MBB: Michigan ranked 16th in new AP Poll

Yep.

I've been saying this for a while. We should be super excited for Coach Juwan Howard's awesome recruiting. Besides Coach Howard's Xs & Os prowess, his recruiting is the other major thing that has immediately impressed me.

However, it's *experienced* or *veteran* talent that gets teams to Final Fours or wins Championships (i.e. Conference Championships, Conference Tournaments, and National Championships). Look at how much better Isaiah Livers is as a senior than he was as a freshman or as a sophomore. That experience which materializes in an arsenal of new moves or a better understanding of the game (re: when to be patient vs when to be aggressive) matters in big games and is often the difference between winning and losing.

So while someone like Terrance Williams is a bench kid right now, in 2-3 years he could be an all-conference player that leads us into a deep tournament run.

Hence, I like that Howard is getting potential OADs with a mix of veteran players.

I'll do a diary breakdown of all the Final Four teams since the OAD rule came into effect. It's clear as day that experience matters in clutch moments of tournament games.

I think it also gives credence to the idea that experienced, well-coached four stars that have played together for a few years are better than five star freshmen who have played a couple months together.

Even the Duke team that had Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett was one of the most talented college basketball teams ever (in terms of talent alone) and they couldn't even get to the final four.  Lost to a less talented but far more cohesive and experienced team.  Those kind of teams tend to do better (Villanova, Texas Tech, Virginia, Gonzaga, etc) even when the young talent is top notch.

My theory is that college coaching has gotten better to the point where it's doing two things: optimizing usage of three point shooters (which often aren't that talented in college but the three is the great equalizer) and defending in a smarter, more analytical way.  This means that well-coached, experienced teams can more easily make up for talent deficits.

This isn't all that different than the past though.  There's really only been two teams in the history of college basketball that won titles with the one-and-done approach: the Anthony Davis Kentucky team because he was one of the greatest of all time and the Duke Jahlil Okafor / Justice Winslow team that was probably more of an exception than the rule.

Yep. I'm also in favor of a 2 year rule.

If someone like Zion wanted to go to the G-League or straight to the NBA (like KG did), that's fine.

But I'm in favor of a baseball-esque 2 year rule. (IIRC, baseball is 3 years.) I think most kids would benefit tremendously from a 2 year rule.

Don't forget Tommy Amaker...at one time he was thought to be the heir apparent

Bobby Hurley at ASU? I don’t know if he actually coached at Duke under K (not sure he falls into K’s ‘coaching tree’), but he seems like a better option than anyone else, at this point. 

Unfortunately not completely true. Heathcote coached the Magic Johnson '79 team to the title and was half decent the rest of the way. Not nearly at the level Izzo has kept them at but very respectable.

With Dejulius back there is no Mike Smith but I would take it, but Bajema gets no playing time period, So I don't really see the advantage to this. If it weren't for the injury to AD, I would take a hard pass on CC.