Welcome to the latest edition of Talking Hoops With Ted Sarandis. December is here, and while things will slow down a little, there is plenty to talk about, especially during a week in which Tuesday was a big night of college basketball.
First, we look back a little further to Thanksgiving weekend. A bizarre event that still stands out is the Barclays Center Classic championship game, where Alabama had to finish the game with just three players against Minnesota. We talk about how the game got to that point, and how remarkable it is that Alabama actually rallied late in the game.
After that, we talk about something that’s been mentioned a bit lately on our site, which is the Pac-12’s first month. Simply put, it hasn’t been the best start to the season for the conference, as they have had missed opportunities for quality wins, had teams disappoint, and also seen teams like Cal and Stanford suffer some bad losses, including recently in the case of the Golden Bears. Even Washington State, which started 6-0, just got blown out at Idaho. It seems like lately, as they get good wins like Arizona over Texas A&M or Washington over Kansas, they also see bad losses (Cal being blown out by Central Arkansas or the aforementioned Washington State setback).
We then expand on Florida State’s recent win at Florida, in which the Gators looked overmatched. It appears now to have been a game between two teams going in different directions, as the Seminoles have continued to win while the Gators have lost three straight after a home loss to Loyola (Ill.) on Wednesday night. In the meantime, Miami is also off to a great start, and UCF may be en route to finally starting to fulfill the potential the athletic department has always been thought to have. UCF for years has been talked up as a “sleeping giant”, but they haven’t even almost looked the part to this point. Is Johnny Dawkins on the verge of changing that?
Finally, we touch on the recent Syracuse/UConn game at Madison Square Garden as part of the Jimmy V Classic. The game is clearly a good one for MSG given the respective fan bases, but the game itself was another story. Both programs have been trending downward steadily of late; the Huskies’ fall has been particularly noteworthy since it has come just after a national championship and with one of their own at the helm in Kevin Ollie.
This leads us to talk about UConn being out of place in the American Athletic Conference, with no natural rivals at all. It leads us into how conference realignment has killed many great rivalries, and UConn is acutely notable in this regard as they don’t play other close rivals like Providence, Boston College or St. John’s.
We hope you enjoy this podcast and share it with your fellow college basketball fans.
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