Barstool Basketball Mailbag: Big East Respect, Pac-12 Tournament Bids, All-Big 10 Team Candidates & More
Basketball is a year round sport, so due to that we’re going to do a year round mailbag. We’re still going to run this every Friday like we do during the season, but we’ll be talking about college hoops, transfers, NBA Draft, NBA and recruiting questions. That’s right you get an NBA and college hoops mailbag all rolled into one every Friday. Reminder you can always submit questions on Twitter @barstoolreags
I think right off the bat there are four locks for First-Team All-Big 10. I’d say Cassius Winston (MSU), Ethan Happ (Wisconsin), Carsen Edwards (Purdue) and Juwan Morgan (Indiana) have to be on there. Then there are a couple of candidates for that 5th spot. You could talk me into Caleb Wesson (OSU), Nick Ward (MSU), Amir Coffey (Minnesota) or James Palmer Jr. (Nebraska). But, I’m going to go with Charles Matthews from Michigan for the fifth spot. As for Big 10 POY, I’m going with Cassius Winston right now. The dude has been unreal this year, giving him just the edge over Ethan Happ.
He’s not a first-team All-American. There are way too many guys over him for that spot. I’d say he has a chance for probably third team when it’s all said and done. Right now he has guys like Zion, RJ Barrett, Grant Williams, Rui Hachimura, Ja Morant, Cassius Winston, Shamorie Ponds, Markus Howard, Ethan Happ, Dedric Lawson and Jarrett Culver in front of him. That’s not to say he hasn’t been unreal this year. But, yeah, he has a chance to be a 3rd team guy.
I think the question ends up being whether they get 2 or 3 in. You can look at Washington, UCLA, Arizona and Arizona State as possible candidates. I mean UCLA is currently 3-0 in conference play, so if they win the regular season they may end up in. Arizona in a similar boat. Arizona State has the win over Mississippi State and Kansas. Washington is still my pick to win the league. So, I’ll say 3 get in. And it’s impossible to say if any move to the Sweet 16. I hate these sort of questions until we see a bracket. I mean how many people would have said Kansas State has a chance to get to the Sweet 16 last year until they played a banged up Creighton team and then a No. 16 seed.
I’m not quite sure what you mean here in terms of getting noticed. People talk about the Big East all the time. It just wasn’t a great nonconference for them. Villanova wasn’t great. Marquette beat Wisconsin and Louisville. Seton Hall beat Kentucky. St. John’s didn’t have a notable win but went undefeated. There’s your top-5. So it’s not like people were purposely refusing to vote on Big East teams because they are obscure or anything like that. They simply didn’t have the wins to put them there. Those teams will all be in and out of the top-25 like they have so far this year.
I’m going to say 8 or 9 would be realistic, especially with other leagues being down. I’d say right now it would look like this:
Locks: Michigan, Michigan State
Should be in no problem: Indiana, Maryland
Likely in without a disaster: Wisconsin, Ohio State, Nebraska
Bubble: Minnesota, Iowa, Purdue
I’m going to guess 2 probably don’t get in out of that group. Part of what’s going to help them is the positive nonconference will lead to a lot of decent to good wins. It also will avoid bad losses.
Yeah, I think both have legitimate chances to win – especially Michigan. We’ll focus on them since I think they are more of a contender than Michigan State (not saying they aren’t). But, the Wolverines have arguably the best defense in the country. They can go small or big depending what how they want to matchup. I’ve also talked about it before but the smartest coaching decision in some time has been John Beilein bringing on Luke Yaklich as his defensive coordinator. Throw in Beilein with this group and you have the perfect mix. They have pros. They have depth. Brandon Johns continues to develop. I think they match up pretty well with everyone in the country.
I don’t think they are planning on trading anyone just yet. But, I’d dangle Brown out there. I know he’s younger and on a rookie contract still, but Morris brings more on court value to the team than Brown right now. So if you’re planning on trading one (which I doubt they are) I’d start with Jaylen as the trade piece. Obviously you want to trade for another star if possible and that requires players like Jaylen to go with picks and other young pieces. I think it’s more just an ass kicking during a game where Morris is one of the few guys who played well and got pissed off. It happens.
He’s not playing in the shadow of Zion. He’s playing at Murray State. We’re not going to get many national TV Murray State games. That has nothing to do with Zion. As for the at-large? That’s not going to happen. They don’t have a top-100 win in the nonconference. Hell, they don’t have a top-150. They lost their only two quality nonconference games and as good as Belmont is, the OVC isn’t getting two bids. I love Ja Morant and I want to see him in the NCAA Tournament. But, that’s only happening with the automatic bid. As for the Knicks taking him, I’d be cool with it. I think the Frankie Smokes situation isn’t going to be great, so they need some guard help. I’d still prefer a wing since that’s what Fizdale likes to build, but Ja Morant is a top-5 to 7 guy in this draft.
Well, there are a few factors here. First, the growth of Ashton Hagans. Calipari let Hagans just run with the team and get more reps. We know what happened from there. He’s become one of the best on ball defenders in the country with his quick hands and ability to get steals. He’s now getting better offensively as well. Then there was the development of Keldon Johnson who is starting to turn into the team’s must-have guy similar to Knox from last year. Green – who is a good player and will do well at Washington – took minutes away from Hagans and Quickley, who are both better defensively. That’s been the biggest change.