NCAA Basketball Mailbag: Pac-12’s struggles, De’Andre Hunter, and more

What are the biggest NCAA Basketball and NBA Draft questions you have this week? We answer them all in this week’s NCAA Basketball Mailbag.

It’s hard to believe, but the non-conference portion of the college basketball season is quickly coming to an end. We now have enough data points to determine who the best teams and players are, while at the same time identifying which teams were overrated at the start of the season and are underperforming.

Nowhere is that more of the case than the Pac-12, a conference in which pretty much every team has been a disappointment. UCLA is on the brink of collapsing following back-to-back losses to Belmont and Cincinnati, and yet they still might be better than a USC team that has been dreadful. Arizona is coming off of losses to Alabama and Baylor, Oregon has a loss to Texas Southern on their resume and Arizona State, the conference’s only ranked team, just lost to Vanderbilt.

That has been one of the biggest stories of the year, and that is where we start this week’s mailbag:

Do you have a college basketball or NBA Draft question you want to have answered? Join the conversation on Twitter @brauf33. Thanks as always to those who contributed this week.

Yes, the Pac-12 really is that bad and no, there is no hope for turning that around this year. All of those team mentioned above have suffered bad enough losses in the non-conference that there isn’t anyone with a good enough resume to serve as a “quality win” in Pac-12 play outside of the Sun Devils.

Last year, the conference only got three teams into the NCAA Tournament and two were in the First Four – and none of them won a single game. I think the conference will be looking at a similar situation this year.

I think so. His game has been off of late but I think it’s more of a mini-slump than anything else. De’Andre Hunter is 3-16 over the last two games, which are also the only two games this year in which he has scored in single digits. He’ll be fine – he’s too good and works too hard for this to continue.

Barrett has certainly developed a reputation as a volume shooter, and it is an earned reputation. The 6-7 wing went 7-22 from the field in Duke’s win over Texas Tech, marking the latest in what has been a long season of jacking up shots. He has now taken at least 20 shots in six games. He needs to become more efficient (obviously), but having a player as talented as Barrett shooting a bunch isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Shot selection and forcing up difficult shots are his biggest problem right now.

Every player wants to go pro and may have motivations for leaving other than their draft stock being high. If does Diallo does go pro, I imagine that will be the case. He will not be a first-round pick, but he may be a second-rounder given this weak draft class. That said, that’s not where his stock’s at right now.

A lot of questions to unpack here. Let’s see:

1) There’s a number of them. You have to respect what Leonard Hamilton has done and is doing at Florida State (who’s probably the best right now) and I really believe that Patrick Ewing is going to be great. But my favorite is probably Kevin Keatts, who is going to do a lot of good things at NC State.

2) Ethan Happ is going to finish the highest in the National Player of the Year race. I’d go him, Mike Daum, or Kyle Guy.
3) R.J. Barrett, although Zach Norvell Jr. has the prettiest lefty jumper.
4) My wife reads this so I probably shouldn’t answer.
5) None.
6) Jay Wright.
7) Chris Mack is a pretty good one.