I did forget about Hauser. We’ll see how much he plays if he can’t guard anyone.
Also, I’d bet a lot of money Livers and Wagner are a lot better than Henry next year. But that’s why they play the games.
Feels dead. Excitement missing. I’ve been watching soccer with my daughter, both NWSL and MLS, and don’t feel it as much. But basketball’s more intimate. The canned crowd noise is, for me, god-awful. I’ve long felt that way about college football games in half-empty stadiums, too. As the games more into the later rounds, maybe that will change.
I’m not completely alone in my sentiments–at halftime of the Pelicans game, Shac said that he was falling asleep.
I find basketball probably one of the easiest to watch sports without fans.
Huge outdoor sports like baseball or soccer just feel off to me.
Basketball is played in small gyms all the time. It still feels like basketball to me.
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Will be interesting to see what viewers decide.
Amir Coffey is on the Clippers apparently
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I watch a lot of sports muted. I prefer to concentrate on the game and not get distracted by announcers. Arguing with them, telling them to shut up; all in vain I must admit. So the no fans won’t affect me to much, should I tune in, which I haven’t yet.
I do think no fans may be an advantage to the offense in basketball. I see defense feeding off the crowd more than offense.
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The size of the gym isn’t the issue, though. The high school games in my hometown of Red Bank, NJ were madhouses of singing, chanting, and excitement; the small crowds still set them rocking. I don’t think most would deny that that’s a huge part of the fun and–of course–of home teams’ advantages.
But that does raise an interesting prospect: Will be have closer games without that advantage? So far we’ve certainly had good ones. And while I miss the crowds, that’s helping make up for it. Watching Trey and Tim last night was certainly fun. I wonder if they’ll experiment, like MLS has, with watch parties assembled by Zoom; I think I’d prefer real fans looking on.
I think they can make up for the lack of crowd with more cutaways to the benches. And maybe mic-ing the benches in a way that gives you a wallah so you get some live atmosphere without having to hit the dump button every time someone swears.
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Not sure if anyone knows this as well or it actually may have been mentioned previously, but does each state/college have their own current regulations/restrictions regarding works outs? How many people can be in gym ect.? Or is it universal and be guided by the NCAA?
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Schools have their own policies for most of that stuff, but there are NCAA rules right now limiting workouts to small groups anyways as far as on court work.
Been one helluva off-season for Baylor.
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Looks like Makur will be actually suiting up for Howard this year (standard COVID caveats apply)
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I wonder if he visited Howard. Lovely place, but when you are a recruit and you get to look at those modern arenas or storied buildings that teams play in, Burr Gymnasium just isn’t going to compare to that.
Overall, I wonder if the inability to do full-campus visits hurts some schools and helps others. Sour grapes talking here for sure, but it’s impossible to visit Tallahassee and Ann Arbor and not note the difference. So maybe that kind of stuff is a factor this year specifically.
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Every time I see one of that kid’s tweets in a post I can’t help thinking that he stood on a step-ladder to take that pic.
If people had to pick 3 or 4 from this group, who would they put $ on?
For me Tennessee, Oregon, FSU and UCLA.
Maybe one hefty wager on Gonzaga.
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Idk who I would put money ON (Like Dylan, maybe Gonzaga. They lose Petrusev but are loaded with bigs). I do know though who I would NOT put money on. I wouldn’t touch Iowa, Kansas, MSU, Creighton, OSU, or UCLA.
I buy Cronin turning UCLA into a stable bunch. Plus they return their entire rotation, add Johnny Juzang (5 star transfer from Kentucky) and another top 100 player and before COVID ended the season were one of the hottest teams in the country.
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I also buy into him turning UCLA around, and in fact I also like the roster a lot. I just don’t think his time is now, I see it as a come-up that will take at least this year and maybe another. We’ll see though. I’m also from SoCal and follow UCLA pretty closely and haven’t been pleased at all with recent results (minus the end of this past season) so could just be a sour taste I have.