Dropping like flies. A bad omen:

First game of college hoops season was supposed to be tomorrow at 11 am between Stephen F. Austin and San Francisco at Mohegan Sun.

Now Stephen F Austin is leaving Mohegan Sun, per source, after someone in traveling party tested positive.

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) November 24, 2020

This is happening a lot. Maine and Baylor also left Mohegan Sun; Tennessee canceled their entire MTE; so did Ole Miss; Duke, Oregon, and Arizona postponed their openers. Part of this is the sheer largeness of CBB, which is triple the size of college football, our next-most super-sized sport. It bodes unwell.

With these MTEs suffering withdrawals and some outright collapsing Michigan's decision to bail seems like the right one. It might not matter if this doesn't flatten out:

US coronavirus cases

Basketball is indoors and far less resilient to missing a big chunk of a roster. Many pleas have been made to forgo large Thanksgiving gatherings, but these have largely focused on public health and not killing your grandmother. If these are insufficient to move you, think about basketball. And hockey.

[After THE JUMP: All aboard the Rick Pitino train! Not like that!]

May Madness. It's come to this: I'm sort of on board a train Rick Pitino is driving.

I’ll say it again, to anyone who will listen, push the season back to March, and then have May Madness. Give the Vaccine a chance. In the best interest of all involved!

— Rick Pitino (@RealPitino) November 23, 2020

I don't think a two month season starting in March is a good idea for the same reason the Big Ten delaying until it had no bye weeks is looking like a problem, but it makes all kind of sense to give teams more windows in which to get games in and hopefully have an NCAA tournament in a much less chaotic environment.

Speaking of. Wisconsin is about to be ineligible for the Big Ten title game:

Minnesota will not practice Tuesday as a result of presumptive COVID positive tests Monday. If Saturday’s game at Wisconsin can’t be played, Badgers would not play enough games to be eligible for Big Ten title game

— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) November 24, 2020

Let them play Penn State, we're good.

It's the most wonderful time of year if you like shirtless before and after photos. Andrew Kahn with some Franz details($), including the results of Camp Sanderson:

The guy on the left shot 60% from two in Big Ten play! Sanderson also says that Franz measured in at 6'9" and 5/8ths, which is 6'10" in my book. Martelli:

“If that makes him all Big Ten, then every day I say to him, ‘You know what, I think you are getting a little taller.’”

Diabate is set. He tells a French hoops podcast that he'd rather have a major role on a college team than a more limited one on (presumably) a pro or G-League team:

Moussa Diabaté @M0ussaDiabate The French NBA prospect tells us why he chose to go to college instead of the professional route. pic.twitter.com/17l6zGrtfX

— Mr. Paris (@MisterPvris) November 17, 2020

Never say never, obviously, but this one seems solid.

Here's some more Diabate hype, including a possession where he gets switched on to the extremely quick Frankie Collins and forces him into a long jumper… that Diabate then blocks:

2021 Michigan signee Moussa Diabate is an incredible defensive prospect. He covers ground so quickly, and his length is very effective. Diabate can also sit down and guard on the perimeter pretty well. pic.twitter.com/eYameiacOB

— Stewart Zahn (@szahn_bball) November 21, 2020

The tricks Juwan Howard is going to be able to deploy with Diabate are going to be incredible.

Ah well. Smart Football is back with a post on various ways offenses use tempo to screw with defenses. Let's check in!

A couple of weeks ago in their win over the Seattle Seahawks, Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray threw a beautiful touchdown pass to a streaking DeAndre Hopkins down the left sideline. But upon a closer look, it’s clear that Hopkins didn’t get open simply through excellent route running, but instead by a carefully planned feint: almost all of the Cardinals were looking to the sideline as if waiting for a new playcall, and as a result many of the Seahawks defenders were either looking that way as well or at least had relaxed slightly.

… Kingsbury didn’t claim to have invented the play, and instead noted that the Cardinals had “stole[n] it from Ohio State. They [Ohio State] ran it against Michigan. Looking to the side like you’re getting a play and try to catch them off guard. Ohio State had it wide open, and the kid dropped it.” And that is exactly what happened:

But to understand why it’s an effective changeup, it helps to have some context as to what it is a changeup to, namely the no huddle cat and mouse game of varying tempos, which is where some of the most fascinating football tactics currently play out.

I have a Brandt for this.

/closes tab

Shades. The Athletic names five teams that should be looking forward to the next five years. Gonzaga, Virginia, and Villanova all make the list, sensibly. Seth Davis picks UConn(?!?!), and Dana O'Neill goes with ahyup:

Already the lure of playing for Howard is paying dividends. Michigan has, by the estimation of most, the top-rated recruiting class for next year, anchored by top-10 players Caleb Houstan and Moussa Diabate. Houstan opted for UM over Duke and Virginia, among others, which says a little something about Howard’s juice. Mix in Frankie Collins, Kobe Bufkin, Isaiah Barnes and Will Tschetter and you’ve got the best recruiting class to arrive at Michigan since … Howard and the Fab Five.

And he did that in the middle of a global pandemic, when contact with recruits has been severely limited. Imagine what he might be able to do when he can walk in someone’s living room.

Recruit all of IMG? On the table.

Trifecta. This isn't going to happen but I just want to look at it. Hockey Prospect Dot Com's top 32 for the 2021 NHL draft starts out like so:

Matt Beniers is 8th and Mackie Samoskevich 22nd. Not bad!

Etc.: Hockey's December 2nd game against Penn State has been picked up by ESPNU. Someone televise this weekend's series against Notre Dame so we don't have to go back to the BTN+ salt mines. Somewhat goofy article about soccer teams using the Football Manager database. A dollar says we'll see Juwan Howard with a towel over his shoulder this season. Theo Mackie on the Rutgers aftermath.