Welcome to the latest edition of Talking Hoops With Ted Sarandis. While the action on the hardwood is heating up as is typical for this time of year, some off-court news intervened recently and is what we lead with.
The first subject is South Carolina being served with a notice of allegations from the NCAA on Thursday, which we find to be interesting timing. The notice concerns former assistant coach Lamont Evans, who was one of four college basketball assistant coaches arrested back in September 2017 while he was an assistant at Oklahoma State. The story we draw from notes programs that have been served with a notice of allegations coming out of the FBI investigation into corruption and those that are still in the investigative stage, and we found an interesting connection.
From there, we go on to NCAA president Mark Emmert now seeking help from the U.S. Senate with regard to athlete compensation, as the NCAA has spent a good deal of time and money lobbying of late as this has landed in their lap. This story basically illustrates how much the NCAA is up against it, and while the NCAA has understandable reasons for wanting Congress to help with this, it’s also a sign of how far behind the curve they have been, and there may well be a price to be paid in the form of chaos.
We get back to the hardwood with a look at Duke recently winning two tough games in three days. The first was another instant classic in the sport’s greatest rivalry, and it’s a game North Carolina would surely love to have back, while the second was an old-fashioned fight to the finish against a very good Florida State team.
The night before we recorded the podcast, Creighton scored a big win at Seton Hall. The Bluejays have quietly had a nice season and are now tied for second in the Big East, and we have to recognize the job that Greg McDermott has done there. On the same night, Marquette guard Markus Howard became the Big East’s all-time scoring leader in conference games.
We then move on to the Big Ten, where Penn State, of all teams, has won seven in a row. Then we go to a conference that has been a bit different, the Atlantic 10. After looking impressive in non-conference, it appears that Dayton is one of just a couple of teams to get better while the conference as a whole has basically reverted to the mean. As such, the Flyers just might go undefeated in conference play, which seemed unthinkable back when VCU, Richmond and Saint Louis all looked like at-large threats and teams like Rhode Island, St. Bonaventure and George Mason looked intriguing.
As we wrap up and look ahead to games of note over the next few days, Ted also brings up an interesting note: there have been 16 wins by an unranked team over a top 5 team in the polls, up from just six last season after there were 28 of them in 2017-18.
We hope you enjoy the podcast and share it with your fellow college basketball fans. Be sure to tune in again next week for more of our coverage of college basketball.
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