College Basketball 2025-26 season thread

[4thgenheel]

His talent will keep his draft stock from tanking (unless physicals before the draft show a long-term problem).

Even coming out of the game at various points last night, he put up 32 points in 32 minutes on 18 shots. The truth is that he's tremendously productive when he's on the court.

If this continues as it is now through the rest of the year, I wouldn't be surprised if he falls down a pick or two, but his talent is simply so great he's going to be a top selection.

kid is definitely a stud but if whatever his issues are keep him from playing enough, what good is the talent?

@Rock what's the word on the KU boards? do people in lawrence buy the unsolvable cramping thing or think that he's a basket case?

 

[Heelsandeers]

Some upsets in that mix #18 Georgia going down vs unranked.
#19 Iowa going down vs. unranked.
#25 UCF going down vs. unranked.
And some near misses with unranked TCU almost beating #22
and unranked PennSt. almost beating #2 team.

Just wait til SMU doesn’t look nearly as good visiting a mediocre Clemson tonight. It will be shocking

 

[Peppers49]

That’s wild. This situation may well end up boiling over before the end of the season if KU goes off the rails, but if they hadn’t come back last night then I can only imagine how pissed their fans would be today.

 

[Heelsandeers]

It's definitely an odd situation and not helping his draft stock

Hard to think he is faking it/doesn't want to be out there in these end games

 

[SnoopRob]

kid is definitely a stud but if whatever his issues are keep him from playing enough, what good is the talent?

@Rock what's the word on the KU boards? do people in lawrence buy the unsolvable cramping thing or think that he's a basket case?

I think that's where the pre-draft physicals come into play. As long as there's no long-term issues indicated, I think his draft status will be fine.

But, yeah, if anything comes up in his physicals, it would introduce a lot more uncertainty and could impact his draft status.

 

[heelinhell]

Vanderbilt has been one of the big winners of the NIL era. As with BYU, I suspect that Vandy were able to get a jump on some big donors, with a fair amount of disposable wealth. They seem to have been better prepared for the shift than a number of other elite academic schools were.

We had a player who played miniscule minutes as a Frosh. The story is that we told him he would get no more minutes as a Soph and so he left.

I'm guessing he was not hoping for big NIL money going into his Soph year at UNC, just more playing time ?

Today he is at Vandy as the 3rd leading scorer, plays 29 minutes/game and averages 15pts/game shooting 49% from the 3 point line.

That said, NIL and transfer portals rule the day... Is Coach Davis getting a good ROI on our investments ?

 

[Heelsandeers]

We had a player who played miniscule minutes as a Frosh. The story is that we told him he would get no more minutes as a Soph and so he left.

I'm guessing he was not hoping for big NIL money going into his Soph year at UNC, just more playing time ?

Probably. More playing time is also going to lead to more NIL for unproven players. But of course guys want to play

He could've played a role on the '24 team but would not have seen nearly the mins he did at VT. Nor should he have

 

[sringwal]

We had a player who played miniscule minutes as a Frosh. The story is that we told him he would get no more minutes as a Soph and so he left.

I'm guessing he was not hoping for big NIL money going into his Soph year at UNC, just more playing time ?

Today he is at Vandy as the 3rd leading scorer, plays 29 minutes/game and averages 15pts/game shooting 49% from the 3 point line.

That said, NIL and transfer portals rule the day... Is Coach Davis getting a good ROI on our investments ?

In a vacuum, sure, but I'm talking more about their success in both basketball (Vanderbilt previously has had a modicum amount of success in the sport, but have only made 5 Sweet 16s and made the Elite 8 only once in 1965) AND in football (Vanderbilt has until recently been a joke in the sport - a team allowed to play in the SEC because they were an easy win historically). Both teams have flirted with the top-10 this season. Money has been a critical factor.

 

[heelinhell]

Probably. More playing time is also going to lead to more NIL for unproven players. But of course guys want to play

He could've played a role on the '24 team but would not have seen nearly the mins he did at VT. Nor should he have

I am just so happy Trimble chose to play here this year as a Senior. I would love to have seen Nickel play here as a Senior. Elliot Cadeau as a Junior. Veesaar as a Junior and Wilson as a rare real deal 5 star Frosh.

That would be a formidable starting 5

 

[Calheel]

Just wait til SMU doesn’t look nearly as good visiting a mediocre Clemson tonight. It will be shocking

Clemson and SMU are both projected 7 seeds. Game is at Clemson.

 

[Heelsandeers]

Clemson and SMU are both projected 7 seeds. Game is at Clemson.

Right. Lesser teams winning at home

Not that there's a huge gap but do think SMU is better fwiw

 

[Centerpiece]

Just wait til SMU doesn’t look nearly as good visiting a mediocre Clemson tonight. It will be shocking

Of course they will. They’ll probably look like they did in their first away games. (They’re 10-0 at home); 2-2 away from home. It won’t be shocking at all. They just happened to shoot lights out against us at their place. Doubt they’ll shoot like that at Little John. Quite the opposite I’ll wager. One might draw a petty conclusion that our defense is lacking “allowing” a team to shoot like that, score like that.
But I would counter and say SMU simply shot out of their heads and they won’t have many -if any- single game numbers like that again this season.
Key Team Stats (from game):

• Field Goal %: SMU .600
• 3-Point %: SMU .519
• Second Half FG %: SMU 71.4%
• 3-Pointers Made: SMU 14 (most UNC allowed all season)
• Points in Paint: SMU 36
• Fast Break Points: SMU 15

Top Performers:

• For SMU: Boopie Miller (27 pts, 12 asts), Corey Washington (23 pts, 5 threes).

 

[heelinhell]

Clemson and SMU are both projected 7 seeds. Game is at Clemson.

It's an away game for SMU, but I will be surprised if they lose against Clemson.

 

[4thgenheel]

We had a player who played miniscule minutes as a Frosh. The story is that we told him he would get no more minutes as a Soph and so he left.

I'm guessing he was not hoping for big NIL money going into his Soph year at UNC, just more playing time ?

Today he is at Vandy as the 3rd leading scorer, plays 29 minutes/game and averages 15pts/game shooting 49% from the 3 point line.

That said, NIL and transfer portals rule the day... Is Coach Davis getting a good ROI on our investments ?

i'm not an apologist for HD and his staff but that is not the story. at all.

we told nickel that we'd be bringing in some good players from the transfer portal and that competition for minutes would be fierce.

and nickel, somewhat understandably, frankly, chose to cut and run. he played nearly 25 mpg at virginia tech the next season, he wouldn't have gotten anywhere near that here fighting for backup minutes with several other players.

 

[aGDevil2k]

It's an away game for SMU, but I will be surprised if they lose against Clemson.

Clemson gets up for 3 home games a year. UNC, Duke, USC. That's it.

 

[superrific]

We had a player who played miniscule minutes as a Frosh. The story is that we told him he would get no more minutes as a Soph and so he left.

I'm guessing he was not hoping for big NIL money going into his Soph year at UNC, just more playing time ?

Today he is at Vandy as the 3rd leading scorer, plays 29 minutes/game and averages 15pts/game shooting 49% from the 3 point line.

That said, NIL and transfer portals rule the day... Is Coach Davis getting a good ROI on our investments ?

I don't think that 49% is going to hold up. Maybe he's become one of the great shooters of all time, but I doubt it.

 

[Calheel]

It's an away game for SMU, but I will be surprised if they lose against Clemson.

I won't. Away teams are struggling at the start of conference play everywhere. SMU is a much better home team.

 

[CarolinaFever]

In a vacuum, sure, but I'm talking more about their success in both basketball (Vanderbilt previously has had a modicum amount of success in the sport, but have only made 5 Sweet 16s and made the Elite 8 only once in 1965) AND in football (Vanderbilt has until recently been a joke in the sport - a team allowed to play in the SEC because they were an easy win historically). Both teams have flirted with the top-10 this season. Money has been a critical factor.

And it's sad that Carolina isn't the same with the money and name recognition they have. Just think the people in charge haven't made the best personnel decisions.

 

[CarolinaFever]

I've have not followed this at all but from a distance it seems somewhat like Ben Simmons.

There was a NASCAR driver, Kasey Khane, who retired because he kept having dehydration issues.

 

[CarolinaFever]

I think a big thing for Cincy was moving to the Big12.

Wes seemed to have gotten some traction in his second year at Cincy before they moved to the Big12, but it's been a struggle over the last 2+ seasons. From what I can see, almost all of their teams have struggled since the move and the jump in competition. That makes me think that it's, at least partially, a program/AD issue as much as a coaching issue in any particular sport.

Cincy should have known their role and stayed in the mid majors. Same for a lot of grouo of 5 teams that made the jump from the FCS to FBS in football the past decade.