Welcome to the latest edition of Talking Hoops With Ted Sarandis. The unexpectedly early off-season is now two weeks old, and it still feels more than a little odd.
That is where we start – the strange feeling of no basketball. For that matter, of course, we have no competitive sports, college or pro, but this is normally college basketball’s time to shine with the NCAA Tournaments. We also get into thoughts on what should happen related to this, namely seniors getting one more chance to return (even though plenty would not return for one reason or another) and what should happen with the cities that were slated to host this year’s NCAA Tournament rounds.
We get into some postseason awards, most of which have just been announced. Included are the U.S. Basketball Writers Association national awards (their All-District honors were already announced before the games were canceled), and I’ll share a little about how I voted later. Obi Toppin is racking up the national Player of the Year honors, while his coach, Anthony Grant, is doing so with Coach of the Year, although my vote would have gone elsewhere as I discuss.
After that, we get into the coaching carousel, which is noticeably slower this year. It was expected to be that way, as there weren’t many high-major jobs that looked highly likely to open, and that has held up. Easily the biggest news of the cycle has been Rick Pitino succeeding Tim Cluess at Iona, taking over one of the flagship programs of the MAAC. Other moves have not been as surprising to this point, and about the only thing that might change that is if the NCAA hands down a significant punishment related to the FBI investigation later in the off-season.
Finally, we get into the very active transfer market. This is one area that certainly got an early start this year due to the abrupt end to the season, and as of the recording there were well over 400 players in the transfer portal. Over 100 of them are graduate transfers, and as has often been the case, many are mid-majors who will most likely go to high-major schools.
We hope you enjoy the podcast and share it with your fellow college basketball fans. Be sure to tune in again soon as we continue to talk about the unprecedented off-season in college basketball.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
