I think this is all tangential to what I was saying but okay fine. “Younger talented players” aren’t the ones getting nudged out at the margin by COVID years. It’s the bottom of the entering freshmen distribution that we don’t see, not the top.
Just look at the Big Ten… guys like Jahmir Young, Tyson Walker, Tyler Wahl, Boo Buie, whoever are still here. Super senior grad transfers came into all of these teams to take spots.
There are only like 4 or 5 freshmen who are playing real minutes in the entire league.
There’s definitely a huge blocker on playing and developing young talent across the conference.
One that I don’t think makes the product better really. Those older players are better, of course, but the product becomes worse.
I think if we want to make claims about the development ladder, that seems very speculative. If you want to make concrete claims about the % of minutes being played by freshmen overall and the quality of the minutes played by the % of freshmen that are starters, I’d be more interested in that. The sheer variance year to year of the players makes me skeptical we should take this year’s B1G as especially representative.
I’m not sure what to tell you about speculative development curves and such, but we all watch the games. I think the product is worse with the proliferation of “better” grad transfers and fewer “worse” freshmen.
Rules are the rules and I’m not sure how to fix it, it isn’t coaches or teams’ fault… but I really disagree with the idea that it has been good for the sport.
It was pretty fun in 20-21, a little less fun the year after that, a little less fun the year after that, and this year is no fun at all. This has nothing to do with my allegiances.
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Haha yeah was gonna add in there part of the reason is that my favorite team sucks. But i figured that went without saying
https://x.com/andreweatherman/status/1754950500577841371?s=46&t=xsoD7F1QL4iGG_8kXTdpkw
Tommy with two 10 game OT streaks!
I don’t think better players necessarily makes for a better product. There’s a reason many of us are watching college instead of the NBA to begin with.
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Yeah the quality of basketball is objectively disgusting in college compared to the NBA but it’s not why we watch
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I think the extra Covid year significantly hurt the product imo. Give graduating seniors the Covid year since they missed the ncaa tourney and then be done with it after one season. Don’t get why we gave players like Hunter a covid year.
Also, the shift to the new “meta” being having an all-American big man that isn’t a pro stay like 5 years is annoying because it doesn’t really work in March. And March Madness is all about stars. Doesn’t hit the same when teams like Saint Peter’s and Fairleigh Dickinson are able to out scheme your whole roster in one game. Cinderellas are cool until the Final Four is UConn, Miami, SDSU, and FAU
Watching Markquis Nowell in March or what I assume will be Dalton Knecht this year will be awesome.
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I mean we’re 2 years removed from a UNC-Duke-KU-Nova F4.
I think the CBB product is worse now cause there aren’t teams like 18 Nova, 15 UK, anymore. Not sure why that is really.
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Yes, this was an awesome tourney year for the final four.
UNC - scoring explosive guards
Duke - #1 nba pick
Kansas - pro wing play
Villanova - classic Jay Wright team
But that’s my point is that this year it wasn’t dominated by covid year players. It was blue bloods and star power. That’s what makes college basketball so good. The extra Covid year and “new meta” gives more opportunities for final fours that aren’t like this.
Next year, there should also be some really good freshman that potentially can have a Zion like influence and hype. Specifically Cooper Flagg and Ace/Dylan at Rutgers
The COVID year was a way to get players to play in December 2020. If that year counted toward eligibility everyone would’ve sat out.
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I guess I just don’t see how the meta drastically changed that much in one year. COVID players still existed then.
Yes to Cooper, Ace/Dylan ain’t that kinda player though.
THink the portal is probably the most meta shifting thing in CBB so far. Can’t say it makes CBB better from my end but also Michigan sucks now and that clearly is gonna color my opinion
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I disagree with the second part of that statement. I think players would’ve played regardless. There had already been a football season underway and sports were basically back to normal just without fans. Not sure why players would’ve sat out if they didn’t get a free year
I just think there is this huge downward pressure by bringing in a grad transfer like Jamison Battle instead of playing Scotty Middleton, or bringing a guy like Tyler Wahl or Donta Scott back for another year that no one really asked for.
Just feels like it is kind of suffocating younger classes.
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Exactly. And this is why the notion of “you have to be old to win” exists.
It’s just a lot easier to “be old” instead of develop your program from the bottom up every season
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Also if NIL wasn’t a thing (which it wasn’t when the extra year was granted) then we’d be seeing a lot fewer fifth year guys, especially at the high-major level. Maybe at the lower levels a guy with no pro prospects would stick around, but anyone good enough to transfer to play a fifth year at Tennessee would probably just go to Europe and make money. But now that they can earn the money in college…
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