College Basketball 2022-23 Discussion

Figured as much. No way would the guy just “accidentally” walk on the court during live play. The commentary by the announcers was funny though.

What’s worse than being on the team where one guy takes all the shots is being the guy on the team where one guy gives up all the points. A favorite pickup basketball story for me is that time when the person who likes to set blind backpicks in transition and cannot shoot but likes to was playing on my team. I gave up a couple of jumpers and this guy made a point of switching defensive responsibilities with me. He then proceeded to give up every single point to that guy and we lost 21 to 4.

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honestly we should get a thread set up for best pickup ball stories

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To date myself

My roommate clotheslined Drew Henson going to the hoop in an intramural game

Diallo Johnson told us he’d kill my friend if he did it again

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I have had several but one, I played pickup basketball against Daryl Stonum and Junior Hemingway at the CCRB. I was tasked with guarding Junior Hemingway and needlessly to say, it was not fun because Junior pretty much treated the game like a football game. It was super physical but I definitely held my own. I had a breakaway layup but Stonum caught up from behind and felt that he was going to block me from behind which I smartly aborted when he came alongside me. The next day, I was so sore from Junior’s physicality. lol

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Yeah, you don’t ever want to be the one who injure a star football player. That’s a good way to be the most hated student on campus

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High school story; not pickup per se, but too good to not share.

I played a HS game against Lennox Lewis when his team came to town for a tourney. He ran into one of our guys and our guy went to the floor pretty hard. After the whistle, Lewis felt bad about it and he helped our guy up. But he didn’t help him up in the usual hand-to-hand way. He grabbed our guy around the torso, lifted him off the floor, and set him down on two feet. I will never forget it.

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i played with lavell blanchard a couple times at the CCRB in 2013; he was wearing toronto raptors practice gear. i wasn’t there for this one, but one of my friends said that during a pickup game lavell threw it off the backboard to himself and dunked it, earbuds in the whole time. hate that i missed it

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Yeah, he doesn’t try until it’s time to score to remain on court where everyone on the team pretty much gtfo his way and let him score.

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I played pinball next to Phil Hubbard, Joel Thompson, and Dave Baxter in South Quad - does that count? Cause that’s all I got. :grinning:

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Apparently Billy Packer, former CBS basketball analyst, passed away at 82. During the 1990s he was often the lead color commentator for their NCAA games and partnered with Jim Nance. He was around forever and you can hear his voice if you watch old games from the 1989 team or the Fab Five.

Personally I never cared for his style of critical negativity and generally surly persona, but if you were a fan of NCAA basketball back then he was a fixture and an integral part of March Madness.

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How long ago did Packer stop doing games? He passed at 82 and we still have Vitale doing games at 83. Pretty crazy to think about that.

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Said he retired 5 years ago

Billy would be a great lead analyst for our game threads!

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CC @BigBoutros

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perfect photo selection

Watching Gameday and Seth Greenberg said Alabama is his pick for national champ. I haven’t been following the national scene that closely. Who is your mid year pick for Final Four and national champ? UM just played #1 Purdue but I think their backcourt is too young. I’d say Houston, but definitely think this will be a year where a team just gets hot at the right time and kind of comes out of nowhere.

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Houston ticks about every box I have. As does UCLA. And I still really like Baylor and Arizona even though they’ve had struggles at times. I think it’ll be a wild tournament though. Don’t think the top seeds are all that great

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I’ve said it here before, but I have just really come to like Kelvin Sampson as a coach and person. (I know he did some stuff back in the day.) Furthest thing from a blue blood; I can get behind that grit.

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