MichaelC

I'm seeing 32 today, 6 tomorrow and and 11 on Friday, definitely could be worse.

Fair expectations, let us hope we get a chance to find out if they are correct.

I don't know if I would really consider getting picked to win by 2 points favored but your point is well taken. However, in my opinion the projection that Navy will be a top Patriot league team is more a function of the weakness of that league rather than the quality of Navy.

That's a bad loss for GW and the A-10

GW does not look good defensively, gave up 41 points in the 1st half, could have easily been 51 if Navy was a little better.

Watching that game, without fans there is no real "home court", feels like an early round tournament game.

Lunardi explores 3 different NCAA Tournament scenarios. Has SLU as a 10-seed in the 68 and 48 team versions. https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/30302581/the-varying-states-ncaa-tournament-bracketology#48-teams

Absolutely right, from an article regarding holding the tournament in one location: https://www.insidehook.com/daily_brief/sports/dukes-mike-krzyzewski-calls-holding-ncaa-tourney-in-one-city-a-challenge Whether it is in Indianapolis or somewhere else, the NCAA has to hold the tournament this year as the organization lost $375 million when the 2020 tournament was canceled due to the coronavirus. “We need to have the tournament,” Krzyzewski said. “There’s no question.”

I hope so, but at this point the Minnesota game has to happen.

Yeah, still it would have been nice to start the season with 2 power 5s

Funny you mentioned the NFL, I just read that they're instituting a more "intensive" policy following a spate of positive tests (https://www.insidehook.com/daily_brief/sports/nfl-imposing-intensive-covid-19-protocol-all-teams) including a provision that all personnel entering an NFL facility must have a negative test result from the day before. To your point, I don't know how you can get through a basketball season without a mechanism that allows players to "test back in" so to speak after a positive test (you're going to have some false positives) or close contact.

Yeah, a 14 day in season quarantine won't work, I think teams are just being overly cautious now in order to get the season started as smoothly as possible.

Depends, I wouldn't put any bet on it one way or the other. I think whether or not a certain MTE comes off will depend on the risk tolerance level of the participants including state and local officials where the MTE is being held. Some states are starting to impose more restrictions while some health experts don't believe that will make any difference. How will states that are suggesting that Thanksgiving gatherings be as small as possible justify hosting an MTE? Same as they do with football I guess. Football seems to be soldiering on despite many a positive test, we'll have to wait and see how basketball navigates this crazy landscape.

It will be interesting to see if they allow fans and how those fans will be managed. If a team that makes a Final 4 run has to stay in this "controlled environment" for a month how will they handle fans going in and out?

SLU Basketball preview written by Caleb Hightower who is Joshua Hightower's brother. https://bustingbrackets.com/2020/11/08/saint-louis-basketball-2020-21-season-preview-for-the-billikens/

Usually, whether or not a player with eligibility remaining goes or stays depends on the feedback they get from NBA scouts. If for example scouts told Perkins that he is a late 2nd round prospect and there is nothing he can do that would change that he goes. But if they tell him that if he improved his defense and ball handling that he could be a lottery pick, that would be worth staying for. I agree with you on French and Goodwin, I don't think there is anything they can do to change their status. But I think the Perkins situation is different, he has played only 1 year of D1 ball and did not get a chance to play in any postseason tournaments where players can often boost their profile with a series of good performances in tournament play.

From a competitive standpoint LaSalle and Fordham would be better off in the America East conference or the Patriot league.

I can definitely see the P6 looking to avoid any dangerous mid majors, unfortunately I don't think there is anything the NCAA could do to prevent this. The biggest challenge for a college bubble may be personnel. I would think that many of the people involved in game day operations (refs, scoreboard operators, security, etc.) are part timers who may not be willing or able to stay in a bubble for any length of time. Would the NCAA be comfortable with those folks going in and out of the bubble on a regular basis? Not a problem for the NBA, they have the money to compensate all needed staff at a level that allows them to stay in the bubble.

So it appears that not only did the ncaa take the committee's recommendation they actually expanded upon it, granting not only an extra year of eligibility but also an additional year in which to completed the extra year. Folks in the NCAA eligibility office are going to have a lot of fun sorting thru this. They also addressed the issue of expanded scholarships: Granting an extra year of eligibility could bring plenty of complications for schools, however. The NCAA's announcement said seniors student-athletes who take advantage of the additional year of eligibility will not count against team scholarship limits in 2021-22. But even with temporarily-expanded scholarship limits, athletic departments dealing with significant budget shortfalls may not be in position to spend more on athletic scholarships. https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/ncaa-approves-blanket-waiver-for-2020-fall-sports-athletes-to-retain-year-of-eligibility/

I think they have to make some provision for this but the how will be interesting. Will the increase in scholarships be the same number for all programs or will the increase be based on the number of seniors opting for another year of eligibility? Either way it's going to be a lot more work for the NCAA Eligibility Center.

For sure, it's all speculation and that's a decision that I would think is at least 4 months away, but I don't trust the NCAA to do anything except grab for the cash and if that means shrinking the tournament in an effort to get through it as quickly as possible my gut tells me that's what they'll do. But who knows what will happen, a vaccine happening would be nice.

My guess is that this special tournament will involve a drastic reduction in the number of teams, perhaps as few as 32 but perhaps more.

It will be much more challenging if only conference games are played. With fewer games and teams (especially mid-majors) needing to really hit the ground running there probably won''t be the luxury of giving a talented but not quite ready underclassmen minutes to help develop. My guess is that under those circumstances Ford will limit the rotation to 7-8 trusted souls if he can.

Exactly. St Johns is 4-12 (with 2 of those wins against last place DePaul) in the Big East and has lost 6 of their last 8, yet they have a NET of 64. But in a league where the last place team has a NET of 81 and 5 of the teams have a NET of 25 or better, where would the bad losses come from?