The college basketball silly season is accelerating in its silliness, so we’ll begin with that:
Transfer Answers
There are some big, big names in the transfer portal. Xavier Pinson. Andre Curbelo. Terrence Shannon Jr. Are these household names? No, but you only have a few of those in college basketball and most of them are going pro. These are all major contributors from power conference teams, and there are others, too. Jalen Bridges. Brandon Murray. The list will continue to grow.
It would be a fool’s errand for us to try to cover the transfer market with too much depth. That’s the kind of high-detail thing you should probably look for elsewhere, if you’re looking for it. We’ll try to keep an eye on it, though, especially if certain programs are making particularly big strides in either direction.
On the Iowa State side today, we found out Izaiah Brockington and George Conditt are going pro, and that Tre Jackson is transferring. With Conditt, it’s unclear if he’s hiring an agent (Brockington’s announcement included that he’ll be signing with an agent, which could lock him into forgoing the rest of his eligibility, depending on the agent), but it sure looks like the big man is moving on one way or another, especially since he’s almost certainly going to be playing abroad rather than here in the NBA or G League. None of these moves are surprising, but they do clear the picture a bit. As it stands, I believe this leaves T.J. Otzelberger’s staff with two open scholarships, a number that could grow as more players (Jaden Walker, Tristan Enaruna, etc.) make their decisions.
How the SMU Thing Shook Out, The Return of Prohm
Two separate developments here.
SMU did not end up successfully hiring Grant McCasland. North Texas held onto him, and the soon-to-be conference rivals can take that hot topic off the table. Instead, SMU wound up with Rob Lanier out of Georgia State. If your sole metric (and I’m not saying this was SMU’s sole metric, but it’s sometimes all we can see at a glance) is how successful a guy was at a lower mid-major than yours, Lanier meets what I would think SMU’s threshold should be.
Elsewhere, Murray State is bringing back Steve Prohm, and good for him. He was a good guy in Ames even if it didn’t work, and hopefully he has a lot of success back in the spot he first broke through.
No Bets Today
In the last bit of college basketball news, we’re spending tonight (and possibly a lot of tomorrow) determining our hedging path for the Final Four and the rest of the NIT. Kansas and North Carolina winning put us in a healthy spot on the NCAAT side, and we have that high-risk, high-payout bet still open on Washington State to win the NIT (along with some bets on Villanova to get past Kansas, which aren’t as fun now that Justin Moore’s out). Our priority is to get back to even all-time, or ideally profitable, something a little bit harder after we narrowly missed out yet again on our NASCAR portfolio yesterday, with A.J. Allmendinger taking Ross Chastain to the wire but failing to win. My impression on both NASCAR and F1 is that our process has been fine and the results will come, based on how close we’ve been and how long of odds we’re betting. My impression with IndyCar is that we have work to do. Building models would help with consistency there, but the absolute earliest I could see us getting those done is May, and I don’t think that’ll actually happen.
Pujols to St. Louis
On the ballfield, Albert Pujols is coming back to the Cardinals, which should be a lot of fun for that fanbase. The years since he left haven’t gone as planned for him or for the Cards, and while he isn’t expected to provide much value this year on the field, he could be a big draw and add some leadership, which can theoretically turn into wins and losses both now and down the line. He was a below-replacement-level player last year, even with some strong spurts with the Dodgers. A lot of that is just how good first basemen are at hitting, something sliding into the DH role won’t help. It’ll be interesting to see how the team uses him.
For the Cubs, it’s mostly an emotional thing as well, and I may eat my words but at this point it feels harmless enough to be kind of fun. Pujols isn’t as hateable as Yadier Molina, and he isn’t as good as Adam Wainwright, and that puts this in a nostalgic sweet spot. Thanks for adding some interest for the rest of us, Mike Girsch (had to Google that and almost published the AZ Cardinals guy’s name—woof).
Keisean Jackson
Missed this last week, but the Packers signed cornerback Keisean Nixon, a cornerback and special teams guy who spent three years with the Raiders after playing college ball at South Carolina. Depth pickup, it seems.
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No offense to The Basketball Classic, but it’s a night off watching televised sports for this blogger. See you tomorrow, probably with a lengthy betting explanation that doesn’t necessarily apply to you.
