ArizonaLonghorn

As possibly the only Duke basketball fan here on OTF I'll just say that I've been watching them since the 1960's and seemingly every freaking year that they lose starters to injury just before the NCAA tournament they inevitably disappoint and lose early. With everyone healthy they looked like one of the top 3 favorites to win it all. When the PG broke his foot I figured they'd be lucky to make it to the Final Four. The replacement PG (Cayden Boozer) is probably as good as the starter but then there's a big drop off to PG 3. When the starting center got hurt all bets are off, the sub big man is good on defense but there's no one behind him except an undersized freshman. I know the starter is supposed to come back in maybe the Sweet 16 but ... Then I just saw this from ESPN - doesn't look good for # 1 seeds who play close openers with # 16 seeds.

Are you sure about this? The sites I looked at said the first two years are guaranteed and the last two years are team options. 26th pick would be guaranteed around $6 million for the first two years.

Growing up in the 1960's in the Carolinas as an All-Conference high school basketball player this is an easy one for me. 1974, 1982, 1983, 1991, 1992, 1993, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2015 and 2017 were all very special years for me lol.

Way ... they grow up young in SEC country This is Justus Terry in the 4th grade (or thereabouts)

Brett Farve, accused of siphoning off Mississippi welfare funding to pay for a volleyball court at his college alma mater where his daughter was playing vb, probably thinks this is small potatoes. Wiki link, for those not familiar with the situation

Former Longhorn Brenen Thompson ran a 4.26 40, fastest time of the combine. Some thought he might challenge Xavier Worthy's record 4.21 but it's safe for another year.

Lute got the monkey off his back by winning a surprise NCAA title (beating three # 1 seeds as a 4 seed) but he also lost as a # 2 seed to a 15 seed (Santa Clara featuring Steve Nash) and I think as a # 3 seed to a 14 seed and was widely considered an underachiever until he wasn't. Nine times he lost in the opening round, usually as the higher seed. But he did make four Final Fours ... In Phoenix the word was "never bet on Arizona in the tournament" lol. Miller is a very good coach, hopefully he gets on a tournament run at Texas at some point.

One article predicted 4.25 - 4.28 range ... guess we'll see

If he didn't win a National Championship at a basketball power school like Arizona then why do you think he will win one at Texas? At Arizona things were teed up for him to compete but he didn't even make it to a Final Four. Arizona had shoe $ NIL before NIL was legal and consistent Top 10 recruiting classes. (Miller was caught on an FBI wiretap discussing a $75,000 payment to the # 1 ranked recruit, who went to Zona and was the # 1 pick in the NBA draft.) The previous head coach had won a Natty and made four Final Fours in 24 years - Miller didn't make it to a FF in 12 years. Looks like his successor could be on track to make it this season, they were ranked # 1 much of the year. Most would consider Miller a very good coach but he hasn't yet shown he's elite. I checked Miller's NCAA tourney record while he was at Zona. Call it 11 years since covid meant no tourney in 2020 - they made the NCAAs seven times (Lute Olson went 23 times in a row). Twice under Miller they outplayed their seeding - in 2011, his second year in Tucson they were seeded 5th but made it to the Elite 8, beating # 4 Texas and # 1 Duke. These were his only two wins against teams seeded higher. And in 2013 they were seeded 6 but went to the Sweet 16 by beating the # 11 and # 14 seeds. Another year (2015) they played to seed, seeded # 2 and losing to # 1 seed Wisconsin by 7. No shame in that. Four times they didn't play to their seeded level. In 2014 they lost to # 2 Wisconsin as a # 1 seed in the Elite 8 in OT. No shame there either. But his last three NCAA appearances at Arizona were really disappointing, losing early to # 11 as a 6 seed by 11 points in the Round of 64, losing a close one to # 11 as a # 2 seed in the Sweet 16 and getting blown out 89-68 by the # 13 seed as a # 4 seed. He also had Arizona in the NIT one year as a 1 seed but they lost to 8 seed Bucknell by 11 points. He's a good coach - good teacher and good recruiter - but he still has to prove he can take teams deep in the tournament.

Actually Rashada's lawsuit was the polar opposite - he sued Florida because they lured him away from a $9 million Miami offer with a $13+ million offer and then refused to pay it when he showed up on campus. The others were guys who signed NIL deals and then signed larger NIL deals with other schools and didn't want to pay the buyouts.

"After having its five-game winning streak snapped, Texas returns to Moody Center to face arguably its toughest test of the 2025-26 season when it hosts No. 7 Florida on Wednesday" Uh, no ... Duke on a not quite neutral-ish court was a tougher test by far ...

Yep. I think his high school coach took the Purdue job and convinced him to drop Texas, something like that ... He was here in Arizona for a while, a 2nd round draft pick by the Cards, but never quite got over the hump. RIP

Can you be more precise please?

Old old timers might remember this one - Darryl Dawkins v Maurice Lucas fighting in the 1977 NBA Finals. Two BAMF - Dawkins was bigger but Lucas had a reputation of the toughest guy in the league. That was a scary fight when those two starting throwing punches. Sixers (Julius Erving was their star) won the game to go ahead 2-0 in the series, then Portland, led by Bill Walton, swept the next four to take the championship.

This makes the 24 team playoff more attractive to me than the Big 10's earlier insistence on so many B10 and SEC auto bids. Also like the home playoff games for the top 16 teams ...

It would be 'special' treatment if ND was ranked 12th and a G6 team was guaranteed a spot but finished outside the top 12 and so bumped the # 11 team out instead of ND. Or are they proposing dropping the guaranteed G6 spot?

Consensus seems to be he'd likely be drafted much higher in 2026 than 2027 given the limited number of top quality QBs coming out in '26. Basically a huge drop off after Mendoza to Ty Simpson to ?. In '27 the big dogs right now look like some combo of Dante Moore, Arch, Julian Sayin, Sam Leavitt, maybe LaNorris Sellers or Mensah if he lights it up at Miami, and of course whoever takes an unexpected big leap (Mateer? Stockton? Maiava? TBD?).

I'm OK with eight of them but I'd like to see Indiana and Texas Tech sustain success for more than one (Tech) or two (Indy) years before ranking them that high.

IIRC John Elway played pro minor league baseball one summer, I think he was a Yankees draft pick. Had a great arm. I also think I remember his dad didn't want him playing for Indy and their coach, former Arizona State a-hole Frank Kush, and team Elway threatened to skip the NFL and play for the Yankees if the Colts drafted John. (Everyone laughed at that - he couldn't hit pro level breaking balls). And our own Cedric Benson was drafted and played one summer for a Dodgers farm team - "In the gulf coast league, he batted .200/.412/.480 in 25 at bats with three doubles and two triples. He also had two stolen bases". I'm sure there are many others. I'm OK with them playing pro in a different sport myself but going pro in a sport, flunking out and trying to return to college (like the Bama kid) should be banned.

From our good friends at The Athletic

I don't get the "hate" for Beard. Given what he did at Tech, taking them to the championship game, he could have been the best coach Texas has had in many years. Yes he screwed up and got fired with cause from Texas, but that's no reason to "hate" the man.

Could be worse. Rutgers signed two of the top three recruits in the 2024 class, probably paying several million $. They played well enough to go # 2 and # 5 in the 2025 draft but Rutgers had a losing record and didn't make the tournament. Talk about a waste of talent ...

They actually signed two of the top 3 basketball recruits (per 247) in the 2024 class, Dylan Harper who was selected # 2 overall in the 2025 draft by the Spurs and Ace Bailey who was selected # 5 by the Jazz. I'm sure those two didn't come cheap. What did Rutgers BB get from those two? 15-17 overall record, 8-12 in conference.

A little chilly here in the Arizona desert with 40 F for the low, mid-60's and up for the highs. Ten day forecast attached. Might have to skip wearing shorts early in the day. The cold front started a couple hundred miles east of here, so we're good - even have yellow wildflowers starting to bloom in the front yard. Sympathy for those getting hit by the ice especially - lived thru two days of -42 degrees F in northern Idaho one winter so even the weeks of 110 - 115 F in July and August are bearable by comparison.