College Basketball enters its third month and that means that conference play is in full swing. It also means we are all getting a much clearer picture of who the best teams in the country are. Surprisingly, there were still 3 undefeated teams left with Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Florida. All have since lost, and joined Drake who lost in December. Those were the last 4 undefeated teams. All the teams mentioned should hear their names called on Selection Sunday.
One other thing that the calendar switching has allowed us to do is create a whole new batch of hot takes for your consumption. This is a new feature I have done this year where I come up with completely reactionary takes based on one game, one half, or even 5 minutes in one game and create some lead pipe locks so to speak. Looking back on my first week hot takes, and my December hot takes I have about a 50% success rate so far.
Hot takes are rarely serious, and they are not meant to be. They are always, for me, a fun exercise to see how my brain works. All of these are going to have some merit and some backing. A lot of them could be things we do see come true this year, and some of them won’t and will be the result of one great night for that team or that player. The reactionary responses by fans and fanbases make this sport, and all sports, fantastic. Any time you can get people talking about something, it builds a community, and that is what this sport is all about.
I want to mention something before I get into the real list. I want to give an honorable mention to the Indiana Hoosiers. Their fanbase is rabid and they demand excellence. That is how they got the program to the status that it is. They all want Mike Woodson fired, I don’t know if he will make it through the year, especially if it gets bad in Bloomington. That was not included on this list because it wouldn’t be a hot take as much as it is an educated factual take, based on the current status of that program. The real hot takes for January are below.
Illinois will win the National Championship
It’s about time, right? Everyone has been saying this to me since the Illini have had Kofi Cockburn that this was the year, and they look so good all season, look how deep they are? Well, this year may be the year. Illinois is deep and has a ton of shooting. This is the first Brad Underwood team I can remember that has positional flexibility all the way down the roster.
Coach Underwood changed his philosophy and doesn’t have a true back to the basket center. Tomislav Ivisic is the starting center, and he is one of the best three point shooters in the country for his size. If Illinois continues to play the way, they have over the last month they will win the title.
Doug Gottlieb won’t make it through his contract at Green Bay
What are you doing Green Bay? Did you vet any of the other candidates for this job? It seems like you just hired the first household name you could find. That “name” that you hired happens to be a full time talk show host with zero head coaching experience. Gottlieb has not given up his gig on his Fox Sports talk show. He still does every episode while trying to coach, recruit, and build a basketball program. Guess which one isn’t working?
Green Bay has not won a game since early November and even lost to a division II school at home. In a game that Gottlieb guaranteed they would win calling Michigan Tech “Nobody U.” Gottlieb is a joke as a coach and the Phoenix should demand better. This won’t work out because Gottlieb won’t want it to.
Albany will finish in the top 3 of the America East this season
It really is 2025, but the Albany Great Danes are hoping to turn the clock back 10 years to the coach Will Brown days and finish near the top of the America East this season. That league is wide open as Vermont has not looked like their dominant self and with the bottom of the league being bad there is an opportunity to rack up wins. Albany has their most talented team in awhile and head coach Dwayne Killings is trying to make the most of it.
The Great Danes have the best guards in the league. They are both fifth year players who call both shoot and score from anywhere on the floor. The Great Danes have a real chance to make it back to the tournament this year.
Norfolk State will run the table in the MEAC?
Is this really a hot take? Norfolk State consistently wins the MEAC but has only made the tournament twice in head coach Robert Jones tenure. Why? The MEAC is a one bid league so if you lose in the tournament the run to the NCAA tournament is over. The one thing that Norfolk State has never done is gone undefeated in the regular season of the MEAC, that is until this year.
The league usually provides some competition near the top but with the additions the Spartans made through the transfer portal mainly Brian Moore Jr., who leads the MEAC in scoring, has turned them into a force in the league. Don’t be surprised if they don’t lose a game the rest of the season leading up to the NCAA tournament.
Auburn will win the SEC going away
If you don’t believe me watch them play. The Tigers overwhelm teams, and their only loss was to a Duke team who was in desperate need of a huge win. Auburn currently has the favorite for the National Player of the Year, average 90 a game, and put on a clinic offensively. There is not a single team in the league, not even Alabama, who can keep up with Auburn when they want to run and get out in transition.
The Tigers are the only team in the SEC with no flaw. Tennessee doesn’t have a good enough offense, Alabama has lapses on the defensive end and is too reliant on the three, and Kentucky is too reliant on the three. If Auburn runs away and hides in this version of the SEC, they may be one of the best teams ever. If that is the case, they better win it all.
Bethune will win the SWAC
Don’t just look at the record go deeper than that. Bethune is coached by a former NBA star Reggie Theus and it was only a matter of time until he started to turn the program around. He did in the transfer porter and the Wildcats have a lot of transfers who were successful at their last programs. The offense isn’t great, but the defense is good, and they do have the most talent of anyone in the SWAC, at least on paper.
Like I said, don’t look at the record, look at the results. Bethune frustrated Nebraska in Lincoln before losing by 5 points, had a halftime lead against Virginia before losing by 18, played Minnesota to the wire, and had a lead on Mississippi State before losing by 13; Bethune beat South Florida, who is 2-0 on the American. Did I mention all those games were on the road?
Steve Prohm will get fired at the end of the year
All the Murray State fans just hollered while reading this. The Racers moved to the Horizon League, hoping to keep the same level of domination they had in the Ohio Valley. This is the program that brought us all Ja Morant and was one of the most feared mid-major programs in the country under former coach Matt McMahon. Prohm, in his second stint with Murray State, has struggled to develop the talent at Murray.
The Racers got dismantled in the Diamond Head Classic. They lost to Nebraska, which was expected, but it was how they lost. They scored 14 points in the first half and only 49 for the game. Then they blew a big lead against Charlotte to lose in overtime. The Racers did just get a huge road win over Drake, but they are still not playing up to the Murray State standard. A change may be in order.
Purdue finishes in the middle of the pack in the Big Ten
Life without Zach Edey and Lance Jones is different for Purdue, and they are still adjusting. The Boilers have not looked like the same team that made the finals of the NCAA Tournament a season ago. That’s because they are not the same team, but head coach Matt Painter has a lot of the members of last year’s team back. Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer, and Trey Kaufmann-Renn all played big minutes for Purdue last season and are all playing big minutes this season.
Finishing in the middle of the pack in the Big Ten isn’t a bad season; it will still mean Purdue makes the tournament fairly easily, but the team doesn’t have the same dominance they had a season ago and likely won’t finish in the top 4 spots. This is just my opinion from what I have watched, and it is likely one of the hottest takes anyone will have this year, but I said what I said.
Drew Valentine is on the hot seat
Those who don’t know, Valentine is the head coach of the Loyola Chicago Ramblers in the Atlantic 10, and when he took over for Porter Moser, it appeared that it was going to be a smooth transition. The Ramblers made the tournament in year 1, but since then, it has been rough. Loyola Chicago made the move to the Atlantic 10 three seasons ago. The first season was bad, last year the Ramblers looked like themselves and won the league.
Heading into this year Loyola was one of the favorites to challenge Dayton at the top of the league, and while that could still happen it doesn’t seem likely. The Ramblers went 0-3 in the Diamond Head Classic and got hammered by VCU in their Atlantic 10 opener. Something isn’t right in Chicago, and it is all going to point to the head man by season’s end.
Presbyterian will finally finish in the top three of the Big South
The Big South always has a couple of teams who run away and hide from the rest of the league. Presbyterian under head coach Quinton Ferrell has been trending up and this year all of that seems to be finally paying off. The Blue Hose have a lot of experience at key positions mainly in the backcourt. Kobe Stewart and Kory Mincey lead the charge for the Blue Hose. They are one of the best three-point shooting teams in the country and are extremely efficient on offense.
Presbyterian has already beaten Longwood, which was a big measuring stick game. They are still learning how to win, but their talent is going to win out, and they are going to win some games in the league. If they can beat High Point or UNC Asheville that will give them a ton of confidence, and then just learn to win on the road. Watch out for Presbyterian this year Big South fans.