College Basketball: 2016-2017 Season (Men and Women)

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JohnBM01

JohnBM01

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Nothing grips the nation quite like college basketball. Even while college football offers its own brand of excitement and fun, many others would argue that college basketball is better. Some people even would rather watch college basketball than pro basketball. The quest to be the best among [literally] hundreds of colleges and universities is a goal everyone wants to accomplish. Some not as educated on college basketball may even hear of various non-football schools and learn of their talent. Such schools include Marquette, Gonzaga, Saint Mary's College, Creighton, and various other non-football schools. What matters to every eligible school is to make the tournament. Regardless of where they would finish, making the tournament and having a chance at the National Championship is what every school aspires to. The excitement of basketball offers up its fair share of action. Some people even still can't believe the finish of games such as Villanova shocking North Carolina with a buzzer-beating three that gives them the National Championship in NCAA Men's Division 1 basketball.

Whether you enjoy college basketball among men's hoops, women's hoops, NCAA basketball, or whatever... this thread is all about the 2016-2017 season of college basketball. Don't cower in the shadows or shy away from discussion- GET INVOLVED! Get excited! Show your support! Let's talk college basketball here.
 
JohnBM01
while college football offers its own brand of excitement and fun, many others would argue that college basketball is better. Some people even would rather watch college basketball than pro basketball.
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^ That's me.

Let's go KENTUCKY! An annual tradition just wrapped up in Lexington, where thousands of people camp in the streets for days to get free tickets... to a practice session and scrimmage game. :crazy: It's called Big Blue Madness; the NCAA did a story about it here. This year, a couple even got married while camping out.

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Jordan
^ That's me.

Let's go KENTUCKY! An annual tradition just wrapped up in Lexington, where thousands of people camp in the streets for days to get free tickets... to a practice session and scrimmage game. :crazy: It's called Big Blue Madness; the NCAA did a story about it here. This year, a couple even got married while camping out.

tent_city_live_uk_9-30-16.png
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I'll hazard a guess and say that you're more excited for John Calipari's basketball team that's getting ready to play than you are for Mark Stoops' football team that is currently playing. :lol:

Also, I'll say that it'll be very difficult for the championship game to top last year's buzzer beater. That was one of the best college basketball games I've ever watched.

As for Michigan- I hope they do well. With the Wolverine's Football team doing well right now, it could possibly put more pressure on other marquis programs by causing people to expect them to produce. Though to be honest, I think that Michigan State, Ohio State, and Indiana will be the strongest teams in the B1G given their reputations for success.
 
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This post mostly concerns the early tournaments.

It was reported that because of fears of the ZIKA Virus, games from Puerto Rico have been moved. The Puerto Rico Tip-Off was moved to the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex near Orlando, FL, USA. The Puerto Rico Tip-Off for this season includes these schools: Arizona State, Clemson, Davidson, Missouri, Northern Iowa, Oklahoma, Tulane, and Xavier.

In case you're wondering, this season's Maui Invitational includes these teams: Chaminade, Connecticut, Georgetown, North Carolina, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. I always tend to see how Chaminade does in games as the host school. Most college basketball fans know of the historic upset the Chaminade Silverswords pulled on (then) #1 Virginia back in 1982. It wasn't very long ago that Chaminade defeated Texas. I usually like Chaminade to pull the upset just to showcase the insanity college basketball can provide. The one thing I didn't know about Chaminade is that a Silversword is a kind of flower or plant.

My Houston Cougars will play in the Gulf South Showcase as far as preseason tourneys are concerned. The men's side of this tournament includes: Houston, Vermont, Wofford, Hofstra, Bradley, Kent State, South Dakota, and George Mason.


Not a lot of people follow college football unless it is the championship tournaments. But as anyone would know, EVERY game counts. So you can lose to an inferior school early and have it affect your tournament resumé. I could remember (for example) when the University of Portland defeated UCLA a few years ago. I remember North Dakota State beating Wisconsin. Don't sleep on or disregard some of these early matches.
 
According to Yahoo! Sports, and as of October 20, 2016; here are the Preseason polls and how many 1st Place votes teams got:

2016-2017 Men's Preseason Polls
1.) Duke (27)
2.) Kansas (1)
3.) Villanova (1)
4.) Kentucky (2)
5.) Oregon (1)
6.) North Carolina
7.) Virginia
8.) Xavier
9.) Michigan State
10.) Wisconsin
11.) Arizona
12.) Indiana
13.) Gonzaga
14.) Louisville
15.) Purdue
16.) Connecticut
17.) Syracuse
18.) West Virginia
19.) St. Mary's
20.) UCLA
21.) Maryland
22.) Texas
23.) Creighton
24.) Rhode Island
25.) Cincinnati

I don't know about you, but I often like looking at the bottom 5 of the Top 25 in polls. I like seeing those because they let you know a few under-the-rader teams that could surprise you in them sneaking in among the Top 25. So I am a bit surprised seeing Rhode Island among these teams. Most of the usual suspects are in the Top 25 as usual. Maybe I am a bit surprised to see teams like Oregon and Xavier ranked so high. But again- these are all Preseason polls. It remains to be seen how many of these teams will make the tournament in March 2017 and which of them could go make a championship run, let alone a run to the Final Four.

Any thoughts on this list?
 
You want college basketball? You're going to get it starting this week. A lot of teams will begin their seasons this week. There will even be the Armed Forces Classic this Friday involving Arizona vs. Michigan State, and also Indiana vs. Kansas. CBS Sports Network will have some action also this Friday.


Time to hoop it up again, GTPlanet! The real fun may be in March, but the real action begins in November. Good luck to all of your team(s).
 
Get excited, GTPlanet. College basketball is back!

The ESPN networks have the Armed Forces Classic out in Honolulu with these matches:

* Arizona vs. Michigan State
* Indiana vs. Kansas

I'm sure Michigan State football fans are hoping their men's basketball team does MUCH better than how their football team has performed this season. Also, Indiana and Kansas will be usual suspects to make the tournament in March.

Many other teams will begin their 2016-2017 campaign on both the men's and women's sides. My beloved Houston Cougars will open up against the Bears of Morgan State. From one pack of cats to another, we got the Kentucky Wildcats hosting the Lumberjacks of Stephen F. Austin State. The defending NCAA D1 Men's basketball champions, Villanova (remember that epic finish between Villanova and UNC last season?), will take on the Lafayette Leopards.


Enjoy the new season!
 
I'm pretty sure @Jordan will make sure that site updates don't coincide with the timing of Kentucky games so that he can focus his attention on basketall. :P

As far as I'm concerned, there is no way in hell that the Spartans basketball team pulls a football team season. No way that happens. They'd need to literally have everything go wrong to go under .500.

They said Michigan is going to be a good team. I'll be curious to see if they live up to the hype.
 
The first big win I've seen of this season was Nicholls State defeating Boston College 79-73. Bigger than that, I heard Wagner College knocked off #18 UConn. I can confirm that looking around on Twitter that Wagner won 67-58.

As for Michigan, I don't think Michigan will necessarily win the Big Ten in basketball, but they surely will give the other B1G schools plenty to handle. Got to beware of teams like Indiana, Michigan State, and even Ohio State in the Big Ten. Michigan WILL contend. Don't get me wrong.


As of the time of this post, it's a 63-63 tie between Arizona vs. Michigan State with seven seconds left in regulation. Michigan State just tied it with a three-point bomb.


[UPDATE] #10 Arizona defeats #12 Michigan State 65-63. A quick layup was cashed in by the Wildcats to take down Michigan State.
 
For the first time in history Duke recruited an Aussie, 6'6 guy by the name of Jack White. To be honest it doesn't look like he'll play much. I'm more interested to see William McDowell-White, an athletic oversized point guard playing for Fresno State. Unfortunately he can't play right away though, some sort of academic thing.
 
College basketball. Who wants it? We got two marquee matches tonight. Check it...

* #2 Kentucky vs. #13 Michigan State
* #1 Duke vs. #7 Kansas

There are plenty of games nationwide, but these two highlighted games are the games that ESPN will be showing off. Many people will probably look at these two games as a Final Four preview. And who knows? Maybe one or all four of these teams will actually be in the Final Four. As much as I like Kentucky, I think the more intriguing match of the two is the Duke vs. Kansas game. You got Coach K up against Bill Self as a coaching duel. And as someone who loves blue, it's nice to know three of these four teams wear blue (Michigan State wears green). :)

Here are some other matches involving Top 25 teams:

* Holy Cross at #18 Syracuse (Holy Cross - once a National Champion)
* St. Francis College at #8 Virginia
* Long Beach State at #5 North Carolina
* #9 Wisconsin at #22 Creighton
* Bakersfield at #10 Arizona (Bakersfield formerly California State-Bakersfield)
* #4 Oregon at Baylor

As of the time of this post, Dayton defeated Alabama 77-72 today.


Folks, enjoy some college basketball tonight. Good luck to all of your teams.
 
I'll focus only on the big games from New York City from last night in this post.

* It was easy money for #2 Kentucky as the Wildcats took down the #13 Michigan State Spartans big. Sparty went down 69-48.

* A late bucket by #7 Kansas took down #1 Duke 77-75. I didn't see the end of the game, but I did hear the final seconds of the game on ESPN SportsCenter at Night on the radio. Actually, I don't think I actually saw the Duke/Kansas game at all except for the intro and some of the first few seconds.


As an off-topic and lighthearted (maybe) note, I always imagined if Kentucky and Duke were at opposite ends of the tournament bracket and played in the National Championship game. It would be the revenge game from 1992 with Duke's infamous stomp given by Christian Laettner on Kentucky while also being the hero for Duke in that Sweet Sixteen game. Only a Duke/Kentucky match for the National Championship would be for everything.

Upsets from yesterday include Baylor winning at home over #4 Oregon, and #22 Creighton won at home against #9 Wisconsin.


None of the Top 25 games tonight are really interesting. They will only be interesting if upsets happen. However, I doubt that with these matches on paper:

* Massachusetts-Lowell at #6 Indiana
* Brown at #21 Rhode Island
* Prairie View A&M at #17 St. Mary's
* UC-Irvine at #25 California

Still, the season still wears on. So go enjoy some college hoops tonight if you will be checking in on such games.
 
A lot more of those preseason tournaments will happen this Thanksgiving week. Surely look out for stuff like the Cancun Challenge and a little tournament called... the Maui Invitational. I'm watching a bit of the Preseason Women's NIT between Washington at #1 Notre Dame right now.
 
Can you believe it?

DOWN GOES INDIANA!

#3 Indiana fell 71-68 in Overtime to IPFW. The Mastadons of the Indiana University-Purdue University-Fort Wayne (IPFW) pulled the stunner on big bad Indiana. It is the first win against an AP Top 25 team in school history. All congratulations to the Mastadons on defeating the Hoosiers.
 
You won't believe this story. Last night in NCAA Men's Division 3, there was a game that ended with a 178-125 between Lincoln Christian at Greenville. The now 1-8 Lincoln Christian Red Lions fell hard to the Panthers (now 4-0) of Greenville College. Greenville lead Lincoln Christian 75-69 at the half. Then in the 2nd Half, Greenville put up 103 points while Lincoln Christian put up 56 points. End result- 178-125.

You have no idea how hard I tried to find online resources on this game once I was watching ESPNU and saw this note on this game. So if you want some extra stats on this offensive shootout, here is a link I found: http://athletics.greenville.edu/sports/mbkb/2016-17/releases/201611232czasr

This is the ultimate in "screw defense!" basketball.


In a different story, congratulations to Kentucky on beating Cleveland State 101-70. Two unbeaten teams are clashing at present as #25 Michigan is at South Carolina. The Gamecocks are currently ahead 33-27 over the Wolverine boys from Ann Arbor, MI.
 
Tonight, we have a great match on the collegiate hardwood. It's Michigan State at #5 Duke. Let me introduce you to Duke University if you are not as educated about college basketball. Usually, teams that play at Duke usually don't fare too well. This is a powerhouse basketball program. The Blue Devils come in at 6-1 so far going against Tom Izzo's 4-3 Michigan State Spartans. Sparty hopes to hand Duke their second loss of the season.

Elsewhere...

The ACC/Big Ten challenge continues. One match in this conference battle involves the #22 Syracuse Orange at the #17 Wisconsin Badgers.

The North Dakota State Bison will head up to Cincinnati to meet the #7 Xavier Musketeers. NDSU's football program is in the NCAA FCS playoffs. Maybe their men's basketball team could stun Xavier like when NDSU stunned Wisconsin a few years ago at Wisconsin. Xavier has a football program, but it isn't a proper football program like at schools like Georgetown. It's more like a club football program.

It's Rock Chalk Jayhawk (K... U...) as the #4 Kansas Jayhawks host the Long Beach State 49ers. I'm not sure if the Niners are going to strike gold in Lawrence, KS; but they will definitely try!

The defending champions, the #2 Villanova Wildcats are 6-0 and take on the Quakers of Pennsylvania. This is big especially if you love the Big 5- perhaps the biggest assortment of rivals representing the Philadelphia area.


Enjoy some college hoops, folks!
 
First loss for the Coogs. We failed HARD at LSU with an 84-65 whacking. The Houston Cougars are doing better this season than last season or the season before last. I'll certainly be happy if we return to the NCAA Tournament some season (if not this one). All congrats to the LSU Tigers.


Elsewhere...

* The Mavericks of Texas-Arlington beat Texas for the first time ever. They won 72-61 in Austin. Longhorn athletics are facing some tough times even with the woes of their football team. Though UT-Arlington is a non-football school (though they had a team previously), Texas got tackled for loss (so to speak) with this fail tonight.

* St. John's used to be good. Now, they're crap. Their latest fail was to hosting Delaware State. The Hornets of Delaware State beat the Red Storm 79-72.


Congratulations to all other winners from tonight.
 
Kentucky is the Bluegrass State. The University of Kentucky wears blue. What UK DOESN'T want to do is sing the blues. Unfortunately today...

DOWN GOES KENTUCKY!

Another blue team defeated UK, and that would be the University of California-Los Angeles. The #11 UCLA Bruins won 97-92 at 20K+ capacity Rupp Arena in Lexington, KY. Not the way UK Wildcat Nation want to open up the month of December 2016. Well... you can't win 'em all.


Also... DOWN GOES VIRGINIA!

It was #25 West Virginia who came into Charlottesville, VA and took down the #6 Virginia Cavaliers 66-57. Huge win for the Mountaineers.


Congratulations to all other winners up to and beyond the time of this post.
 
Whoa... look at this! Florida Atlantic downed Ohio State at Ohio State 79-77 in Overtime! That's going to hurt Buckeye Nation...

My Houston Cougars lost 84-72 at Arkansas. We were up 34-33 (I believe) at the Half. The Razorbacks just basically dropped my Coogs like a bad habit.


Got to love college basketball, folks.
 
College basketball musings for this Pearl Harbor Day are coming up...

* Today is Larry Bird's 60 birthday. His alma mater, Indiana State, hosted the #18 Butler Bulldogs. The Indiana State Sycamores upset Butler with a 72-71 victory in Terre Haute, IN.

* So what do you when you lose at home to UCLA? Beat some Crusader arse. #6 Kentucky was #1 tonight with an 87-63 hammering of the Valparaiso Crusaders. The Wildcats pick up a great little win at home.

* It was 90-37 in Morgantown, WV as the West Virginia Mountaineers crushed the Catamounts of Western Carolina.

* #13 Xavier University took on the Colorado Buffaloes. The Musketeers got upset by the Colorado Buffaloes to the tune of a 68-66 final score.

* It was #10 Creighton who defeated their in-state rivals Nebraska 77-62 in Lincoln, NE.

* Speaking of in-state rivals, the winner of Washington at #8 Gonzaga was the Gonzaga Bulldogs. Doggystyle. This battle of canines ended up being a win for the Gonzaga Bulldogs over the Washington Huskies. The final score was 98-71.

* North Carolina had themselves a close shave when Davidson College came calling. UNC held serve at home 83-74.

* A clutch three-pointer late helped George Washington defeat Temple 66-63 at Temple.

* The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets needed Overtime to win 76-73 at the Rams of Virginia Commonwealth University.


Congratulations to all other winners from Wednesday.
 
I'd like to congratulate Rick Pitino on knocking down his 400th win as head coach. Sadly for a native Houstonian, it was against Texas Southern. Louisville ran over the Texas Southern Tigers 102-71.

My Houston Cougars defeated preseason Top 25 team Rhode Island. Here in Houston, it was an 82-77 victory over the Rams.


JUST WRAPPED UP...

A spirited offensive shootout happened between Michigan at #2 UCLA. Unfortunately, it was the UCLA Bruins that sunk the Michigan Wolverines with authority and absolution 102-84. Michigan falls to 7-3 while UCLA remains unbeaten at 10-0. I still think Michigan is going to have a fine season. Surely look out for the Wolverines once B1G conference play begins. They'll be matched up against the likes of Michigan State, Indiana, and of course- THE Ohio State University.


Congratulations to all other winners from Saturday.
 
We got North Carolina (10-1) at Kentucky (9-1) today among various other matches. Which blue are you rolling with? On right now are two rivals going at it in Georgetown at Syracuse. When I got into sports in 2002 or so, both G-Town and the 'Cuse were in the Big East for all sports. Syracuse, of course, moved on to the ACC. Let's just hope this match doesn't go into six overtimes like in 2009 in the Big East tournament.

My beloved Houston Cougars will play today hosting the school formerly known as the University of Texas Pan-American- now known as the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). Enjoy some college hoops, and good luck to all of your favorite teams.
 
Kentucky and North Carolina went blow-for-blow in this heavyweight fight of college basketball powers. In the end, it was an NBA-like score of 103-100 in favor of... the Kentucky Wildcats! So all the fans of UK are rejoicing as Kentucky hands the North Carolina Tar Heels their second loss of the 2016-2017 season.

There was an upset as #18 Butler defeated #9 Indiana 83-78. Beating Indiana in men's hoops is always a big deal. So all congratulations to Butler.
 
JohnBM01
Kentucky and North Carolina went blow-for-blow in this heavyweight fight of college basketball powers. In the end, it was an NBA-like score of 103-100 in favor of... the Kentucky Wildcats! So all the fans of UK are rejoicing as Kentucky hands the North Carolina Tar Heels their second loss of the 2016-2017 season.
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That's about as good as it gets in college basketball, folks. What an epic game!
 
Today is the 125th birthday of basketball. On right now is the Birthday of Basketball Classic between Fairfield and Boston College. Later tonight is the Battle of the Bluegrass. It's the University of Kentucky at the University of Louisville. And yes- this rivalry is a BIG deal. UK. The 'Ville. Wildcats at Cardinals. Let's play some roundball and make Dr. James Naismith proud of how far his vision has evolved.

The University of Kentucky women won their game today 69-67 against Washington State. Maybe the UK men will take down their rival Cardinals in Louisville tonight to complete the day.


Good luck to all of your favorite teams.


[UPDATE] UK Women won 69-67, not 67-65. Changes made.
 
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I'm guessing that there won't be any site updates until the game ends. I also feel like @Jordan will have extra motivation to do something to some people if the "wrong team" wins:sly:.
 
About last night...

* The Battle of the Bluegrass went in favor of... the Louisville Cardinals. So the boys in blue from Lexington couldn't topple their foes in Louisville. The game ended 73-70.

* Duke were both winners and losers last night. You see, the Blue Devils won 72-61 at Elon; but Grayson Allen was caught tripping Steven Santa Ana of the Elon Phoenix. Grayson Allen got caught tripping a member of the Elon Phoenix and had a temper tantrum on the sidelines and picked up a Technical Foul. Social media even sounded off on Allen's tirade and his actions. A few memes (as you'd imagine) were even made in regards to Grayson Allen's monkeyshine. He has since been suspended indefinitely for his third tripping incident. Perhaps this adds to the "legacy" of hated Duke players, though I'm not sure if I'd put Grayson Allen in the same company as the likes of J.J. Redick or even (look away, Kentucky fans...) Christian Laettner.


Just a couple of musings. Be sure to enjoy any action between now and the Christmas weekend.
 
Pretty soon, it will be conference play for a lot of teams. Even if your team(s) don't play in the most premier conference, teams on your level are likely the ones who compete in the same conference as you. Your best bet of making the tournament is by winning your conference championship. You may also be fortunate enough to maybe get an at-large bid should you not win the conference championship. It's TOUGH in basketball! Remember there are some 330+ schools trying to compete for slots in the NCAA Tournament. At least on the NCAA level, you're trying to be in that greater 20% or 25%.

Recently, Syracuse lost at home BAD to St. John's. The Red Storm went into Orange country and hammered the 'Cuse. St. John's of late has been rather sorry. Last year, they lost to the University of the Incarnate Word (a San Antonio religious school) among their losses. St. John's usually is pretty competitive. Not so much these days. Really, among Big East schools, both St. John's and even Georgetown have been a bit flat.

Here are a few teams with great records from the non-major conferences...
* UMBC (8-3, America East)
* George Mason (10-3, Atlantic 10)
* Jacksonville (9-5, Atlantic Sun)
* Eastern Washington (8-5, Big Sky)
* Winthrop (8-3, Big South)
* North Carolina-Wilmington (11-1, Colonial)
* Oakland (be proud, Joey D!) (9-3, Horizon)
* Brown (8-5, Ivy League)
* Monmouth (10-2, MAAC)
* Akron (10-3, MAC East Division)
* Chattanooga (9-3, Southern)
* Sam Houston State (9-4, Southland)
* IPFW (10-3, Summit)
* Louisiana-Lafayette and Texas-Arlington (10-3 each, Sun Belt)
* New Mexico State (11-2, WAC)

These may be some of the mid-majors who could crash the NCAA tourney party come March. So keep an eye on these teams should they emerge.


Glad you're able to check out these musings of mine regarding college basketball. Be sure to enjoy any and all college hoops action this Christmas weekend. Of course... good luck to all of your favorite teams.
 

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