The EvanMiya College Basketball Show

Evan (00:01)
College basketball is underway and we've already got some huge results to talk about. UCLA took down a top five Arizona team. Florida showed why they are the number one team in the country. And we've got a couple pretty huge upsets to dissect. So without further ado, let's get to it.

Evan (00:24)
Hey everybody, welcome to the Evan Mia College Basketball Show. I am your host, Evan Mia Kawa, and it is so good to actually finally have games to talk about. We have already had some really, really awesome games, results, performances, and a whole bunch more. Normally we would break down a full week's worth of action, but I wanted to get you guys a show relatively quick within the first week to just go ahead and get into some of this great stuff that we've seen.

So on today's show, we're gonna talk about Florida taking down Miami. UCLA had a big upset over Arizona, Memphis, a huge win over Iowa State. BYU's offense looked awesome in a win over Ohio State and a whole bunch more. so it's gonna be really fun to kind of get into this. Brian Ralph from Basket Unreview is on deck with me here in a second. Uh before we get there, a really fun thing for those of you who are evanmia.com users, and this applies to anyone who has a subscription or not.

One of the things that we reference, we're gonna reference a lot on today's show is talking about Haugh much teams are going up or down and Haugh much players are going up and down in terms of their team or player ratings on the site. And a really easy way to do that is on each of the team ratings and player ratings pages, there is a show change toggle that allows you to see Haugh much a team or player goes up or down in terms of from their from yesterday, from seven days ago, from the preseason. And so this is one of my favorite ways to kind of monitor which teams have really been

great or poor since the start of the year. Um so just wanted to make sure that all of you guys know that that's available because that's really, really awesome. All right. I have Brian Ralph here from Basket under review today.

Evan (02:11)
All right. I have Brian Ralph here from Basket under Review today, and we have actual games to talk about. Uh what a great opening two days. Normally when we do the show, we're talking about a whole week's worth of action today. We've just got basically one full day of games along with you know, one game that happened on on Sunday. Um, but I think there's it's it's right to be talking about it now because we had some uh I think a really, really nice slate of big games on the first day of the season.

Which we don't always get. So I'm excited to get into it. Why don't we jump straight in here, Brian? Um,

Brian Rauf (02:45)
Mm-hmm.

Evan (02:46)
what of all the stuff that we observed really mainly yesterday, we're recording this on Tuesday, what was your biggest moment from the week, the biggest thing that stuck out to you uh from everything that we've seen so far in this early college basketball season?

Brian Rauf (03:00)
I think the thing that was the most fun was the one thing that happened on Sunday with Notre Dame coming back and beating Villanova. I mean it's it's in its own spot. It's in the morning before all the NFL games go take place on Sunday. And you had a thrilling finish to a game with a team and a coach that kind of needed a big win to be able to come back and get one. There's a lot of really cool things that happened on Monday, things that we'll we'll talk about

Throughout the course of this episode, obviously. But in terms of like what was the best moment, like to me that signified college basketball being back as having that kind of comeback, those close possessions, the late game scenarios in a cool environment with real stakes given what Micah Shrewsbury was kind of facing coming into the season.

Evan (03:43)
Yeah, I don't think it's gonna be often we're gonna have a standalone game on a Sunday morning to start the the college basketball season.

Brian Rauf (03:49)
No.

Evan (03:50)
But the fact for I mean it was great for Villanova and Notre Dame that we had a game where I mean both programs wouldn't if this game were happening on the regular Monday, this might be sixth or seventh on our list of most important games. But the fact that they got the spotlight in Italy with the Pope's blessing and everything, I think was awesome. I was not able to catch any of this game live. Just any quick hitters for you at all on like just

Any takeaways for either of these teams since they have the spotlight of being the number

Brian Rauf (04:16)
Yeah.

Evan (04:16)
one game, uh, first game of the season. any takeaways for you there?

Brian Rauf (04:20)
Last 10 minutes, Villanova had two made baskets and three turnovers. Like that's that's not gonna get it done. And obviously it's a a new roster, but last year a Caden Loops is gonna bail you out in a lot of those scenarios where your offense went through lulls or Duke Brennan was gonna get enough offensive rebounds to where it would take care of itself. Wonder who those guys were going to be on this year's Villanova team. And again, it's it's one game and it's being played in a foreign country.

But it's clear that they don't have those kind of answers yet offensively. And for as good of a coach as Kevin Willard is, if there is one kind of consistent drag on some of his teams, it's the teams that can't produce offensively. And those last ten minutes of that game aren't aren't a red Flagg, because it is game one, but I think are something worth monitoring moving forward that maybe Villanova doesn't have those kind of guys on this year's team, certainly the same level they last year.

Evan (05:14)
Yeah.

My I would say my biggest moment so far, I'm gonna pick I I would say probably the biggest result in the top twenty-five was UCLA beating Arizona eighty-four to seventy-five. UCLA came in ranked twenty-second, Arizona was fifth, and UCLA had the lead for most of this game, but an Arizona kill shot late, the UCLA was up by like eleven, I think they whittled it down to one with three minutes left, and then UCLA was able to

Secure the win with some big big plays. And I think this was it's funny thinking back a year ago because Arizona beat Florida in what was really the first big game of the season last year in kind of a similar situation where Florida came in as uh you know, top five team and Arizona was a little bit outside of that. And now they're kind of on the flip side of this result. Um, but I think this was a uh a really fascinating game because UCLA looks like a team that McCronin really likes.

There's been he's been really optimistic about this team in the preseason. And now on the first day of the year, they get a huge top five win. And I think it's the kind of the sp I mean, no this game wasn't necessarily particularly pretty. Like both teams did not shoot above 40% in this game. But UCLA just had a lot more contributors from all across the board. a lot of eyeballs on Nicola Kosterica, who is their freshman, 17 year old phenom. He was solid.

Nine points, five boards to assist two steals three blocks. So kind of something of everything. But Trent Perry led the way for UCLA with 21 points. He was 11 for 11 from the free throw line. And Eric Daly, who's been a player I've loved for a long time, has become more and more important to this UCLA team over time. He had a big game as well. And really on the Arizona side of things, like outside of Ivan Karchenkov, who absolutely went nuclear in this game, by the way, people were coming into the season talking about.

Mo Krivas potentially being national player of the year candidate. On last week's show with Isaac Trotter, we drafted national player of the year teams, five each, kind of with going with the shot of who's going to have the best chance at winning that award. Moe Krivos was probably one of the first names off the list for us, and there was some critique from Arizona fans in the comments. And yet through one game, he was kind of mostly quiet, just eight points, four turnovers. But Karchenkov scored thirty eight points in this game.

And was just an absolute menace. But outside of that, like there really wasn't a lot from this Arizona team. And then like Bryce James started and played only six minutes. Um, so to me, that was the most um notable result, a biggest moment for me from these first two days. Uh, what are kind of your like while we're on this game, like outlook

Brian Rauf (07:57)
Yeah.

Evan (07:57)
on either of these teams, Haugh has it changed from this result?

Brian Rauf (08:02)
I think the USA outlook has uh for me changed positively in a big way. Uh you mentioned the things that that Perry was doing in the backcourt. Him and Petty together give you that shot making in the backcourt that the the best McCronin teams have had. You have that with um a front court that has a little bit of everything. We saw them be really active defensively, which again is a a hallmark of the good McCronin teams and when he has his tirades and his postcamp press conferences, it's because that activity is not there.

Nice to see that if you're a UCLA fan in game one. But I'm also for the good th the good things UCLA did, and as good as I feel about UCLA moving forward or better, I feel more down on Arizona and more concerned about Arizona than I do positive on UCLA. Evan Kirchangov is is awesome. He was on my breakout list for the season. He was a really good connector and glue guy, two-way player for last year's team, but he showed flashes of of more.

And on this year's team, he was gonna have the potential and the the opportunity, the role to do more. I didn't think he'd scored 38 in a game, but he was he was unconscious for a good a good part of that, and he's an awesome player. The issue is outside of him, everything seemed difficult for Arizona. You're not used to Tommy Lloyd offenses looking like they're having a hard time coming up with baskets or coming up with good looks. Some of that was Caleb Holt being in foul trouble. They need him to be

a key piece, like him and Karchenkov need to be, I your one and two offensive options for that to work. Them turning to to Dixon shooting a whole bunch of threes down the stretch was out of necessity, but I don't think that's a winning formula to win at the level that Arizona wants to win at. The most concerning thing though, and I'm writing about this in the Ralph report that'll be up on Basca under review on Friday. The most concerning thing is that Mo Krievos looks scared offensively in that game.

Some of that has to do with UCLA's activity because they were collapsing on him when he got the ball in the post, understanding that he's such an important part of what they want to do. And he had some really good passes out of the post. But to your your point, he had four turnovers in the game, not not ideal. But late in that game, when they had the kill shot and they came back and made it a one point game, then it was a three point game or four point game with less than two minutes left. They drew up plays to get him the ball in the post. And he had the ball with feet in the paint.

And did not look at the basket one time. To me, if that's somebody you're gonna be relying on to carry your offense or have a bigger role in your offense, the lack of aggression in those key spots is a concern. You can talk about the the skill set, the ability, you know, what have you, but you have to want those shots and look those f look for those shots when they're being drawn up for you. And for him to not even look at the rim when you're seven foot two and have two feet in the paint.

That to me was a a an alarm bell going off.

Evan (11:04)
Yeah, I'm I'm also monitoring Arizona's backcourt because like they had Derek Dixon had a fairly decent game. He scored 18 points, but very inefficient, five of seventeen from the field. And then Bryce James, I mentioned, played six points or played six minutes, didn't hardly do anything. Caleb Holt, seven points. JJ Mandequit played over 30 minutes, just three points. And now it's just like, okay, one game sample, but think back to what made Arizona special last year when you had

Brian Rauf (11:31)
Right.

Evan (11:31)
a backcourt of Jaden Bradley.

Braden Burries and Anthony Del Orso, all of whom were killers. And it was pretty obvious early in the season just Haugh good they were. This group uh is not that. And they still

Brian Rauf (11:43)
No.

Evan (11:44)
could make up for some of those, that gap that we're currently seeing. If we're seeing better seasons from Karchenkoff and Krivos, um, and getting some production elsewhere. But if they if there's a massive gap there, and then those front court guys, specifically Krivas, I mean, he has been a better offensively in the past than what we certainly saw in this game.

but that's gonna be, you know, I'm I'm monitoring that situation. Um, moving on from this game, what would you say? Let's let's talk about biggest surprises. What give me, give me a result that that shocked you or surprised you the most from from these first couple days.

Brian Rauf (12:18)
Um, I don't I don't think the result of Gonzaga beating Purdue surprised me because Gonzaga is a better team than Purdue is. What did surprise me was the way they used Davis Fogle in that game. And I understand like the they're expecting him to have a breakout season. They're expecting him to be a star. And that is a belief that's held beyond Spokane as well. There's lots of media members, lots of people who are in tune with college basketball who expect

Fogle to do big things for Gonzaga this year. I also understand that this Gonzaga roster was largely put together pretty late, given some of the defections they had in the backcourt, and they had to scramble, find some fifth-year guys. So things can be a little discombobulated for Gonzaga right now, and Haugh they'll look in December is not Haugh they'll look right now. Right. I don't expect this Purdue team to be anything special. They'll be solid because Matt Penn and that coaching staff are terrific, but from a talent standpoint, it's not where Purdue has been. Defensively.

They're not where Purdue even has been. I don't expect them to be a very good defensive team, particularly on the perimeter. And Gonzaga's sitting there running one four flat for Davis Fogle, and he is missing shots five feet from the rim. He's struggling to get separation against these guys for Purdue, some of which were good defenders, some of which are not good defenders. And it didn't matter a ton who was on him. The results are largely the same. He finished with 22 points, but he was six of 18 from the field.

Evan (13:44)
Mm-hmm.

Brian Rauf (13:45)
Like the inefficiency from that and the willingness to defer to him and allow him to continue to shoot six of eighteen from the field when Xavier Lee was shooting really, really well, I think is one a sign that that he's the one who's gonna take them wherever they're gonna go. Which, again, is fine. One game sample, first game in that kind of role. But I was watching it and it it struck me as very similar to watching Michigan with Danny Wolfe.

Where you had a guy who had a unique skill set who could do some different things at his size and obviously different positions and things like that, right? But he had the system and it's like, wow, he can do some different things than you typically see from players in that in that role. Cause Davis Fogel is a big guard who can shoot, who can pass, who can do a lot of different things. That's a unique archetype. But we get excited by the unique archetype more so than the actual production.

And so I I compare it to to Danny Wolfe in Michigan because it's like, there's this unique archetype doing cool things, Michigan. And then Yaksha Lindeborg comes in to the same role, and you're like, oh, that that's Haugh it's supposed to look. That's Haugh it's supposed to look when you have a true difference maker in that kind of role. To me, the Davis Fogle experience is a good college player who can do some unique things, but Gonzaga's asking him to do special player things. And I don't think he is that.

And given what Gonzaga did not get around him, Braden Huth didn't have a good game. Samba Jop did not have a great game. Again, Xavier Lee shot really well, but his usage was down, which you can argue if that's a a good or negative thing, depending on Haugh you view his floor experience. But it's clear that Davis Fogle, at least right now, is going to be the guy and a high usage guy. And I don't know if that is the best thing for Gonzaga to get to where Gonzaga wants to go and expects to go.

Evan (15:35)
That's interesting because I didn't come away from this game that particularly worried about Gonzague. And I think a lot of that's because I just have a lot of confidence that over the course of the season, Braden Huff is going to be the main offensive weapon on this team. I mean, he is in previous years, or look back the last two two years, when Huff has been healthy, he has been on teams with other very talented offensive players like Graham EK sharing a front court with him, and he has still terrorized teams, especially on a per possession basis.

In terms of his scoring. And so I I'm not anticipating that most nights he's gonna maybe be as quiet as he was against Purdue. And so if Huff is as good as what I think he is, and then Fogle can kind of slot in as that second guy, maybe over the course of the season, obviously each night's gonna look a little different. Um, I I came away, not necessarily like encouraged by this Gonzaga performance, but I think that they have a lot of good pieces that certain ones are gonna show up on certain nights.

They're you know international players that they have coming in. Almanza had a nice game. Xavier and Lee had a good start. Masamba Jop, you know, uh transferring in just 16 minutes. He can obviously get better. Um, I think I think each t each night might look a little different, but I have a lot of confidence in Braden Huff kind of being the main guy that we're gonna see on most nights. Um for a surprise for me, uh thinking about

what we saw. I think the biggest like shock.

result was Oklahoma losing

Brian Rauf (17:06)
Yes.

Evan (17:07)
to East Texas AM. Uh my goodness. This was kind of crazy. Um I I had Oklahoma. So I came into the season, uh considering Oklahoma is maybe one of the teams that I was relatively much more higher on than consensus. I had them as a top 25 team coming into the season. I really like a lot of the pieces on this roster. I

I sort of considered putting them on my like preseason bandwagon list of three teams and decided not to because uh, you know, Porter Moser just hasn't really like shown it over the last couple seasons. And so that

Brian Rauf (17:41)
Yeah.

Evan (17:41)
gave me some pause. And maybe that's what's happening again this year. I know he's in a contract year, but they've they've fallen down to you know close to 40 in my my team rankings. East Texas AM came into this game, ranked barely inside the top 300, and Oklahoma was favored by 30 points in this game.

And according to Jeff Borzello and ESPN stats and research, this was the second largest D1 upset in the last 30 years, according to point spread. So this is like I'm definitely panicking a little bit on Oklahoma here for sure. Now, granted, Xavier Brown, who is arguably their best player, he is their best rated player by BPR right now. Tay Davis is their they're trying to get him eligible as well. Neither of those guys played. So certainly this wasn't a full strength.

Oklahoma team, but that should have nothing to do with not being able to handle East Texas AM at home. So that was a surprise. And another one I'll throw in here is I think we got to talk about Mish or Memphis's win over Iowa State. A very impressive performance by Memphis. Really from the jump in this game, they mostly had the lead the entire game. It really looked like they were in control. Um, and Memphis is a is a group that, you know, I

didn't have as the the likely team to to win the American conference, but certainly that's their hope. And Penny has a Penny Hardaway has a lot on the line this year. And for them to put up this kind of performance against an Iowa State uh Iowa State team that look like they don't have Killian Torre, and you know, all some of the pieces have come back late. Tamon Lipsy obviously back is huge, but you know, as a relative ad late in the offseason. But w when we talk about playing Iowa State, we're never talking about usually Iowa State.

being out coached or not putting in the effort. TJ Otzelberger does such an incredible job. I think this win really counts for a lot. because

Brian Rauf (19:34)
Yeah.

Evan (19:34)
most people coming into this game would think that there was a coaching mismatch in between Otzelberger and Penny Hardaway just in terms of their track record in the last couple years and combine the fact that Iowa State should have a better roster. This was a huge, huge result. The best win that Memphis has had since 2024, going back to when they were dominant in Maui.

Um, and and Jaden Reed, the Northwestern transfer, was awesome. I really, really am excited to watch him this year because I think Memphis often has a player who really pops, and he's probably gonna be that guy for them. 26 points, 12 of 14 at the line, a big three late to kind of seal the win for them. And on the Iowa State side of things, this was really interesting. Half of their points came from their bench.

So their starting lineup only scored half their points. on the bench, Plata had 15 and Prather had 19. But like outside of Taman Lipsy in that starting lineup, there really just wasn't a lot. Jamarian Bateman had zero points, and he's obviously supposed to be stepping into a bigger role this year. So both of those were surprises for me. Any quick thoughts on either of those?

Brian Rauf (20:40)
Yeah, the the Memphis game was interesting and they succeeded in speeding Iowa State up. And whenever Memphis is able to play at a faster tempo and make it a back and forth kind of game up and down the court, they have a much better chance to win. But your point on Jaden Reed is incredibly valid because any good Penny Hardaway team has a has one guy offensively that is a difference maker. And oftentimes they can come at a

kind of nowhere. It can come out of having a bigger role, can come out of playing in that offense, and it wasn't there at previous stops. I believe the 04 team that you talked about, the 04,05 team that had the last big win, that was the David Jones team, if I'm not mistaken. Where

Evan (21:19)
Yeah, I'm not sure.

Brian Rauf (21:20)
yeah, what same kind of thought where he was a solid college player, gets some Memphis, becomes a star, and is now in the NBA. Right? Jaden Reed to me is on that path where he's

Solid at at Northwestern, a bit boomer bust with his performances, but gets some Memphis and puts this kind of performance forward where he's scoring 26 points, he's hitting the dagger shots, he's making the clutch plays down the stretch. Probably the best Memphis team, maybe a couple years ago, was the one that had Kendrick Davis. Yeah, Kendrick Davis at the last name.

Evan (21:55)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Brian Rauf (21:58)
Um being that guy. When you have one guy on this penny hard away system, it tends to work.

Didn't know if that was on this roster, quite frankly. And so for Jaden Reed to show that against this Iowa State defense, which clearly has some room to progress and will progress. But doing that against Iowa State, I think you should feel very good about where Memphis sits. Obviously, playing in the American, which is down, you need some big non-conference wins to boost your at-large stakes. So that that's massive for Memphis as well. But again, given the fact the American is down and Haugh wide open it projects to be at the top.

I think you gotta reevaluate Memphis in that conference race too.

Evan (22:36)
Yeah. Before we move to some we'll do some stock up and stop down in a second. Give me another either big big moment or surprising result for

you.

Brian Rauf (22:44)
Um North Carolina really struggling

Evan (22:49)
Mm.

Brian Rauf (22:49)
with Western Carolina.

Evan (22:50)
All right, time to have a conversation.

Brian Rauf (22:52)
Yeah, time to have a conversation. Because there are two different ways in which Western Carolina was able to keep up with UNC. And they were the same things that plagued UNC in exhibition season. And you could write off exhibition season because it's Mike Malone's first time coaching in college. They were playing pretty deep lineups that you did not expect them to continue to play. But the issues that were showing up in those games were issues here. They got rebounded forty two to thirty one.

By a Western Carolina team that is not overly big and it's not overly or does not project at least to be overly good. In the exhibition season, they got smashed by Indiana State on the glass and got rebounded by Charlotte as well. Like UNC has not won a rebounding battle at any point this season. And that is a concern given the fact that college basketball teams right now, the trends are skewing bigger, skewing two big lineups, all that kind of stuff. But I I'm fine.

Zigging when others are zagging because you have to find edges somewhere, right? And UNC went all in on the backcourt, getting Matt Abel, Terrence Brown, and and Neo Avdallas, right? My issue or my my question when you brought all three of those guys in is that all three of them are at their best with the ball in their hands. They are not great off the ball. Like Avdalis had that awesome game against Providence like this time last year that everybody remembered, and then he faded into oblivion because he they didn't give him as many on-ball opportunities. He was not as effective. Matt Abel

Was almost picked in the second round of the draft, had he stayed in the draft. There was some buzz that he was potentially going to stay in because NBA teams liked what he could do on the ball, but he was a a minimal impact player in NC State because he was off the ball next to Gwityer Copeland, right? Terrence Brown was obviously the only on ball guy for Utah, boosted his his stock in the transfer portal, he ended up a UNC. Haugh are you gonna get all three of those guys the ball where they can be their best? And all three were inconsistent.

In this game, the impact was not where it needed to be to make up for this massive gap in the front court. And so, like, my concern with UNC is okay, none of that is fixing itself. It's not a matter of like some things getting better and you're working on practice a little bit more. You're not gonna be strong in the front court and the skill sets don't match in the backcourt. So it becomes Haugh can you make the best of a bad situation? More than Haugh can we capitalize and do better than

we did last year when they lost in the first round the anti tournament. I think getting a six seed in the anti tournament this year like they did last year would be a massive success. And that is not where you expect North Carolina to be.

Evan (25:32)
Yeah, I I you know, I'm not gonna one game, first game, all that stuff, but the fact that they were in a dogfight with Western Carolina up just one with eight minutes left. In a game they were favored by twenty-two, and that's them being favored to the point where uh they're more like a top fifty or top forty squad, not a top twenty-five squad like they want to be, the definitely concerning. Um, obviously just one game and there's a lot of pieces to figure out new coach, so I give them a lot of time.

Um, but I definitely am uh a little worried that it could be a bit more rocky for them going forward. Um, so definitely surprised by that.

Why don't we go ahead and move to some some quick hitter stocks up or down? You can kind of take this uh either direction, any direction that you want, either teams or players. I'm gonna start as a stock up with Rob Wright and his 33

Brian Rauf (26:22)
Yes.

Evan (26:22)
points for BYU against I Ohio State. And also just gonna throw in stock up as well. BYU's three point shooting. Now

I think most people, most BYU fans came into the season really excited about what this BYU squad could do from deep. And then one of the analysis that I did in the preseason was I have skill projections for every player looking at their projected three point percentage. BYU was the only team coming into the preseason with five players on their roster who were all 90th percentile or better in their projected three point percentage compared to the rest of D1. The only team. And so for starters, just on that side of things.

Uh, I think BYU, like they were, I think, 11 for 24 in this game or something like that from three. And I think that if you look back at uh like, is this gonna be the regular thing that we're gonna see from BYU's three-point shooting? Under Kevin Young, 38% of their games, they've made 11 or more threes. So that's a little bit under 50%. But my prediction is that I think this will be more more the norm than the exception this year because

They only took 24 of them. And when you look at their games under Kevin Young, 68% of their games, they have taken at least 24 threes. So if they're shooting them at around this clip, which this is obviously a great mark, even just a little bit worse than that would probably be the expectation. I think we're going to have a lot of nights when BYU is clearing double digit threes and could potentially have some much more prolific nights than this. So I'm really excited about that. And Rob Wright, for me, I think is gonna be has to be in the national player of the year conversation because

He is just going to be the heavily featured offensive player almost every single game. And he has already been a prolific scorer playing with guys like AJ Dybantsa last year and Richie Saunders. And now he has the whole offense in front of him. And he is such a great college player. Like he's obviously an undersized guard and the things that come with that from an NBA perspective. But I think he's going to be awesome. Um, so I would not be surprised if we look up in January and we're talking about first team All Americans, national player of the year odds.

And Rob Wright is in a thick of that conversation. So that is one of my biggest stocks up. Uh why don't you give me one stock up or down?

Brian Rauf (28:35)
Yeah, y I mean, we talk on ball, off ball splits. You know, Rob Wright looks like the guy PYU went got from Baylor. Last year he had to share the ball with DeBonsa

Evan (28:43)
Mm-hmm.

Brian Rauf (28:44)
and and Saunders. Now it's his. I I

like that a lot. I'm going to Caden Lewis, too. I we talked about him a little bit, but his performance against Florida, I know Miami lost, but brought a level of dynamicism. That's a that's a word. Um Yeah,

Evan (28:59)
Dynamism.

Brian Rauf (29:00)
yeah. The the dynamic play on the perimeter

Evan (29:02)
Yes.

Brian Rauf (29:03)
that

makes Miami really exciting. you you they were still working on the Malik Renew Santo Surreal, Haugh you're gonna work both of those together, which they haven't had as much time because of Renew's eligibility questions and going against Florida's front line obviously is a a tough thing to do. But to me, Miami was was toe to toe with Florida for a majority of of that game within striking distance. And and Caden Lewis's shot making and and what he did on the perimeter played a a big part in that. So for me, if I'm Miami

Knowing Shelton Henderson's probably not gonna shoot as poorly as he did again, or at least you know, not very often, having Lewis in the mix there too to to pick some of that up is exactly why you went out and

Evan (29:46)
Yeah, I th I want to talk take a minute on this game because for me on the opposite side, Shelton Henderson is a stock down for me. And I this was a game I watched really closely. It was kind of a more or less a standalone game for the first half or so, and was probably for me the the matchup I was most excited with. Florida wins this game against a by ten against a Miami team that I was just so excited to see Haugh they were gonna play. And I think the first thing you have to just say in general is that like Flor playing Florida

On both sides of the ball, it's just so difficult because they are the the new archetype of just loaded, vaunted, physically dominant front courts. And there's just a lot less variance in their performance because no matter Haugh well or poorly you're shooting on either on either side, like Florida is just going to always be pound for pound, bigger and more dominant than you. And so I thought Caden Lewis was the lone bright spot for Miami in this game.

24 points. He did only just have, you know, I I also think he's going to be a great playmaker for him this season. He just had one assist in this game. So that's probably got to change some. But I thought, I think he had maybe 12 points at halftime. And I went into halftime thinking A Caden Lewis could have had the ball way more than he did because a lot of their offense was running through Shelton Henderson. And Henderson, like his usage rate in this game was so high. And he really, really struggled. Seven points, two of thirteen from the field.

Three turnovers. And when you look at last year, why Miami was successful, it was Malik Renew kind of being the number one person in terms of, you know, putting the ball in his hands. And he also struggled in this game, which I think is more of understandable given who he was playing against in that front of that Florida front court. But it was really interesting that Shelton was very aggressive and mostly was not really getting great looks. And the ones that he was.

Brian Rauf (31:34)
Mm-hmm.

Evan (31:35)
getting he was having a hard time converting because of Haugh good Florida was. So I think maybe there are going to be other games against other opposition where Shelton Henderson can really be that aggressive. For me, against this Florida team, I was surprised that that was kind of the direction that they went. Uh so that's a stock down for me, um,

Brian Rauf (31:54)
Yeah.

Evan (31:55)
specifically in in relation to those two guys.

Brian Rauf (31:57)
I think the the second year breakout for Henderson too also depended on him expanding his game, adding a more jump shooting, adding a little bit more off-the-dribble stuff, other than just straight downhill driving and trying to power through people. And it's clear that that's not really there. And so you do have to reevaluate Miami a little bit where okay, Shelton Henderson's not going to be, in all likelihood, not going to be this consistent

superstar all American Canada that we were maybe hoping he'd be. I don't know if they need him to be for them to be really good. I know they're a Final Four

Evan (32:29)
Correct.

Brian Rauf (32:30)
pick of some, like a Dark Horse Final Four pick, which I'm still very much on board with after that performance. But it's not gonna be because Sheldon Henderson carries them there, right? Which is okay because you have other options as as we've discussed. But I I think that's a good stock down. At the same token, I was stock up on Florida a little bit too. I mean handling Miami obviously, but

To me, Henderson was the biggest key to that game because that is the one archetype that Florida does not have. There was all the talk in the front court, you know, Miami's Biggs against Florida's bigs, match up fairly well. Talk about a Caden Lewis and what we know he can do in the backcourt. Florida's got those guards. Florida's roster does not have wings, or at least consistently productive and proven productive wings.

Miami has Shelton Henderson, who you're expecting to have this this breakout of, right? And so I thought if there was room for Miami to attack Florida in some way, it was through Henderson in that spot on the wing where I don't know if Florida had an answer for that. And Florida had an answer for that and a very good answer for that. So to me, Florida, they're not real questions about them. Preseason number one, return all those guys. But

To me it made me feel even more solidified in my belief about Florida because I I think that was one area where they pr were potentially weak and you know, they completely shut him down.

Evan (33:47)
Yeah, and I think, you know, Florida, they looked like the number one team in the country. They played like it

Brian Rauf (33:51)
Yeah.

Evan (33:52)
and they also shot the ball well, which

Brian Rauf (33:53)
Yeah.

Evan (33:54)
was a struggle of theirs from last year, and it looked better from this year. I I love Urban Klobshar. I just think he having him come off the bench uh and be so consistent for them has been huge. Um,

I've got two other teams I wanna do a quick stock up on of blowouts that I wasn't watching, but definitely raise my eyebrows. I think we first got to start with Illinois beating FDU.

120 to 45. And I think they were up sixty-seven to twenty at halftime. And this is without with Illinois, without their arguably their best player, national player of the year candidate and David Mirkovic They absolutely torched them. Now, obviously they were supposed to win this game, but is it not everyone can pull off this kind of blowout on the first day of the season. Um, and Quentin Coleman, they're another great freshman that they have coming in who more highly regarded at

Now than Keaton Waggler was at this time last year. Obviously, we know what Waggler became. Coleman, I think he's a really well-rounded player. And right now, if you look at EvanMia.com, on the players whose rating their BPR rose the most from preseason to after their first game in the country, Quentin Coleman is number one. He had a great game for Illinois last night. Thirteen points, ten rebounds, six assists, three steals, zero turnovers in twenty-three minutes.

And Illinois had a program record 19 threes in this game. So I'm definitely monitoring that. And then another result also that raised eyebrows was I looked up and saw Vanderbilt was up 62 to 19 on Bellerman. It was tight early, and then they had a 48-5 run. And uh I I am a little bit lower than consensus on Vil on Vanderbilt this year. But that performance, again, it's just Bellerman. But not every team, like look at Oklahoma. They couldn't put away an East.

Texas A and team that they were favored by thirty. It it's not insignificant when you can really truly run uh the breaks off of somebody, uh, especially in the first game of the season. So both of those teams are definitely have my attention for sure.

Brian Rauf (35:57)
Yeah, they were good offensive teams that shot well and looked like unstoppable forces offensively in those games. And you expect, you know, teams to put up eighty, ninety, even a hundred in those kind of games, but the level of dominance was so far beyond expectation. I agree with you. Like it kind of raises your eyebrows a little bit and wants you wanna see what they do against a team that maybe you know puts forth a little bit more resistance on the defensive end, but

Not everybody scores a hundred and twenty.

Evan (36:29)
I do want to ask a question on this Illinois team. And again, it's it's hard to know how much should we react to the first game of the season. Obviously, it's just one game. And for some teams like Florida, you have them playing against another top 25 team, right? And that's gonna be the kind of game that we're gonna judge them on. I think for many, including myself, often I'm just not really caring about the scores of games against teams that are top twenty-five.

against really poor teams unless it ends up being close. We've already talked about Oklahoma. We've talked about North Carolina. We're talking about those games because those games were supposed to be a blowouts and they were not. So on the flip side of things, like i if we looked up in a month and Illinois was the best team in the country, I think we might look back on this first night and say like this this was obvious from day one. And so I'm kind of wondering like, is Illinois like we've it's it for me it's always been Florida and Duke.

And then Illinois kind of right behind, but as the clear third team, but those three above the rest of the pack. And I'm now wondering like it should should Illinois be in the conversation for best team in the country? And could we look up in a month? And that's going to be where they're at because um they are just the the r you know, we talked about Florida and Haugh important the retention is for them. But Illinois, I think that matters a lot too, because they basically have every meaningful contributor back other than Keaton Waggler, and they bring in multiple

new good pieces and Stefan Vaaks and Quentin Coleman and some other talented freshmen. And yet most of that system is still there. Um and they're looking this good without their best player. I'm I'm open to the conversation.

Brian Rauf (38:05)
I think you should be open to the conversation. And it's one of those things we we know they're good and I still I still wanna see what they look like defensively against a team that will challenge them on

Evan (38:17)
Course.

Brian Rauf (38:17)
that end more, right? However

Duke played Army at Cameron and put up 86, 88, I think it was 86, but upper 80s. Good performance by Duke. Florida, as you mentioned, beat Miami. Other good teams took care of business. Nobody else scored 120. Nobody else scored 110. Like, you can have questions about a team defensively, and it may not matter because of Haugh good a team looks offensively.

And yes, FDU is not a team that you're gonna measure everybody by. But to perform that well, to perform that efficiently, to get the balance you got from everybody on that roster in that game shows the strength of that offense. And it is fair to say, okay, do I need to be a top five, top ten defense if my offense is truly that good? No, you don't. You can outscore teams, you can be at a

different stratosphere offensively to where the defense doesn't have to be Duke or Houston type levels, right? And I think that's where the conversation can start. And you'll want to see it against teams that are better than FDU. But I think the conversation is fair because we we know what they are as a baseline. And this was far beyond the baseline. And so

Evan (39:43)
Mm-hmm.

Brian Rauf (39:44)
it's fair to think, okay, well, what's the ceiling for this team if the offense is truly

This efficient, this good, this balanced with this many weapons.

Evan (39:53)
Yep. All right. Let's uh outside of stuff we've already talked about, is there any teams or players that after this the you know, basically this first full day of games, you think people should be paying more attention to going forward based on what caught your eye from this first day of games?

Brian Rauf (40:08)
App State and Murray State. Go to the

Evan (40:09)
Ooh.

Brian Rauf (40:10)
mid major ranks a little bit there. App State has been a very consistent winner in the Sun Belt under Dustin Kearns for the last seven years or so. They haven't had the the tournament success. They've made one tournament i in that time frame, but they've always been very good because of their defense. Like they are consistently one of the better defenses in the mid major ranks.

lose transfers, lose whoever, they're still consistently awesome on the defensive end. The issue has always been offensively. There's one game against Merrimack at six in the morning as part of the the the field six eight tip off marathon there. So you don't know, you know, w Haugh Haugh people are feeling and Merrimack was in a zone. And the final numbers won't reflect this. But App State's offense was far beyond what anybody expected. And there's a lot of turnover on that roster. I think there are nine newcomers for App.

I talked with Kearns a couple weeks ago and he was talking about this potentially being his best shooting or best offensive team that he's had. It's one thing to say that in the preseason and it's another thing to show it on the court. And they were not perfect, particularly in the second half, but they were up twenty-three to three in that game. Like made it very obvious very early that they were ready to play, that they were there, and they were making their shots. And if that continues along with what you expect defensively from app, like that's a team that can kind of come from off the radar.

And be dangerous. And then Murray State was favored against Tennessee State. We expected them to be a better mid-major team, and they kind of uh gained some attention this offseason when they beat the team of uh the French National Reserves by a billion. You're like, holy cow, that was one of the few exhibition games in the overseas trips that like the score catches your eye. But winning that game as dominantly as they did against what should be a good Tennessee state team.

makes you th think too like, this this is for real. They are a dangerous scene that might be on the same level as like a Grand Canyon or a high point. We talk about some of the the better mid majors in the country. I think you gotta start putting Murray State in that conversation.

Evan (42:18)
Yeah, I Murray Say is a great shout. this was a huge win for them. Roman Doman had a uh I think he's in a tremendous player. He scored 22. And Isaac Trotter on the show last week said Caden Magwood was a guy to watch in this team. And off the bench, he had 15 points in 18 minutes. So I love that. Um

a couple ones for me. Uh first of all, just want to do a quick boom boom watch, talking about uh Joe Kim Boomchay, Boomchay for Duke. We talked about Kusterica a little bit ago. Both these guys are kind of in the same bucket of Haugh good can these 17-year-olds really be.

Again, just against Army, but 19 minutes. He had 15 points and seven rebounds for Duke. Um, so a promising start there. A team I think that I also think should more people should be paying attention to that I liked their opening round matchup. Again, talking about blowing out expectations in a game. West Virginia had a really nice win, 91 to 46 over Niagara. Um, and let's see, I think West Virginia I have up to 33 at Evanmia.com. That's a 14 spot jump from where they were to start the year.

After just one game. Um, I think this is a really fun team. Miles Sadler is one of my favorite freshmen in the country. He had 16 points and nine assists in this game. So keep an eye on West Virginia. I think they're going to be one to watch and could be um a really interesting kind of mid-pack, Big 12 team that is definitely vying for um a a tournament berth there.

Brian Rauf (43:39)
A hundred percent. And this is a West Virginia team that I think found something at the end of last season, one won the crown. So you you carry that in. Nebraska used that as a springboard off one in the crown towards to to last season. Maybe West Virginia does the same thing. I know the roster is not entirely the same, but I I do think that coaching staff, which was in its first year, figured some things out and was a good performance from from the Mountaineers.

Evan (44:04)
Yeah. All right. Before we get out of here, uh, let me just ask you this. Do you have an unpopular opinion or kind of a contrarian take, something we've not already discussed, that you're you're you're willing to air out that we can kind of uh you know have a discussion about or pay attention to going forward? Okay.

Brian Rauf (44:20)
I have two. Do you

want do you want team specific or like college basketball at large state of the sport take?

Evan (44:28)
Do that one. That sounds

interesting.

Brian Rauf (44:30)
Okay, so I've I've been holding on to this for a couple months in the offseason. And what we saw on the court the last couple of days, I think, reflects it. Um I think we're seeing the return of Cinderella and and the strength of mid-majors this season. I think we are. Talked about App, talked about Murray State. I I think they're better. Obviously in Grand Canyon High Point, you go through the list of

Quality teams that we know, the usual suspects, those teams are all there. I think St. Louis and VCU in the A10, not traditional mid major, but in non power league. I think both those teams are top 25 caliber, right? New Mexico in the Mountain West is in the mix there as well. The power conferences and the power conference teams, I think, have benefited the last two years really.

From Haugh good the freshman classes have been and Haugh good the top prospects

Evan (45:28)
Yes, absolutely.

Brian Rauf (45:30)
have been. The holes in their roster have been filled with like generational pros. Those generational pros are not in this recruiting class. Tyron Stokes may end up being, right? But Caleb Holt, we just talked about was the number two, number three prospect in the country, and he was somewhat non existent for Arizona. The transfer portal's also been a a a sign of

The differing um disparity and the growing disparity between power conference teams and mid-majors, especially with five and five and all of that. But when you're going after five and five guys who are willing to play college basketball, it means they're not pros. It means like their games are inherently flawed in some way. And you're hoping that they can raise your floor

Evan (46:16)
Mm-hmm.

Brian Rauf (46:17)
more so than raise your ceiling, right?

That's gonna leave open, particularly as we get later in the season, opportunities for teams that are able to hit their highs. Like let's say App State with their great defense has a hot shooting night from three. Suddenly that door opens way more than it did when you could have Cam Boozer take over for a stretch and suddenly it shuts it down. Or you could have Cooper Flagg take over for a stretch, shuts it down. Darius Acuff takes over for Arkansas, shuts it down. Like those guys aren't in the sport playing for the big names.

every year or this year, right? Like take Kentucky. Kentucky a couple years ago would have generational or or high draft pick guards. Now they're relying on Alex Wilkins, who I think is very talented, but also showed tremendous flaws and a high propensity to

Evan (47:09)
Mm-hmm.

Brian Rauf (47:09)
turn the ball over at Furman last year. His game still has to grow. So these up transfers, a lot of times their game still has to grow. They aren't finished products or they're not used to playing at that level.

consistently. There's a lot made about Cinderella being dead and the death of the mid-major and all that stuff last couple of years. I think that is far more to do with the strength and what the landscape looked like two years, more so than the landscape as a whole. And I think this year we're seeing it shift back to a little bit more normal where some of these been majors that have been able to retain key pieces or retain coaches. The gap I think is starting to shrink back a little bit more again and we'll see that play out this season.

Evan (47:49)
Yeah, I really hope you're right. Um, I I feel like it's still w it's you know, that's it's one thing to say that now. It's another thing to know Haugh many of these teams are gonna be in the at large conversation come February,

Brian Rauf (47:58)
Right.

Evan (47:59)
even with these increased bids. But I think one thing that also kind of matters is like a lot of the ME's mid major programs have been kind of playing catch up to the high major programs in terms of their own roster budgets, right? Sometimes it's like, well, shoot, you know, all of a sudden the teams in our state who are high major programs, you know

They they had five more million dollars last year than they did this year. And oftentimes it takes an extra year for the mid-major program to almost catch up because they need to convince everyone involved that that's the amount of money that they need to raise. Well, now look at it this year. Grand Canyon, a mid-major team, has

Brian Rauf (48:34)
Yeah.

Evan (48:34)
a team full of high major players. Like they raised a lot of money. You look at St. Louis, you look at Utah State, you look at teams like VCU who are able to return almost anybody.

And now you have other teams who have really started the season well, like New Mexico and George Washington and High Point and and Nevada, a bunch of teams that I'm looking right now. Murray State, we mentioned them obviously, a bunch of teams that have have risen significantly after even just one game. I think maybe the obviously the the best teams in the sport also spent more money this year, but I think there is becoming more and more buy-in, especially for for some of these top mid-major programs to get there. Um so

We will see. I I don't I'm not necessarily like uh gonna bank on that, but I I hope you're right.

Brian Rauf (49:17)
There's also the fact that I think mid-major coaches have adjusted to the reality of their situation right now. And the and

Evan (49:24)
Yes, absolutely.

Brian Rauf (49:25)
the roster building strategies where there was a stretch where they're like, I'm losing my guys every year. Haugh do I field competitive teams every year? And you've seen like Murray State, for example, has gotten guys from overseas. They've really hit the international stuff hard. You have people looking at D two. You have people looking at JUCO. They've found these niches that have worked and they've adjusted and I think have have built

good good quality rosters together as well. I think one thing that points to this too, going back to the top of the show, we talked about Notre Dame winning and Haugh Haugh big that was. Because Villnova was picked to finish third in the biggies. They're a top protected top three finish again. They lose to Notre Dame. You know who's ahead of Notre Dame on your site right now? One ahead of them? Colorado State, who

Evan (50:07)
Mm.

Brian Rauf (50:08)
is upper middle class in the Pac-12. Right? And so if just

Obviously, transitive property is not applicable to sports all of the time. But if that level of team is capable of beating a top three team in the Big East, I think that speaks to the fact that while this may not apply to Duke and Florida and Illinois in the teams at the very, very top, I think it could very well apply to the teams you're going to see on the four-seed line, the five-seed line, the

Evan (50:37)
Absolutely.

Brian Rauf (50:37)
six-seed line.

Evan (50:40)
Yep, yep. I I I love that. Okay, let's end the basketball talk here, but I want to ask you a funny question before we get out of here, and I'll answer the same question for myself. Question is, what is the dumbest way that you have ever gotten injured?

Brian Rauf (50:57)
The dumbest I closed a car door on my calf.

Evan (51:01)
my goodness. uh Haugh old were you? What like was this recent or was this?

Brian Rauf (51:04)
Yeah, I just didn't get out I just like didn't get out of the way of the car.

No, this was in high school.

Evan (51:08)
Okay.

Brian Rauf (51:09)
Yeah, I just I just didn't get out of the way like of closing my own door.

Evan (51:17)
I feel like we've been there. I don't I've not like l like done something quite that egregious, but yeah, that that's a great answer. Uh

Brian Rauf (51:25)
Yeah. You g I mean you could also

say fantasy football punishments and and things like that that I've had that I've had to do. But that's the the Yeah.

Evan (51:29)
Yes, of course. We're Yeah, no, that's self-inflicted. Uh truly

self-inflicted. This is just a mistake.

Brian Rauf (51:36)
This is just the the

dumbest one where I was not not thinking at all. It had no spatial awareness.

Evan (51:41)
Yeah, that's great. Mine mine is also my my worst injury, which I know you're uh aware of because I've told you about this, but I I tore my ACL um like over a year and a half ago. And the reason I tore my ACL was playing soccer, which is a good reason, to Terry Sil, but I did not tear it like playing soccer with other people. I initially minorly tweaked my knee and I was playing in a competitive rec soccer league. And so I was out for a couple weeks and I was working on my way back, and then we had a big playoff game, like

that weekend. And so I decided I think I might be ready to play. I'm just gonna go out and we there was a a a scrimmage game like happening on the same field, but I was kind of off in the corner, just sort of doing drills and basically was trying to figure out like Haugh does my knee feel. And basically I like felt a minor like like ooh, that didn't feel good, but it's probably just a pain threshold. And I just kept playing through it on my own and then planted my foot really hard and turned.

And I because my knee was already weakened, I basically blew out my entire ACL. So I fall down on the on the field and I'm yelling because it's painful, but no one else is near me. Like there's people like probably 30, 40 yards playing soccer. And thankfully there are some people that I know. But eventually they start like they s they see me on the ground, and then someone's like, wait, this guy like Evan actually might be hurt. Let's go stop our game and run over there. So then like a bunch of people run over to me and I'm like

Yeah, I just did something to my knee playing by myself. It was so embarrassing. I was trying to do it for the love of the game, but definitely one of my bigger regrets in life was not listening to my body and pushing myself past that. So

Brian Rauf (53:19)
Our bodies are not as nimble and flexible as as they used to be.

Evan (53:24)
And it's also not just pure mind games. Like I was like, I'm just gonna tough it out, it's just a pain threshold. It's like, no, actually there was something really wrong and I sh shouldn't have pushed it for for a dumb rec game, even if it was a playoff game. But that to me was like the most important thing in my life that week. So I really

Brian Rauf (53:39)
Yeah.

Evan (53:40)
needed to give it a go.

Brian Rauf (53:41)
You need to be the the best thing about those leagues is when you don't take it seriously, like you understand it's rec league, but you like but you can get into it. 'Cause you want

Evan (53:48)
Yes.

Brian Rauf (53:49)
the emotion, you want the investment, you want all of that involved in it. So I I understand and appreciate that,

Evan (53:54)
Mm-hmm.

Brian Rauf (53:56)
certainly.

Evan (53:57)
Yeah, but I I got too into it. So uh all right, Brighton, Brian, thanks for for being here today. It was awesome to talk about actual basketball games. Um let everyone

Brian Rauf (54:05)
You have no idea, man.

Evan (54:06)
watching and listening know where they can find all of your content and stuff.

Brian Rauf (54:10)
Yeah, at Basketunder Review, Basketunderview.com. Um, we have an app that's coming out as well, which is awesome. If you're one of those people who like last year when ESPN changed up all of their score stuff in their app and it's now very complicated and not fun to use anymore, Basket Underview app has that. It's got a whole bunch of daily games. It's got all the articles on the website on it as well. It's phenomenal. Everything will be at basketunderview.com. So make sure you you check that out and subscribe today if you have not.

Evan (54:37)
Awesome, Brian. Thanks again for being here.

Brian Rauf (54:39)
Thank you.

Evan (54:44)
All right, that's all I've got for you guys today. But I did want to announce the winner of last week's listener contest. The contest was uh people submitted the team they thought would raise their rating the most from the beginning of the season through yesterday or Monday's games. And the winner is Joe Cully, who picked Memphis. A great pick. Obviously, we talked about their huge win over Iowa State. So, Joe, congratulations to you, and I will be sending you some.

Free merch. Um, next week's show. Again, normally our normal cadence during the season will be uh podcast out on Tuesdays, recording on Mondays. However, next week we're going to delay it by two days because I'm going to Chicago to see the Champions Classic games on Tuesday night. So we'll be we will be recording on Wednesday, episode out on Thursday of next week. John Fanta should be joining me for that. So that's going to be a super, super fun show.

Excited to get Fanta on the pod. Thank you guys for listening. As always, this is an ad-free show. Uh, so please give us a five star review on Apple or Spotify. If you listen on the podcast platforms, the five star ratings really help people find the show. And also, if you drop a comment uh or question in the review, I will be sure to read it on a future show. On YouTube, if you're watching, please subscribe to the channel. Leave good comments. Again, I love to read these from time to time on the show. Thank you everyone for listening and watching.

It truly means a lot to me. It's great to have basketball back. I will see all of you guys next week.