Welcome to the latest edition of Talking Hoops With Ted Sarandis. After a relatively quiet few weeks – certainly, more quiet than the first month of the off-season – we return to talk about what’s leading the way across the country.
We begin by noting the death of former Maryland guard Cliff Tucker in a car accident. Tucker was 29 years old and played at Maryland from 2007-11, twice being on an NCAA Tournament team during the twilight of Gary Williams’ career as head coach.
The topic that consumes much of our discussion is naturally the NBA Draft, with the deadline for players to return to school coming on Wednesday. We discuss the players who have opted to return to school, from Nick Ward (Michigan State) and Admiral Schofield (Tennessee) to Kris Wilkes (UCLA), Luke Maye (North Carolina) and Shamorie Ponds (St. John’s), as well as those who are staying in the draft like Donte DiVincenzo (Villanova), Josh Okogie (Georgia Tech) and Jerome Robinson (Boston College). Also, in a category by himself is Mustapha Heron, who is withdrawing from the NBA Draft but will transfer to be closer to home as his mother is ill.
After the draft, the discussion turns to Conference USA announcing that they will have a form of flex scheduling starting next season. It’s an interesting idea, and as we note, a little similar in terms of the goal to what the West Coast Conference wants to do: get more teams in the NCAA Tournament and improve the seeding. However, as I note, this will do very little, if anything to help to that end. What the conference really needs is for its schools to start winning more games in non-conference play. The conference has not had much success in the way of highly-ranked RPI teams, and that is largely a product of an inability to beat good teams in non-conference play. Recent years show this, and thus throw a bit of cold water on the idea, though the conference office does not seem to think this is a quick fix by any means.
Later, we go into a few quick hitters from around the country, then talk about a recent ruling on sports gambling and what it may mean for college basketball. Mainly, it is a big unknown right now, but it will not be a trivial matter.
As a last note, we also pay tribute to former SEC commissioner Mike Slive, who passed away recently.
We hope you enjoy the podcast and share it with your fellow college basketball fans. Be sure to come back for our next one soon.
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