Previewing Every Barstool Blogger's College Hoops Team for the 2016-17 Season
There’s a couple things readers of this site love. One is sports, two is talking shit and three is talking shit about sports. Well what’s better than getting a little knowledge on where everyone went to school so with college hoops season here you can really ramp up your shit talking?
Let me save you the low hanging fruit by answering honestly. Yes, bloggers actually do graduate from college and attend school. So let’s take a look at the schools your Barstool guys have a history with and might as well start with the guy who would demand to go first anyways.
Michigan (Pres) – This is one of the more intriguing teams in the country this year. I say that because they fall into the category of being in the top-20 or winning 12 games and I wouldn’t be shocked either way. They don’t have a star player, with the most recognizable name being either Zak Irvin or Derrick Walton. However, they do have John Beilein, who is one of the most underrated coaches in America. He was voted by his peers last year as one of the best offensive coaches in the game and when you watch the cuts and reads his team makes, you can tell there’s some mad genius behind them. What this team does have? Depth and a ton of it. This team will make the NCAA Tournament and look for them to finish in the top half of the Big 10.
Wisconsin (Big Cat, Charlie, Sam’s Army) – What’s not to love about this team? They have a little bit of everything with experience, shooting and a quality big. I absolutely love what Ethan Happ can do and think he is a star in the making. The Badgers, who had a helluva run in March, return a veteran point guard (Koening), a veteran do-it-all kind of guy (Hayes) and a million roleplay guys. Zak Showalter, Vitto Brown, Khalil Iverson all come back. More importantly, this team gets a full offseason with head coach Greg Gard – which is key when you think about how it was thrown together last season. This is a top-10 team and the favorite to win the Big 10. Charlie continues to live the most bullshit college life of anyone in this group.
Maryland (Nate, Banks) – After a year where expectations were an all-time high, they should be tempered this year. This team isn’t going to be that good and I’m fine going on record (Twitter) saying that. This is going to be the Melo Trimble show and only the Melo Trimble show. He went from overrated last season, to a little underrated this year though. He’s a borderline first-team All-Big 10 player, but he’ll have to do it all this year. The biggest weakness for Trimble is not having that safety blanket like he did with Dez Wells as a freshman. Last year it was supposed to be five stars playing together, which just never looked the part. This year it will be a lot of Melo iso plays and trying to get back to the free throw line. Oh, and a lot of Running Man probably.
Fordham (KFC) – KFC, now is the time to start paying attention to Fordham basketball. Maybe catch a game at Rose Hill Gym. They are a year away from contending, but now is the time to start paying attention. Head coach Jeff Neubauer will have Fordham’s best 1-2 punch in a long time with reigning A10 Rookie of the Year Joseph Chartouny and graduate transfer JaVonte Hawkins. Hawkins, who transferred from Eastern Kentucky, averaged 17 points per game last year, which will be key in the slower-paced Fordham offense. What this team can do is defend, as it graded in the top-125 in the country last year and expecting that to grow. Neubauer led the Rams to the first winning season in nine years last season, so expect him to grow on that. They’ll win a couple games they shouldn’t in the A10 and be in the CBI.
USC (Spags) – The Trojans were one of the surprise teams for most of the year last season and everyone thought Andy Enfield finally found his groove out in LA. Well, now they have to do it again as the depth from last season is gone. Despite not having a senior in its top-10 scorers from last season, the Trojans lost five players. Most notably Nikola Jovanovic and Julian Jacobs who declared for the NBA Draft and Katin Reinhardt who transferred out of the program. Those three players combined for 34 points per game last year. Bennie Boatwright is one of the key names to watch this year out west as he’s a matchup nightmare. He stands 6’10” and led USC in shots from behind the arc last year. The other name to know is Shaqquan Aaron who transferred in from Louisville last year and was the No. 26 recruit in the country back in 2014.
Iowa (Trent) – Don’t cry because Jarrod Uthoff and Adam Woodbury are gone, smile because it happened. But, definitely close your eyes when you watch the Hawkeyes this season as there will be some growing pains. They also lose Mike Gessell, who caught a lot of heat, but still was a 4-year starting point guard. What they do have this year though is Peter Jok, who is a pure scorer and will be a volume scorer this year for Iowa. Look for McCaffrey to run the offense through Jok – who is the only senior on the roster. The other player to watch is Nicholas Baer, who was a walk-on last year showed signs of being a dominant big in the Big 10.
Texas-San Antonio (Uncle Chaps) – I hate to break it to good ass guy like Chaps, but his college hoops team completely blows. The Roadrunners (one of the best names in the country) is still the newest member of Conference USA and is coming off a season where they went 5-27 overall and 3-15 in C-USA. That’s not going to get much better. The one thing they do well though is rebound the basketball and prevent better teams from getting multiple chances. They do lose Ryan Bowie, who averaged 18 ppg, but they do get back Christian Wilson, who is a 6’2” guard and their second leading scorer. Enjoy a nice glass of red wine and watch a game though.
Florida State (Feits) – Last year was supposed to be the Florida State breakout season and uh, well, they shit the bed. There’s plenty of talent on this roster, led by Dwayne Bacon, Xavier Rathan-Mayes and five-star freshman Jonathan Isaac. However, can this team put together any sort of chemistry and a full game? Rathan-Mayes who had a strong freshman year, was wildly inconsistent last year. They get three top-100 recruits including Isaac, while having four guys who were either four or five-stars coming out of high school. Leonard Hamilton needs to figure out how to successfully use these pieces otherwise he could be leaning toward the hot seat. This team has had too much talent to shit the bed again.
Emory (Kmarko) – This is a team that made it to the Sweet 16 in the DIII Tournament last year. Kind of weird they still ask you to fill out a recruiting form when you click on the website though. Good thing all they need to do is go to the rec center and find this guy from about 10 years ago.
Susquehanna (Smitty) – Trying to prevent a shitty season by changing the nickname? Not going to pull a fast one here, Susquehanna. The River Hawks (what a garbage name) went 24-5 last season led by Josh Miller’s 17.5 ppg. However, he is gone as one of the three seniors on the roster last season. They should be decent this year and be a likely favorite to win the Landmark Conference.
Harvard (Riggs) – The smartest man in the office won’t have to find a new team to cheer for come college hoops season. What Tommy Amaker is doing at Harvard, especially on the recruiting trail is something we’ve never really seen before. They are the favorite to win the Ivy League again, after losing Siyani Chambers to an injury last year. Chambers is back this year along with four top-100 freshman recruits on the roster. The biggest thing to watch though? Harvard is in the running for five-star Wendell Carter, going up against Duke. This ain’t your old school Harvard program.
UNC (Caleb) – If Caleb truly wants to be the director of morale, I suspect he spent some time consoling the UNC hoops team after Kris Jenkins went #bang on them at the buzzer last season. The Tar Heels do lose All-American Brice Johnson and 19-year starter Marcus Paige, but there’s a ton of talent yet again on the roster. The biggest question for the Tar Heels is can they be consistent and have someone be the star. Joel Berry looks to fill that role, but for as good as his sophomore year was his freshman year struggled. With Justin Jackson looking like a perennial roleplayer, Isaiah Hicks needs to be the go-to guy. They’ll probably lose a game they shouldn’t out of conference as they figure out their roles and try to figure out who they want to run the offense through, but if Kennedy Meeks can become a dominant big like Roy has had in the past, they’ll be in the running for another Final Four.
Siena (Clem/Glen) – I don’t know if Glen goes to Siena, but since he looks like he could be the illegitimate son of Clem, let’s just say he does. This is one of those midmajors though to keep an eye on. The Saints won 21 games last year and return all five starters and happened to have a guy by the name of Bill Parcells checking out practices as a friend of head coach Jimmy Patsos. Big man Brett Bisping should be a favorite to win MAAC Player of the Year as he averaged 16 and 10 last season. The best thing besides experience for the Saints? Balance. Five guys averaged double digits in scoring last season. Might get to hear Bill Raftery give Siena an ‘onions, double order’ call in March again.
Ursinus (Jordie) – Where else can you find a blog going from UNC to a small eastern Pennsylvania college? That’s the Barstool difference, folks. This team, well, they weren’t good last year going 11-14. The good news is they only had two seniors on the roster last season and had six guys average at least nine points per game last season. Jordie may want to take a break from hockey and please like my sport.
Drexel (JJ) – Drexel has a new head coach in Zach Spiker – who was previously at Army, where he went 102-112. Anytime you can hire a guy with a losing record from a school like Army, you have to. However, the Dragons are expected to play a lot faster this year, perhaps the biggest jump according to KenPom in AdjO in the country.
Northwestern (WSD) – Did you know WSD went to Northwestern? If not, he’ll tell you all about it. Did you know Northwestern still hasn’t made an NCAA Tournament? If not, expect more of the same this year. Northwestern just lost top-100 freshman Rapolas Ivanauskas for the season after having shoulder surgery, which is a huge blow for a guy who is regarded as the best recruit in the Chris Collins era. The Wildcats do have Bryant McIntosh and get Vic Law back from injury, but this team still isn’t good enough. Another finish in the bottom half of the Big 10 it is.
Towson (RDT) – The Tigers will compete in the CAA, but be incredibly boring. They don’t really have anyone that can shoot the ball but they do have William Adala Moto, who was incredible at drawing fouls last year. Expect a lot of slow, methodical games from Towson and a record just above .500.
Penn State (Rone) – He should probably create a battle rap and ether Penn State hoops. They looked to finally start to turn the corner by getting some big recruits from Roman Catholic. However, on the first day of practice Joe Hampton – a freshman from Oak Hill Academy decided to leave the team.
Kentucky (Reags) – Another year in Lexington with another absurd recruiting class. There’s talent across the roster again for Kentucky, with D’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk and Bam Adebayo on the roster. However, it will be the play of two guys who have spent time in Lexington already that truly help this team. Isaiah Briscoe – who is one of the best defenders in the country needs to develop a broken jumper, while senior Derek Willis needs to provide outside shooting. Right now that’s the biggest deterrent from this team stealing No. 1 votes from Duke. But, expectations are absurd again for Calipari as they have the team for another Final Four run.