4 Teams

Binghamton got creamed by Pitt and then slammed a team no one ever heard of by 50 points. They play Loyola of Maryland next. Kansas St beat Bellarmine and plays South Dakota State next. St. John’s plays Michigan tonight at Madison Square Garden. Michigan apparently is a whole lot better than anyone thought. They beat national title contender, Marquette, in a pre-season scrimmage, with both team scoring over 100 points. This game should give the Gators a good idea of what they will be facing down the road in Michigan. The worst part of the Gators’ loss to Virginia the other night has to be the extraordinarily careless passing that lead to tons of turnovers. I have no problem with someone like a Riley Kugel driving into the paint trying to make a play and turning the ball over, but I have a huge problem with careless and unnecessary passes that a good high school team could’ve picked off. Golden needs to tighten up the ship.

 

One side note about former Gators is that Jason Jitoboh has been kicking butt at Tennessee State. They have yet to play a really good team, but in two games, Jitoboh, who is considerably trimmed down, might’ve been the best player on the floor. On a per 40 minute basis, Jitoboh currently is averaging 26.7 points per game, 14.2 rebounds per game and 5.3 blocks per game.

 

Hopefully, his eye problems have been resolved. I watched highlights on YouTube, and I don’t recall seeing a mask. He still has #33.

 

That’s per 40 minutes. He is playing about 22 mpg. He is averaging 15 points, eight rebounds, three blocks and three assists per game.

 

IMO, no.

 

Binghamton beat Loyola of Maryland by 6 points on the road last night despite shooting 3-18 from the 3-point line on wide open shots. They also held Dike to 5 points. Binghamton next plays Marist on Saturday. St. John's lost by 16 points to Michigan in MSG the other night. Michigan looks like it might be the 2nd best team in the Big 10. St. John's plays a pretty good North Texas team this afternoon with Houston waiting on the horizon if St. John's can get to the finals of the tournament it is playing in in Charleston. Kansas State is 2-1 and plays Providence in a big game tomorrow night. The Gators play an FSU team tomorrow night that looks like it is pretty good. It has wins over Central Michigan and Kennesaw State by the identical scores of 94-67.

 

North Texas is an unbelievable defensive team. St. John’s is getting there. St. John’s vs Dayton tomorrow. Dayton beat LSU by 3 points. North Texas had the longest winning streak in the country, but they lost Tylor Perry to Kansas State.

 

This post is a look at what happened to these 4 teams since early November, and how accurate were my projections.

Binghamton went 15-15 and finished tied for 4th in he America East. Vermont won the America East tournament as usual. I gave up on Binghamton after about 10 games.

Kansas State was decimated by the injury to, yes, Ques Glover, and Nae'Qwan Tomlin's dismissal from the team and transfer to Memphis. They went 8-10 in the Big 12 and 19-15 overall. Tomlin was a monster for Memphis in the latter part of the season. If he goes into the portal, he will be one of the most sought after big men in the country.

St. John's went 20-13 and finished 5th in the Big East. They blasted Creighton and Seton Hall at the end of the season and lost 95-90 to UConn in the Big East semis. I do think that they were a Final Four contender at season's end, but that's meaningless when how you are playing in the latter part of the season and how close your losses are to top teams are not taken into account by the bean counters on the NCAA selection committee. FYI, KenPom had St. John's at #23 at the end of the season, and Torvik had St. John's at #16. Torvik's top 15 teams were all in the NCAA Tournament seeded anywhere from 1 to 5.

The Gators finished 6th in the SEC and were a top-half seed in the NCAA Tournament. Condon and Haugh turned out to be good players, but the Gators were hurt by Shimmy's injury and Jarvis's departure. The Gators also were stung by Kugel's disappointing season. Samuel was not a stretch 4. Aberdeen turned out to be an unfinished product, although he looked better in he latter part of the season. In sum, a relatively good season for the Gators with a disappointing ending.

All in all, my projections appear to have been reasonably accurate.

 

Are you having a bad day? I was not being negative at all. Obviously, you don’t know until the guy plays how he’s going to perform, but saying that we were not hurt by Jarvis‘s departure and shimmy’s injury is at the least borderline ridiculous. You might as well go ahead and criticize me for saying that Kugel did not perform up to expectations. As for Tyrese, he came into the program thinking he would be a true four. He wasn’t. That doesn’t mean he didn’t play very well. He was one of our top three players. Would you prefer some milquetoast bullshit to read on these forums? That’s what it sounds like to me.