Welcome to the latest edition of Talking Hoops With Ted Sarandis. Non-conference play is winding down, and so is the number of undefeated teams, a subject that gets us going on to other ones.
We start with Buffalo losing their first game of the season just a couple of nights after a big win at Syracuse. The Bulls couldn’t keep their run going at Marquette, as they ran into a buzzsaw named Markus Howard. While the Golden Eagles have a lot more than the junior guard, he is the unquestioned star and showed that as he scored 40 of his 45 points in the second half on Friday night.
We also saw Furman go down for the first time on the season, and a night earlier, Texas Tech lost their first game of the season, which leaves us with six teams nationally without a loss.
From there, we talk about the Pac-12, where the hits keep coming, and that included Friday night. Baylor, having already won at Arizona recently, knocked off Oregon on Friday night. The Bears would be at best a bubble team if the NCAA Tournament were held tomorrow, although they are playing better of late, and the Pac-12 has missed a lot of opportunities to build their overall profile.
That leads us to a bigger picture look at a number of conferences that are up or down from a year ago. What also emerges is that with more appearing down than up, you wonder if this could translate into mid-majors getting rewarded come NCAA Tournament time. Many of us will believe it when we see it, but there are a lot of question marks right now.
We go on to talk about the news of Rick Pitino re-emerging in the coaching scene in Greece. Could this open a door for him to return to coaching in America? The college game will not be the place; there will be too much risk given the FBI investigation and likely NCAA sanctions, but the NBA could be a possibility, especially if all he does is coach, as opposed to his time with the Boston Celtics where he took on too much additional responsibility.
Finally, we look ahead to a busy Saturday of games with a lot to choose from. We will surely end up discussing some of these games later on.
We hope you enjoy the podcast and share it with your fellow college basketball fans. Be sure to tune in for our next podcast before long.
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