00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on SportsGrid. The landscape of college basketball heats up
00:04immediately after Christmas Day. That's usually when we start getting the conference games and
00:08all of the major games going on in college hoops and Michael DeCourcy has gotten us through
00:13this out of conference schedule and the meat of the schedule is really set to begin. Mike,
00:19welcome back. Happy holidays. Thanks for coming on Newswire. Blowouts yesterday,
00:24I guess that's where we begin. We'll start off with Tennessee pulling off the win against
00:28Louisville. So they'll move up in the polls. Louisville moved down 83 to 62. The final
00:34Jacoby Gillespie had 23 points in this one. He led the way for Tennessee. The Vols are right in
00:42the thick of it in the Southeastern Conference in terms of the odds. What did you make of the win
00:45last night against the Cardinals? Well, I look at it. First of all, I don't want to take anything
00:51away from Tennessee, which is a terrific basketball team. Great promise and one of the great
00:58coaches in college basketball and Rick Barnes. However, it's kind of like playing the Buffalo
01:02Bills without Josh Allen. We saw that last night. Louisville without Michael Brown is not impressive.
01:09Michael Brown's one of the best players in college basketball, easily one of the best freshmen in
01:14college basketball and plays the most important position on the floor. And without him, Louisville was
01:20lost. You could see it very early. Their shot selection was non-existent. It was just, okay,
01:25I've got the ball. Let's take a shot. And that's not going to work against a team that defends
01:31traditionally as well as Tennessee is, and that is gradually working its way in that direction.
01:37Rick Barnes is one of the really great defensive coaches who's ever worked in college basketball.
01:42You take tough shots and unguarded shots and one pass shots against Tennessee or no pass shots,
01:49you're not winning the game. And you're probably getting smoked. And that's what we saw from the
01:53Cards last night. Yeah, would agree. All right. So another blowout, let's do this one. Duke takes
01:58care of Lipscomb. Not a huge surprise here. 97 to 73, but every game is big for Cam Boozer if he wants
02:06to win the wooden award. So what did he do last night? Easy double-double, 26 points, 13 rebounds,
02:12three assists. I don't know what you can take away from this game, Mike. It feels like the calm before
02:17the storm for the ACC and Duke as they get ready for conference play.
02:21Yeah, they've been through some very challenging games. They went to Michigan State and won.
02:27You have to feel great about that. That's the only Michigan State loss to this point. They've got
02:31some other impressive victories to this point in the season. But you play games like this to work on
02:38little things to try to get better. And I think it also helped to get challenged a little bit.
02:44Lipscomb was with them in a game for about 60% of it, which a lot of people wouldn't have expected
02:51even that. So the fact that they had to say, okay, let's get serious about this. And they did.
02:56There may be some ACC games that play out like that. I don't think we'll see that from Duke when
03:01they get to the NCAA tournament. But that's always a possibility when you're a 16, where you're a one
03:06playing a 16 or a two playing a 15, that you might get the wrong 16 or the wrong 15 and maybe need to
03:15turn it on a little bit. And they showed the capacity to do that. Those last 15 minutes or so
03:22were absolutely dominant. It does help to have a guy like Cam Boozer on your side.
03:26I would agree. And by the way, Duke still favored to win the ACC and Cam Boozer even a bigger favorite
03:32to win the Wooden Award at minus 140. His odds have started off as the favorite. They're growing
03:37a little bit by the month. We'll see where he is next month. As long as he continues this,
03:42this number will grow. So maybe some value in taking that at minus 140. Although I like the ACC a
03:46little better at minus 120, to be honest. All right, Mike, let's talk about the top team in the
03:50country. Boy, the Gators are feeling really good now about that opening night where they felt bad
03:54about losing to Arizona. They have just not been challenged at all. 10 and 0 on the season.
04:00They beat Abilene Christian 96 to 62. And look, UConn gave them a little bit of a battle too. But
04:08look, they crushed Auburn. They crushed Alabama. And 10 and 0 on the year. And conference play,
04:14I'm guessing this will get a little bit tougher for them. But are we headed toward Arizona just
04:18running through the schedule in one of these one loss or two loss seasons? It appears to be that
04:23they're on track for this. Well, I love this team. I'd have to take a more in-depth look at the
04:29schedule. But at minimum, they're going to have to play BYU. They're going to have to play Houston.
04:34They're going to have to play Kansas and Houston. Those are four teams that all have at least
04:41have varying degrees, let's say, of national championship possibilities. They all have
04:46the ability to do it. Maybe Kansas a little bit less than Houston, et cetera, but all have the ability
04:53to do it. So it's going to be a challenge for Arizona. But they are special. Co-opete coming in
04:59has been an absolute force in the front. They've got a really nice roster. Bradley, Jaden Bradley
05:08has been phenomenal at point guard. Am I allowed to say out loud that I was one of the people that
05:13had him on my preseason Bob Cousy ballot? I don't know if the Hall of Fame will be happy with that.
05:18But he was not on the preseason watch list. And I feel I need to be exonerated because I did have
05:25him on there. Good stuff, Mike. All right. So we go from undefeated to undefeated again. Who had
05:32this at the beginning of the season? Vanderbilt, Mike? 10-0 on the year. Seven and a half point
05:37favorites tonight at Memphis. Total of 158 and a half. The Commodores have been rolling this season.
05:45How about the success for this team? You know, I was thinking about this and
05:50they are like the Indiana Hoosiers of basketball. Now that's a very strange statement to make because
05:56there already are Indiana Hoosiers, quite obviously, who play basketball. But what Mark Byington is doing
06:02at Vandy is a lot like what Kurt Signetti has done with IU football. Coming in and maybe not
06:09immediately grabbing the players that would say, wow, watch out. This team's going to be great.
06:15But getting the right players. And in his case, Duke Miles, a guy who played at Troy and High Point
06:21and is now leading the Commodores in scoring, been a significant force for them. They've got a couple
06:28of guys who have been around for a while in the program. And remember, a while means you're a
06:35sophomore now. If you're a sophomore, that means you're a veteran in college basketball now. So
06:41they've got a roster that is together. They play smart basketball. You've got a terrific coach in
06:49Byington. And they are a threat in the SEC. An SEC that's been a little disappointing. The SEC,
06:54like Auburn, Alabama really challenged themselves in non-conference Kentucky and have not performed
06:59at a high level. So Vandy has to go in feeling like maybe they can do this. I'd be interested in
07:05what the odds are on that. Yeah, should be a fun, fun conference play in the SEC. Tonight,
07:11by the way, Alabama takes on USF. We don't have time to preview that game. But guess what? Another
07:16total, the 180s, of course. Mike, thanks for coming on the show. Really appreciate it.
07:20Thank you, Craig.
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