Arkansas odds of winning next yr NCAA Title

Basketball Insider Board
#1

Link: http://www.espn.com/chalk/story/_/id/19 … ampionship

#2

How in the HECK is Alabama listed as better odds than the Hogs for the 2018 title??

#3

Only key player Bama loses is Jimmie Taylor and he is not as key as Kingsley. Arkansas loses key players Kingsley and Hannahs. Alabama 2017 class is rated much higher than Arkansas class, which is a very good one. Alabama is projected as a Top 25 team next year.

#4

The above posts got me thinking…

Bama is going to have a chance to be pretty good. Their recruiting class is ranked No. 5 in the nation by ESPN. Collin Sexton is the No. 10 player nationally and I love his game. He’s considered a combo guard, but he is great at getting into the lane and creating for others. John Petty is an athletic 6-5 wing ranked No. 21. Arkansas’ ability to attack their guards was the difference in the game last year, but their backcourt will be significantly upgraded. They’ll still have Key, Ingram, Norris and Johnson Jr.

They graduate Jimmie Taylor but add a 4-star PF and Daniel Giddens, a 6-11, 236-pound former Top 50 recruit from Ohio State who sat out this last year.

Auburn will be better. Heron, Purifoy, Harper and Wiley will be sophomores. That’s a pretty strong quartet. Plus they’ve got a pair of Top 60 recruits coming in.

Mississippi State should be much improved. Weatherspoon is a flat-out stud and I really like Lamar Peters. Weatherspoon’s younger brother, Nick, is a PG ranked in the Top 35 by ESPN who they’re adding.

I’ve been pretty bullish on Auburn, but it’ll be interesting to see who emerges as the best of those 3. They should all take big steps forward. I like what Avery Johnson is doing. I’m not really a Ben Howland fan, but they’ll have talent.

The SEC will be really tough next year. In addition to the teams above…
— Kentucky is Kentucky. If they add Mo Bamba (athletic 7-1 with a 7-10 wingspan!) this spring, that’d be huge. The Diallo guy who enrolled early sounds like a stud (shocker). 5 5 stars and a 4 star. It’ll be tough for them to replace the Fox-Monk backcourt with equally impactful freshman, but odds are they’ll be good. Will be very interesting to see if Briscoe comes back.
— Florida loses Kasey Hill, Canyon Barry, Devin Robinson and potentially John Egbunu, but will still have Allen and Chiozza, plus 3 Top 100 signees. I really like Mike White. That Egbunu decision will be big.
— Vandy brings everyone back but Kornet and Cressler. I like their roster, but Kornet was a huge piece.
— It’ll be interesting to see how South Carolina does without Thornwell. Also lose Notice. Dozier’s time to shine. I like him and Chris Silva, but tend to think they could fall back a bit as a team. I do like
— A&M will be interesting. Robert Williams (early projection as No. 5 pick in 18 draft by DE), Davis and Trocha-Morelos means Aggies will again have the best frontcourt in the SEC. Hogg and Gilder are solid. Obviously they need to get better at PG. Signed a quartet of 4 stars, including 2 PGs. Also added Marquette grad transfer PG Duane Wilson (discussed on here a while back, more of a defensive guy). Can 1 of those 3 take the reins for the team?
— Can Georgia make up for losing J.J. Frazier? Sounds like Maten should be back and they have a stud SF committed.
— Tennessee signed a guy from France who’s supposed to be a stud. Interested to see him. Lose Hubbs, but the rest of the team should be back. They could make a jump. Grant Williams is fun to watch.
— I don’t know how good Missouri will be, but obviously they’ll add Michael Porter.

If I had to rank it right now, I’d go…

1 - UK - would feel confident in this if they get Bamba and Briscoe stays
2 - Bama - Avery Johnson way-too-early favorite for COTY if they make the jump they’re capable of
3 - A&M - if 1 of the 3 PGs winds up being solid, if not, bump them down a few spots
4 - Arkansas - if Macon stays and assuming Gafford is a day-1 impact guy… going to be VERY battle-tested in noncon
5 - Florida - assuming Egbunu stays, if not I might bump them down a few spots
6 - Auburn - basically the entire team were freshmen/underclassmen last year, huge year for Pearl, could see them finishing several spots higher
7 - USC - I know, I know, they went on the big run, just not in love with their roster. I may be way underselling defense here. Obviously Martin’s a good coach
8 - Vandy - if they can replace Kornet, they could definitely finish higher
9 - MSU - could see them finishing higher
10/11 - Georgia/Tennessee

The depth 1 through at least 9 has a chance to be pretty salty.

Don’t hold me to these haha. Just the result of a half-hour of looking at rosters/recruits.

#5

Has Devin Robinson declared for the draft? He is a junior.

#6

In this attached article, Mike White said he doesn’t expect Egbunu or Robinson back next year.

https://www.seccountry.com/florida/mike … ida-gators

#7

Mizzou is about to get more than just Porter. Looks like Tilman may be headed their way as well. And they got a visit from Kevin Knox. Incredible.

#8

.

#9

Fair points. If Macon comes back like I think he will and Gafford lives up to (reasonable) hype, I think they have the potential to get back to the 11-12 SEC win range, which would actually be more impressive in an ostensibly deeper league next year. I could see the conference race being similar to a few years back when 13 wins gets it done.

Barford and Macon should be much improved. You’d hope Anton is more consistent and Trey should continue to improve. Obviously I’ve made no secret of what kind of player I think C.J. will turn into. They have enough options at the 4 that surely they can find a collective combination that works better than this year. Experience and continuity are definitely valuable. It’s part of the reason I think the Hawks will make such a big impact from day one.

I just really like Alabama from a talent standpoint. They were able to match up well with Kentucky but lacked that PG. That was the biggest issue for them head-to-head against Arkansas, too. Arkansas dominated mainly because Bama simply couldn’t handle the pressure. Sexton is a flat-out stud, everything they were missing last year. He’s projected as a top-10 pick in the 2018 draft. I just think he’s a game-changer, not to mention the other guys they’re bringing in.

You’re right that their new guys, Sexton and Petty specifically, will need to be immediately really good. So will Gafford. Obviously there are always going to be freshmen that don’t contribute as much as people want right away, but I would bet on Sexton being a great compliment and enhancing what they have.

All that said, I don’t fault you if you think Arkansas or any of the other top 9 or so teams will be better. The conference should be stacked. If Missouri does add a few more guys around Taylor, it’ll be even more brutal. I think you could see a push for 5-7 tourney teams.

#10

I think there is a very good chance that Thomas and Cook will be much better next year, at least Thomas. You could see Thomas gaining in confidence in the last quarter of the season. I fully expect him to shoot some threes next year. In his redshirt year, the first thing I noticed about him was draining threes in warmups. I thought he was learning a new position last year. His education will be more advanced next year.

#11

I also really thought he would shoot more/better after watching them in August. Was taking 3s and mid-range Js within the flow of the offense and making a decent percentage. I will continue to contend that he won’t be a consistently good shooter until he is comfortable enough to carry over his practice shot (much better balance, straight up and straight down) over to the games and cuts out the fading and exaggerated leg kicks.

Also still think he can be a decent playmaker if he’ll settle down in games. He did play well, offensively, against Seton Hall. Looked comfortable. They’ve gotta hope he can build on that.

I think Bailey (and maybe Hall) leapfrog Cook.

#12

Well, well, well! You know what happened with your preseason take on Cook? But I do agree that Bailey may overtake Cook. And it is very possible that Hall may overtake Bailey. It will be interesting how it plays out between Thomas, Cook, Hall and Bailey. I hope two of them have a clear separation for PT. If they don’t, it would mean we are inconsistent at the 4. However, I also see Hall contribute as a 3.

#13

The PG that was committed to Washington (don’t know his name) but he was talking about visiting Missery when Porter asked for his release, plus the younger Porter may be graduating early and joining his brother. The younger Porter and Reggie Perry are ranked pretty even. 247 has them as 32/33 with the same score .9863, ESPN has them listed as the top two 4*, Perry 1st, Porter 2nd.

#14

Think the ideal scenario here is that Thomas and Bailey develop enough that we can play Hall at the 3 instead of at the 4. Even more so if Cook gets better and becomes a dependable 3rd option. I’m sure Hall could still play the 4 in small-ball lineups but it’d be sweet if we could roll out this line-up.

Barford
Macon
Hall
Thomas
Gafford

Hall and Thomas being able to shoot 3 spaces out the floor and gives us a very athletic defensive group on the floor.

#15

Pretty magical recruiting run for a program that one pundit said was the worst P5 team in America in January.

I understand how they got the kid from Columbia. They played the game and then some.

But the rest of the seemingly outnof nowhere bounce…seems a little Ole Miss Footbally. And by a little, I mean a lot.

#16

The two Porter’s are from Columbia. Tilmon is Michael Porter, Jrs best friend (Kid that decommitted from Illinois). Also, a kid that committed to OU but didn’t sign yet (Trae Young 5*PG) was on Porter’s AAU team and they had talked about playing together in college. No different from us landing the Hawk 5. I don’t see this as an Ole Miss recruiting type issue, I think it’s something that happens from time to time. Just happens to be Missouri’s time because of Porter. I also think the Lawson boys will look long and hard at Missery.

#17

Neither basketball or football will be contending for championships until both improve dramatically on defense. Both teams will when their share of good games throught out the season leaning on our offenses, but to be in the conversations of winning it all you have to be strong defensively and as of today we are not. WPS

#18

Ha! I was definitely down on Cook in August. He had his moments, most notably Texas, but was as inconsistent as the rest of the 4s and didn’t do much late in the year. I’ve always liked his motor, but my big issue with him back then was his shooting (which was predictably bad during the season) and how he was trying to do more than he needed to offensively when they had better options. But I thought he did a good job, for the most part, playing within himself during the season.

I think I predicted Bailey would overtake him at some point, which I guess he kinda did for the 2 games he started and vs UNC. But I actually thought Bailey would be a consistent part of the rotation, which he obviously wasn’t. They have to hope Bailey can be that this year. He definitely has a higher ceiling.

Where Hall plays will be very interesting, as far as if it’s on the wing with 2 bigs or as the 4. Bailey, too, to a degree, but he has a long way to go to play on the wing effectively (that will be what he works on this summer).

If C.J. (and Khalil to a lesser degree) winds up being a significant contributor, then I think the question becomes would you rather spread the 3 guard/wing minutes among the Barford, Macon, Beard, Jones, Garland quintet or try to play Hall/Bailey there. Because every minute they play on the wing is less time for 1 of those 5. So it becomes a matter of maximizing minutes for your best guys.

But Hall is really, really intriguing if he can play the wing. Qualls measured 6-5 with a 7-foot wingspan at the NBA combine. Hall was 6-6 with a 7-foot wingspan at a combine last summer.

#19

<LINK_TEXT text=“http://insider.espn.com/nba/insider/sto … oncic-more”>http://insider.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/19118813/2018-nba-draft-preview-chad-ford-michael-porter-jr-luka-doncic-more</LINK_TEXT>

Interesting article from ESPN’s Chad Ford ranking the top 10 NBA draft prospects in the class of 2018/newly eligible international guys, plus some other candidates. Figured I’d post in here given the conversation in this thread. No surprise, a lot of Kentucky.

From the SEC…

  1. Michael Porter - Missouri forward. Ford writes that there are NBA front office personnel who think he might go No. 1 in this draft if he could

  2. Mohamed Bamba - Undecided center but predicted Kentucky commit. Dude is 7-0 with a 7-9 wingspan that would be the longest in the NBA. Good athlete and great shot blocker. Would be a game-changer for Kentucky.

  3. Collin Seton - Bama combo guard. Really like his game. Not considered on the same level as the top 4 prospects, but still obviously elite.

  4. Jarred Vanderbilt - Kentucky forward. Don’t know much about him, but he’s long (6-9 w/7-1 wingspan) and supposedly skilled.

Others mentioned… Hamidou Diallo — Kentucky SG, P.J. Washington — Kentucky PF.

#20