In General, About College Basketball

[kyyote]

As we settle into another year of "free-for-all" basketball, as I will call it, I think we are starting to see some things develop from it.  The free-for-all is what I call the now common practice of entering the transfer portal.

Number one on the list is that it has made college basketball very unpredictable.  The teams being assembled are unpredictable and how they will play each night is less predictable.  The tops teams are getting hammered regularly.  Lower teams scheduled as cupcakes all of a sudden can eat your team like hateful, ungrateful impudent bastards. 
Number two is related to number one, and it is that it is hard to measure and analyze a team because of this unpredictability.  Comparing apples to apples has become trying to compare apples to apples when the apples are changing into different fruits every night.

Play the game with me.
Is this year's team better than last year's?  Yes or no?  Or is the answer, I can't really say who would win if the two teams played?
That sems like you should be able to compare players to players and say better, worse, or no difference, but it is too complicated for that.  There is the "team cohesiveness" factor.  Ask yourself if last year's team would have been able to play UAB as well or even beat them, last night.

All of the teams that were always little tournament fillers are a crap shoot, because they all brought in "ringers" through the portal and can shock you!

College basketball teams have become like a box of chocolates.

[SisyphusMiner]

Been thinking about this.  We've probably beaten this horse to death, but what the hell.

If the way it is today is the way it will continue to be, there is no point in hiring a coach that can coach.  It's basically one year of pickup ball, so you need a coach that can out-recruit.  There will be no player development, no expectation of learning complex offenses or defenses.  It'll just be AAU ball with better athletes.  I really hope something is done about this situation.

[kyyote]

Sis, if ever there were such a thing as old men shaking their fists at changes, we would be it.  I think it sucks, but in the overall scheme of things it is a minuscule suck compared to the enormity of how much things suck in the past, oh, year or so and where the suckingness looks to just get worse.  But it is what it is.  I am resigned to it at this point.  At this point my posts are more about questioning how well it works, how you evaluate things in this new environment-or do you even bother?  Some things are questions as much as they are noting things that might add to the understanding.

For instance, the what? ten players that left, we know how their replacements are doing, but how are they doing at their new schools?  Did they get an advantage or lose one.  TV is playing in the Big 10 when he sees the hardwood.  Not much.  How much is almost nothing at that level worth over what he had?  Kennedy is at Memphis, but his minutes are down from 33 to 20 and his ppg is cut in half to about 7.  Boum is tearing it up and others are doing ok at smaller schools.  It has been quite a mixed bag of results.  Then, what about the kids that stayed?  How are they doing?  More importantly maybe, how do they think they are doing?

I may easily be wrong, as I find I am a lot, but I am afraid that Golding builds scrappy teams.  Notice how we have played so many overtimes games.  Some would say that we are punching above our weight class and going toe to toe with bigger guys.  Some wonder why our guy is so small.  Tough.  But small.  And has to work his ass off to hang with just normal guys.  But he does.  Because he's tough.  He's scrappy.

Scrappy is just one letter away from another word.  My question at this point is can our guy grow?  Is he going to get any bigger or is he a natural flea weight?  Is this our new normal at The Don?  Again, and not trying to be a wet blanket, I am asking the question, are we a better team than last year.  Which way is the program heading?  Even in the chaos, teams are moving up and down.  Is the UTEP program moving up or down, or can you even tell?