College Basketball Preview
Hello and welcome to the Black and White podcast blog. Back in the day (circa 2012-2014), White James wrote a semi-popular college basketball blog called One Man’s Opinion. In fact, the One Man’s Opinion blog still exists on blogspot, which incredibly also still exists. Similar to what is heard on the Black and White podcast, the blog featured plenty of terrible hot takes and outlandish predictions that for the most part were big swings and misses (somehow I thought Marquette would have a bright future with Wojo as head coach). But once in a while, White James would hit on a prediction and would be sure to let everyone know about it.
With the expansion of the Black and White brand from just a podcast to a more expansive digital presence thanks to our new website blackannndwhite.com, resurrecting the One Man’s Opinion blog seemed like a great idea. The goal for this One Man’s Opinion blog is to branch out from its college basketball origins and encompass a wide variety of sports topics, while continuing to provide hot takes and predictions you simply cannot find anywhere else (except the Black and White podcast of course).
For those of you who have been waiting almost 10 years for the next One Man’s Opinion post, the wait is finally over. One Man’s Opinion presents the 2024-2025 college basketball preview.
Conference Realignment - Where are They Now?
Anyone who has listened to the podcast knows how I feel about conference realignment. We are seeing how the new conference alignment is playing out during the football season, but how will it all look on the basketball court. Here are some initial thoughts.
Big Ten - Geographically the additions of USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington are and forever will be a disaster. But as long as everyone in the conference is making big bucks because of it, who cares if it makes sense or not! The big get for the conference here is of course UCLA, but overall none of these programs as they sit currently will add anything of substance to the league’s overall pedigree. And of course I’m sure USC cannot wait for February 23 and their cross-country trip to play at Rutgers. Match ups like this will be common through the conference season and it will be interesting to see the effect travel has on teams on both coasts.
SEC - Certainly feels like the SEC came out just fine in this round of realignment. Texas and Oklahoma are both top 30 teams in the Kenpom era (since 1997) and geographically their presence in the conference is not an issue. The SEC has a chance this season to be the #1 league in Kenpom rankings for the first time since 2003.
Big 12 - For the most dominant league over the last 10 years, the Big 12 did not come out ahead in terms of adding quality teams. While Arizona is a very nice addition (not to mention the addition of Houston a season ago), the losses of Texas and Oklahoma coupled with the additions of middling programs like Colorado, Utah and Arizona State means the Big 12 no longer has a claim as the most challenging league in the country. Don’t get me wrong here, the Big 12 is still potentially the best league in the country, but we will have to see how the quantity over quality factor plays out over the season.
ACC - Similar to the Big Ten, the ACC is a dumpster fire for travel. Enjoy those cross country trips Cal and Stanford! The league did make it so that those schools only have to make 4 trips to the east coast, but like the Big Ten it will be interesting to see how the travel affects the west coast teams specifically. SMU also joins the ACC this year, but a team with 2 NCAA tournament appearances in the last 25 years doesn’t exactly move the needle for an intriguing addition.
Pac 12 - RIP
National Championship Contenders
Unlike last season where UConn came into the season as favorites to repeat as national champions (and emphatically did so), this season does not have a clear cut favorite. Here are some teams that at least on paper seem to have a good shot at cutting down the nets in San Antonio in April 2025.
Duke - All aboard the Cooper Flagg bandwagon. The presumed #1 pick in next year’s NBA draft leads a group of 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ recruits with the size and talent to overcome their overall lack of experience. Don’t sleep on freshman Khaman Maluach, a 7-foot-2 rim protector from South Sudan who saw playing time in the Olympics as a 17 year old.
Houston - Kelvin Sampson has done a remarkable job building this Houston program as a perennial contender despite not bringing in top ranked recruits. The next step for Houston will be success in the postseason, as each of the previous two seasons has ended in the Sweet 16 despite being a #1 seed.
Alabama - The Crimson Tide represent what modern day basketball has become. Lay-ups and 3’s. Nate Oates has embraced basketball analytics perhaps more than any coach at the high major level, and to his credit, Alabama has been successful because of it. The problem for Alabama last season was the defense went from #3 in the country in 2023 to #111 in 2024. Those defensive shortcomings were painfully obvious in their Final Four loss to UConn, when the Huskies scored an incredible 1.37 points per possession (for reference, 1.02 is about average and anything over 1.2 is phenomenal). Mark Sears returns and will be in the conversation for National Player of the Year.
Kansas - The 2022 National Champions have been uncharacteristically quiet in March each of the last 2 years, losing in the second round each time. Ranked #1 in the preseason AP poll, the Jayhawks feature a veteran group including Hunter Dickinson, Dejuan Harris and KJ Adams and highly touted transfers AJ Storr and Zeke Mayo. Here’s a One Man’s Opinion hot take. Bill Self could be the next high profile college coach who decides to retire rather than playing the NIL and transfer portal game. The landscape of college sports is vastly different from the one Self dominated the past 20 years (although some may argue that the (probably illegal) recruiting tactics used by Self and Kansas have been made obsolete by the introduction of NIL money). Similar to Tony Bennett retiring from Virginia and Jay Wright walking away from Villanova, I could see Self stepping away sooner rather than later as the job requirements of head coach shift away from coaching and more towards being the general manager.
Gonzaga - The Zags have both experience and continuity, a combination that coaches love to have. The offseason news that Gonzaga is finally moving to the resurrected Pac 12 is the best news of all for the program as they will finally be in a conference where they will have some level of competition.
Predicting the Next NC State
This one will be fun to look back on. Last season, NC State made one of the most remarkable runs in March that we have seen in recent history, winning 5 games in 5 days at the ACC tournament just to make the NCAA tournament and following up that success with a run all the way to the Final Four. There is no one factor that you can pick out and specifically say was the reason for NC State’s run, other than perhaps they were one of the most experienced teams in the country. So with that criteria alone, here are some teams that could be sleepers in March (assuming they make it of course)
Louisville - The Kenny Payne era is mercifully over for Louisville. Pat Kelsey comes over from Charleston and has put together a roster of all new players, including 8 seniors.
Kentucky - With John Calipari now at Arkansas, Mark Pope had to dip extensively into the transfer portal to rebuild his roster. No longer is Kentucky an NBA draft pipeline, which may actually lead to more success for the program as experienced college players tend to have more success than young highly touted recruits.
Xavier - One of the most experienced teams in the country, Sean Miller has assembled a team that can be far better than the group that missed the NCAA tournament entirely last season. Don’t forget Xavier made the Sweet 16 just two seasons ago with a roster built with an excellent mix of returning talent and transfer portal additions.
Teams of Interest
Whether it's new faces in new places or a coach on the hot seat, here are some teams that are worth keeping an eye on.
Arkansas - as mentioned above, John Calipari packed up and left Kentucky before they could fire him to take the job at Arkansas. It will be interesting to see if Calipari can find tournament success that escaped him at Kentucky, despite his ability to recruit NBA talent better than any coach in recent history. Keep February 1st circled on your calendar, the day Arkansas makes the trip to Lexington. Calipari brought the level of success expected to Kentucky but failing to make the Final Four since their 38-1 season in 2015 certainly falls short of expectations. It didn’t help either that Kentucky lost in the 1st round 2 out of the last 3 years, to Saint Peter’s and Oakland no less.
Rutgers - Give Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell immense credit for recruiting both #2 recruit Ace Baldwin and #3 recruit Dylan Harper. Although both players are expected to be off to the NBA after just one season on campus, the opportunity to grow the Rutgers program with on-court success is an incredible opportunity for a program that has never experienced this level of attention.
South Florida - tragedy struck the Bulls just days before the start of the season, as head coach Amir Abdur-Rahim passed away from complications from an illness. Abdur-Rahim was a fast rising head coach, taking Kennesaw State from one win his first season to 26 wins in his fourth season and an NCAA tournament appearance. Taking over at USF was sure to be a challenge, but not for Abdur-Rahim as he led the Bulls to 26 wins overall and a 16-2 record in the AAC which was good enough to win the AAC regular season championship. Rival coaches have had nothing but great things to say about Abdur-Rahim as a coach but especially as a person, and his passing is a huge loss not just for the program but college basketball as a whole.
This is just the start of the college basketball content here with the One Man’s Opinion presented by the Black and White podcast. Hope you the readers enjoy and be sure to check out the Black and White podcast for more excellent sports discussion!
