Welcome to the latest edition of Talking Hoops with Ted Sarandis. It’s been a while since we checked in, and we have plenty to talk about in this edition.
We begin with the recently concluded Olympics, where Team USA won another gold medal, finishing a phenomenal run for Carmelo Anthony and Mike Krzyzewski. We also look at where Team USA came from during the Krzyzewski era, as in the early part of the last decade Team USA had seen better days. At the time, even yours truly felt it was no accident.
We then move into news regarding teams going on foreign trips, most notably Bryant, who was in Italy at the time a 6.2 earthquake hit. The Bulldogs were not far from the epicenter, but all players and staff were okay. Oregon is also on a trip, having headed to Spain, and will be without Dillon Brooks, their best player, so they have a chance to really gain something more from this trip.
Another Pac-12 team, Arizona, lost a graduate transfer for the year on Wednesday. Talbott Denny, a transfer from Lipscomb, tore the ACL and medial meniscus in his left knee. While at first glance, he didn’t project to be a star for the Wildcats, he certainly figured to be a piece. That led us into a bigger discussion of transfers, such as Hartford’s Pancake Thomas, who got his release earlier in the day, and what to think of transfers at this stage of the game.
We turn to a program that now has more adversity, Butler. As if the Bulldogs haven’t had enough in recent years, former star Joel Cornette passed away recently at age 35.
We also talk about the Battle 4 Atlantis, which as early season tournaments go has really closed the gap on the Maui Invitational as the best one and might even have a claim to the best this year. Finally, we look back at the great month of July for several programs who competed in the Hoopville Spring Finale back in June, as well as other programs locally.
This podcast is brought to you by UMass-Boston Athletics.
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