[VB Card]

What happened?
Duke is 9-8 (7-6 in the ACC) and their mega 5* whale Jalen Johnson is leaving mid-season to prep for the NBA draft.
Kentucky is 7-13 (6-7 in the SEC).

I mean, I'm not sad, but pretty shocked. And it's not just those two:
UNC is 7-5 in the ACC (13-7 overall)
Michigan State is 4-9 in the BigTen (10-9 overall)
Indiana is 7-7 in the BigTen (12-9 overall)

And even in the Pac-12 who would have expected the only ranked team to be USC?
Arizona is 8-7 (14-7 overall), with two of those losses to us, a team we hadn't beaten in 12 years.

What is up with NCAA basketball?

BC

The programs that have mastered the one and done thing are having a tough time because they didn't get the normal preseason to get their one and done types up to speed.

Then a lot of best basketball teams and the best basketball players normally thrive on the energy of their packed home arena.   Those types may view a lot of these low energy games like Allen Iverson claimed to view practice.

Finally once those teams were clearly not going to be Final Four material a lot of those one and done kids then checked out.

Just another reminder that one should not read too much into anything that happens this academic year in most sports.  For example, I suspect it will be years until Stanford Women's Volleyball starts 0-3 again.

 

^this. 

Also, it's 2021. You can't compare Indiana to the rest of those schools lol. Duke only brought in one true whale who could bounce to the NBA after a year and he underwhelmed, while also having some injury and confidence/character issues. Kentucky's whales just have not lived up to the hype at all.

[VB Card]

What happened?
Duke is 9-8 (7-6 in the ACC) and their mega 5* whale Jalen Johnson is leaving mid-season to prep for the NBA draft.
Kentucky is 7-13 (6-7 in the SEC).

I mean, I'm not sad, but pretty shocked. And it's not just those two:
UNC is 7-5 in the ACC (13-7 overall)
Michigan State is 4-9 in the BigTen (10-9 overall)
Indiana is 7-7 in the BigTen (12-9 overall)

And even in the Pac-12 who would have expected the only ranked team to be USC?
Arizona is 8-7 (14-7 overall), with two of those losses to us, a team we hadn't beaten in 12 years.

What is up with NCAA basketball?

BC

The programs that have mastered the one and done thing are having a tough time because they didn't get the normal preseason to get their one and done types up to speed.

Then a lot of best basketball teams and the best basketball players normally thrive on the energy of their packed home arena.   Those types may view a lot of these low energy games like Allen Iverson claimed to view practice.

Finally once those teams were clearly not going to be Final Four material a lot of those one and done kids then checked out.

Just another reminder that one should not read too much into anything that happens this academic year in most sports.  For example, I suspect it will be years until Stanford Women's Volleyball starts 0-3 again.

 

^this. 

Also, it's 2021. You can't compare Indiana to the rest of those schools lol. Duke only brought in one true whale who could bounce to the NBA after a year and he underwhelmed, while also having some injury and confidence/character issues. Kentucky's whales just have not lived up to the hype at all.