The ACC might be bad.
Basketball of Note
Virginia’s loss to Navy was the headlining “Yikes” result last night, though to be fair to…I don’t know, actually. I was going to say, “though to be fair to Virginia, KenPom did have them forecast as a bubble-quality team,” but that implies that it wasn’t Virginia’s fault that two and a half years after winning a national championship, they’re only a bubble-quality team.
In other ACC woes, Georgia Tech lost at home to Miami-Ohio, and Pitt got whacked in Pittsburgh by The Citadel. They weren’t the only power conference schools suffering disappointing losses—hi, Nebraska; hi, Cal; hi, Washington—but for the other power leagues, the teams that flopped on opening night weren’t main characters. Georgia Tech won last year’s ACC Tournament. Virginia won the regular season title. Don’t overreact to one night, but do react to the fact KenPom has just one team from this league in its top twenty.
That team, Duke, had a good night. Paolo Banchero drummed up the hype, dropping 22 and pulling down seven boards against Kentucky. Will we look back on that as a good win? Probably. But there’s the chance, there, too, of it being a whole lot of nothing come March. Kentucky’s had a couple rough years now.
In the other half of the Champions Classic, Kansas handled Michigan State, and to my knowledge Remy Martin and Bill Self did not bare-knuckle box one another at the half. Ochai Agbaji led the Jayhawks.
Now, it gets a little quiet. We stop paying as much attention, sports-wide, to college basketball for a little bit. There are a couple great games this weekend, but mostly, we’re waiting for Feast Week, or whatever they’re calling it these days. We’ll keep you abreast, of course, but nothing can’t-miss tonight. We do have bets, though (also some college football conference futures in there).
Confusion by Committee
The College Football Playoff selection committee released its latest rankings last night, and there was little too objectionable. At least, little new. A lot of attention was paid to the Michigan/Michigan State divide (Michigan was one spot ahead of MSU despite having lost head-to-head), but that’s likely to sort itself out.
Something that might not sort itself out is Oregon being treated like the team that beat Ohio State in Columbus and not the team that lost to Stanford, who is now 3-6. In the Pac-12. That, how the committee seems to be viewing different conferences and divisions, and just how big the gap is between the top ten and the rest of the country in our (and our model’s) CFP rankings recap.
The Cubs Have a Hitting Coach
The Cubs’ hiring of Greg Brown is official. Brown comes over from the Rays, where he was the minor league hitting coordinator, but he was only in their organization for two seasons, serving as the head coach at a D-II school in Fort Lauderdale for nearly a decade after working as a scout for a few years after his playing days ended.
Anytime you can hire a guy the Rays seem to like, you probably want to do it, and the head coaching experience is interesting, especially given college baseball’s focus on immediate production because of the nature of the short season. We’ll see. Not a lot else has worked for the Cubs since they brought in Chili Davis. This hire might be really, really important. Which could be good or bad.
In other Cubs news, David Bote had surgery on the shoulder he separated this summer. Bote, as we spent a lot of words telling you all, smoked the ball this year but didn’t get results. Hopefully he can get to spring training healthy and ready to produce off the bench.
Better to Win Ugly Than to Lose Ugly
Iowa State had a fine first game. Way too many turnovers (22, ending 27% of possessions, which is even worse than last year’s rate and especially bad given the opponent), and a lot of fouls (Izaiah Brockington, George Conditt IV, and Tre Jackson all fouled out, while Tyrese Hunter spent a lot of time on the bench in foul trouble himself), but they moved the ball pretty well and scored efficiently, with Brockington and Gabe Kalscheur getting plenty of productive looks. Next up is Oregon State on Friday at home. The Beavers survived a little scare from Portland State before pulling away midway through last night’s second half.
