Second round/free agent wishlist

[hardlyyardley]

Nick Johnson of Arizona...a lot of his uncle in his game

[Fafnir]

Honestly Coachbo, there isn't much I can say to you if you think analytics and models are the tools of the lazy. I think you are intellectually lazy if that's your stance.

How much college basketball can you watch? Even if you watch 14 games a week, a total that approaches the hours you'd put into a full time job you're still only watching an incredibly small fraction of the games.

How much attention do you pay during the games? How do you select what games you watch? Do you form your impression from teams early and then move on? If so you might think Syracuse could be an all time great team or dismissed UNC as a bad team irrelevant to CBB this year.

There are 351 teams in 32 conferences and perhaps as many as 100 teams to start the season have legitimate tournament aspirations for the 68 slots.

It is physically impossible to watch enough college basketball to capture that amount information in your head. Even if you could that's beyond the scope of the human brain to process it effectively.

Analytics, models, and strength of schedule type metrics aren't the tools of the lazy, they are the tools of people willing to work hard to push past human limitations.

I think its lazy to dismiss them all with a broad brush and declare one's one perception as king. Human perception sucks and is prone to bias that makes your conclusions skewed. Its especially bad when you have very incomplete information.

For example I watch very little Pac-12 basketball because of my timezone and my TV package. Does that mean its not good and their aren't good teams out there?

They're just another tool to use, ones which take an awful lot of work to understand and create.

[Smitty77]

I'm VERY intrigued by the late 1st/early 2nd round talent in the 2014 draft.  It seems like there are a number of players whose draft ranges are all over the map that I am even more interested in, but for the sake of this discussion I'll go with Cleanthony Early, and CJ Fair.  I don't think any prominent draft site has either projected in the 1st round, but they both strike me as guys that can play in the NBA to some degree.  I could see both guys developing into good NBA bench players, or "glue" starters.

Early, in particular, I'm curious about.  I want to go back and watch a few older Wichita St. games on ESPN3 to solidify my opinion of him (and Wichita St. as a contender in the NCAA tourney).

Having seen several Wichita State games in person, and Early, here's my take on him: He has definite NBA potential at the 3 - or the 2, perhaps. Good solid handle, effective scorer from distance and inside.

He's also a great character guy, not your basic juco - intelligent, well-spoken, very team-oriented - kind of the antithesis of Marcus Smart.

The negatives: He's at times an ambivalent defender, although he has the physical skill to defend in the association - and we all know what an ambivalent defender looks like in green with #9. His attention span wanders.

He's also not a major rebounding force for his size.

I'm intrigued with Early as a big 2, actually.

As for the Shockers, they deserve their ranking. They are as good as anyone in the country in the backcourt, particularly the sophomore point guard Fred VanVleet who plays as aggressively yet close to mistake-free as anyone I've seen in college hoops in the last decade. It will be interesting to see how the 15 fouls they have at the 5 handle a physical opponent in the tournament.

Wow.  I think Wichita State is a nice story and all and had a nice run last year, but come on Coach Bo!!!  They are ranked #15 on the Sagarin computer rankings.  They have NOT played even ONE stinking top 25 team the entire year!!!  Their schedule strength is ranked #129!!!  I don't mean to burst anyone's bubble, and I would be very happy and "SHOCKED" to see the Shockers go past the Elite Eight, but I would not take them that far in your brackets!!

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/ncaab/sagarin/

Smitty77

Could not disagree with you more strongly, and you have fallen entirely into the metric trap when it comes to evaluating basketball talent.

Schedule strength is irrelevant. Jeff Sagarin? Please. There's nothing more irrelevant in the country than computer rankings. You're going to have to do better than that.

Wichita State's backcourt is as good as any in the country. They have a lead scorer at the 4, a lockdown defensive stopper at the 3 and 15 fouls to give at the 5, along with rim protection. They can also go to the bench for a distance shooter and another defensive stopper, in addition to the two extra 5s.

The Shockers are better than they were last year, when they reached the Final Four. The tournament depends largely on draws, but they're a lock to reach the Sweet 16 if they nail down a 1 seed in the Valley tournament.

Where Wichita State is vulnerable is against a physical team inside - potentially. Beyond that, they will be as difficult an out in the tournament as anyone in the country. You want to be careful falling victim to the national hype. The eyes don't lie with Wichita State.

Wichita State will NOT get past the quarters this year!!  I will be proven correct just as I was proven correct (thanks to Sagarin) in saying the Syracuse was a paper tiger and horrifically OVER-ranked!!  Coach Bo, I expect you to come back after the NCAA tourney and admit being wrong.  If I am wrong, I will come back and admit it.  Deal??

Smitty77

[nickagneta]

I think the Celtics should trade away any 2nd rounders they have over the next few years. They have so many first rounders they don't need them.