Welcome to the latest edition of Talking Hoops With Ted Sarandis. It’s been a quiet week with many teams off for final exams, but a pickup in activity is right around the corner.
We begin by looking back at Tennessee’s big win over Gonzaga on Sunday. The Volunteers have had chances in big games thus far, and they finally broke through in this one as Admiral Schofield’s star continues to rise. Rick Barnes continues to build Tennessee into an SEC favorite, especially as we don’t know what to make of Kentucky but will have a little better idea soon. Kentucky, of course, was in the news in recent days from the decision of sophomore guard Quade Green to transfer.
The next subject of interest is Villanova’s 25-game Big Five losing streak ending earlier this week, and in an appropriate place: the Palestra, a mecca of college basketball and the arena most identified with the Big Five. Villanova is feeling the effects of their personnel losses from last season’s team, and also had another distraction come up with a talented freshman after the loss.
After that, we talk about a story that emerged this week, and which I talk about in the Morning Dish after a light night of action on Friday. The NCAA’s new recruiting rules for June events have a gaping hole in that they leave a lot of prospects out. Once again, the NCAA at best can’t get out of its own way. This is also, in Ted’s mind, one more example of why the sport needs a national commissioner that can lead the way, and here’s something to think about: many conferences also have a commissioner devoted to just one sport like football or men’s basketball.
Finally, we look ahead to a busy Saturday of action that includes more rivalry games – the kind we need to see a lot of at this time of the year – as well as other great matchups in a marathon day of action.
We hope you enjoy the podcast and share it with your fellow college basketball fans. Be sure to tune in soon for our next podcast with more coverage of college basketball.
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