2017 First Weekend Thoughts
College basketball is back!!! My favorite time of the year has returned.
1. FBI Scandal
The recent college basketball FBI scandal was by far the biggest story of the offseason. 10 people were indicted because of corruption in college basketball, including 5 assistant coaches, from power programs such as Arizona, Oklahoma State, Miami, etc. The biggest impact thus far has been the firing of Rick Pitino, Louisville's coach and one of the most respected coaches nationwide. This scandal has really put a damper on the beginning of the season, at least for me, especially when players like Collin Sexton, De'Anthony Melton and Jeffery Carroll are suspended indefinitely due to allegations related to the scandal (on a side note, why is the NCAA basically the only place where people are guilty until proven innocent? Seriously, just let them play until you have their punishment). People had always wondered how much money is illegally being given to players in college basketball. I guess now we found out, with players like Brian Bowen getting offered 150 thousand dollars according to the investigation (which he declined apparently to a higher bidder in Louisville). The whole scandal makes me wonder about trusting any teams, even coaches like Tom Izzo and Coach K. Clearly Roy Williams and John Calipari are wrapped up in this as they are no stranger to scandals related to recruitment. I honestly doubt Williams, Calipari, Izzo or Coach K will get caught, they seem to hold too much power in the industry and the NCAA has a lot to lose if those guys get caught. Interestingly enough, I read a book a few years ago by John Feinstein (same guy that wrote Season on the Brink) called Foul Trouble. The book was a fictional one about a top basketball recruit who was faced with almost the same situation as guys like Brian Bowen, big money from different shoe companies to go to different schools. I wonder if Feinstein knew something...
2. Don't overreact over the first weekend!
If you don't believe this one, just look back at last year's opening weekend. Indiana (who didn't even make the tournament) beat Kansas (who ended up being a one seed). Future 9 seed Michigan State nearly knocked off future 2 seed Arizona, and Xavier nearly lost to Lehigh. That's the biggest takeaway from the first weekend, no matter what happened, it all won't matter much in March.
3. Despite that, what did happen?
This year's first weekend was pretty boring, but there was some interesting stuff. Kentucky looked horrible in two games in a row, playing pretty close games against Utah Valley and Vermont. Look for the Wildcats to take a step back this year. Another group of Wildcats were also disappointing: Northwestern. NU went into the season ranked 19th, but won by only 4 points against Loyola (MD) in a game that they were one turnover with five seconds left away from losing. UCLA won a close game against Georgia Tech behind a strong performance from stud freshman Kris Wilkes, but that game was heavily overshadowed by Georgia Tech's ongoing problems with comments about Josh Pastner paying his players, as well as UCLA having two very good freshman, plus LiAngelo Ball (notice how I separated the two) arrested for stealing before the game. The Ball family (especially dad Lavar) has done some dumb things, but this really takes the cake, as China does not have due process nor do we have any sort of extradition deal with them, so LiAngelo and the other two stand a real chance to go to jail. Very sad.
Indiana was also pummeled Friday night at home versus Indiana State, a sign that Archie Miller's first season probably won't go very well. Look for the Hoosier's to improve, but I really doubt that they'll sniff the NCAA tourney this year.
4. Exciting week ahead!
The fun really starts later this week, with the Champions Classic on Tuesday night. #1 Duke is gonna match up against #2 Michigan State, while #4 Kansas plays #5 Kentucky. I think Michigan State is going to win in a very close one, simply due to their much better defense at the outstanding play of Miles Bridges (who by the way turned down millions of dollars to return to MSU) and Nick Ward (one of my favorite players and incredibly efficient). Not that I don't like Duke, the Blue Devils will be fine, and are easily a top 3 team, especially with Marvin Bagley's reclassification. Kansas will win by 15 or 20 against Kentucky in my opinion, as it's gonna take some time for Calipari to build up this year's super young team. I'm excited though, Tuesday night will certainly be a great night of basketball, with two final four caliber games!
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