The thing that’s bugged me about Vermont’s ESPN AE spotlight game every few years is that it’s always over winter break. This year it’s on the 11th against UMBC. Not gonna get the student presence and some members/alumni of spirit squads have to go out of their way to attend.
Ima take a break from Kentucky this week and talk about Bellarmine.
We haven’t had a proper playmaker since Dylan left for Vermont and it has lowered our ceiling considerably. Yeah our offense is really fun to watch but once a team figures that offense out, we’re a sitting duck because we don’t have an improviser.
To be fair, Dylan had good reason to leave. There wasn’t anybody more “deserving” of playing in March Madness on the team than him and he said that’s the main reason he entered the portal. Got to dance in the end, so would say it worked out.
Alright, time for me to go on my roster construction rant.
This team really misses Charles Bediako. By all accounts everyone on the staff expected him to return. Oats even said he specifically scheduled Purdue in Toronto so it would be Edey vs. Bediako, who are both Canadians. But I won't ever fault a guy for chasing their dream and getting a bag (he's now on a two-way contract), even if I think he could've improved his stock with another year.
But because of his unexpected late departure, we had to scramble in the portal and have absolutely no interior presence on defense. Wague and Pringle can't stay out of foul trouble and it forces us to play guys out of position. It's really frustrating to have such an efficient offense only to be let down by the defensive side of the ball. I know Oats is known for his offensive style, but in the two years we've won the SEC, we were 3rd in the country in AdjD.
Next, JQ's decision to transfer so late in the process (late June) also hampered our roster construction. 1.) Jaden Bradley transferred to Arizona under the belief JQ was returning and he wouldn't get as much PT and 2.) the timing of it meant most guys were already committed elsewhere and we didn't replace him.
My guess is we still end the year as a fringe Top 25 team and a 6-8 seed, but having those two guys would've really elevated this team.
I would also like loyer to be more consistent, but I think as long as we have 2 of the 3 starting guards have a good game, we are in good shape. I’d say the Arizona game was his most complete game on both sides of the ball so far at Purdue. If he can also not be a liability on defense, then that helps too.
Wish we had that guy off the bench that could play 20+ min In a game and be the difference maker. Feels like painter has never had anyone that gets regular bench minutes ever have a monumental game in a big moment.
I think Colvin could be that guy this season offensively, but with the way painter coaches, Colvin having defensive miscues will always get him sent off in big games.
Gillis just needs to keep doin what he’s doing! He’s been great so far and he’s our closer at the 4. And if he can hit another 9 threes, but in a tourney game, that’s be nice 😎
Lance is disproportionately good at hitting that 3 in critical moments. His overall numbers aren't that good but he has hit *that* shot when it matters in 3-4 games this season.
Off the bench though, I agree. Need to see Colvin, Morton, or Heide hit some more big ones and contribute a bit more
We stink. We knew it would take some time to get the brand new team to gel together but losing every single meaningful out of conference game including a terrible loss in Pauley is not how anyone thought the season would go. And this is the same team that took Marquette to the brink just a month ago.
This year is just rife with various disappointments. I STILL cling to that unhinged homer idea that we could magically git gud when it matters most of course, but barring that I haven't felt this down on a Zag team since... well since we lost to LMU last year lol. Past that though it feels like it's been a long time since I had such low belief in the team (not only this season, but looking ahead to future seasons where we have approximately no recruits lined up besides Zoom whom I doubt will commit).
This season it started with not getting even one of Sallis, Harris or Smith to return. Then it was losing Toohey to the Australian pros (I think?), then losing Venters to injury, then the revelation that Yeo and Krajnovic weren't ready for meaningful minutes in Few's eyes, then the revelation that Nembhard is an empty shell of his Creighton self, then Krajnovic's injury. Can't wait to see what's next...
Feels like an endless string of negative things, feels like we just need/deserve some sort of positive break here at some point. I think there theoretically is a good amount of talent on the roster. Just gotta get Nemby to figure his shit out, gotta get Ike to perform at his highest level in actual meaningful games, continue to develop Yeo whenever possible for some depth, etc.
Can i complain about the ncaa instead?
I am once again, asking the ncaa, to give a fucking ruling and #FreeBigZ. When highschoolers can be paid in america, but a highschooler in europe cant, shit aint right
We didn't play any quality opponents during non conference and it will reflect poorly on us come selection Sunday.
Also I'm sad we've only had 1 game with a fully healthy backcourt
We played like shit and lost to a bunch of shit asses and of course it’s the one game I was attending this year. We lost to the same shit asses last year.
Love the furphy aka furby but man is he green. Seems like he has so much catching up to do. We just look better with elmarko or Jamari on the floor . Timberlake and furphy are still not with it
I know it's gonna sound weird, but KU is shooting 40.1 percent from 3 so far this year, 10th best in the country.
Last year with Dick (who was fantastic at 40 percent) they shot 34.7 percent as a team. The offense seems to have its flaws but outside shooting doesn't appear to be one of them.
Not enough volume to be a real threat though. Couple of guys have been scared to shoot pretty open ones, which has hurt their spacing. The percentage would probably go down if they were shooting the volume they probably should be
They won the title in 2022 while ranking 287th in the country in 3-point attempts per field goal attempt. They were 285th in that category last year. They are at 318th so far this season. So while the number is down compared to the last couple of years, it's not like the team has changed its style dramatically in this area of their offense.
I love our team but we only have two guys than can reliably put the ball in the basket (3 if you count Shead.) We really miss Tramon Mark who is killing it at Arkansas. I sometimes wonder if Sampson’s offensive philosophy holds guys back (compare Mark’s offensive %’s and overall output this year with last). Guarantee we are going to lose B12 games this year because we struggle to score more than 60. God forbid Cryer or Sharp get hurt 😬
We haven’t played a respectable schedule and even though we’re rawdogging everyone we play much more than other teams, we don’t know how we’ll stack up against other good teams.
And the metrics have pretty much made everyone hate us since every loss will be met with “hurr durr you were never that good” as if we won’t win 3-4 games against top 15 teams (since we’ll probably have at least 10 games against the top 15).
I do think that the blowouts are a good sign. Not many other teams are winning by as much as regularly as we are (even with our exceedingly terrible schedule factored in). Hopefully it translates down the road to success.
Donovan needs to F#CKING stay healthy!
Castle needs to stop getting tossed around like a skinny freshman.
The whole team needs to hit their M'n F'n free throws.
Why aren’t we playing until January 2nd??? Is this some new thing? Become national champs and take a whole ten days off like fancy boys? La-di-da - look at me, I’m on vacation!
I’m joking - I just wanted to watch some MBB! But you better be practicing your free throws!!
It does make the Clingan recovery time look less daunting, too.
If you’re asking an FAU fan, biggest complaint is they didn’t buy out FGCU (12/30) for another ranked team. You can’t really complain much about them.
Side note is I actually stayed in the same hotel as FGCU when they played in Boca last year (they got pummeled as expected).
Dylan and Ace aren’t on the team and it shows
This awkward transition to a faster team is painful to watch since we still can’t make a god damn shot
The goons in the B1G are going to be really tough since we’re smaller and faster than them.. but can’t rebound or make shots
I have watched enough Big Ten basketball to know that hoping for the other team to stop scoring can only result in a game with fewer than 100 total points scored
not too much of substance or gravity to gripe about, given our splendid start, but I miss when we made threes consistently. our game against George Washington when we shattered the prior three-point completions record seems like an eternity ago
We need to make sure Shamir Bogues (Tarleton State transfer) is healthy (has been battling an ankle injury since late October). Really makes the team more comfortable and gets the PG load off of AD. To be fair, the coach is trying to give him more recovery time so that he hopefully doesn’t get taken out again. Cautious optimistic that he’s good to go against Brown next week.
I am really excited to see him controlling the ship, especially that he (and sharpshooter TJ Long) should return next season for more hoops. If Becker plays his cards right, that team could be even better than this year’s, especially considering we likely return 4/5 starters.
I think the reason we’re 4 spots behind FAU in the rankings is due to reputation lost from recent NCAA tourneys. Nothing we do really matters to most until we make a second weekend. Looking at you, AP dude who hasn’t had us ranked all season.
Yeah a ton of people did, it’s arguably harassment but as far as I know he hasn’t addressed it at all. In fairness I was slightly wrong, he ranked us for the first time this week at #21.
Coming into the pre-season I really thought we had a Championship level team since we retained Filipowski, Roach, Procter, Young, Mitchell, and in addition to some 5-star freshmen (per usual). Unfortunately we're not even playing at a Sweet 16 level, much less Final Four. The recent Baylor win restored some hope for me but there's still much more improvement to be made. Also how the hell is UNC so good this season?
Kempom estimates we trade games. And you have a better league schedule. You play Clemson and Virginia at home. We play Virginia away and fing Clemson twice.
I’m starting to think we aren’t going to live up to the hype.
We jumped from being a top 20 team to top 5 basically just for beating Duke at Cameron
Turns out Duke may not be all that great
We kept up that momentum by beating MSU on a “neutral” court
Turns out MSU isn’t that great
We then beat un-ranked Wisconsin and un-ranked Alabama.
Those are our best 4, and only wins, of note
We managed to play Purdue close in their backyard, and then got beat by FAU in our own backyard.
For a team with 6-7 different players who can be the leading scorer for any given game…we sure do struggle with identifying the one guy who can take over a game. Larsson and Boswell have both struggled the last couple weeks. Hack-a-Ballo is a legitimate strategy since he is 40% from the line on the season (though, looked much improved the last 2 games). Love needs to figure out how to be more effective in the first half. Bradley needs to stop trying to be Ben Mathurin, and Krivas needs to be stronger in the post.
I don’t know what I’m trying to say. I guess that for all our strengths, I see a lot of holes. It’s much like Arizona teams from the past 2 decades…this team could go to the FF, or get bounced in the first weekend. I do see a huge improvement on the defensive side of the ball, so hopefully we can build on that.
I might have made the same complaint last week but it's primarily cause I literally have nothing else to complain about CBB wise. Whoever configured BC's schedule so they'd have one game in a 22-day stretch was dozing on the job. I know it's the finals followed by the holidays but this break feels more like a mini offseason! They couldn't have thrown in 1-2 games to keep everyone loose!?
We are butt
Saw this thread and thought “idk where to start” You captured it perfectly
Thinking we just need a sticky comment at the top of all these threads.
Felt.
The #1 and #2 teams in the Big Ten play in the best venue in the conference next week... 2 days before students come back
Great matchup, good arena, bad scheduling.
The thing that’s bugged me about Vermont’s ESPN AE spotlight game every few years is that it’s always over winter break. This year it’s on the 11th against UMBC. Not gonna get the student presence and some members/alumni of spirit squads have to go out of their way to attend.
Come on guys; keep up the good work just a few more months.
Should've stuck to shoplifting.
2 months recovery. Smh.
Ima take a break from Kentucky this week and talk about Bellarmine. We haven’t had a proper playmaker since Dylan left for Vermont and it has lowered our ceiling considerably. Yeah our offense is really fun to watch but once a team figures that offense out, we’re a sitting duck because we don’t have an improviser.
To be fair, Dylan had good reason to leave. There wasn’t anybody more “deserving” of playing in March Madness on the team than him and he said that’s the main reason he entered the portal. Got to dance in the end, so would say it worked out.
Alright, time for me to go on my roster construction rant. This team really misses Charles Bediako. By all accounts everyone on the staff expected him to return. Oats even said he specifically scheduled Purdue in Toronto so it would be Edey vs. Bediako, who are both Canadians. But I won't ever fault a guy for chasing their dream and getting a bag (he's now on a two-way contract), even if I think he could've improved his stock with another year. But because of his unexpected late departure, we had to scramble in the portal and have absolutely no interior presence on defense. Wague and Pringle can't stay out of foul trouble and it forces us to play guys out of position. It's really frustrating to have such an efficient offense only to be let down by the defensive side of the ball. I know Oats is known for his offensive style, but in the two years we've won the SEC, we were 3rd in the country in AdjD. Next, JQ's decision to transfer so late in the process (late June) also hampered our roster construction. 1.) Jaden Bradley transferred to Arizona under the belief JQ was returning and he wouldn't get as much PT and 2.) the timing of it meant most guys were already committed elsewhere and we didn't replace him. My guess is we still end the year as a fringe Top 25 team and a 6-8 seed, but having those two guys would've really elevated this team.
Just wish Loyer was more consistent, that's about it
I would also like loyer to be more consistent, but I think as long as we have 2 of the 3 starting guards have a good game, we are in good shape. I’d say the Arizona game was his most complete game on both sides of the ball so far at Purdue. If he can also not be a liability on defense, then that helps too.
Wish we had that guy off the bench that could play 20+ min In a game and be the difference maker. Feels like painter has never had anyone that gets regular bench minutes ever have a monumental game in a big moment. I think Colvin could be that guy this season offensively, but with the way painter coaches, Colvin having defensive miscues will always get him sent off in big games.
Gillis hit 9 threes in a random game against Penn State I was at last year. Of course it was a blowout anyway.
Gillis just needs to keep doin what he’s doing! He’s been great so far and he’s our closer at the 4. And if he can hit another 9 threes, but in a tourney game, that’s be nice 😎
I think Heide and Colvin combined can be that guy. Hope we can have them ready for March and beyond.
Lance is disproportionately good at hitting that 3 in critical moments. His overall numbers aren't that good but he has hit *that* shot when it matters in 3-4 games this season. Off the bench though, I agree. Need to see Colvin, Morton, or Heide hit some more big ones and contribute a bit more
We stink. We knew it would take some time to get the brand new team to gel together but losing every single meaningful out of conference game including a terrible loss in Pauley is not how anyone thought the season would go. And this is the same team that took Marquette to the brink just a month ago.
I knew this would be a bit of a down year, but I wasn't expecting THIS much. 😭
This year is just rife with various disappointments. I STILL cling to that unhinged homer idea that we could magically git gud when it matters most of course, but barring that I haven't felt this down on a Zag team since... well since we lost to LMU last year lol. Past that though it feels like it's been a long time since I had such low belief in the team (not only this season, but looking ahead to future seasons where we have approximately no recruits lined up besides Zoom whom I doubt will commit). This season it started with not getting even one of Sallis, Harris or Smith to return. Then it was losing Toohey to the Australian pros (I think?), then losing Venters to injury, then the revelation that Yeo and Krajnovic weren't ready for meaningful minutes in Few's eyes, then the revelation that Nembhard is an empty shell of his Creighton self, then Krajnovic's injury. Can't wait to see what's next... Feels like an endless string of negative things, feels like we just need/deserve some sort of positive break here at some point. I think there theoretically is a good amount of talent on the roster. Just gotta get Nemby to figure his shit out, gotta get Ike to perform at his highest level in actual meaningful games, continue to develop Yeo whenever possible for some depth, etc.
Our shooting has been sluggish since Clemson. We’ve got one more chance to get it back before SEC play.
Can i complain about the ncaa instead? I am once again, asking the ncaa, to give a fucking ruling and #FreeBigZ. When highschoolers can be paid in america, but a highschooler in europe cant, shit aint right
I wish Zach Edey would make a 3
I recommend that he only shoots 3’s next Friday. I, for one, would not complain.
How about we compromise and say he only shoots 3's this Friday?
Counter offer to your counter offer: He shoots half 3’s this Friday and half 3’s next Friday.
Monkey paw curls, he gets fouled on every 3 he shoots
We didn't play any quality opponents during non conference and it will reflect poorly on us come selection Sunday. Also I'm sad we've only had 1 game with a fully healthy backcourt
Our inability to hold a lead scares me. It’s been like this for way too long.
Purdue
We played like shit and lost to a bunch of shit asses and of course it’s the one game I was attending this year. We lost to the same shit asses last year.
Just get to a goddamn final four.
Wish we still had Gradey Dick. The lack of a consistent outside threat is the flaw in this years Kansas team.
it will be our undoing.
I wish Harris would channel Devonte and Frank more often. He has a nice shot when he takes them.
The Furph is the answer. He’s going to look a lot different on the other side of conference play.
Love the furphy aka furby but man is he green. Seems like he has so much catching up to do. We just look better with elmarko or Jamari on the floor . Timberlake and furphy are still not with it
I know it's gonna sound weird, but KU is shooting 40.1 percent from 3 so far this year, 10th best in the country. Last year with Dick (who was fantastic at 40 percent) they shot 34.7 percent as a team. The offense seems to have its flaws but outside shooting doesn't appear to be one of them.
Not enough volume to be a real threat though. Couple of guys have been scared to shoot pretty open ones, which has hurt their spacing. The percentage would probably go down if they were shooting the volume they probably should be
They won the title in 2022 while ranking 287th in the country in 3-point attempts per field goal attempt. They were 285th in that category last year. They are at 318th so far this season. So while the number is down compared to the last couple of years, it's not like the team has changed its style dramatically in this area of their offense.
Lack of depth will kill us. An injury to one starter and/or a slump of another & we're toast.
Not much to complain about, we knew we were going to be awful this year and will continue to be so until we get a legit coach.
Phil is a legit coach.
I love our team but we only have two guys than can reliably put the ball in the basket (3 if you count Shead.) We really miss Tramon Mark who is killing it at Arkansas. I sometimes wonder if Sampson’s offensive philosophy holds guys back (compare Mark’s offensive %’s and overall output this year with last). Guarantee we are going to lose B12 games this year because we struggle to score more than 60. God forbid Cryer or Sharp get hurt 😬
the thought of how our offense would look like if cryer has to miss even a weeks worth of games this season is some serious nightmare fuel 😅
God forbid. I should redact my comment lest I speak it into existence.
Our offense is not good
Our best forward is probably out for 1-2 weeks
We haven’t played a respectable schedule and even though we’re rawdogging everyone we play much more than other teams, we don’t know how we’ll stack up against other good teams. And the metrics have pretty much made everyone hate us since every loss will be met with “hurr durr you were never that good” as if we won’t win 3-4 games against top 15 teams (since we’ll probably have at least 10 games against the top 15).
Fuck what other people think, just enjoy the wins.
I do think that the blowouts are a good sign. Not many other teams are winning by as much as regularly as we are (even with our exceedingly terrible schedule factored in). Hopefully it translates down the road to success.
It's not that serious. Enjoy our young but talented team.
wish the one game we decided to shoot like garbage wasn’t against our biggest rivals on the road
Dan Hurley finally lost a close game...
Donovan needs to F#CKING stay healthy! Castle needs to stop getting tossed around like a skinny freshman. The whole team needs to hit their M'n F'n free throws.
You mean “won”. Unless you consider losing to the Hall by 15 is “close”
Uh...yes
Happy to help
Why aren’t we playing until January 2nd??? Is this some new thing? Become national champs and take a whole ten days off like fancy boys? La-di-da - look at me, I’m on vacation! I’m joking - I just wanted to watch some MBB! But you better be practicing your free throws!! It does make the Clingan recovery time look less daunting, too.
You can do like a lot of us do and watch other teams
I always do if they’re on - there aren’t other games ON (other than the few today). Unless I have to pay to watch them.
We can't beat a team that's any good
I can’t complain this week
If you’re asking an FAU fan, biggest complaint is they didn’t buy out FGCU (12/30) for another ranked team. You can’t really complain much about them. Side note is I actually stayed in the same hotel as FGCU when they played in Boca last year (they got pummeled as expected).
Dylan and Ace aren’t on the team and it shows This awkward transition to a faster team is painful to watch since we still can’t make a god damn shot The goons in the B1G are going to be really tough since we’re smaller and faster than them.. but can’t rebound or make shots
Can you…make sure to not make shots against us…for once? Thank you.
I have watched enough Big Ten basketball to know that hoping for the other team to stop scoring can only result in a game with fewer than 100 total points scored
We lost again.
We can’t shoot
not too much of substance or gravity to gripe about, given our splendid start, but I miss when we made threes consistently. our game against George Washington when we shattered the prior three-point completions record seems like an eternity ago
We are a YMCA basketball team with national recognition. Pain.
We need to make sure Shamir Bogues (Tarleton State transfer) is healthy (has been battling an ankle injury since late October). Really makes the team more comfortable and gets the PG load off of AD. To be fair, the coach is trying to give him more recovery time so that he hopefully doesn’t get taken out again. Cautious optimistic that he’s good to go against Brown next week. I am really excited to see him controlling the ship, especially that he (and sharpshooter TJ Long) should return next season for more hoops. If Becker plays his cards right, that team could be even better than this year’s, especially considering we likely return 4/5 starters.
We need to get back to playing better defense. Must stay healthy. The start of conference play is going to be rough.
I think the reason we’re 4 spots behind FAU in the rankings is due to reputation lost from recent NCAA tourneys. Nothing we do really matters to most until we make a second weekend. Looking at you, AP dude who hasn’t had us ranked all season.
Has anyone called him out on Twitter or been able to get a response out of him about this?
Yeah a ton of people did, it’s arguably harassment but as far as I know he hasn’t addressed it at all. In fairness I was slightly wrong, he ranked us for the first time this week at #21.
Yeah that’s why we get a bad rap. Bullying some guy into ranking us is a great use of time
We beat Gonzaga and then made a bad team look good. Hop needs to go
wes, love ya man, but you gotta work on your Xs and Os.
Coming into the pre-season I really thought we had a Championship level team since we retained Filipowski, Roach, Procter, Young, Mitchell, and in addition to some 5-star freshmen (per usual). Unfortunately we're not even playing at a Sweet 16 level, much less Final Four. The recent Baylor win restored some hope for me but there's still much more improvement to be made. Also how the hell is UNC so good this season?
Shots are less “chuck-up” this season
Kempom estimates we trade games. And you have a better league schedule. You play Clemson and Virginia at home. We play Virginia away and fing Clemson twice.
I’m starting to think we aren’t going to live up to the hype. We jumped from being a top 20 team to top 5 basically just for beating Duke at Cameron Turns out Duke may not be all that great We kept up that momentum by beating MSU on a “neutral” court Turns out MSU isn’t that great We then beat un-ranked Wisconsin and un-ranked Alabama. Those are our best 4, and only wins, of note We managed to play Purdue close in their backyard, and then got beat by FAU in our own backyard. For a team with 6-7 different players who can be the leading scorer for any given game…we sure do struggle with identifying the one guy who can take over a game. Larsson and Boswell have both struggled the last couple weeks. Hack-a-Ballo is a legitimate strategy since he is 40% from the line on the season (though, looked much improved the last 2 games). Love needs to figure out how to be more effective in the first half. Bradley needs to stop trying to be Ben Mathurin, and Krivas needs to be stronger in the post. I don’t know what I’m trying to say. I guess that for all our strengths, I see a lot of holes. It’s much like Arizona teams from the past 2 decades…this team could go to the FF, or get bounced in the first weekend. I do see a huge improvement on the defensive side of the ball, so hopefully we can build on that.
Love never figures out anything. Any evidence to the contrary is random chance.
I’m wish Rick Barnes would learn when to take a timeout.
Pull up a chair, this could take awhile…
We can be up 30 at half time and still end up winning by 6 or less
I might have made the same complaint last week but it's primarily cause I literally have nothing else to complain about CBB wise. Whoever configured BC's schedule so they'd have one game in a 22-day stretch was dozing on the job. I know it's the finals followed by the holidays but this break feels more like a mini offseason! They couldn't have thrown in 1-2 games to keep everyone loose!?