bierce

Nebraska is down 50-27 at the half. It came back from down 18 in the second half against Northwestern, but this is playing with fire. Penn State has only once been outscored by more than 10 at home this year, and that was when was missing its starting center and was outscored by 12 by Minnesota. Niederhauser is not only around today; he has 15 points so far.

Had Hartzell announced his resignation effective May 31, 2025, to retire or take up an entirely different sort of job, then I would agree with you, but Hartzell announced he is leaving to take the same job at another university. Have to worry about divided loyalties and all that. Need someone to perform in the office while the candidate search/vetting process continues for the long-term replacement.

And the erroneous perception that a non-basketball school can money-whip anyone to become second banana to football. Beard? Sure, because he was previously an assistant here and was at a lesser school in the conference (sorry, Tech fans). But guys don't leave places like Arizona or UCLA unless they are kicked out. And May was talking up Michigan NIL over the summer, promising how it would soon lead the Big Ten in NIL for basketball, and saying it wasn't there yet, but it was making rapid strides. I guess so, landing in demand bigs like Goldin and Wolf, adding P5 starter Donaldson from tOSU, 20 mpg Auburn guard Gayle, and big name freshman Sam Walter from Alabama, while hanging on to Burnett and Tschetter and signing several four star out of high school. Here's a wild guess--that took quite a bit more than we spent on Johnson, Kaluma, Pope, and company.

Even better was the comment about how he blames only himself because he would be accused of throwing players under the bus otherwise. Then he described a bunch of things in terms of "I guess we didn't go over" while listing a bunch of things they obviously emphasized in practice for this particular game. He's not someone who interviews politely after a loss or two or four. He had a near meltdown, make it real meltdown, in mid-January.

SDSU won 83-60 last night in a q4 game. Yawn. But it goes to Utah State on Saturday and comes home to face UNM on Tuesday. Big games. A split would guarantee the Aztecs a bid. Lose them both and they'll start to sweat, mainly because they'll be 0-4 against MWC 1 and 2. I still think at that point they would profile stronger than a lot of the teams on the bubble. The neutral site win over Houston gives them a lot of goodwill, and don't laugh when I say beating UC San Diego was a good win. Wednesday's games It's Wednesday, so there are a bunch VCU (35) hosts UMass in a q4 game. Has to win that to keep status as a team to be considered for an at large bid. Nebraska (46) @ PSU (80) Nebraska losing would be like Texas losing @ South Carolina. PSU has played most teams close at home. Vandy (42) @ Kentucky I'm guessing someone is looking for major revenge, but Kentucky will be without Butler, Robinson, and Kriisa. Cincy (45) @ WVU (44) Consider it an elimination game. Cincy because it is on the outside and has few chances left to make a statement (home against Baylor, @ Hou and good luck with the last one). WVU because it is trending way, way wrong and follows this game by going to Tech and then on to Provo to face a hot BYU team. SMU (40) @ Notre Dame (out of contention, but the coach knows how to make microphones suffer) SMU can't lose this, but a win won't help it. Only beating Clemson this weekend can help. NC State @ UNC (50) UNC is nearly dead in the water. 1-10 q1, 5-0 q2, a q3 loss at home to Stanford. Can't lose this. Only 1 q1 game left, hosting Duke in season finale. Only 1 q2 game left, visiting UVa. Everything else is q3 (or q4 like hosting Miami). Oregon @ Iowa One team has to pretty much lose out to miss the tournament, and the other has to pretty much win out to get in. I think you can figure out which is which. Arky (43) @ Auburn (overall 1 seed) Arky might have to wait to the home stand against Missouri and Texas to solidify its position in the field. Also will have a game @ Vandy and host MSU to end the season, so it can still move up. San Jose State @ Utah State (38) Since Tim Miles arrived at SJSU for the 2021-22 season, it has won one game over 4000 feet in conference against a team not named Air Force. USU will next host SDSU before traveling to Boise State and Colorado State to try to cement second place in the conference and a tournament bid. It should be safe right now. It won @ St. Mary's and picked up 3 q2 wins on neutral floors in November. UNM (37) @ Boise State (47) UNM is 3-1 q1 and 8-1 q2. It does have the barely q3 loss @ SJSU and the barely q4 OT loss at home to NMSU, but it should be safe at this point barring a complete collapse, thanks to neutral site wins over UCLA and USC and a home 14 win over VCU. Of coures, UNM does have the advantage of playing at altitude. The fact that the playing surface at The Pit is 37 feet below street level doesn't do anything to offset the fact Albuquerque sits slightly higher than Denver. Boise State is in trouble. It is 0-5 so far against the other top teams in the MWC, so it needs a home win or two here or against Colorado State and SDSU. It probably needs to win all three because losses to BC and in its own home town to Wazzu are pretty bad.

Jans inherited a strong program from Howland at Miss State, and NMSU was the traditional power in the WAC, so it's not like he ever had to rebuild. He's also 55 and has won no more NCAA tournament games than Pitino.

McCollum plays a slow offense this year because his guys are used to playing that way from last year and moved up from DII with him. A few years back his teams lit up the scoreboard. Sark is not going to pay the basketball coach 80% of Sark's salary, which is probably about what it would take to get Lloyd, who is at one of those few career destination jobs in basketball.

I don't know what is wrong with Kansas, but I jokingly said I was thinking of putting it on the bubble watch if it lost tonight and it lost by 34, so I will. KU, NET way too high, 17-9, 5-8 q1 and 3-1 q2 but just 1-7 against top 50 teams since November. Has to win at least one of its last three games (@ Houston and home against Arizona and Tech) to keep a bid. OK, ok, it's still not at risk, but I can't believe it was still getting 4s from some bracketoozers.

Xavier won 76-63 to start climbing up the ranks. I won't be surprised to see it in the matrix next week, but it will need to beat Creighton the following Saturday to stay there.

Pitt won. Talk to me when it beats a top 100 team on the road, not when it beats a 125 or so team at home.

OU getting murdered 76-49 with 5:38 to go. Looking very much like 4 straight years without a tournament appearance for Porter Moser.

Villanova just met the fork. Was up 53-39 and lost 66-59.

2017. Minnesota offered, but it had a pretty full frontcourt. Sims wasn't going to play as a freshman on a team with Lynch, Coffey, Murphy, and Curry, but then Curry blew out a knee in a pick-up game at the end of the summer and missed all of 2017-18, Lynch was suspended in early January while under investigation for sexual misconduct and was later expelled, and Coffey hurt his shoulder one day after Lynch's suspension and played in only 2 more games. Minnesota finished the season on a 2-14 tear. Yeah, one of those years.

Which is something Pitino did manage to do with 2016 and 2018 recruiting classes.

I don't get why you would be so happy to have McCollum but not baby Pitino. Read the stuff Tyler wrote about his offensive style. Now consider that he built a powerhouse in the MWC which is several steps up from the MVC, where McCollum is a first year coach. Pitino already has recruiting contacts in Texas, having pulled multiple players from the Metroplex including future NBA draft pick JT Toppin, as well as guys from San Antonio and the Beaumont area. Don't know if he has any Houston contacts, but we can always get him to get palsy with TJ for that. For UNM he's mined the portal, the LA area, Phoenix, and internationals. He still has recruiting contacts in the Miami area from his time at UF and his year coaching FIU. He's kind of like McCollum with a nation-wide recruiting network already in place. Is it because he didn't do better at Minnesota, where no one has done well for 25 years? Seriously, the guy who put Gonzaga on the map crapped out there. Tubby Smith is a Hall of Fame coach, and he missed the tournament half the time, never won a tournament game, and never finished over .500 in conference there. Pitino would have made 3 tournaments out of the last 4 if he had not lost 2 starters with three weeks left in the season. His replacement has gone 20-53 in conference since then. That is how bad the Minnesota job is.

There are second round losses that are bad and there are second round losses that aren't. Imagine Texas winds up 8/9 seed and loses in the round of 32 to Duke by 3 or 4 points. Now imagine Texas winds up a 6/11 seed and loses to a 14 seed by double digits in the round of 32. Or by 30 to a 3 seed. One loss is most definitely not like the others. Yes, there is the issue of why we are still futzing around with a relatively poor seed, but the point is winning or losing in the round of 32 can mean a bunch of different things. So too could winning in the round of 32. Measuring success by how many games you survive in any one tournament is dumb. But . . . there are cracks in the program. There has been poor offensive execution. There is a paucity of incoming recruits. We already have a shortage of good P5 talent in some spots in the rotation. Those problems don't go away if we beat a 6 seed and a 14 seed and make the Sweet Sixteen. Or if we beat an 11 seed and a 3 seed to do it. It should put the shame to people who say donors shouldn't waste money on Terry, but it doesn't mean they will suddenly change their attitude and flood the program with contributions or have the guys handling the NIL dollars suddenly decide to give the basketball program a lot more money to retool over the spring and summer, and this roster will need substantial retooling after it loses Johnson, Kaluma, Shedrick, Larry, Kent, and probably Mark.

https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/21913973/louisvilles-pitino-had-controversial-hawaii-ties/

If we aren't hiring Wade, then we surely aren't hiring a 72 year old who has been in trouble with the NCAA since he was the interim coach for Hawaii in the 70s.

I should have mentioned Syracuse @ Pitt (51) Pitt was in the Pomeroy top 15 after torching WVU, going to OT against Wiscy, and beating tOSU in November. Then it lost by 33 @ Mississippi State, and it has never gotten well. Hasn't beaten a tournament team since. Split with bubble UNC, but lost to bubble SMU by 20, lost to bubble WF, and was clubbed at home by out of tournament UVa. Very little meat left on the schedule--a q1 game @ Louisville and q2 games at Notre Dame and NC State. Probably has to win them all at this point.

I guess I should have mentioned Syracuse @ Pitt (51) Pitt was in the Pomeroy top 15 after torching WVU, going to OT against Wiscy, and beating tOSU in November. Then it lost by 33 @ Mississippi State, and it has never gotten well. Hasn't beaten a tournament team since. Split with bubble UNC, but lost to bubble SMU by 20, lost to bubble WF, and was clubbed at home by out of tournament UVa. Very little meat left on the schedule--a q1 game @ Louisville and q2 games at Notre Dame and NC State. Probably has to win them all at this point.

But there are still all those fish in the streams in the Pacific Northwest. Not happening.

Cronin sounded happy to be at UCLA in a press conference yesterday. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/on-the-verge-of-win-no-500-mick-cronin-indicates-hes-content-at-ucla/ar-AA1zhr9Q

A lot of bubble teams in action tonight. Utah beat KSU last night. Both on life support. Both need to win at least 4 of last 5, get a signature win in there, and win a game in the conference tournament to have a chance. Both have a single signature win over Kansas, but take away Kansas's November win over Duke, and it profiles like an 8/9 seed. Since beating Duke, Kansas is 1-6 against the top 50, and two of the games were at home and one of those was against DeVries-less WVU. Tonight's games: OU (52) @ Florida (4) Porter Moser's bunch is 1-7 in q1 games in conference, the sole win being a one possession win @ bubble Arky. This is the first of a 6 game stretch of q1 games leading into the conference tournament. 72% of bracketinkers who updated since the weekend have OU as an 11 seed. Butler @ Xavier (53) Xavier is the team I think is most likely to climb back into the field. It currently has only 3 votes from the 48 bracketwits who have updated since the weekend, but it is 16-10, only 1-8 in q1 but 6-2 in q2, no bad losses unless you count a blowout in November to top 20 Michigan a bad loss, and several of the q1 losses were very close. A chances for another q1 win if Creighton climbs back into the top 30. But Xavier can't afford to lose games like these, even with a chance to get revenge @ Butler in two weeks. Villanova (54) @ UConn I just don't understand Villanova being Xavier's neighbor in NET. Take three of Xavier's q1 losses and turn them into a q3 win and 2 q3 losses. Take one of Xavier's q2 wins and turn it into a loss. Take one of Xavier's q4 wins and turn it into a loss, an unbelievably hideous loss at home to 239 Columbia. Now you have Villanova's record. Doesn't make much sense, does it? Nova has one q1 game left on the schedule--@ Marquette. Kansas @ BYU (36) I mentioned earlier in the thread how BYU lacks signature wins. This would sort of be one, but I'll be tempted to put Kansas on the bubble watch if it loses tonight. Fresno State @ San Diego State (50) Not the sort of game SDSU can afford to lose. Fresno State is 1-14 in conference and NET 276. Would be a horrendous q4 loss. Would be a q4 loss heading into a game @ Utah State, and conference doormat Air Force is the only MWC team SDSU has beaten above 4000 feet in two years.

One more thing about Pitino, and those who complain about non-conference schedule being stuffed with creampuffs will like this--he schedules salty. 2020-21 was kind of an aberration because off season was truncated due to waking up from COVID, so it really isn't a good measure, but even then Pitino scheduled three games against top 100 mid-majors. 2019-20 Ten OOC games. Six were against P5 schools, including 2 away, another in the enemy's state, and one on a neutral floor. Only one game against a Pomeroy 250+ team. 2018-19 Eleven OOC games. Five were against P5 schools. Only 3 were against Pomeroy 200+. 2017-18 Thirteen OOC games. Four against P5 schools. Only 3 games against Pomeroy 240+. 2016-17 Thirteen OOC games. Four against P5 school. Only 2 games against Pomeroy 210+.

WCC has Gonzaga and St. Mary's, the two usual suspects, and nothing else worthy of an at large bid at present. San Fran is NET 60 but only a 1-5 q1 record, the win being a 65-64 home win over St. Mary's. It has a game to play against Gonzaga and visits Oregon State, so there is some room for hope, but it has to win both of those or win one and beat either St. Mary's or Gonzaga in the WCC tournament to have much of a chance. Santa Clara is NET 55 and has a 2-4 q1 record including a great win @ Gonzaga, but it has 5 OOC losses, none to teams in the field, and it has 3 q3 losses, including home against NDSU. Once again St. Mary's has a better NET ranking than its record would support, and the committee has passed it over in the past despite a high NET ranking. Maybe the home win over Gonzaga, neutral win over Nebraska, ass-kicking of USC on a neutral floor, and sweep over Santa Clara will be enough to protect it this year. Upshot--two teams. A third only someone other than Gonzaga or St. Mary's wins the WCC tournament.