2019-2020 B1G Basketball Thread

[medinabuckeye1]

Kaleb Wesson also going through the "draft process"

IMHO, that would be a BIG hit to tOSU's prospects next year.  Wesson is a good college big man who could potentially be a great college big man next year.  
My own wild (and possibly optimistic) guess is that he'll stay around to play one more year with his brother then go pro when his older brother runs out of eligibility.  

[Brutus Buckeye]

IMHO, that would be a BIG hit to tOSU's prospects next year.  Wesson is a good college big man who could potentially be a great college big man next year.  
My own wild (and possibly optimistic) guess is that he'll stay around to play one more year with his brother then go pro when his older brother runs out of eligibility.  

That's what I was thinking. He and his brother won the state title in HS. Their father played for OSU, and he was one of the only recruits that remained committed after Thad was let go. Dude loves the Buckeyes.  
Now if the reason for his suspension was related to academics, then that may well inspire him to move on early. But that is just wild speculation at this point, obviously. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

I'm a little surprised that Matt Haarms hasn't entered his name with the intent primarily of getting evaluated. 

At 7'3" and mobile, a beast of a blocker and developing a little range, I would think he'd want to at least find out what the scouts say he needs to work on. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Thought about putting this into the basketball scandal thread with the release that Louisville has received a verbal notice of inquiry and it was reported that Arizona and Kansas are under investigation now as well.

I've mentioned Zeke Nnaji before, I think. He's a 6'11" PF recruit in the 2019 class, was heavily recruited by Purdue, Arizona, Kansas, Baylor, UCLA, and with a very late push by UNC. 

He verbally committed to Arizona but deliberately did so after the fall signing period. It was widely expected at the time that this was deliberately done to allow him flexibility in case there were NCAA/FBI issues. So he can't sign a LOI until next Wednesday at the earliest, with the spring signing period.

Since his whittling down to a final 5, and adding in UNC as a 6th (they were after his final 5 announcement), this is what has happened:

• Arizona (Head coach subpoenaed by FBI, reportedly on wiretaps discussing pay-to-play, reportedly under NCAA investigation)
• UCLA (Head coach fired mid-season)
• Baylor (Finished 20-14, 4th in conference, R32 in NCAAT)
• Kansas (Forward DeSouza declared ineligible for 2 years by NCAA for pay-for-play with a guardian, reportedly under NCAA investigation)
• UNC (No drama since the academic issues a few years ago, and as a blue blood with stable coaching it's not necessary to even discuss records. UNC is UNC, and that's solid.)
• Purdue (Finished 26-10, 1st in conference, Elite Eight, coach just won NCOY)

If Arizona and Kansas officially come under investigation, and Nnaji decommits from Arizona, it seems like the field just got narrowed significantly. 

Nnaji's dad was extremely high on Painter in an interview before the verbal commitment. Saw him as a straight shooter and that he felt he truly had a plan for how to use Zeke. Obviously Zeke still chose Arizona, but I could imagine a bit of "I told you so" from his dad coming out these days...

A lot could happen here in the next week. 

[Entropy]

UNL is looking at Doc Sadler as an asst basketball coach.   Doc was UNL's HC prior to Miles.   Thought would be Doc would focus on Defense and rebounding... 2 things his teams did well while he was HC in Lincoln.

[847badgerfan]

Thought about putting this into the basketball scandal thread with the release that Louisville has received a verbal notice of inquiry and it was reported that Arizona and Kansas are under investigation now as well.

I've mentioned Zeke Nnaji before, I think. He's a 6'11" PF recruit in the 2019 class, was heavily recruited by Purdue, Arizona, Kansas, Baylor, UCLA, and with a very late push by UNC.

He verbally committed to Arizona but deliberately did so after the fall signing period. It was widely expected at the time that this was deliberately done to allow him flexibility in case there were NCAA/FBI issues. So he can't sign a LOI until next Wednesday at the earliest, with the spring signing period.

Since his whittling down to a final 5, and adding in UNC as a 6th (they were after his final 5 announcement), this is what has happened:

• Arizona (Head coach subpoenaed by FBI, reportedly on wiretaps discussing pay-to-play, reportedly under NCAA investigation)
• UCLA (Head coach fired mid-season)
• Baylor (Finished 20-14, 4th in conference, R32 in NCAAT)
• Kansas (Forward DeSouza declared ineligible for 2 years by NCAA for pay-for-play with a guardian, reportedly under NCAA investigation)
• UNC (No drama since the academic issues a few years ago, and as a blue blood with stable coaching it's not necessary to even discuss records. UNC is UNC, and that's solid.)
• Purdue (Finished 26-10, 1st in conference, Elite Eight, coach just won NCOY)

If Arizona and Kansas officially come under investigation, and Nnaji decommits from Arizona, it seems like the field just got narrowed significantly.

Nnaji's dad was extremely high on Painter in an interview before the verbal commitment. Saw him as a straight shooter and that he felt he truly had a plan for how to use Zeke. Obviously Zeke still chose Arizona, but I could imagine a bit of "I told you so" from his dad coming out these days...

A lot could happen here in the next week.

UW was his first offer (as it is for many who choose to go elsewhere). They were in it for a long while, until evidence of $$$ started to surface.

[medinabuckeye1]

ESPN puts four Big Ten teams in the top ten, with Maryland at #9 and OSU at #10.

I am curious what you and others think about Ohio State for 2019/2020.  I'm not looking for optimistic fan projections nor pessimistic "hater" projections but trying to gauge my expectations based on reasonably unbiased informed opinions.  
It seems odd that ESPN has the Buckeyes all the way up at #10 while I've seen several early top-25's from which the Buckeyes are completely absent.  
Upthread I posted my projection range:

• Optimistic, 3-5 seed
• Middle, 6-8 seed
• Pessimistic, borderline tournament team (same as this year)

What say you?

[MaximumSam]

Center Ibrahima Diallo commits to the Bucks. Kind of a weird recruitment - completely absent from rankings until recently. Was looking to go to Pitt until the Bucks became interested. He's an athletic 7 footer who will primarily be a rim protector. Fills a need, hopefully Wesson returns but he can't really protect the rim much and now they have some size off the bench.

[MichiFan87]

Justin Pierce is going to visit Michigan after Beilein visited him. I'm not really impressed with the video that I've seen of him and especially his stats (though he has a good DR%, 2FG%... The hope is he would be more efficient playing fewer minutes with better players....), but he's gotten interested from a lot of power conference and/or top 50 teams, including Gonzaga, Notre Dame (where he's also visited), Florida, Texas, NC State, Virginia Tech, Purdue, and Wisconsin, so maybe I'm missing something....

[medinabuckeye1]

Center Ibrahima Diallo commits to the Bucks. Kind of a weird recruitment - completely absent from rankings until recently. Was looking to go to Pitt until the Bucks became interested. He's an athletic 7 footer who will primarily be a rim protector. Fills a need, hopefully Wesson returns but he can't really protect the rim much and now they have some size off the bench.

I think this is a great pickup for the Buckeyes.  They now have 12 of 13 roster spots filled and are unlikely to look for any more unless a solid transfer (who will need to sit out a year) becomes available.  Here is a good article on this from an Ohio State fan site.  
I hope this formats right:

[th] POS [/th] [th] SENIORS [/th] [th] JUNIORS [/th] [th] SOPHOMORES [/th] [th] FRESHMEN [/th]
C	–	KALEB WESSON	–	IBRAHIMA DIALLO
PF	–	KYLE YOUNG	–	E.J. LIDDELL
SF	ANDRE WESSON	–	JUSTIN AHRENS	ALONZO GAFFNEY
SG	–	MUSA JALLOW	LUTHER MUHAMMAD DUANE WASHINGTON	–
PG	–	CJ WALKER	–	D.J. CARTON

Assuming everyone returns (including both Wessons), the Buckeyes should have a starting five next year of Senior Andre Wesson and four Juniors.  When Kaleb Wesson inevitably gets in foul trouble or just needs a breather, the team will have, as @MaximumSam put it, "size off the bench" with a 7' freshman center to come in instead of having to use Kaleb's older brother or Kyle Young to defend the post.  It looks like Diallo will be a better defender from day one anyway so they may do some situational substitutions to put him in when the game situation calls for a defender.  
I have to say that I am pretty happy with the look of things going forward as well.  I'm assuming that both Wessons will be gone for 2020/2021 but that should leave a strong core of three seniors (PF Young, SG Jallow, PG Walker) and two experienced new starters (Jr SF Ahrens, So C Diallo).  

[medinabuckeye1]

Lunardi's way too early Bracketology has NINE B1G teams in the dance:

• #1 seeds:  Michigan, Michigan State
• #3 seed:  Iowa
• #4 seed:  Purdue
• #6 seed:  Maryland
• #7 seed:  Ohio State
• #9 seeds:  Minnesota, Wisconsin
• #10 seed:  Penn State

[MaximumSam]

OSU will actually be a full basketball team next year.  Holtmann's first year was very pieced together, moving Jaesean Tate to some sort of point forward role.  But having KDB helped cover a lot of flaws.  This past year was closer to a normal basketball team, but very low on talent, very thin and still had no true point guards or rim protectors on the roster.  If Wesson comes back they'll have a full outfit of players, and guys who can fill all the roles one needs, at least on paper.  I'm very bearish on depending on freshmen to improve the team, but next year there should be little need for any freshman to play a huge role.

[ELA]

The Hauser brothers are leaving Marquette.  If they want to play together, I wonder if Michigan is in play?  Can't be many good programs with two available scholarships at this point

[mcwterps1]

Fernando and Cowan declare and hire agents.

Cowan?!? LOL! 

Hiring an agent no longer means they can't come back though.