College Hoops
Mailbag 11.20.23
Time for another edition of the weekly mailbag! You have questions, I have answers. Let’s dive in.
Trilly, I know they beat my Muskies just last year but when will basketball success return to DePaul? – @XavierLoyalist
A wise man once told me nothing good ever happens to DePaul. That’s been mostly true for the better part of 20 years in Chicago. Since moving to the Big East for the 2005-2006 season, the Blue Demons have had two winning seasons. According to CBB Reference, DePaul has 260 losses between 2011-2023, 30 more than the next power conference team (Wake Forest). The school is at a disadvantage in today’s NIL landscape and doesn’t have any positive recent history to pitch to recruits. So what can they do to return to national relevance?
The first step is finding the right coach and frankly, I don’t know if Tony Stubblefield is the that guy. Whoever the next guy is needs to have head coaching experience. It doesn’t necessarily need to be high major coaching experience either. You need someone who is able to creatively navigate the landscape and make headway on the disadvantages DePaul faces. A name that comes to mind is someone like Ron Hunter. That dude has won at IUPUI, Georgia State and Tulane. Other names that could make sense – Indiana State’s Josh Schertz, Drake’s Darian DeVries, Youngstown State’s Jerrod Calhoun.
There’s potential at DePaul. Just need to find the right guy to unlock it.
Based on preseason rankings, is Maui 2023 the most loaded MTE ever? Should the Maui winner be ranked #1 next week no matter what? – @BradEbann
Yes! Friend of the account, Will Warren, did an excellent writeup on the Maui Invitational here. It’s without a doubt the best MTE we’ve ever seen and the winner will have an extremely strong argument to be No. 1 next week. You’re going to have to beat two top-10 teams to win this thing, so I’ll gladly put the winner at the top of my power rankings.
Trilly, after a couple weeks, is it possible St. John’s was over-ranked because of the Coach’s name? Is is possible Nova was over-ranked because of everything but the coach’s name? Based on a few games re-do the BE pre-season rankings. – @Jimmy_OConnell
I don’t think either team was over-ranked coming into this season. Villanova was picked fourth in the Big East because they have one of the most talented starting fives in the country. St. John’s was picked fifth, in part because of Rick Pitino, but also because he put together a very good transfer portal class and returned a guy picked to the All-Big East First Team.
November basketball is fluky and the results only tell a part of the story. Here are my Big East power rankings:
- UConn
- Creighton
- Marquette
- Providence
- Villanova
- Xavier
- St. John’s
- Seton Hall
- Butler
- Georgetown
- DePaul
Why do a lot of people continue to underestimate the Miami Hurricanes even after their successes the last few years? – @billhirni
I was very surprised when the analytics guys had the Canes in the mid-40s despite an Elite Eight and Final Four in consecutive seasons. I spoke with a few of them and they said the anchoring of the previous few years of poor results plus the departures of Isaiah Wong and Jordan Miller led to the low ranking. The AP Poll has Miami at 10th as of writing, which is probably where they deserve to be. The biggest knock on this group is defense. Their best defense is outscoring you and it’ll catch up with them eventually – but in today’s landscape it’s going to win you a ton of games.
Most people become believers when they see this team play with their own eyes and the Canes haven’t gotten many opportunities on the national stage. They get Kentucky on 11/28 at Rupp Arena, so we’ll see what people think after that one.
You had Georgia making the tourney as one of your preseason bold predictions. Do you feel better/worse/the same about that based on what you’ve seen so far? – R_Hill_
About the same. Georgia did themselves no favors with their non-conference schedule. They’ve played three KenPom Top-50 teams and lost to all of them. It wasn’t close against Miami or Oregon, either. The good news is, seven of their next eight games are at home against lesser opponents, so the team has a chance to improve their record in time for conference play.
This is essentially a brand new roster still trying to figure things out. They’re also adjusting to a much quicker pace. Mike White teams haven’t played this fast since his Louisiana Tech days. The Bulldogs are averaging 14.9 seconds per offensive possession, 20th in the country and 2.5 seconds quicker than last year. That’s why I still have some faith, because White is trying to adapt.
The beauty (and curse) of the SEC is they’ll have ample opportunity to pick up resume-defining wins in conference. They definitely still have a shot, but they’ve got some work to do to re-enter the conversation.
How would you fix Indiana? And no, you can’t go back in time and land a playmaker from the portal. – @hoosierfan2222
If I can’t go back in time, it all starts with the effort on defense. This team couldn’t guard a traffic cone. They’ve allowed teams to shoot 36.7% from three (280th out of 362), they give up an offensive rebound percentage of 35.3% (311th) and they have an assist rate of 62.4% (328th). The crazy thing is, they have the length and positional size to be a good defensive team! It all comes down to effort. Give effort, win games. Simple.
Does the Texas/Louisville game offer hope for Louisville? Or concern for Texas? – @TheJacksonKelly
More hope for Louisville. Texas is very good. They’re also without Dylan Disu, who will make them better than very good when he returns. They shot 2-17 from three – it happens.
There’s hope for Louisville because that was the best game they’ve played so far. The offensive had rhythm and intention. The defense slacked at times, but there were more than a handful of possessions where you could see effort and intensity. Was it a dead cat bounce? Was it the ceiling? We’ll find out over the next few weeks. But that was a team that looked like it could win 12-15 games as opposed to 8-10.
Hey Trilly few questions: 1) Who is your favorite Cinderella team of all time? 2) Favorite buzzer beater of all time? 3) Any news on Harwell?
- Dunk City 2013. That team was so much fun to watch man. They were playing with house money when they got to the NCAA tournament and they looked fearless. Brett Comer, Bernard Thompson, Sherwood Brown. Ultimate naming guys team.
- Assuming you’re talking about Isiah Harwell, the 2025s are irrelevant to me right now, but I love that there’s a five-star kid from Pocatello.
Follow @trillydonovan on X (Twitter). Stay tuned to burnerball.com to keep up with all things coaching carousel and transfer portal.
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