Busting Brackets
Fansided

College Basketball: Busting Brackets Q&A Mailbag

By Chris Godfrey

facebooktwitterreddit

Contrary to popular belief, Bill Simmons did not trademark the mailbag column gimmick. It’s one of the few things in sports that ESPN doesn’t own yet. For the time being, it’s still available to us all. Here at Busting Brackets, we felt like it was time to reach out to our readers and give them the opportunity to have a more direct impact on our content.

We solicited readers, friends, and family members for college basketball questions that we could run for this column. Surprisingly, we came back with some pretty solid results for our first go around. Feel free to debate and argue in the comments section. We appreciate that type of stuff around here.

If you wish to submit questions for later mailbag columns, follow @BustingBrackets on Twitter and tweet us using the hashtag #BustingBracketsMailbag. After sifting through hate mail, conspiracy theories, and questions that were a grammatical insult to the English language — this is what we were left with, the inaugural Busting Brackets Mailbag.

1. Should I bet the house on UK running the table (if betting were legal)?

2. You and one friend versus Montrezl Harrell and (Jahlil) Okafor in a Punjabi Prison Match. Who wins?

Samuel from Providence, Rhode Island

More from Busting Brackets

Didn’t take long for me to get my first question from a New Englander that’s probably been reading Simmons mailbags since before he could read Dr. Suess. Clearly this guys a veteran mailbagger, but little does he know…I’m also a compulsive gambler and I may have watched a Punjabi Prison Match a time or 12 thanks to my subscription to the WWE Network.

1. Wait until Saturday night. If Kentucky is still undefeated at 5pm on Saturday, I’d co-sign the idea of you taking out loans just so you could drop the money on them going undefeated. Louisville, the team Kentucky meets at 2pm on Saturday (on ESPN2), is the only team in the country capable of beating Kentucky. Duke can also beat them, but they wouldn’t play the Wildcats until the national final. Based on their recent record of early exits and Coach K’s lack of experience relying on freshmen, I doubt they’ll be across the court from Kentucky on the final Monday night of the season.

2. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept of a Punjabi Prison Match, CLICK HERE. Just know that it includes “steel reinforced bamboo” and “razor-sharp spikes” among its many amenities. Anyways, my tag team partner is Jameis Winston (accompanied by his manager, Jimbo Fisher). The kid can’t lose. As far as luck goes, I’ll have what he’s having. Thanks for writing in.

These are the questions that are guaranteed to make me look stupid at the end of the season. There are somewhere between 300 and 848 division one basketball programs in the NCAA. You’re asking me to pick ONE tournament sleeper in DECEMBER. Coach, the confidence you have in me is truly inspiring.

I’m not even going to try to nail this one with any type of advanced stats or research. If you want to make a run out of nowhere in March, you need three things: good guards, good coaching, and veteran leadership.

If we’re talking slightly off the radar, VCU has Final Four potential if they can get the right draw on Selection Sunday. If we’re talking completely off the radar, Georgia State and Old Dominion are two teams that stand out as potential second weekend teams.

Shaka Smart continues to add talented players that are skill set specific for his HAVOC defense. Georgia State features the senior leadership of Ryan Harrow, one of the country’s best point guards, and they also have a future first round pick in RJ Hunter. To complete the trifecta, Ron Hunter (RJ’s dad) is one of the best coaches in the country that no one knows about. I can’t tell you much about Old Dominion, but they beat both of the teams that I just mentioned. I assume that bodes well for their chances of pulling off a few upsets in March.

Let’s just end it like this — If you put a gun to my head, I’d scream Georgia State right before you pulled the trigger.

This is a good question. A better question would be how does Michigan State respond after Tom Izzo wore that tie against Texas Southern (it’s hideous), but we’ll focus on your question instead.

There’s no complicated answer for this one. Sparty has to forget about this one and move on. They responded with a win over The Citadel, and that’s all they can do. The Big Ten did not perform well in the non-conference season as a whole. Only Maryland stands out as a team that exceeded expectations.

The Spartans will have plenty of time and opportunity to regroup, but at some point they will have to face the reality that the ceiling isn’t that high for them this season. Their goal should be to challenge in the Big Ten and make the tournament. Anything beyond that would be an extension of their potential.

Is Coach Izzo killing his program with his reluctance to recruit one and done prospects? Seems like they are devoid of talent this year.

Scott from Muskegon, MI

More from NCAA Basketball News

Sadly, they are definitely devoid of talent this year. It’s been a tough go for Coach Izzo on the recruiting trial recently. He was in the mix for five-star prospect Henry Ellenson, but the big man decided to stay local and commit to Marquette. Excluding Gary Harris and Branden Dawson, it has been awhile since Izzo has made a big splash recruiting anyone, not just one-and-dones. Obviously, Coach Izzo didn’t forget how to recruit, but the competition is greater than it ever has been for him. Michigan is now routinely out recruiting Sparty, especially in-state where Izzo was once able to pluck players at his leisure.

He does have help on the way in the form of possible All-American Deyonta Davis (he actually plays at Muskegon HS) and Matt McQuaid, a prolific shooter from Texas. Still, the issue is that there are only so many recruits in Izzo’s yard, and too many teams are on the upswing for him to dominate the recruiting trial without straying away from his beaten path. Getting a highly regarded kid from Texas is a good sign that Izzo realizes he needs to venture out of Michigan.

The Big Ten is dominating this mailbag. I’m sure Jim Delany is behind this conspiracy. If Delany can convince the Wisconsin Badgers to lay down and lose the Big Ten Championship 59-0 so Ohio State could get into the College Football Playoff, I think it’s reasonable to conclude that he’s petty enough to load our first mailbag with Big Ten questions. We also have a run on coaches tweeting in questions.

Coach Edwards, if you’re a Big Ten purist, you probably don’t want to hear this but…Maryland is the second best team in the Big Ten today. It’s not even close. The Terps have wins over Arizona State, Iowa State, and Oklahoma State. Besides Wisconsin, the only other ranked team in the conference is Ohio State, and their body of work consists of nothing but losses to Louisville and North Carolina.

By the end of the year, I believe Michigan will emerge as the second best team. They have the guard play, and their frontcourt will mature with time. But at the moment, Maryland is carrying the banner whether fans of the conference like it or not.

I don’t want to be the person to rain on a Bruce Pearl parade. Auburn turned in the right direction the moment they hired him. However, there isn’t too much to get excited about at the moment.

Getting a win over Xavier is big, because it shows tangible progress, but on most nights Auburn will still be outgunned and out-manned. With that being said, it’s important to realize that Pearl is flipping this roster over as quickly as possible. He has already lured in a pair of top 100 recruits for next year, and that trend will continue.

In the short term, an NIT bid should be celebrated like a NCAA Tournament appearance. This team is short on talent outside of KT Harrell and Antoine Mason, but the team is playing hard and should be competitive on most nights in the “even more down than usual” SEC. Pearl will shoot for the Big Dance, but he knows getting this team any type of postseason experience will be a massive first step towards an actual revitalization of the program.

How do you pronounce “Montrezl”? Is the “Z” or the “L” the silent letter? Or is it Mon-Trez-L?

Jack from Detroit, Michigan

One of the most intriguing storylines of the college basketball season is that no reporter has had the guts to ask this kid why in the world there is an “L” at the end of his name. Announcers pretend the “L” doesn’t exist and pronounce it “Montrez”, but that’s just lazy. My personal theory is that the extra letter at the end of “Montrez” is a rogue middle initial that ended up in the wrong spot on the birth certificate, and no one ever bothered to change it.

With so many of the top players in college basketball being one and done prospects, and leaving school long before they’ve have a chance to develop their game (see Rivers, Austin), why should the casual fan choose to watch college basketball over the NBA?

Ty from Haiti

At least all the teams in college basketball are actually trying to win their games. I can’t say the same for the NBA.

Next: While You Were Sleeping: The Diamond Head Classic

Home/NCAA Basketball News