! As I am still adjusting to college life, a lot has been going down in the realm of college basketball, from major coaching news, to the preseason AP Poll, to secret scrimmages, and everything in between.

Tony Bennett Retires?!?!

As a UVA fan, this one really hurts. Out of the blue, with only a few weeks before the season, Coach Bennett announces his retirement. I do think the loss of a championship coach like this should truly show the NCAA they need to get their “stuff” together. In his retirement press conference, Bennett cited the state of college athletics as the main reason he is stepping down. He made it clear that while he does support players getting paid, it is a Wild West in that world right now, with agents running wild, and no understanding of the true valuation of each player. What I found profoundly interesting was when Bennett clarified that he had never talked to an agent as coach of the Cavaliers. In this day and age, that was a shock. He clearly never felt comfortable in the NIL age, and it must have just reached a breaking point. My guess is that something occurred with a recruit, but who knows. He claims that over fall break, he had time to think, and then knew what he had to do. I’m not sure how much I buy into that… On the whole, it is truly sad to see a legend leave the sport, but the impact he had on the game and on many young men who came through the UVA program cannot be understated. All college basketball fans should be sad to see him go.

His successor was announced as Ron Sanchez, long time Bennett assistant who was the head coach at Charlotte for the last few seasons, but returned to the program as associate head coach in June. Although he didn’t have immense success at Charlotte, he should continue the Tony Bennett way, and it will be interesting to see what changes under his command. To note: Sanchez was announced as the interim head coach; the school will be undergoing a more extensive coaching search for next year, but still with the possibility of Sanchez keeping the job.

The Preseason AP Poll!

The AP Poll, for reference, is found here https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll

Last Monday, the feeling of the season really began to feel real, with the release of the preseason AP Poll. Some key things about the AP Poll before I give my thoughts: Firstly, the poll is not very influential in any meaningful way on teams, and by many diehard fans, isn’t a relevant source to look at teams. The analytical sites such as KenPom, Barttorvik, and EvanMiya are what I recommend for rankings and resources, as they much more accurately rank teams without bias that comes from the AP Poll voters, many of which don’t follow college basketball very closely at all!

Now to my critique of the rankings. Honestly, they weren’t as bad as I expected them to be. I have no problem with Kansas coming in at the top spot, although I personally think Alabama is a better all around team, mainly due to my questions about the consistency of Kansas, as well as my general disdain for Hunter Dickinson, especially on the defensive end. Iowa State is another team higher than I expected, but I can’t say I’m very upset about that. It’s nice to see TJ Otzelberger’s squad get some national respect!

In the teens, I definitely think the voters are a little too high on Texas A&M. Top 25 team? Most definitely. Top 15? Ehhh I’m not so sure. Marquette’s ranking of 18 makes sense preseason, but Shaka Smart always seems to beat expectations, so I’d expect this team to crack that top 15 by the end of the year.

The twenties are where it gets tough for anyone, with so many teams that you could make an argument. And seeing the teams they put in that range, Florida, UCLA, Kentucky, Ole Miss, and Rutgers, it is clear what many of them thought about for rankings. All 5 of those teams, from 21-25, are teams with super high ceilings, but super low floors. I’m really not sold on any of them, but Florida and Kentucky are the ones I buy into the furthest, with some solid upperclassmen leadership, and coaching that I trust. UCLA, Ole Miss, and Rutgers scare me for multiple reasons. Inexperience is the big one for UCLA and Rutgers. Rutgers is relying on two star freshman to carry them, who I do think will be very good, but I am unsure how far they can truly bring them in the B10. UCLA I do think will be good, but I am concerned about some of their unpolished/ inexperienced forward play. Also, the result against San Diego State in a scrimmage… (see next section for more info) Ole Miss, put simply, is a program I can’t trust, with Chris Beard at the helm, and although there is a lot of talent, I have major doubts about the ability for it to work together effectively.

On the whole, not bad AP Voters! We have seen much worse! It is truly just nice to see the Monday at 1pm notification, making it truly feel like college basketball season once again *insert tears of joy*.

(Not so) Secret Scrimmages and Exhibition Games

There have been a variety of different scrimmages over the past week or two, and I’m only going to highlight a few, but if you dig far enough into Instagram or X, you can find the result of every one. A nice note to start, Louisville under Pat Kelsey actually won their game against a random low level school this time! Already a large moral victory for the Cardinal’s faithful.

The first scrimmage with two big name teams was North Carolina vs. Memphis, which was nicely on ESPN+ for me to watch. Without RJ Davis, the Tarheels still won 84-76. The highlight of the game was definitely the performance of Seth Trimble, who, with a larger scoring role in the absence of Davis, went off for 33 points! Possible breakout season coming for him. Alongside Trimble at the guard, highly touted sophomore breakout candidate by many, Elliot Cadeau, had 13 assists, playing his role to perfection, at least in my opinion. Tulsa transfer PJ Haggerty looked great for the Tigers, with 24 points to lead Memphis in scoring. (Another note about Memphis here, Tyreek Smith, on his 4th team, has supposedly left the program, but may have returned… This team cannot stay out of controversy and trouble!)

One of the scrimmages I was looking forward to the most was the St Johns @ Rutgers game. And it did not disappoint! Two of the teams I was most interested in seeing, and there was a lot to see. St Johns came out on top 91-85, but not without the resistance of Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper. Bailey had 25 points and Harper had 20 alongside him, both on solid efficiency splits (8-18, 8-16)! The true star of this game, however, was St Johns big Zuby Ejiofor. The former Kansas Jayhawk powered his way to 27 points and 13 rebounds, feasting on the undersized Scarlet Knights. Dynamic guard RJ Luis Jr. also had a strong performance for the Red Storm, with 22 points, taking a whopping 13 free throws! St Johns playing this well without a huge game from Seton Hall transfer Kadary Richmond is very encouraging, and I think Rick Pitino might be cooking something up in New York! On the other hand, this game just accentuated my worries for Rutgers, with their lack of size killing them, and every team in the Big 10 has just as good or better big men than Ejiofor. But, as you always need to remind yourself, IT’S JUST A SCRIMMAGE! You can’t look too deep into it.

The last game to mention between two top teams was Wake Forest @ Alabama, but it wasn’t exactly the tight contest that the other two were. Alabama ran away with it, winning 98-77. This is exactly why Alabama is my preseason #1 team. I felt that their biggest hole last season was at center, with Grant Nelson generally playing up a position from his natural spot at the 4, really throwing off the effectiveness of the offense at points. Bringing in Cliff Omoruyi will prove to be huge, but he didn’t even have the large impact in this game. It was the guard duo of returning star Mark Sears, who had an average 19 point game, and Alabama transfer Aden Holloway with 20 points on 5-12 from three! For Wake, this isn’t the end of the world. Their transfers played pretty well, especially the sophomore from Iowa State Omaha Biliew, who many have tagged for a breakout season. Biliew had 15 points on 5-6 shooting, a really solid night. Transfer guards Ty-laur Johnson and Davin Cosby Jr. both looked promising as well, with 10 and 12 points respectively. These are still big positives that Demon Deacon fans can take away from the loss.

I could go on and on about all the scrimmages, but I’ll end with just some brief recaps of some others. Cincinnati beat Ohio State 80-62, led by Texas transfer Dillon Mitchell. The Bearcats are looking good!! Xavier handled Dayton 98-74, with big man Zach Freemantle back from injury with a 17 point performance. I love the Musketeers, and this just reaffirms the narrative! UCF, possibly the only team that has as much controversy surrounding it as Memphis, beat FGCU 92-78, led by George Mason transfer Keyshawn Hall, who had an efficient 23 points and 13 rebounds. Another to note that we don’t have a legit box score for is the game between UVA and VCU. The score was 71-49, VCU on top, but UVA was missing multiple guards, and was more experimenting after losing their coach rather than running with real lineups that would be seen in game. Reports have it that Elijah Saunders was the leader for the Cavaliers, however, with 19 points.

What to expect from me throughout the season!

I am really excited for the first college basketball season of my blog! My goal is to have daily posts, about basically whatever is piquing my interest. This could be game recaps of a great game I watched the night before, highlighting some impressive individual performances, or breaking down controversy in the college basketball world. I may also try to have posts about my favorite bets, or other game predictions for some of the more high caliber games in the season, if that is something people would have interest in. If there is anything throughout the year that you want me to write about, dm me on @thatcbkguy on Instagram or X, or email me at jconrad@bowdoin.edu. I am more than happy to write about anything that my readers would be interested in! I hope this will be as enjoyable for you to read as it will be for me to write, and I am so ready for November 4th, when the season finally begins!

(P.C. UVA Today)