Welcome to the latest edition of Talking Hoops With Ted Sarandis. The off-season is now here as the national championship game is in the books, and a couple of coaching changes have taken center stage.
We begin with a final look back at Monday night’s national championship game, which leads us into an off-season item to ponder as well. After we look at how De’Andre Hunter started slowly but became the biggest reason Virginia won the game in overtime, we also get to concerns about replay getting out of hand and the effects on game length that and foul calls like the controversial one at the end of their national semifinal win might have. All of this could add up to much longer games, as well as the powers that be trying to change the game to something less fun to watch in order to rein the game times in – and neither would be desirable.
From there, we go into two coaching changes of note, starting with UCLA, which finally saw a result with the hire of former Cincinnati head coach Mick Cronin. UCLA had been turned down by several coaches before finally hiring Cronin, a solid coach but a questionable fit at first glance. Cronin has won with teams that grind it out in the style of the old Big East, noteworthy since the streak of nine straight NCAA Tournament appearances began when the Bearcats were still in the Big East. Will that style play well out west, where wide-open play is generally desired? Perhaps Cronin will get different talent and then change his style, and the best coaches do coach to their personnel.
Back east, St. John’s opened up with Chris Mullin stepping down after four seasons at his alma mater. The Red Storm finally had enough to get to the NCAA Tournament this year, but barely – and through some really good wins but some head-scratching losses that made them a bubble team. Mullin lost his brother about a month ago, and needed some time to regroup, but any way you slice it, this team underachieved this season. New athletic director Mike Cragg is in a tough spot: do you fire the school’s greatest player as your first real move? Well, he pushed him out. Who will take over? There are plenty of names being mentioned, but few seem to make sense.
Finally, we look at player movement, largely with the NBA Draft. This year’s draft shapes up as historically weak, so we might well see a large number of underclassmen at least test the waters. It also looks like we’ll have another large number of transfers, and much remains to shake out there, especially since we are certainly not done with coaching changes just yet.
We hope you enjoy the podcast and share it with your fellow college basketball fans. Be sure to tune in again soon for our next podcast discussing the big subjects of the off-season.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
