— athleticEamon Brennan, Seth Davis, Brian Hamilton, Brendan Marks, Justin Williams contributed to this story.
Seven weeks after the opening of the NCAA Tournament, in men’s college basketball, athletic provides an overview of the 2022-23 season and predicts what lies ahead. With that in mind, a panel of five experts will discuss a variety of topics throughout his week. Next: Look under the radar…
Who are the sleeper teams in the second half of the season?
Eamon Brennan: Holy Mary. About ten days in November and her December, and one of his very off nights at her home on December 18, Gaelic It was enough to throw everyone off the smell.Non-Conference Performances of St. Mary of Hers—Washington, New Her of Mexico, and Colorado (and again houston in a close game at Fort Worth) — ensuring that whatever Gales did at the start of the league game would struggle to be taken seriously by “who beat the crowd.”
What they did is rule the same league they were given Gonzaga fit. Adjusted possession-by-possession numbers show this to be the best defensive group — in line with Randy Bennett’s late-career evolution into a reliable builder of good defense — and the ‘WCC better than anyone else. Drew Tim” Scoring Efficiency from Freshmen Aidan Mahaney And above all, senior forward Kyle Bowen, he is playing with marks from 3 to 50%. St He Mary’s is really good. Until you play Gonzaga on February 4th and/or again on the 25th, most of the world will come to this. fact.
Deeper
Which men’s college basketball coach will be fired or retired next?
Brian Hamilton: Sorry, I don’t have a deeper cut or original take than St. Mary’s here. I would like to change. I can not do it. I don’t know why people aren’t paying more attention to Gael especially because the trendline is so strong in the last 30 days evan miyakawa’s bayesian his performance his second biggest positive change in his rating had. AlabamaThey were second in Bart Tobik’s rating in games since January 1 (again behind Alabama) and third best in the nation out of their last 10 games, according to CBB Analytics. It has a net rating of (plus 28.8).Saint Mary’s puts players in submission, has excellent offensive balance, and scores 3 seconds in a pretty decent clip (37.9% as a team). And Gales seems to be getting even better than that.
Deeper
Men’s college basketball power rankings: we’re here for general chaos
Justin Williams: I did not say Utah You could win a title or make the Final Four, but give Uté as a team, make an unexpected noise with the Pac-12 in one fell swoop, and potentially win a few games in the NCAA Tournament After an 11-20 record in his first year, Craig Smith is on track to dance in Utah for the first time since 2016, completing a similar three seasons in Utah before arriving in Salt Lake City. showed improvement. Utes defend like one and play nightmarish matches in 7 footers Branden Carlson (17 points average, 44% shot from 3-point range) and knockdown shooter Gabe Madsen (12.1 ppg, 3 to 38%).
utah beat Arizona Home on Dec 1 by 15 and go to Tucson on Feb 16. UCLAthey lost at Westwood earlier this month by 19 at home on February 23.
Brendan Marks: OK, so my sleeper probably isn’t a true title contender – I picked Xavier first. *Duck, avoid throwing objects duke and North Carolina fans*
It’s been 40 years since Wolfpack won the title (and we don’t expect that to change this season), but is this a team that’s going to tournaments and making a little noise? Well, Kevin Keatts. I like the work put together by
That optimism starts in sophomore year Tarkavion Smith, a legitimate college star who can score as well as domestic guards. Ole Mistake Jerkell Joyner was a fitting running mate for Smith, taking some of the pressure off him with timely shotmaking. And as for the complementary part, another pair of transfers — Casey Morsel (Virginia) and DJ Burns (Winthrop) — have made steady contributions, with Burns in particular coming up recently. (Watch out for the imminent return Dusan Maholcic When Jack ClarkAccording to BartTorvik, North Carolina State University is 19th in the nation for efficiency since the new year, ahead of all teams except the ACC. VirginiaNET rankings (at the time of this writing) and no major losses, Wolfpack is firmly entrenched in the NCAA tournament landscape. .
Seth Davis: thank you guys for leaving me clayton blue jaysIt’s easy to forget that this team ranked 9th in the preseason AP polls and lost to Arizona by just 2 points in Maui and 5 points in Texas.They had a nasty six-game losing streak Ryan Kalkbrenner Got sick and recently lost some tough stuff on UConn, XavierBut this team has so many ways to score that I think they’re still winning. Clayton also has a much better defense than people give him credit for. The Jays ranked him 21st in defensive efficiency in his KenPom, and according to BartTorvik, he’s a big player in the East’s defensive reigns as his Player of the Year. In the match held in 2016, they ranked 13th in the nation in terms of defensive efficiency.
Like most others, Clayton’s success in March hinges on matchups. Bluejays defense is efficient but not destructive. Kalkbrenner is finesse he is a player and does not do well in the physical game.But they also create challenging matchups for opponents who can’t match their aggressive pop. hoop thinking stock report, And there’s no reason to change it now.
(Photo by Aidan Mahaney, Saint Mary’s Bodyguard: Emil Lippe/Associated Press)
