🏀 Outside the ACC Offseason 2024

Have a feeling this slogan could show up in the Tu thread soon.

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I was browsing through a basketball magazine covering this past season and am wondering if there was any play-by-play announcer in the country who had a more challenging job of learning and saying the names of the players on the team than the person who covered the University of Portland. I mean … here’s a sample of some of the names: Vukasin Masic, Thomas Oosterbeoek, Yuto Yamanouchi-Williams, Juan Sebastian Gorosito, Kelson Gebbers, Allmamy Koroma, Cyprian Hyde, Vasilije Vucinic, Bol Dengdit. ( Please give us some practice videos so I won’t post any more of these.:grin:)

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Figured this would be relevant since we play Florida next season. Would be the tallest player in college basketball history, and almost as tall as Jay Huff.

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https://x.com/KentuckyMBB/status/1803438728838295878

I just feel like this guy is going to become Greg Oden… the higher the level of basketball… the more stress on your body… and the taller you are, the easier you will be injured.

There is no way this dude is not going to have issues with his knees. For that I am sad for him.

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https://x.com/RossDellenger/status/1803545219977069003

It’s like college sports is pushing every boundary to see how much their audience will take before tuning out.

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It’s insane how much of a disconnect there is between fans and NCAA officials/CBB analysts on this. You have talking heads like Jay Bilas trying to advocate for expansion, meanwhile the overwhelming majority of the fanbase is screaming “Goddammit it’s fine as it is don’t fuck this up please”.

Why are the people in charge so hellbent on changing shit that doesn’t need to be changed?

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Because when you add more games you get bigger tv deals. You’re going to keep seeing all sports products expand until people actually start tuning out

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You’re almost certainly right with regard to this kid - that’s just too tall. But semi-related, I feel like I remember hearing that what happened with Greg Oden is at least partially something that would have been dealt with somewhat better had he come up today instead of when he did. I think one of his legs is slightly longer than the other, and at the time he was playing AAU and college and such they just never really picked up on it or did anything to address it. Now there’s straightforward tests to pick that up I think and readily available corrections. (This is all vaguely pulled from old Mark Titus podcasts).

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I also saw an interview of Greg Oden on Jeff Teague’s podcast where he briefly talked about how bad his diet was. He would apparently drink like 3-4 energy drinks before every HS game, can’t be good for your health.

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If it ain’t broke…

Ah yes the “euro offense”. The birth and development of a new buzz phrase over the last few years has been interesting to watch

https://x.com/NYPost_Brazille/status/1804208571678113911

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Pitino came back from his Panathinaikos stint like a college student back from study abroad with a new accent.

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I like the idea of 76 teams in a vacuum. Two play ins for each region. Creep up close to 20% of teams making the tournament without impacting the main 64 team bracket

Unfortunately those extra spots will most likely be used to get more 17-15 Big 12 teams in rather than mid and low major regular season champs that slip up in their conference tournaments

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Yeah, for me it depends on how it’s implemented. If they get to 76 in a way that guarantees all automatic-qualifiers a place in the Round of 64, and basically sets up a round full of win-and-ins for the last X number of at-large bids, I’d be good with that.

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My (maybe weird) take is that I don’t care in principle how many teams there are … AS LONG as you preserve the energy, excitement, and magic of the Thursday / Friday full slate of games.

I worry that the more tinkering you do, the more you risk losing what makes that opening days an absolutely incredible concentrated stretch of games. You risk diluting it and blurring the excitement of Thursday/Friday with peripheral noise and activity in the days leading up. Thankfully that hasn’t happened yet because the First Four is a bore and people don’t care.

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There was time when this news would’ve been huge. Now it’s a text-only headline on the right side of ESPN’s CBB subpage.

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I know it’s heresy to some, but got me wishing we had an annual home/home with Maryland. Good “old ACC” rivalry the way Syracuse still plays a lot of old Big East teams in the non-conf, plus helps our presence/visibility in the DMV.

Would you support an annual home-and-home rivalry with Maryland?
  • Yes
  • No
0 voters

If not Maryland, any schools you’d like to see us have as an annual non-conference rival?

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I hate Maryland with a passion. Which is why it’s so dumb we don’t regularly play them anymore. Instead it’s woohoo, another game against Louisville.

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