Well the basketball season is under way and so far the Big 12 has put together some strong wins already. In todays conference call we discuss our general thoughts on the beginning of the season as well as our thoughts on a certain announcing crew and even our football national title picks.
Questions below:
(1.) Broad question to open up with. Only a few games into the season, what has jumped out to you so far either in Big 12 play or nationally or both?
(2.) What are your thoughts on Curtis Kelly being suspended by Frank Martin so far? How far down do K-State's expectations go if Kelly never makes it back into Martins's good graces? (3.) What are your general thoughts on broadcasting duo of Bob Knight & Brent Musberger? (4.) College football is starting to wind down toward the end. What are your National Title game predictions and your general thoughts on the college football season. (5.) Better holiday upcoming: Thanksgiving or Christmas??
(1.) Broad question to open up with. Only a few games into the season, what has jumped out to you so far either in Big 12 play or nationally or both?
MP: In the Big 12, I think the two most impressive teams so far have been Baylor and Kansas. Everyone knew Marcus Morris would be a scoring machine, but I am very impressed by how Markieff has played through their first couple of games. And Quincy Acy is a beast for Baylor... If he continues anything resembling this production, look out. Especially once LaceDarius Dunn is back, and assuming Perry Jones gets settled in, the Bears could live up to the hype. Kansas State hasn't looked great, but I think their frontcourt will be helped immensely by the return of Curtis Kelly. Nationally, Duke is scary good at shooting, and Wake Forest is scary bad at basketball.
EP: No question Tristan Thompson at Texas. He came in with a lot of hype, but so do a lot of Texas freshman. Through two games, though, this one is living up to it. Nationally, Tuesday's domination by Ohio State at Florida made me rethink my preseason my Final Four champion.
JL: Was definitely impressed by Ohio State the other day also. In the Big 12, I was very sad to see Texas Tech lose to North Texas and somewhat sad to see Colorado lose to Georgia. The loss at Georgia is at least to an SEC Team, no excuse for Tech. Nationally, was impressed that San Diego State beat Gonzaga in Spokane, that is a huge win.
(2.) What are your thoughts on Curtis Kelly being suspended by Frank Martin so far? How far down do K-State's expectations go if Kelly never makes it back into Martins's good graces?
MP: I totally support it. I think Martin is setting a hard line and really showing his freshmen what he expects. The suspension is also giving Judge, Asprilla, and Samuels a chance to get some really valuable minutes. If they had lost to Virginia Tech, I might think differently. But they won in dominating (albeit sloppy) fashion. I think Kelly will get back on Martin's good side pretty soon; he doesn't stand to gain anything from sitting on the bench and Martin eventually starts hurting his team by keeping him there. If he did sit out or transfer, I think the Wildcats drop somewhere to the low teens: they're still talented enough to make a deep run, but they'll need someone else to step up.
EP: Martin had to do it. It would have set a bad precedent had he not. Players and coaches go through this all the time, and lucky for K-State fans, this one is happening at the beginning, rather than end, of the season.
JL: I would normally agree with both of you guys on this but here is my problem with the whole situation. It's not like Kelly is in his first season in Manhattan, this is his 3rd year and he is a transfer in. So obviously Martin knows Kelly quite well by accepting him into the program and him being there for many years. I just think that Martin may want to look internally at himself on what situation is and just not let all blame fall on Kelly.
(3.) What are your general thoughts on broadcasting duo of Bob Knight & Brent Musberger?
MP: Bob Knight should be the third man in the booth; never the color commentator. He offers refreshing, unfiltered expert opinions, but he sounds like a scout. I'm not sure if it's because he has too much feel for the game, or if he just can't get out of his coaching mentality, but he hammers home the same points constantly (and ends up sounding like a broken record). He is the man though. Knight should just be treated more like the NBA treats Charles Barkley. As for Brent, he needs a strong color commentator, but I don't mind him normally.
EP: If the commentator's name doesn't begin with "Gus" and end with "Johnson" it isn't worth listening to. I like some of Knight's takes, but he comes off a curmudgeon so often that it is starting to get annoying. I think he is one of the most knowledgeable people in college hoops and would be able to help viewers out tremendously if he weren't so busy yelling at kids to get off his lawn.
JL: I honestly can't stand them together, although I do like Musberger doing football games. I think in K-State's game vs Virginia Tech, between the two of them they mispronounced half of the names of the KSU players. Knight occasionally pops in with something very knowledgeable and interesting but they are few and far between his complaints about things of no importance.
(4.) College football is starting to wind down toward the end. What are your National Title game predictions and your general thoughts on the college football season.
MP: I'm liking Oregon and TCU, and I think the winner comes down to who can get things back together this week. TCU should have a great chance against New Mexico, while Oregon gets a little bit more of a challenge. I would like to see Auburn and Oregon, just to see if the defenses could get any stops. Literally I think the over/under for that game would be close to 100, and there's no reason to take the under.
EP: Auburn will lose. Oregon showed they were beatable last week, but they also proved that their D can come through. TCU can't lose, so I agree with Matt - TCU vs Oregon.
JL: I gotta go with the Ducks as well but I think Boise State is going to finish ahead of TCU. I think Auburn loses either to Alabama or to South Carolina in the SEC Title game. General thought on season is I am not a huge fan of Bo Pelini and am happy he is going to the Big Ten. For a coach who yelled at Bill Snyder years ago for him erroneously thinking K-State was running the score up, somehow it was okay for him to try and run up the score late against Kansas last weekend.
(5.) Better holiday upcoming: Thanksgiving or Christmas??
MP: Christmas. It's probably unAmerican, but I'm just not that into Thanksgiving food... Christmas is always nice because it feels like there's more time to relax. Thanksgiving always feels hectic.
EP: Well, I'm Jewish... so I'm going to go with Thanksgiving. I do enjoy my family's Christmas traditions, but they don't have anything to do with the holiday, mostly with the lack of people on the road.
JL: Okay so I can tell my question asked here was definitely not the most well thought out one! My answer is definitely Thanksgiving as nothing is better in my opinion than being told to eat yourself silly then follow that up with Pumpkin Pie AND then to go lay in a chair and watch football!
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