The Bucket List

[thebucketlst]

Marquette is doing things right

Before the season started, myself and my cohost, the very infamous John Cohen’s Burner, broke down our predictions on how we thought the Big East was gonna look this year. To be brutally honest, I was not as bullish as my cohost was on the Golden Eagles going into the season, but it was pretty hard to not have some sort of good take away. Shaka Smart has made Marquette a consistent program, year…

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Kentucky has a Basketball Coach, not a recruiting clown

The first blog for the new season, and I felt like writing something both positive, and negative, depending on the parties reading. As of 15 minutes ago, when I started writing this, Kentucky came back after being down 9 at half to maybe the most talented team in the nation, the 9th ranked Duke Blue Devils, thanks to a high scoring offensive attack, headed up by the multitude of experienced…

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[thebucketlst]

UCLA has a major season ahead

One of the major themes going into this season is going to be the pressure on major programs throughout the year. Last year we saw it in doses, but there’s a ton of major programs that will have to do some serious adresssing at the end of the season, and some Coach’s who may be moving to new cities when it’s all said and done. There is no greater example of that then maybe the greatest college…

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[thebucketlst]

West Virginia Basketball: A New Era

This time last year, there was a lot of buzz around West Virginia basketball after failing to make a tournament run in that season’s NCAA Tournament. Coach Bob Huggins immediately went into the transfer portal and made major splashes, signing guys like Jesse Edwards, Kerr Kriisa, and RaeQuan Battle. However, the biggest news surrounding this program and team was the state of their coach, a legend…

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[thebucketlst]

Louisville Basketball is on the right track

Last season, I wrote a blog diving into the problems with the Louisville basketball program, and coming to the conclusion that the problems were far larger than a bad coach, and was more related to the culture around the program, and the dark clouds left over from the end of the Pitino era. At the end of the season, Athletic Director Josh Heird decided the program needed to move in a different…

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Kansas is Building The Avengers

Last off-season, there was a lot of talk about Kansas being the best team after landing the best piece in the portal, Hunter Dickinson, and teaming him up with guys like Kevin McCullar, Dajuan Harris, and KJ Adams. Fast forward to the end of this past season, and I think its fair to say that the 2023-24 season of Kansas Jayhawk basketball, was a disappointment. 5th in the Big 12, going 10-8 in…

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[thebucketlst]

UConn is trying to three peat

There has been a lot of things to take place in the history of college basketball. 16 seed beating a 1 seed, buzzer beater to win the national championship, double digit seed making the final four, and a repeat champion. But never has there been a school go on to win 3 straight national titles. But that may very well be subject to change. The Huskies of Connecticut basically destroyed everyone…

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Georgetown; Can the Hoyas get back?

When my parents tell me about some of the best basketball teams when they were growing up, Georgetown is always brought up. John Thompson had built the Hoyas up to titanic levels in the 80s and 90s, landing top recruits like Patrick Ewing and Allen Iverson, and consistently winning 20-25 games in every regular season. Now it’s quite common that one coach is responsible for a program’s success.…

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National Championship Recap; Thoughts and breakdowns

It seemed inevitable when the Huskies, despite a strong first half from Purdue, and not the best showing from the favorites, went into half with a 6 point lead. This was just pure dominance. After 40 minutes of maybe one of the most highly anticipated games in college basketball history, we were given our champion. The first champion to go back to back since the 2006-2007 Florida Gators. UConn’s…

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Eric Musselman to USC is a massive domino

It was no surprise when earlier this afternoon it was announced Eric Musselman, former head coach at Arkansas, had announced he was going to USC. The rumors basically began the moment Andy Enfield left for SMU job, it was just simply a matter of time until Miss actually took the job. What has kept most fans interested in this situation hasn’t been Musselman and USC, but the domino effect to take…

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Week Two Recap; Biggest Winners, Heartbreaks, Predictions

What a weekend of basketball. We got major upsets, heartbreaking finishes, big time shots, and dominant performances. And with just 4 teams left, and every eye on the last 3 games, let’s look at the biggest things to take from the games. UConn is on a mission In the last blog I talked about how UConn and Purdue were just crushing everyone until they would meet each other in the final, and the…

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Week One Recap; Biggest takeaways from the opening two rounds

What a way to start the 2024 NCAA Tournament. I know I’m probably talking in circles at this point, but this is why we love college basketball. Buzzer Beaters, upsets, Jack Golhke, and DJ Burns can’t truly just do justice for what we just witnessed. So today, I’m going to breakdown some of the biggest takeaways and storylines created from the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament. Kentucky…

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Madness is Finally Here

What a week it’s been. I’ve tweeted about it all week, and my goodness has it delivered. Conference tournaments saw teams get their hearts broken, and dreams made, and now we have 68 teams set, so now it’s time to ask; who will win, and who will mess the whole thing up. Let’s start with the actual contenders. Earlier this year I wrote a blog that focused around teams I really think could win this…

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[thebucketlst]

North Carolina Has Been Incredible

The North Carolina-Duke rivalry is maybe the greatest in the history of the sport, and it’s so much better when there’s a lot on the line, which there usually is. We will never forget the bloody face of Tyler Hansbrough, the Austin Rivers game winner, and how could anyone forget the dagger UNC put through the Brotherhood’s heart at the end of the Coach K era. This rivalry is predicated off grit,…

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Villanova’s Dramatic Fall Off

When we open up the history books about 2010’s college basketball, there will be a lot of talk about how awesome Villanova was during this decade. The Wildcats won 2 national titles, one of which ended with maybe the greatest shot in the history of the sport, and the other title team was maybe the greatest team in the history of the sport. However, there’s no denying that this success was in…

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[thebucketlst]

The Real Bracket Busters This Year

Every single year teams come out of nowhere that ruin our hopes of picking a bracket. The FDU’s, the Saint Peter’s, the Loyola Chicago’s, these are the teams that can just send your bracket to the garbage in no time, especially for the casual basketball fan. Well this year I’ve decided to get on top of it, and I’ve done research on teams I feel like will have low seeds that can take out some of…

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Tennessee is Trying to Change the Narrative

College basketball is one of the most narrative based sports. Coaches are certainly the most affected by narratives, and there’s no bigger target for storylines and narratives than Rick Barnes. If you know anything about the sport of college basketball, you know of the biggest criticism against Rick Barnes is his failures to succeed in the NCAA Tournament. Whether it be or Texas, or now at…

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