Kentucky Wildcats Basketball not a majority pick to win title among experts
By Paul Jordan
Despite being the preseason number one team in both the coaches and the media polls, the Kentucky Wildcats basketball team are not a majority pick to win the 2015 NCAA basketball championship. At least according to the CBS experts. Three of the seven CBS experts named Kentucky as their national champs and two of them picked the Wildcats from Arizona. Wisconsin and Duke were the other picks to cut down the nets.
Six of the seven picked Kentucky to make the Final Four and Matt Norlander was the only dissenting vote. Both Arizona and Duke each got six of the seven picks to be a Final Four pick as well. For what it’s worth, Louisville got two nods to make the Final Four. It is kind of interesting that no Wildcats were tabbed to be either the player of the year or the Freshmen of the year. Duke’s Jahlil Okafor had a clean sweep for the freshman of the year. John Calipari picked up two votes for coach of the year, tied with Mark Few.
Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports
Much has been made of the Kentucky Wildcats “platoon system” and whether it will actually work in the regular season. Well, there is a precedent for it … in division three.
"The University of Kentucky isn’t the only team in college basketball trying to make a platoon system work this season. As Yahoo Sports pointed out last Friday, Mike Moran has done it for 22 years at a Division III school in Cleveland, where he’s leveraged subbing five men at a time into 10 league titles at John Carroll University. “It’s a tool we use to keep as many players happy as possible and to take advantage of the fatigue factor,” Moran told Yahoo Sports. “I’ve had years where I’ve said, ‘If I see one guy not sprint, the whole unit is coming out.’ If a kid says he’s not tired when he leaves the game, I tell him, ‘The problem is you’re not playing hard enough.'” Moran’s reason for platooning is two-fold: Opponents are forced to adjust to a different system, and team chemistry is rarely a problem when everyone plays. As Moran puts it, you always have more people in your corner.” But John Carroll runs and presses, making the most of its 10-man rotation. Can UK, with a trio of 7-footers on its roster, make the platoons work?"
Mandatory Credit: Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports
New Tennessee Volunteer basketball coach Donnie Tyndall has not coached his first regular season game, yet he is finding himself in hot water with the NCAA. Granted, it is related to Tyndall’s days at Southern Miss, but he is just one year removed from school. Either way, it’s not a good look for the Volunteers.
"“The s–t is about to hit the fan,” the source said. Tyndall didn’t return a phone call seeking comment Thursday. His replacement, Doc Sadler, has not been interviewed by the NCAA and is not believed to be under investigation. Three players on Southern Miss’ 2014-15 roster—Shadell Millinghaus, Matt Bingaya and Davon Hayes—were Tyndall signees who entered Southern Miss as Prop 48 recruits and are now academically eligible. It is not clear if those players are among those being investigated, as Tyndall signed other players who enrolled at Southern Miss under similar circumstances but are no longer with the program. Tyndall went 56-17 in two seasons at Southern Miss but failed to lead the Golden Eagles to the NCAA tournament. He left last spring to replace Cuonzo Martin as the head coach at Tennessee. In 2011, Tennessee fired coach Bruce Pearl for violating NCAA rules while at Tennessee and then lying about it to the NCAA."