College Hoops 2021-2022

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I can't believe it's here already, but the 2021-2022 College Basketball is upon us!  The upcoming season will start in 5 Days (as of this post) and last about four months and 4 days before the Selection Sunday Show, two days before the start of the dance (specifically the First Four).

Things get started on November 9th, 2021 with the Championship Classic featuring Duke, Kansas, Michigan State, and Kentucky.  Those schools combine for 18 National Champions in the modern era of the game (22 overall I believe), and a ton more Final Four appearances.

There will be several early season Tournaments that may or may not affect one's participation into the postseason.  Aside from that, most of everyone will play non-conference games prior to the all but exclusive conference games from around the New Year through the end of February into the beginning of March.  While the regular season concludes on Selection Sunday (March 13th, 2022), the week leading up to that date will feature conference tournaments; most will conclude the Saturday before & a couple on that Sunday.  That's mainly the Big conferences; some of the others could wrap up early in the week or even a week plus before.

The Postseason gets started on 03/15 & 03/16 with the first four (on TruTV).  The main part of March Madness gets underway on Thursday, March 17th, 2022.  The first two rounds take place on TBS, CBS, TNT and TruTV from 03/17 - 03/20, and the following week, the Regionals take place from 03/24 - 03/27 on TBS & CBS.

The NCAA Tournament will conclude the following weekend featuring the winners of the games played on March 26th & March 27.  The Final Four starts on April 2nd, and it concludes on April 4th with the National Championship game starring the winners of the 04/02 games.  TBS has exclusive coverage of the tourney's final three games.

Two big notes are that this the final year for Coach K, and the first year in decades without Roy Williams.  The former UNC coach retired last year, and Mike Krzyzewski announced the end of an era, effective whenever Duke's season ends, but it's a wrap for the 5 time champion after 42 years.  Probably didn't think Boeheim would outlast him, and there may be effort for Jim to reach fifty seasons, which would occur by coaching Syracuse up to spring 2026.


While I've considered picking Duke for the win, I'll wait until Tuesday.  I did pick Villanova last year, but early.  I don't think I picked them for my main bracket though.  Anyway, Nova did make it out of the first week before losing to the eventual champions Baylor.  This is slated to be the first full season since 2018-2019, so I don't think we're getting a team heading into the NCAA Tournament or even senior week / Conference Tourney week undefeated.  Gonzaga could complete unfinished business, but it likely will be a tougher road this year

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I'm hoping Maryland pulls out a stunner and wins it all this year. It would be a fitting end to my undergraduate career. Go Terps!

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It would also be fitting if Maryland won 20 years after their most recent title!


Forgot to mention a couple of things in my original post: The CBS Sports Classic is slated for the week before Christmas (December 18th, 2021).  Once again it'll feature one of the four teams playing in the Championship classic in Kentucky, who'll face Ohio State, while North Carolina squares off against UCLA.

Six fouls apparently is the target for DQ, despite the total regulation time remaining at 40:00.  Though it could be curtains for a player if someone gets to four within a half

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It's Jimmy V Week (27'th annual), and nearly 30 years since Coach Valvano's speech, one of his best friends is going through his own journey of never giving up.  Dick Vitale recently returned to announcing games for ESPN, and he is the latest inspiration for cancer fighters out there.  Past icons include Stuart Scott, Craig Sager, Robin Roberts, and Jim Kelly.

It's always a nice day when College Hoops returns to CBS.  Looks like the post-season version of the CBS theme (a theme remixed for the Turner/CBS era of March Madness) has been made permanent to the regular season after a decade or so.  Unless I forgot and they had it last year.  Michigan wins big; maybe it's the first half of a double for the Wolverines on Championship Saturday!

This could be the year of top teams falling to teams they have no business falling to.  To be fair, Duke losing to Ohio State does nothing to the eventual outcome.  If the Blue Devils miss out on something, it'll be a lot of stuff (and yeah, OSU beating them in the ACC/Big 10 challenge will be a factor).

Due to that upset and several other stuff, Purdue is slated to be ranked Number One for the first time ever.  That is rather surprising TBH.

Speaking of the Boilermakers, they are slated as the Top Overall Seed in the first prediction for March Madness.  Super Early, but it would be nice to see Purdue do well enough to reach New Orleans this season

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Well, the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers will remain the most recent undefeated team in College Basketball as Baylor, who was the very last undefeated team, suffered a 75-72 setback at the hands of an underrated Texas Tech program.

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With the NFL football season taking over the sports world, you had to pay extra attention to what was happening in the College Hoops world.

For example, Auburn, who will likely fall from the Top Spot despite a rebounding performance vs Texas A&M, earned its first-ever top spot in the AP Poll (01/24/22).  Unlike many others before it, the Tigers did not lose that honor immediately afterwards.  Anyway, after Auburn's No. 1 ranking was made official about two weeks before their loss at Arkansas, it should make way for Gonzaga's return to the Top spot.  The Razorbacks, who pulled the upset as an unranked team (might've been No 27), might enter the AP Top 25 (FWIW they lost a close one at Alabama, where many usually get routed following a home upset).

Tough news for the defending champion with star forward Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua likely done for the year with a knee injury.  Speedy recovery, but something to pay attention to come tourney time.

No show on CBS this weekend that spotlights the NCAA Tournament.  Around this time, they usually have a Bracket Show (if the season ended today) similar to what ESPN does with the Top 25 CFB Playoff.  They might have it next week if at all; it's typically the week after the Super Bowl.  If they have it, it'll be 3 weeks and change before Selection Sunday

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Even though they'll be on CBS facing #3 Purdue today, this is turning out to be Maryland's worst season since 1992-93, with a humiliating defeat to Iowa being a new low after surrendering 110 points. A new head coach (Danny Manning, who was fired from Wake Forest) means that even making the CBI will be a longshot for them this year, and will definitely set back the program for awhile. The Mark Turgeon era looking back turned out to be a bit less successful than what their potential turned out to be, only making it as far as the Sweet 16 just once in his 11 seasons.

Meanwhile, Rutgers not far up I-95 is getting back into the bracket picture after their upset over #14 Wisconsin yesterday on the road, following two other wins over Top 25 teams.

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Naturally, Maryland nearly pulled off the upset on the road.  Gotta respect conference play.  It did cost Purdue a couple spots in the polls, but I think they'll be okay going forward.

That game was on CBS as part of their Big Ten coverage, and between periods, Adam Zucker pretty much did confirm things with the "Bracket Special" on Saturday, February 19th sometime after noon Eastern.  Plus, he did promote Greg Gumbel's return (and he should be there from here on out); Kellogg probably heads back to the studio with Seth already in place.  That special precedes College basketball, and I believe the Genesis follows that, which should be the final golf coverage (until April); it'll be a ton of hoops after that on CBS leading up to the postseason.

Purdue drops a couple spots in the aftermath of their survival against Maryland, and Gonzaga & Auburn swap spots in the AP Poll thanks to a previously unranked Arkansas team, now at Number 23.  Arizona & Kentucky complete the Top 5 within the latest rankings

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Selection Sunday is 3 weeks from Sunday as of the day of this post, and as is the custom, CBS had its preview show.  It’s one of those “If The NCAA Tourmanent Started Today” shows, and it’s similar to those weekly shows ESPN did throughout the end of October, throughout November, and early December with College Football.  To be fair, the teams that lead the way pretty much stay there.  They’re unlikely to lose much, if at all, prior to their conference tournaments.  Though I think Kentucky and Kansas could flip (the Wildcats won head-to-head against the Jayhawks).  The former just dismantled Alabama, which helps with their case.

In addition to Kansas, the other three projected Number One seeds include Arizona, Auburn, and overall top seed Gonzaga.  1495092226728284164[/tweet]]Here is the Top 16 as of 02/19/2022.  For what it’s worth, the CBS Hoops studio show did a forecast of all projected 64 teams, which will change between now and Selection Sunday

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Well, the month of March will be here on Tuesday.  That’s tomorrow.  However, if you told me that March actually started this past weekend, I’d believe you.  For the first time ever, the Top 5 crumbled, all on the same day.

To be fair, the AP Top Six were all on the road when they lost.  It was a great day.  As mentioned, it’s a long season for these players.  They’re all going to the NCAA Tournament.  And at this point, and for the most part, the teams that were locks for a one-seed are going to be just that.  Those that probably needed to win out and get help weren’t getting a top spot.

Nope, Duke did not jump to the top spot, nor did Baylor, who wasn’t the highest ranked team that didn’t lose but are the reigning champions.  Gonzaga and Arizona are still the top 2, while Baylor moved to the third spot.  Duke, the highest team that didn’t lose, is the new number 4.  Auburn fell two spots to Number 5.


The other news outside of the chaos that occurred on February 26 is that Coach Howard is still serving his suspension following the aftermath of the Michigan/Wisconsin game last weekend.  Plus there will be another back-to-back triple header on CBS this weekend, which includes the annual Missouri Valley Championship Game for one of the early bids into the NCAA Tournament.

Finally, Coach K's final home game is on Saturday in what may be his last game against North Carolina

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Sorry I didn’t post here over the past week.  There have been a ton of awesome College Hoops action during Championship Week.  Probably the first time in at least quite a long time I enjoyed mid-major and optional conference championship games (with only one tourney bid per conference).  This might be the first time in a long time where the field is wide open.  While it probably excludes a 12-16 seed, I could see anyone winning the dance, or at least their region.

It’s Selection Sunday, which started with most of the auto spot being filled.  For the most part, all that was left was the Atlantic 10, Ivy League, SEC, AAC, and the Big Ten.  Of course, it was pretty much an exhibition for the Big 10, with both Big 10 champions Iowa and Purdue guaranteed a spot in the NCAA Tournament.  Ditto with the SEC & AAC, I think, and maybe the A-10.  Richmond’s win probably puts the Notre Dame community in panic mode.


2021-2022 Auto Bids include: Murray State, Loyola, Gonzaga, Kansas, Boise State, Villanova, Virginia Tech, Yale, Richmond, Tennessee, Houston, and Iowa


The top seeds should be Gonzaga, Arizona, Kansas, and Baylor.

Probably might be the toughest bracket (or brackets) I’ll be filling out in a long time!

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What the committee got right: The teams selected. None of those left have much to whine or Prizes about. Dayton had numerous quad 4 losses, Oklahoma had too many overall losses, SMU had a non conference strength of schedule of 285, Texas A&M had an 8 game losing streak and I have no words for how Xavier collapsed down the stretch. There were no snubs.

The 1 seeds. Gonzaga, Arizona, Kansas, and Baylor were a clear cut top line.

While they got the teams and the 1s right, they got a few seeds wrong:

Iowa should've been a 4 instead of a 5 after winning the Big 10.

Tennessee should have been a 2 instead of a 3 after winning the SEC.

Ohio State should have been an 8 or 9. A 7 seed is too high for the Buckeyes as they lost down to stretch to Maryland and NEBRASKA.

Michigan and Indiana should have swapped places after Indiana beat Michigan in the Big 10 Tournament.

What I personally like: The fact that Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, Kansas, UCLA, and Indiana are in the field in the same year. Go storied programs!

What I personally hated about this season: My Sun Devils being 1 of the worst teams in the nation.

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Well, my brackets are done.  They've been done for quite some time prior to the 11 AM EST hour.  Might be the fastest I completed them in quite a while.  I'm usually turning everything in around the time the CSS players finalize things with their bids.  Or to be accurate: the time they would with a first-run show.

Meh on Michigan.  They probably should have fought their way into the tournament.  FWIW, there should be four more at large teams in Dayton in place of 4 16 seeds that actually had to win their conference championship game to even be apart of the field of 68.  Or at least have them play in the sight of their first round game.  Yeah, that might be a bit extreme, but playing and losing in Dayton makes a team miss out on an opportunity they might not get again.  Of course, they have to travel again with a win prior to losing to one of the best.

So tip off is set for 12:15 EST on CBS.  FYI: CBS has the only game for about a half hour before TruTV joins at 12:40.  TNT and TBS will be joining with hoops action at around 1:45 - 2:00.  All of this is after the pregame shows.

Save for a couple of people, more or less: The cast pretty much should return to what it was in 2018-2019.  For New York, it's status quo (following the format that started over a decade ago).  That's hosts Greg Gumbel & Ernie Johnson, and analysts Clark Kellogg, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley.  Seth Davis heads to Atlanta for the first week and the regional semis (where Ernie will return for Thursday & Friday before his weekend off).  Wally, I believe is in NYC, he usually covers for  Chuck and the Jet (one of each early on Saturday & Sunday).

Not too sure of the lineup in New Orleans, but it should emulate what they did in 2019.

For the people calling the games, save for a number of changes, it's basically the same thing as it was last year in terms of the Top 4 teams.  That includes Reggie Miller's return.  One big change (and an awesome one IMO) is the move to have Lisa Byington doing play-by-play has now been made permanent.  She called games last year, but not in 2019

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There are 3 certainties in life: death, taxes, and the Mountain West crashing, burning, and failing in every NCAA tournament.

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There are 3 certainties in life: death, taxes, and the Mountain West crashing, burning, and failing in every NCAA tournament.

LOL.  Pretty much true!  Though if I had to correct/edit that "fact", it possibly would've gone as follows.  "There are three certainties in life.  Death, taxes, & a 12 seed over a 5 seed in every NCAA Tournament."

Going 25-7 (13 on Thursday & 12 on Friday), I pretty much did well on those 5/12 matchups.  The only one I missed was Iowa & Richmond.  That was not an easy game to pick, but Iowa came around to where you'd be wrong to bet against them.  Eventually I picked them (Big Ten title game & their first round game).  Too bad for them to lose against a team that needed to beat Davidson to get in period.  Coincidentally, Richmond & Iowa both won their conference back to back on CBS last weekend