The Road to Manhattan Ep. 1: Diagnosing the Big East — what to know before March begins.

Dai­ly Cam­pus part­ners and col­lege bas­ket­ball gurus Sam Cal­houn and Jake McCreven speak on the Big East con­fer­ence as a whole this sea­son as they pre­pare you for the Big East Tour­na­ment next weekend. 

Episode Transcript:

And we are now live.

Hel­lo, everybody.

Wel­come to The Road to Manhattan.

Today is Feb­ru­ary 27th, on this won­der­ful rainy Thurs­day it is my proud hon­or to intro­duce myself and the per­son that is also here with me. Uh, I’m Sam Calhoun.

I am when it comes to Big East bas­ket­ball, I cov­er the UConn men’s bas­ket­ball team and I’m here with — 

Jake McCreven, and I believe the word you were look­ing for was co-host.

I know I knew that.

I just want­ed to mess with you a lit­tle bit.

The thing I’d like to do, um just a lit­tle of context.

I like to make fun of my friends.

So I’m here with Jake and the Big East bas­ket­ball Tour­na­ment is com­ing up rel­a­tive­ly soon.

Like it’s com­ing up like real­ly soon. We have a week from Sat­ur­day is the final day of the biggest reg­u­lar sea­son, I believe in the final day of col­lege bas­ket­ball reg­u­lar sea­son is March ninth, a week from Sunday.

So it’s creep­ing up on that.

So and and I want to be like a ques­tion answer type of format.

So it’s just us talk­ing about Big East bas­ket­ball and and I’ll and I’ll just start off with our first topic.

So last year, the Big East got, I believe, what?

I and you can cor­rect me if I’m wrong on this…

I’m going off the top of my head with this one…

I believe the Big East had three teams make the NCAA Tournament.

UConn, who won the nation­al cham­pi­onship, Mar­quette and Creighton.

There was a bunch of I mean, Saint John’s and Seton Hall and Prov­i­dence were on the bub­ble and they were unfor­tu­nate­ly on the wrong side of the bubble. 

But this year, uh, just con­sid­er­ing how last year was with just three teams mak­ing the NCAA Tour­na­ment out of this out of what is a pre­mier bas­ket­ball con­fer­ence in col­lege basketball.

What were your expec­ta­tions like when I mean, you and I went to Big East media day back in October?

What were your what was your expec­ta­tion for the Big­gies going into this season?

Well, I just want to start off and explain my role in the Big East, I cov­er the UConn wom­en’s bas­ket­ball team for The Dai­ly Campus.

And we’re talk­ing about men’s basketball.

Let’s — sor­ry to interrupt.

Yes, this will be a men’s Big East bas­ket­ball chat cast.

So I just want to put that out there.

What I do is I report for the wom­en’s bas­ket­ball team and then I write uh my per­son­al col­umn every week on men’s bas­ket­ball from a nation­al perspective.

So he’s like a nation­al writer,

I’m more of a Big East writer.

Yes.

So I actu­al­ly have a col­umn called Big East Baller update. Um I am suc­ceed­ing the great, great, and also the UConn alum­ni Cole Ste­fan, um shoutout Cole. Uh yeah, sor­ry. Uh, you can you can you can’t fin­ish what you were about to say.

Well, my expec­ta­tions for the Big East in Octo­ber, I think media day was Octo­ber 23rd, was it not?

It was some­thing it was around that range.

I don’t know.

That was that day was a blur and that was real­ly when we first real­ly became friends.

That that in first night were real­ly like we real­ly just collected.

It was awe­some . I remem­ber walk­ing around with Sarg — Con­nor Sar­gent — and talk­ing to all these dif­fer­ent play­ers, I mean, I talked to Malik Mack.

I talked to Bryce Hop­kins from from Prov­i­dence and Eric Dixon and Kadary Rich­mond because the men’s was the men’s media avail­able that was before the women’s.

And I remem­ber think­ing to myself, there are so many good teams in the Big East.

And I think there still are.

You know, last year, you and our three of them make the NCAA tour­na­ment, Con­necti­cut one seed, Mar­quette, I believe was two seed.

Yeah, uh UConn was the num­ber one over­all seed.

Mar­quette was a I think they were like a low two seed, I think.

They might have been num­ber sev­en overall.

Yeah, it was some­thing like that.

I mean, this is almost a year ago.

So, I mean, that that sea­son alone was a blur because of how it’s almost like it’s almost like you’re on a sug­ar high for the entire year.

So that that was that was some­thing that was just so so much fun to do.

But um to go off what you said, my expec­ta­tions were high from every­thing from, I mean, last night, we actu­al­ly just had some­one clinch at least a share of the reg­u­lar sea­son, Saint John’s clinched the share of the reg­u­lar sea­son for the first time since the 199192 sea­son, so on, let me just applaud them for that.

Rick Piti­no, what a job he has done with that program.

He’s done it every­where he’s uh he’s done it every stop college-wise.

He’s done in providence.

He’s done at Kentucky.

He’s done at Louisville, Iona and now he’s done it at Saint John’s and uh and I was high on them. Uh when they got that real­ly nasty back­ourt, um Kadary Rich­mond, as you men­tioned from Se Hall, uh trans­ferred to Saint John’s and I think it was strict­ly for NIL, by the way, uh and I think Pati­na’s even said that. Um and then Dav­eon Smith from Utah, we we can talk about lit­er­al­ly two of their play­ers being Big East play­er theear con­tenders, not just Rich­mond, but RJ.

Luis Jr., who I did­n’t real­ly know about before the sea­son and he’s turned out to be an incred­i­ble play­er this year and I love his game now watch­ing him in per­son twice in on my TV a hand­ful of times.

Yeah, but I mean, I uh my broth­er went to Saint.

John’s, so some­times I sneak in a Saint John’s game every now and then.

Last year, I actu­al­ly did find myself watch­ing some Saint John’s games and R.J.

Luis stood out to me because he isn’t a great shooter.

I think he three point per­cent­age of this year is 29.2%, which is in the 31st per­centile nationalally.

So that’s not good.

Not in the big East nation­al­ly, but he’s aver­ag­ing 17 and a half points per game, shoot­ing near­ly 50% from the field and is a front run­ner four Big­gie play­er of the year along­side some of the greats in the con­fer­ence like Cam Jones and Ryan Culbunner.

And uh and that’s going to be some­thing we talked about our our awards in our all Big East first team, because I feel like all of those things are kind of a lock right now.

If not, they’re like kind of a de fac­to lock.

I real­ly thought Xavier was gonna have a great year.

I thought they were gonna be ranked like most of the year.

They’re not ranked right now.

They’re still and I think you have the stand­ings on your computer.

I don’t on mine, but um I believe Xavier’s just a half game back in the stand­ings of UConn, who swept the biggest cham­pi­onships last season.

Yes, so Xavier is 18 and 10 over­all and 10 and sev­en of the bigeast.

I mean, UConn 11 and six, so it’s one game back and they played each oth­er twice already.

It is split.

And it’s real­ly just a win out kind of sce­nario because if UCon wins out, they get the three seed and they play at the 9 PM game on that biggest tour­na­ment Thurs­day, that core found Thurs­day, which I absolute­ly love. Um and I can’t wait to, again, I can’t wait to go to New York for that um uh, like I do every year.

And then, yeah, I mean, they they they are I mean, with Zach Free­man­tle back and he’s been he’s been real­ly good for them.

He’s real­ly recov­ered well.

He has­n’t been the guy that they were with um when they had sil­ly boom and um Am Kunkel and K Col­by Jones and uh Jack Nuny.

That team was gross.

I thought that team, by the way, a cou­ple years back was going to make the final four. And I lit­er­al­ly said that after they beat a beat UConn at Gam­pel two years ago.

That was my fresh­man year, um and they end­ed up get­ting a hor­ren­dous st draw in the tournament.

That was I felt so bad for them because that team is real­ly good.

And shad­ow Sean Miller, he’s an incred­i­ble coach.

But then they’ back­our, Davion McN­night, they lose Desmond Claude, which was tough.

That was real­ly tough.

They he trans­ferred the USC to go play for Eric Musel­man, who just went there from Arkansas.

But yeah, it’s just it’s been a wild ride.

It’s been a very roller coast­er sea­son in the Big East.

Would­n’t you agree?

I would and I would say that at this point in the year it’s com­ing up on the last day of Feb­ru­ary that is tomor­row, Feb­ru­ary 28th, and a lit­tle over a week in break this sea­son remain­ing, I think there is a clear tier of con­tenders in the Big East and I think it’s you have a t list with you?

I mean, I can I can cre­ate one right now.

We can we can do this on spot.

We got we got time and uh well, let’s just say num­ber one, Saint John’s and then at the bomb scene hall.

We can estab­lish that and then I in like the sec­ond tier, you have to have Marquette.

Yeah, so I I would per­son­al­ly have Saint.

John’s at the num­ber one slot, but they’re not this world beat­ing team that I They are they’re the best defen­sive team I’ve seen this sea­son, but I mean, uh not accord­ing to Kem­pon, they’re num­ber two, I believe I don’t I don’t think that has changed at all?

First first­ly, um who did you think was going to uh break out and be like the best play­er in the big com­ing into the year?

And has that changed?

A big fan of two of Creighton’s or excuse me, Mar­quet­te’s guards.

And that is Ste­vie Mitchell and Chase Ross.

Not even Cam Jones?

You know, I think every­one kind of expect­ed a lit­tle of Cam Jones.

If you were to ask me, who do I expect to break out that peo­ple weren’t nec­es­sar­i­ly talk­ing about Ste­vie Ste­vie Mitchell and Jase Ross.

I think Ross has­n’t real­ly stepped up as much as Mitchell Ross?

He?

What Chase Ross?

He’s kind of give you a nice spot on the floor and he fits into that shock where he can switch into that zone and cov­er­age and he’s just kind of like a do it all type of guard.

And that’s exact­ly what Mar­quette needed.

Where­as Ste­vie Mitchell was just this bull­dog on the defen­sive in.

I don’t know if he still leads the big East and steals, I would not be sur­prised if he does.

But last year I remem­ber watch­ing him and I was just like, wow, like this guy is incredible.

And obvi­ous­ly Mar­quet­te’s defense isn’t crazy good. They have a 96.1 defen­sive rat­ing accord­ing to Ken Palm, which is 22nd nationally.

So that’s pret­ty good.

But when you com­pare it to the likes of, you know, St.

Johns some of these big 12 teams, Saint John’s has an 88.2 defen­sive rat­ing, for those who you don’t know, you want to have a low­er defen­sive rating.

Oh yeah it’s it’s like is you a golf guy?

It’s like golf.

You want the low score.

Like you could get into you could get into like the 40 somehow.

That’s nev­er going to happen.

But you want to get as low to as close to zero as pos­si­ble in your defen­sive read­ing because that just shows you if you have one of the low­est ones you you’re con­sid­ered a an elite defen­sive team.

And that’s what St.

John’s bent, I think and I and and that was a re I mean, and he still, I think, in con­tention, even though I do think Ryan Cock­bren­ner’s going to get I still think Mitchel­l’s in con­tention for Big East defen­sive play­er of the year.

I think Cock­brain­er is going to win play­er of the year, even though that’s still a race.

Fresh­man year since Sor­ber just got Thomas Sor­ber of Georown just got hurt a lit­tle big, lit­er­al­ly the day, they ruled him out for the year.

He just got surgery yesterday.

He he became uh Liam McNeely of UConn became I mean he was a pre­sea­son favorite and now I think he is the odd on favorite to win the award just because he’s going to fin­ish out the sea­son, they’re they’re they both have missed the time. But man, that’s such a a big loss for George­town and you could tell last night when uh when watch­ing Yuk­Con host George­town because they were so razor thin.

Drew Felder was uh pret­ty sol­id up until he has fifth ball.

He fou a lie in that game . Uh but um out­side Field­er, they’ real­ly a razor thin and they’re in Fider’s not like you’re like you’re he’s not like a carv­ing copy of Thomas Sor­ber, but um he he still, I think, he still can pro­duce when needed.

But um, yeah, it’s a tough loss for uh George­town with him. Um and then coach of the year, uh, you want to see on three?

One, two, three, Rick Pitino.

Yeah.

What a job he’s done. And and I have so much respect for him.

I I mean, I’ve obvi­ous­ly I’m a lot old­er than you.

You’re a freshman.

I’m a junior and I and I’ve gone to see Petino dur­ing his Louisville days when he would coach P and Steve­va and Russ Smith, so con­sis­tent­ly, this guy’s 72 years old. Ain’s still kick­ing it.

Like he he was back in his uh Boston uni­ver­si­ty days.

He real­ly is the god­fa­ther and I have a tremen­dous amount of respect for him and he’s eas­i­ly the coach of the year.

But um uh whether team this sea­son that’s that sur­prised you positively?

I’ll give you one for both directions.

I’ll say sur­prise pos­i­tive and sur­prise negative.

I think the unan­i­mous deci­sion for sur­prise pos­i­tive would be the George­townoy is.

Yeah.

Oh, my God I think I mean they did so so well in the off­sea­son, just uh in the por­tal, then, I mean, Thomas Sil­ber comes in and just absolute­ly wreaks hav­oc and looks like one of the best now even just won the best fresh­man in the big East, but one of the best fresh­man in the country.

Then Mike Peavey, who who’s been unre­al um at Coo­ley, who’s the head coach of uh who’s the head coach at George­town, talked about PV call­ing him to be the nation­al play­er of the week last week.

He he was very upset that that was very vocal about it in his postgame press con­fer­ence at the XL Sarah Hartford.

So, um yeah, they they have some real­ly good going and they got uh Malik Mack who he talked about the Har­vard trans­fer. Uh who’s it now let’s go to the hour direction.

Who’s the team that you were very um sur­prised neg­a­tive­ly about?

You know, I think you can make an argu­ment for Zavier, but there’s still a bor­der­line tour­na­ment team, which is I think.

I think that’s what kind of peo­ple put as their ceiling.

So I think they met expectations.

I think Prov­i­dence just real­ly set this year.

I think I thought they were going to be real­ly good too.

I thought that Bryce Hop­kins would come back from the ECL injury and kind of lead the team.

I just don’t think they have the back is their back­our did­n’t fill in the role that Devin Kerr left behind.

And that and that and that real­ly hurt them.

I think I can kind of use that as a segue to get into the tear list and the tears of teams that will not win the big East tour­na­ment in Manhattan.

And that is, DePa, who has real­ly strug­gled, DePa’s not going win the Big East Proidence.

I don’t think, well, you can throw a scene Hall in there.s in there and you throw George­town in there.

Hall yeah, George­town, espe­cial­ly with­or. With Sor­ber, dif­fer­ent story.

So that leaves us with Saint Johns, Mar­quette, Creighton, Xavier, and I believe Vil­lano­va and they they still have the nation’s lead­ing score in Eric Dixon, who and there’s a good segue to talk about our all Big­gie’s first team as well.

And and do you think he deserves to have a spawn there?

I think so just because of the fact he’s the nation’s league score and when you have a pre­mier four, there’s no one that you can real­ly replace Dixon with in terms of Big­gie play this year.

Yeah, so I put I’m putting Vil­lano Nova in that con­tender tier, not because they’re a great team overall.

They have some pieces, but you put him there because they have the nation’s lead­ing score and I think he has solid­i­fied him­self as a big all big East first team­er, I think you can make the argu­ment that he is a first team all American.

I do agree with you on that.

Well, I think that there are real­ly three guys who have absolute­ly a hun­dred per­cent solid­i­fied them­selves on the Big East first team, and that is Dixon at the four,ough Bren­ner at the five and Cam Jones at the two.

That leaves us with the great pool of play­ers, and I think the play­ers you have to con­sid­er for it’s the one in the three that we’re miss­ing, right?

Well, let’s start up with the one.

Kadary Rich­mond and Steven Ash­worth, I think are the only real con­tenders there.

Kadary Rich­mond of Saint John’s, Steven Ash­worth of Creighton.

I think both of them have done a real­ly good job this sea­son and then at the three, I mean, Caribbean does­n’t deserve spot.

Le McNeely could, I think of UConn, Alex Kara­ban has just had such a down year.

He had a 50–40-90 reg­u­lar sea­son last year.

Just since that Vil­lano­va became miss­ing those two free throws, he has­n’t been the same.

And since that injury that side­lined him at the Texas game, I think, um he he has­n’t been the same play­er that he was the last two years.

So I and he’s norm most more of a four than a three, even though you could slide him over in this case because of, I mean, Dixon’s a much more of a true four and he’s a stretch for too.

But um who who else do you think besides McNeely?

I think there are for the for the point guard spot, the one, I think there are two con­tenders and I think it’s Ash­worth and Richmond.

I think they all go back and forth that spot.

If we were to do the posi­tion, I know it’s a lit­tle dif­fer­ent vot­ing would vote for Rich­mond because he’s a play­er like we’ve And I think at the three, there aren’t too many contenders.

I think R.J.

Luis can eas­i­ly be con­sid­ered for that.

I mean hes.

He’s list­ed as a guard, but he eas­i­ly has the build to play a wing posi­tion, like the small Ford position.

I mean, he’s six foot seven.

Isn’t that a true guard?

I think you can slide him in at Ford and have real­ly I think that there’s a pool of guys about eight or nine strong that’ll be vying for the five spots.

And I think because some of these teams pos­sess two some­times you can make the argu­ment that St.

John’s could have three team three guys in these big East teams. Um I think that these all of these teams have legit­i­mate chances at win­ning this tournament.

I think he has to put Louis. Uh uh Kem­pom has him actu­al­ly at the four uh like Which is strange because I don’t think that he’s uh he does­n’t play like a you he does­n’t play like you Tim Dun­can or Carl Mal­one or Dirk Novin­s­ki type of player.

He’s uh much he’s much more of a skin­ny frame than that, uh, which I I think is much more of a small Ford type of deal.

So to sum­ma­rize, Rich­mond, Jones, Luis, Dixon, Kalk­bren­ner, because I mean, and Kalk­bren­ner would be the Big East Play­er of the Year.

But there’s a weird thing that the Big East does where they don’t put the biggest play­er of the year on the first team.

Who would you put in for a Kalkbrenner?

I mean as a true cen­ter oh wait, Edge it’s prob­a­bly going to be zbie edge might have three all Big­gie’s first team guys.

That is remarkable.

And he’s guy win Big­gie’s the most improved player.

That’s that’s a lock as well.

So I mean, we’re paint­ing this to be St.

John’s con­fer­enceer­ence to lose, and I don’t think that’s true.

Yeah, it’s not true at all, because you do you want list of their shoot­ing num­bers because they’re down right.

I can if you want me to.

I think the lis­ten­ers want to know this.

So St.

John’s is ranked on Kemp Palm, which is, you know, the god­fa­ther of col­lege bas­ket­ball databases.

They are ranked sec­ond defen­sive­ly in the coun­try out of 364 teams, so that is pret­ty good.

But in terms of offense, they’re ranked sec­ond right now, that num­ber’s gone up recently.

They were in the bot­tom two hun­dred for a while.

And what they strive on is rely­ing on these defense, espe­cial­ly in zone defens­es, where they drop back and they allow these mid-range looks, these long two point­ers or these kind of fade­away jumpers from the blocks and the paint.

Rich­mond’s great at that, by the way.

So is Luis.

That’s where they’s where they score all their points.

But when you look at their effec­tive fiel­d­al per­cent­age, which takes into account the amount of attempts and makes from both two point range and three point range, they are 247th nation­al­ly, 49.6%.

That is not good . And for three point shoot­ing, they are 338th in America.

There are only 364 teams.

So this team can down­right not shoot.

And I feel like if they get a matchup like Creighton, who is ful­ly healthy or Mar­quette, who has a bunch of very capa­ble shoot­ers, includ­ing Cam Jones, they can get in some trou­ble ear­ly, espe­cial­ly if they fall behind against some of these ath­let­ic, streaky offen­sive teams.

You can even throw UConn in there.

I just think that their offense has strug­gled late­ly. But I mean, you look at them last night.

They can play like what they were last night, espe­cial­ly in the sec­ond half, they could be real­ly good.

But the thing is, Alex Ker­man did­n’t play well at all last night.

So yeah, Creighton got the shoot­ing I think they’ the most bal­anced team in the league.

I think they’re the most bal­anced team, just, I mean, you got a guy in the paint like Kalk­bren­ner that could real­ly produce.

And you know who has actu­al­ly real­ly sur­prised me and if Luis did­n’t exist or Edg­i­for excuse me, did­n’t exist, this guy would win a most improved play­er, maybe, Jiah.

And I love how you gave a lit­tle smirk there.

You knew exact­ly who I was talk­ing about.

I think Isaac Trout was a very good offen­sive play­er as well have foul hold him. Play the, that’s that’s a dif­fer­ent ani­mal, espe­cial­ly the five posi­tion when you have oth­er fives like edge of four, uh the tan­dem at UConn of Sam­son John­son, Tar­ris Reed Jr., uh, I think can can real­ly dis­rupt that if uh Kalk­bren­ner does go down.

So, um so let’s let’s start now talk­ing about who do you think who do we think and we might agree on this.

Who will make the biggest cham­pi­onship game and who’s going to win it?

I think it’s Cighton over Saint.

Johns.

I think that Mar­quette and Creighton get it done.

I think they defeat one of them will defeat Saint.

John’s and one of them will defeat Connecticut.

The one thing I don’t like about Mar­quette, the front­court and espe­cial­ly of the five losing…

Igho­daro?

Thank you. Thank you for the assist there.

I mean, their back core are and their wings are, I mean, you can’t knock that.

David Joplin’s been pret­ty good, espe­cial­ly from three, but Ben Gold I don’t know.

He’s he’s a lit­tle bit frag­ile and I don’t know, he does­n’t have the best feel for the game, in my opinion.

What are your thoughts on him and how he can help that pave the way to yet, I think a third straight biggest title game appearance.

Well, all right.

Mar­quette is so ath­let­ic at all four oth­er posi­tions and they have four true scores on the core at all times, and they have peo­ple off the bench. Where I think Ben Gold becomes this ter­tiary scor­er that isn’t real­ly relied upon a lot.

And I I don’t think he’s real­ly nec­es­sary for them to I don’t think he’s real­ly nec­es­sary for them to make the biggest title game.

I think he will be nec­es­sary if they want to win the biggest title game, where they’re going to have to match up against Ryan Kalk­bren­ner or Zubi Edgifor.

I think that they Saint John’s.

I think Mar­quette beats Saint John’s flat out. In the cham­pi­onship in the semis, wher­ev­er they meet, wherever.

I think Saint John’s just I hate against Rick Pitino.

I think if your band gets Rick Piti­no is like as Tom Brady almost.

I mean he’s not he’s the best oppos­ing coach I’ve seen in my time, uh watch­ing UCon bas­ket­ball and I’ve watched it all my life.

And I’ve seen a lot three coach­es, Mike Shza­s­ki, Roy Williams, Bill self, you name it Tom Izzo, who by the way, might actu­al­ly win nation­al coach of the year.

I think I think Tom iso should win it.

But Pet’s up there as well.

I mean, just the defense to office type of scheme, they’re mid-rangers.

I mean, it I don’t know if we have stout mid-rangers, but I think as you as you were to find that, I think you see high per­cent­ages from Saint.

John’s there because of what they can do.

They’re lethal there.

And then, I mean, edge of four can not I mean, he’s real­ly good in the paint, but he can also stretch a lit­tle bit to the midrange.

They even real­ly shoot threes.

I mean that they brought Davon Smith for that rea­son, and it just has­n’t worked as well, but he’s still been a huge con­trib­u­tor to them.

Rick Piti­no has called him said he reminds him of Louisville’s P and Siva, who’s all Big­gie’s first team guy, I believe.

So, um so yeah, I think that Craden is the most bal­anced in the most bal­anced team, in my opin­ion always seems to prevail.

That’s why that that’s how my mind­set is going to March Mad­ness and these con­fer­ence tour­na­ments, which we will pick on on the matchgateball.net.

And I and we do we do have dif­fer­ent takes on this, which I think is great.

I just think that you can’t knock the defense that St.

John’s has and I think they know how to lead.

And plus mass Square Gar­den, they they have done so well there. Um and that’s some­thing that it’s going to be it’s going to be real­ly fun.

I can’t wait to go to New York for that because it’s going to be real­ly fun.

So um let’s so to sum­ma­rize for our lis­ten­ers, because uh, espe­cial­ly me, but also Jake as well, we like to go on tan­gents, but play Play­er of the Year, Ryan Kalk­bren­ner, Fresh­man of the Year, Liam McNee­ley, Coach of the Year Rick Piti­no, uh I mean, that was quite obvious.

And then most improved oh, you did­n’t say six man.

I think Reed.

Hon­est­ly, yeah, I think that’s very bias no bias.

The fact that he does­n’t start still sur­pris­es me with how much start­ing poten­tial he has.

And if he did start the entire year, who knows where UConn would have been?

Because he plays such a a do nogo­like thing.

So, um Tar­ris Reed Jr. from UConn at the sixth man, and they must improve play­ers Zubi Edgifor.

I think we both agree with that.

Jus nod­ding, uh, and then our first team, uh, we agreed Kadary Rich­mond, um, Cam Jones, um RJ Luis Jr.

Thank you.

And then Eric Dixon, of Vil­lano­va, and then Ryan Kalk­bren­ner, who’s also Play­er of the Year.

And then I said that uh Creighton beats Saint John’s in the Big East championship.

You said?

I actu­al­ly did­n’t give my title pre­dic­tion yet.

I believe that Creighton will be Mar­quette in the Big East cham­pi­onship. And both would be great, great games. Um then we talked about um most most most sur­pris­ing­ly pos­i­tive team, like in the right direc­tion was George­town for us.

And then most most dis­ap­point­ing was Prov­i­dence and that was with­out with­out hes­i­ta­tion just because of the Bryce Hop­kins injury and every­thing and how great Bryce Hop­kins was uh two years ago.

But yeah, so um that’s going to wrap us up.

I hope you enjoyed lis­ten­ing. Um and yeah, uh there’s a lot of great games this week­end uh on Sat­ur­day afternoons.

But until then, I’m Sam Calhoun.

I’m Jake McCreven.

And you’ve  been lis­ten­ing to The Road to Manhattan.

Links to Research:

https://kenpom.com

https://barttorvik.com/#

https://haslametrics.com

https://bballnet.com