Disaster continues to brew out west, and we just can’t seem to turn our heads away from the train wreck. This week’s college basketball podcast starts the New Year off right where we left 2014, as we head out west to Pac-12 country to see what’s really going on in this tragicomedy of a conference. There, analyst William Whelan discusses the fall of UCLA, a team that has been his most disappointing to date after last year’s conference title and Sweet 16 run propped up big expectations for Steve Alford’s group.
Elsewhere, we discuss the upsets and close calls that marked the past week. No. 3 Virginia remains undefeated, despite a close call in Miami to start off ACC play. Other undefeated teams were not so lucky. Colorado State lost to New Mexico in the Mountain West, Villanova slipped up to a surging Seton Hall team, and the Big 12’s darlings of TCU lost as an underdog to West Virginia.
Will examines what these games mean going forward for the teams in their respective conferences, while also taking a look at his Big-12 favorite, Iowa State, which lost at South Carolina over the weekend. Are the Cyclones still his team to beat in the conference or has he abandoned ship at the first sign of choppy waters?
We also rundown some of the Cinderella teams who have gotten off to hot starts and could be big-time pests come tournament time. Usual suspects like Wichita State, Butler, VCU, are in good position to make the big dance, but how far can we expect them to go? And is BYU, which boasts the highest scoring offense in the country, for real?
To cap things off for the week, Will makes picks on some marquee games coming up on Wednesday and Saturday, including his winners for some heavyweight fights like Louisville vs. North Carolina and Iowa State vs. West Virginia. Get the answers to all those games and more in the latest GMS College Basketball Weekly Podcast.
