What Last Night Meant for College Hoops, RIP Andrew Smith and Podcast with Rico Bosco

I got one question for all you football only guys. Are you not entertained?

This is the most entertaining college basketball regular season in a long time. College hoops grabbed everyone’s attention last Monday when it had the spotlight to itself and Kansas/Oklahoma played the best regular season game in a long time and the best college hoops game since Kentucky/Wichita State in 2014.

Kmarko put together all the vines and highlights from last night. So, let’s go a little more in depth with the games and some other musings around college hoops.

Good Luck Winning on the Road

If you’ve been following me on Twitter (@barstoolreags) this year you’ve seen me respond to people asking what I like with a simple thing. Don’t take small road favorites this year. With the college basketball world this open during 2015-16, getting road conference wins is damn tough. We’ve seen it already with Virginia losing to Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech, Kansas losing at West Virginia, Iowa State losing at Texas, Maryland losing at Michigan. If you’re in the gambling world avoid those small road favorites as it seems to be biting everyone in the ass.

The Big 12 is the Most Entertaining Conference

Say what you want about the Big 12 after the fiasco in the NCAA Tournament last year, but this is the best and most entertaining conference in America right now. The conference is deep as hell with a team like Iowa State sitting at 1-3 and eighth in the conference. There are no easy wins in the league this year with Texas Tech, TCU and Kansas State all improving from last year. The worst record in the conference is Kansas State at 11-5, with the five losses coming to UNC, Texas A&M, Texas, Oklahoma and West Virginia. Yeah, that’s not bad. Star power? The conference has it with Buddy Hield, Monte Morris, Georges Niang, Isaiah Taylor, Frank Mason and a ton of others. Don’t believe me? KenPom even has the conference as the best in the country with a .8519 rating. Oh, they also typically have Brent Musburger calling their games on Monday night and there’s no one better than him to call this league. Buy a ton of stock in the Big 12.

Andrew Smith Died, Fuck Cancer

I want to take a moment to remember Andrew Smith, the former big man for Butler. Smith battled cancer for the last two years and died yesterday at the age of 25. He and his wife Samantha Smith (@Samantha44Smith) have bravely talked about the fight and what it’s like the last couple of years. Samantha tweeted out yesterday that he died peacefully in his sleep while in her arms. Smith played on the Butler teams that made the national title games in 2010 and 2011 and by his senior year was averaging 11 and 6 a game. Take a moment to donate to a cancer research if you can, this disease is some bullshit.

Maryland Goes as Melo Goes

I like to give Maryland and Melo Trimble a ton of shit because it’s fun to get people up in arms and I’ve hated Maryland since I was born. However, Trimble is a helluva player and Maryland should compete for a Final Four. That being said if Trimble has a bad game, Maryland is fucked. Despite Jake Layman and Diamond Stone putting up double-doubles, the Terps still lost because Trimble was pretty worthless with a stat line of 2 points, 3 assists and 4 turnovers. Stone has finally turned the corner and becoming one of the best bigs in the country and a 1-2 punch with Trimble, but Melo can’t have games like this come March. Also, Maryland can’t be playing Varun Ram 14 minutes in any big games. Jaylen Brantley needs to get his head out of his ass.

Gonzaga Will be Featured on HBO

Starting February 16 Gonzaga will have its own series on HBO like Hard Knocks. Gonzaga: The March to Madness will be a 5-show series includes conference games, behind the scene look at the team and ends on the first day of the NCAA Tournament. This is the first time a college team will be featured on HBO and should bring some news to Gonzaga. For the Zags it makes perfect sense as they are always trying to stay relevant in the college basketball world, especially after nonconference play. It will be interesting to see if this helps with any sort of recruiting going forward or if any bigger teams decide to do it next year.

PS: I sat down with Rico Bosco to discuss Jimmy Pastos stories, teams that are overvalued and undervalued this year and the parity of college hoops. Check it out here: