[Music] welcome back to the HPP D see screwed up I get to start again welcome back to hppp the podcast that covers college basketball and the NBA draft inside and out I am rich Harrison thank you for joining us again today I am joined by Caleb Slayton and Zack Wilhelm both new to the shows um so I'm gonna let you guys take a a minute or two to introduce yourself um what you're doing with this in uh in any interesting background pieces you want to share so go ahead Zach I'll let you lead off uh yeah my name is Zach Wilhelm I'm currently a master's a graduate student at the University of San Francisco um getting a Ms in sport management and just trying to learn as much as I can about how to scout basketball online and the operations of a basketball team so I got into this as an intern and really learning how to dissect basketball in a new way and it wouldn't have to be all online since you're a USF and they're going to have pretty good team this year you could actually do some in person um yeah I mean unfortunately I'm at the Orange County campus but yeah definitely there's a lot of basketball down here though so how about a UCLA game how about a UCLA game uh how about you Caleb Caleb what's up guys um super excited to be here super super excited to be a part of the team um I've written for a few different places about high school basketball done a little recruiting work done a little scouting work cover the nuggets for a little bit um I'm currently a high school history teacher here in Denver um and been pretty much as much of as much of the time as I can watching basketball whether it be the NBA College um High School specifically like with a lens looking to college um is kind of where I love um my my intro to basketball man was like the early 2000s Dukes team Dukes team um I know I know Duke gets a lot of hate around here but some of those early 2000s teams were really where I fell in love with basketball and so just excited to like jump into basketball season preview some of these teams I love some of the freshman in this incoming class I think it's particularly interesting especially in the big in the Pack 12 um and just excited to be here and have some of these conversations by the way the last uh last guy who admitted that he was a dookie uh well actually he's no longer with us no we're not that bad but I'm that's gotta be a bad Omen well no because Jake Jake is a uh uh a Duke fan as well but he he follows Philadelphia he loves all the Philadelphia teams too so um couple connections for both of you I mean Zach uh is going through the same program that Drew Barton went through uh and Drew hasn't been with us because he's so busy now um you know at meno College trying to help them convert to D2 plus you got a recent promotion is head of basketball operations there so but we hope to have drew back uh uh probably after Thanksgiving uh at least on a part-time basis and Caleb has two connections uh Caleb works with cam cam reel and he also knows uh our boy uh Clayton Conover who works for prep hoops and they've bumped into each other uh while scouting games so interesting tidbits there small small world all right so before we jump into our Pack 12 preview which is what this episodes about we're going to roll an interview I did with Stanford's Wing small forward Spencer Jones I did this interview a few days ago and we're going to lent that interview rooll our first guest today is uh Wing Spencer Jones a fifth year senior at Stanford a 2023 all Pack 12 selection Spencer averaged 14.1 points 4.7 rebounds 1.2 assists and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 43% from the floor 39% from deep and 75% from the free throw line he ranked in the top 10 of the Pack 12 for Effective field goal percentage offensive rating block percentage player efficiency rating and plus minus also with a career thre points percentage of 39.4 Spencer currently ranks 13th alltime and Pack 12 history you're also 15th for the most three-pointers in the conference history so you'll definitely approve upon that number so how you doing Spencer welcome to the show doing great I'm doing great how are you I'm I'm pretty good uh it's kind of rushed for me this week you know it's me as you know it's media day all over and uh so I have interviews all over and you have interviews all over so yeah so media day is uh you are going to be you're participating in the theoretically the last pack 12 media day for Bas well pack 12 media day for yeah for basketball yeah yeah it's a little bit of a little bit of a new scene this year usually we're in San Francisco which obviously benefits uh benefits us being in Stanford only about 40 minutes away so it's the first time I've ever had to take a plane plane ride uh down venue pretty nice pretty nice way to go out thetically yeah um so how was your summer did you do anything special yeah summer was actually really great so we actually took a Foreign Tour trip uh the whole team uh we went to uh Paris France and we went to and visit some of the islands and we were able to play a few top teams there uh played about three games against great competition kind of got some chemistry especially with some of the some of the new guys we got coming and then you know the rest of it was about you know you're only playing three games you're not practicing too much so the rest of it's just team bonding team camaraderie was amazing experience right right so how' you like P Paris was great I mean we actually have a our Junior Center Maxim is uh from Paris great house and he you know told us the spots and everything like that it was beautiful Greece might have been a little bit more of my favorite but uh don't tell him that um did you play against uh the French top level teams we played against uh yeah we played against a team in their top in their top division I'm blank it on the name right now and then we also played a team in Greeks Greeks top division as well okay all right cool um well if you were in Paris you probably Paris is in the top division in France that's where uh when Bama played oh yeah Max Max's actually decent friends with uh Wana and the team we played was actually called n okay all right sure yeah they have like a number in their nickname too like noer like 96 or something like that anyway I know what you're talking about I know what you're talking about um French League's good basketball all right so um when I think of you the first thing that comes to mind and I mean this in all sincerity is a model of consistency and yet you have made incremental improvements each season and that shows up for example in your player effic efficiency rating it's it's jumped up each each year do you hear consistent a lot you know from from Outsiders or or people or maybe even coaches teammates oh yeah yeah no it's certainly certainly a lot um it's something I definitely proud myself on being consistent showing up to practice every day same attitude same work ethic um and then going into the games you know I only t i i i really look for shots that I I know I can make not trying to not trying to force anything and you know play play Within the offense but also play with confidence so it's it's always been something I've really valued as being consistent just to know what you're going to get from me every day yeah yeah and it you can't replace that you know um I I don't yeah it's it's just knowing what you're going to get you KN going to get that effort I think is so valuable um you know to people coaches or in the future general managers uh I think that's a a great trait to have um you have been on our draft board since your freshman season uh I I don't know if you know I mean during during the season we focus just on college basketball but after the season we focus on the draft and so you have been in our top 200 forever and um and I I've seen you I've seen your name show up on other draft boards too however I don't recall you ever testing the NBA Waters am I correct about that uh no no no I I've never uh I've never tested the uh NBA Waters thought about it um to a point last year but then I I ultimately uh came to the conclusion that coming back to school is the best decision for me kind of has been over over that over that progress it's not you know and then obviously you go to for after you get older and older you know you get closer and closer to that you know lustrious degree it's kind of kind of like why not you know why not finish it out but um no it's definitely NBA always been dream and goal of mine so I'm I've been chasing but uh you know I'm not not rushing the timetable on that you know I kind of want to come out the best prospect that can kind of be you you know set myself up in a in a good position when I do leave right um I hope I hope you don't mind me asking just because a lot of guys just do it just to get info they know they're coming back but they just want to go through the proc process um so why not um I I know that sounds critical but I don't know how else to say it's totally fine um part of the reason like around sophomore middle middle of my ears was uh you know just takes away a little bit from the from the class schedule you know sa can be a little little little little tough on that end so I wanted to make sure I was I was still I was still keeping up that end of the of the you know the bargain of being a a student athlete and then on top of that there's other ways to get information um you you know you can you you you send in you send in the letter that you're going in the draft and you always get feedback that way and then you know with all all the agents that have talked to me over the years and you know GMS will talk to coaches and stuff like that so I'm always getting plenty plenty of information and so after that I just you know I want to just focus on the work and doing as much as I can workout wise um and just FOC focusing on that in the offseason to you know improve on some of the blemishes that that you get from uh you know from the information they tell you right right um during your tenure uh as a cardinal the team has only won 20 games once and that was your freshman season and you guys have finished no higher than sixth in the conference transferring has become the rage it's Common Place uh and you but you've been extremely loyal to Stanford I applaud you for that and I think that will benefit you in in the future your loyalty however I am interested in learning about your thought process about Stak uh yeah I mean it was definitely different um this year just because you know you knew I would have I or I knew I would have been uh would have been graduating so you know you get that you get that education piece so it it Alters things maybe maybe a tad but um ultimately it was I mean it was U coming back U for another year college it was almost mostly a basketball decision so you know I really took basketball into perspective and it was like I you know there are other places where I was looking at where maybe um I could see myself you know uh playing well there but ultimately it Stanford felt like the right place there's no no better opportunity um especially after being here four years having trust with Coach I'm not going to have any better of a role like you know dude he he coach ass tells me to take just about every shot even tells me to take shots that you know sometimes I may I may think like yeah is that the shot I should be taking you know he he wants me to shoot all all the time so it's it's like you got a coach that trust in you you got the you got a role that can't get any better and then I just look down at our our our roster especially with the new additions coming in and it was like can can we can we do what we want to do can we make the tournament can we have another 20 Game season can we finish higher than six in top four in the pack and and you know do I really believe that we could do it with our roster and I I had honest conversations with a lot of people honest conversations with Coach um you know he even he even um offered a you know kind of a re-recruitment session for me um when I was thinking about entering entering entering the portal um so we did a whole weekend to kind of re-recruit me there and we just had honest convers ations about it and uh yeah ultimately it was I had full faith full faith in in this year in the guys I'm playing with and the trusting coach and so it just it just was the right decision I think it was I think it was um assuming and we'll get to the one the one carat but we'll talk we'll get to that down the road um so uh what do you have in store for us this year uh what aspects to your of your game have you been working on the offseason yeah big thing was uh I mean it's always been playmaking um getting getting more mid-range shots off the dribble getting more three-point shots off the dribble uh deepening my range really like you know expanding like staying a couple more feet off the three-point line and getting comfortable shooting that far out just to make it for much harder Closeouts for Defenders than how to attack those Closeouts and then just you know I'm drawing each year I'm drawing more and more attention from Defenders drawing two guys so just able to pass out of it you know like you said getting those 1.2 assists up a little bit and uh facilitating more our more of our offense especially as it gets down to down to crunch time would be very important yeah mid-range game is coming back and I noticed last year I didn't look at all your Seasons but I noticed last year that from 17 ft to the three-point line you only took a handful of shots but I I was thinking that could be an area where you could be very effective um in a if you remember I I don't know if he does it much more but when Jason Tatum was a Duke and even in his young years he used to you know like to and you're about his size right maybe he's got you by an inch like an shorter maybe like an inch shorter but yeah around there yeah yeah um of course you're bigger through the through the upper body but uh at least at this age you know um and uh yeah I I could see you be very effective in that area but all right yeah oh I was just I actually uh I shot a lot of mid-range in uh in in in high school actually I wasn't I didn't attempt that many threes I had more of a old old school t scy h old school style uh coach who uh you know liked me operating around the mid post and I was actually pretty good at it but then you know you get to Stanford you're a freshman and all I thought about is like how can I get on the court and I noticed we lacked a little bit of three-point shooting so I really just put a lot of that time in the gym became a great catch shoot shooter and so yeah since then I've been trying to develop a little bit more of that that uh you know 12 to 15 range touch and so you know you saw it coming back a little bit last year and you know hope to improve on this year yeah yeah and it's coming back all over you know um people are respecting it um LeBron for example if you notice late in his career he's relying a lot on it so yeah um all right so uh you know what what aspect of your game I mean we know you know I said at the top you're one of the all-time greatest Pack 12 you know three-point Shooters but uh you know and I think when most people think of you you know they think of that that's the first thing that comes to mind so what what aspect of your game do you feel is underrated or under utilized it oh that's that's a good question um I always felt my post games pretty good um you know whenever we a lot of times I don't I wouldn't say underappreciated at least by our coaching staff they know when uh when there's we need a bucket need a easy bucket um yeah I was talking more like media media fans you know yeah yeah yeah I'd say definitely have definitely have a postgame that mid-range is definitely definitely coming back um I mean you know it's hard to say underrated when yeah a lot of a lot of the set I come off of it's really catch and shoot and stuff like that so this year is actually something you know I'll be coming off a lot more ball screens um creating more in that foot range um to show off showcase a floater showcase touch there showcase the mid-range and then showcase some actually uh really improved uh passing ability just the overall just the overall ability to actually you know dictate an offense with the ball in my hands is kind of was GNA going to be underated this year okay cool cool um so let's talk about the team and bear with me for a second I'm going to go through you know kind of sum up where you guys are um this year uh for the for the listeners so four of your six guys including yourself who played more than 20 uh uh minutes per game last season return and that doesn't include forward James Keefe who was limited to 21 Games wing uh Ryan agarwall who was limited to 17 games and red shirt freshman Jaylen Thompson so right there that's seven guys then you have proven point guard Jared bam joining the mix from Providence and the freshman class uh includes two very highly rated recruits and uh Andre sty yakovich and uh Kanan Carlile so in your opinion you know I know you've been practicing for a little bit you got to play in the summer how is this team shaping up and how does this squad differ from last seasons yeah um I would definitely say our our offense is crazy it's really good really efficient um Shooters all over the place somewhat similar last year um I'll say what's different is um really Jared vham offers a lot a lot from that point guard point guard position I mean you know I mean loved all the point guards we had in the past but um you know Jared Jared's a little bit older a little bit wiser a little bit more of a playmaker really knows how to you know not only read the defense but kind of manipulate it you know get get the ball where he wants to go even when it might there initially you know so it's just you know it comes with five years of experience you know and how to how to control an offense how to control Pace no one want to push it stuff like that all that intangible stuff is uh is something you really see and then uh with the younger guys I mean it's two top 50 recruits that's a lot of talent um Kanan can be a monster on both ends uh he can be absolute microwave on offense and he can be so athletic he can be a Absolut defensive stopper uh as well you know so he's he he can he can he can certainly do it do it at both um and then Andre Andre's you know as as advertised like his dad great great shooter great playmaker uh you know he's a can be can be a tough shot taker but he's also you know also makes those shots um so those those guys are definitely definitely pieces that can add a add a add a spark right you're probably not old enough to do you probably not old enough to see his dad play live but he was one of my favorite not live not live but I've seen I've seen a lot of film with him in the Kings the Hornets um yeah defitely definitely he uh sweet shooter sweet shooter is just it was pure loved love to watch him play um so I'm gonna put you on the spot with this one which teammates and you got a lot of new pieces you got a couple of guys that didn't play a lot last season you got you know at least three significant new guys what teammates have oppressed you the most so far in the off season uh just everything I've said about Jared has um I mean we've we've created a lot of uh a lot of chemistry especially in that Foreign Tour he knows he knows to look for me he knows how to kind of like I said manipulate that defense to get to get me open um like I said kanan's athleticism is off the charts um Ryan's certainly certainly been been been improving um you know that shot that shot's always always going to be there but how he's kind of learning how to set up Defenders you know to get get more open shots as they're as as they're scouting him um and then JT's JT's and embracing the uh the defensive role um on that end and that's going to be that's going to be a real real key piece for us and then you know all of us older guys Brandon's getting becoming uh more of a playmaker out of the out of the mid post and um kind of getting getting a few getting a few moves under his belt that uh I'm excited for him excited for him to show off and then all the old guys I mean we're you know like I said like me you know they try to be consistent and stable and so we're we're ready to we're ready to lead lead the bunch and uh take him to where we want to be you're a 23y old OG 22 not 23 yet oh okay not yet so is it is Jared 23 or 24 uh I know he's close to 24 yeah the oldest yeah I think he's 24 and I think Mike Jones might be 23 24 as well so okay right um so here was the caveat I was talking about and this would this would I think uh I think you deserve this uh and that would be and I think it goes without saying you'd love to end your career with an NCAA tournament appearance and I think you know that would justify you know everything um so can this team make it and if so what specifically gives you the confidence to say yes we can make it uh yeah absolutely I think this team will make it I wouldn't have I honestly I wouldn't have come back if I didn't if I didn't think so um you know like I said it's been it's been a dream on to go the NCA tournament and you know to not achieve it four years when you you think you could have you know so if I came back and didn't think that was possibility I wouldn't we wouldn't be S I wouldn't be sitting here in in a Stanford uniform uh why I think we can do it um like I said our offense was we had an explosive offense last year um but you know there were still some things even from my sense of a leadership persectives we still didn't have that stability you know even that consistency that I I I Rave about and try to strive for we still didn't quite have that so having Jared at that point guard position is huge for that um as well as that we had some defensive liabilities and we have guys really picked it up uh Maxim who I should have mentioned earlier has made made big strides made big strides in that as as as a big man you know being seven foot being that presence in the paint and then along with that you got guys like Kanan you know and JT and you know other guys who have been you know been embracing that end so that that's definitely definitely something and coach has being a def defensive guy he's gonna he's gonna try to bring that out of you so the offense I'm the offense will always be there I mean the offense will always will put up points we got Shooters all over the place we got guys who can make plays it's that defense is really going to Define our season you know can we get stops when we need to um and I I have utmost confidence that that we can definitely be a a top defensive team Al righty Al righty well I hope so I hope so you deserve it so I got one last question for you um you're a double major correct I'm not a double major no no that's one major so was management management science and engineering is one major yes yes so so yes it's management science that's like like basically this combined uh segment like the the science of management and and Engineering so that's yeah that's all that's all one major uh Stanford likes all these kind of like interdisciplinary uh Majors with these with these big names so um yeah interesting I I just assumed it was a double major and but all right all right so interesting um a so after your basketball career is over which could be years from now but what would you like to do yeah um that was also another thing coming back um I lightened the school load so I could focus a little bit on that just Network a little bit more with uh you know some of the some of the alumni and everybody I built relationships with and then to also have the opportunity to take an internship this summer just because um I'm you know not really taking a lot of class so I ended up uh so what I'm thinking about doing is going to like healthc Care Management um I worked with a healthc care AI startup uh that was close to campus um called called metal Loop and that was a that was a fun experience for the for the summer so it was just it was nice to kind of you know get get that part of my life kind of figured out a little bit or at least kind of see see way after basketball even though I you know I plan on playing the game for definitely uh definitely seven more years and and I so the engineering uh aspect to that related to Ai and Healthcare was did you do work in like developing software or uh not quite it was more of a it was more of a um similar to a mar marketing role I a little bit of little bit of uh software experience to to to dabble on my big part was um I coordinated a lot with medical researchers to kind of get them affiliated with the uh with with with the software with the uh with the company so it was it was more of reaching reaching out to them and kind of uh kind of regulating them through that okay all right cool very cool well Spencer I I want to thank you uh for taking the time to join us today and I wish you and the team the best and I mean that sincerely I really hope you guys uh if if for nothing else for your sake to make the NCAA tournament and um please come back for another visit after the season's over and we'll talk about what's next hey that'd be fun that'd be a fun conversation to that yes yes please all right so thank you so much and uh tell Zach I said Thank you too I will I'll let him know I appreciate you all right have a good one all right it was great talking with Spencer and now we're going to begin our Pack 12 preview and I'm going to start off by kind of going over what happened last year just to refresh everybody's memory UCLA won the regular season Title by four games over Arizona and USC however Arizona won the Pack 12 tney to earned the automatic bid to the tournament in addition Arizona which went into the NCAA as a two seed UCLA USC and Arizona State made made the big dance all as that large team UCLA was a two seed USC was a 10 Arizona state was 11 and had to win the the first four game against Nevada to actually get to the first round uh despite some injury issues UCLA was the only team to make it uh pass the first round losing to Gonzaga in the sweet 16 in a close game 7976 Arizona suffered another uh disappointing early round upset losing to Princeton in the first round and Arizona State also went down in the first round and uh USC did too in a close game to Michigan State so the Pack 12 sent three teams to the NIT they were Washington State Colorado and Oregon Washington State lost at home to Eastern Washington in the first round uh while Colorado Advanced the second round with a win over seen hall and then lost to Utah Valley who would eventually make it to either the final four or the final eight I forget or Advanced to the third round uh with wins over UC Irvine and Central Florida before falling to Wisconsin so uh Wisconsin uh was in the final four so the winner of that game uh would have been in the final four which Wisconsin was so Oregon did pretty well in the tournament and they too were banged up at the time um so in terms of specific categories Arizona topped the conference in scoring by a significant margin averaging nearly 82 points per game uh they were sixth in D1 in points per game the wild cats also led the Pack 12 in offensive efficiency with a rating of 111.6 which was 18th in the country the top defensive team was uccla uh they were uh they only allowed 60.7 uh points per game which was seventh in the country and they also led the conference in defensive efficiency at 89.6 which was four in D1 I might one interesting stat when I was researching this was Cal Cal's offensive rating I think was basically within a tenth or two ten0 of a point with UCLA's defensive rating cow was Dreadful last year but we'll get to that uh so in terms of pace Arizona led the conference in Pace uh and they were 18th in the country while Washington state was the slowest in the conference and also the 25th slowest team in division one um other interesting stats uh Arizona shot 37.8 from three 20th in the country followed by Washington to 37.3 thir 33rd in the country and they were the only two teams in the Pack 12 to shoot better than 37% from Deep Arizona led the conference by far in effective field goal percentage at 56.5 due to the nice combination of their shooting and the powerful bigs that they had including aulus telis uh Oregon at 54.4 and Arizona at 54.2 led the conference in rebounding percentage Oregon was 20th in the country while Arizona was close behind to 24th Arizona led the conference an assist percentage at 64.7 which was fifth in the nation and that was a significant margin over anybody else in the conference again they like to feed their bigs anytime you have bigs that can score in a post you're going to have a high assist percentage uh UCLA at with 12 point at 12.2 was ninth in the country and first in the conference in turnover percentage while Oregon state was last very young Oregon State team last year they had a turnover percentage of 18 UCLA led the Pack 12 in steel percentage at 12.4 20th in the country uh USC led the conference in 13.5 uh block percentage which was 16th in the country they were one of four teams to have a block percentage greater than 13 the others being Arizona State 17th in the country Oregon 19th in the country and Washington at 22nd in the country that's a pretty impressive stat for a for a conference we considered to be offensive oriented in terms of coaching changes the only one is Mark Matson from the aforementioned Utah Valley replaces Mark Fox at Cal Fox had a record of 38 and 87 during his five years at Cal and he quite frankly was long overdue to be fired we're going to talk about these teams in order that they finished last year and I'll kind of go over the changes and let the guys throw in their comments uh I'm first going to talk about UCLA UCLA has lost six uh players six significant players four uh to the pros either NBA or Europe and that's starting off with last year's player of the year haime hawz is gone Jaylen Clark the defensive player of the year is gone both to the NBA longtime point guard tiger Campbell has moved on to play in Europe and Amari Bailey is on a two-way with Charlotte uh he was a combo guard that really showed flashes at times but didn't get uh extraordinary amount of playing time um uh I think he was injured at one point also gone as David Singleton Sharpshooter and Mac uh anen who was really their third string Center he moved on into Paul uh coming back is ADM Bona uh he um led the conference last year or excuse me uh he is the leading returner in the conference for defensive rating at 89.8 also Dylan Andrews the Speedy combo guard didn't see a lot of playing last year Willie McLendon another combo guard comes back he hasn't played a lot over the last two seasons because of injuries and he didn't really look 100% last year and also backup center from last year Kenny uh wuba uh returns as well now what's interesting about this UCLA team and bear with me because they have a bunch of guys from foreign countries coming in uh and that is led by freshman a day Mara uh a Spaniard uh 7 foot3 240 pounds and then we have Burke and Burke's name is not easy to pronounce in in fact I when I was watching him play in some games everyone just referred to him as Burk but his last name is Buu B bu yuku gel bu yukun gel I think I'm saying that right and I can't put it all together uh anyone want to give that a shot I think it's buuk tunel yeah buuk tunel exactly so and Burke is a forward he's a lefty uh he played uh professionally in Turkey got a lot of got a lot of minutes actually last year in turkey's top division by the way Mara also got some significant playing time with Zaragoza and the Spanish ABC uh the next player is Yan V I think it is and uh y Yan is a combo Guard from Slovenia who's been playing with re Real Madrid's under 18 team he's a combo guard uh he kind of you could see the Luca dantic uh influence when you watch him play and he's going to be a fun player to watch they also have Sebastian Matt coming in at shooting guard uh he's uh the number F 55 uh rated recruit on the composite rankings they also have um from France uh Elon feble uh and he is 123 on the composite rankings for freshman um I would say that Elon um you know you have to you have to be careful because one thing our recruiting rankings in this country fail to do very well is Scout guys who have played play professional ball before they came to United States and or guys that play at the NBA acmy our Scouts for our recruiting Services just don't get a usually don't get a good look at those guys and a lot of times they either overrate them greatly or underrate them but I'd say they do more of the underrating than they do the overrating um some other high recruits UCLA brings in is two forwards Devin Williams and Brandon Williams are both both top 100 fourstar recruits and lastly they bring in a shooting Wing Lazar stefanic uh or stefanich um from Utah good shooter not a great defender but he definitely can give you a spark uh in the shooting department and this team may need that so uh I'm gonna let you guys uh what what what do you think about this U UCLA team I know there's a lot you know coming in and a lot of these guys are coming in from foreign countries um is this UCLA team have a chance to be as good as they were last year a sweet 16 team Zach I think they do if these players can come in and gel as a team because they definitely have the talent and the size it seems as seems like coach Cronin definitely wants to take a defensive approach he's talked about Bona as a defensive player and um also you know some other defensive players that he has on there but with the loss of Jaylen Clark obviously that's going to be tough um Burke is Burke and AD day Mara like you were talking about will probably fight uh to get minutes with each other I think as freshman but I think if they can step up coming into the NCAA and bringing their talents that they could definitely have a chance I always like Cronin as a coach so yeah yeah yeah you know that this team's going to be tough and play good defense uh he wouldn't you know that's why the actually the the Brit the one you know interesting transfer they brought in is not really a defensive guy uh in stephanovich uh and um he's really a shooter but you know when you look at all these guys most of these guys aren't really known as Shooters uh I I can't speak about Sebastian Mack who might get some play you know might get some significant playing time I don't know if he's a shooter I haven't seen him play I I have seen all the Europeans play um and I would say Burke uh is definitely even though he's kind of a a small forward power forward is probably the best shooter out of the European group right now um what do you think cayb Caleb I'm pretty excited about this team um I I definitely think they'll struggle to score especially early in the season it's just a lot of moving pieces it's a lot of new guys um but I I love coach Cronin love his defense I think Burke and vday are kind of going to be the X factors I would agree I think Burke is probably the best shooter of the bunch and I think vday has potential to be a good ball handler for them um a sneaky decision I think cronin's gonna have to make and I'm curious what you guys think about this is especially once we started get into the middle of conference play and into the conference into the in play tournament who is he going to put at the five when it comes down to the end of the games is it going to be the more defensive oriented Bona or I I think it's kind of a hot take maybe but like ad day Mara is such a good passer and he's so flexible on the defensive end um who's he who's he gonna kind of go with there like Bon is the guy coming back Bon is such a lock down Defender and and Mara is a little a little newer a little raw maybe um but I think he's probably a better passer than Bona and so does he does like Mara Elevate their offensive game enough that at the end of the day like Cronin decides to go with him I think that could be kind of an interesting um switch that gets flipped for UCLA at some point during the season kind of a nice problem to have though um to have a guy who you know like Bona who's very athletic can guard multiple positions and then then you have Mara who looks like he could be another Zack Edy um yeah I I wouldn't mind having that problem myself so I want to get I give a little shout out to Alex toos the uh Sid for UCLA basketball I was actually trying to kind of pick his brain you know with this you know so many talented new guys coming from all over the world and I was like man you know how's this going to work out uh in terms of rotation and starting lineup and he didn't give me any definitive things except for that M Cronin is consider ing playing two bigs together and now you know Bona who is uh by the way I don't think I mentioned but he was a freshman of the year last year and he has a chance to be defensive player of the year in this conference not just because he can block shots but he also can defend on the perimeter so you put him out there with the you know the 7 foot three guy that's going to be pretty tough assuming Bona can you know hang on the perimeter um so that's another solution that they could go with this lineup but uh what I'm thinking is that bonus starts uh Burke uh goodness I'm just gonna go with Burke the whole season and Burke Burke is gonna play the one forward spot I I think uh Dylan Andrews starts you know um and he by the way was a top 50 freshman last year and this guy has got speed to burn then think the other guard spot is either going to be uh V or Mack um both freshmen and then I think maybe another freshman starts at the uh well you know they could go with a lot of options for that that fifth starting spot but I think you're gonna see Bona Burke uh Andrews and then V and Mac or maybe both vday and Mac um one thing I want to say about Burke and vay um Burke was really impressed both of them played in the under 19 uh World Cup this year V like I said you know he's kind of I don't want to call him a Luca clone but you could tell he he idolizes Luca he's got the step back a great passer fun passer when make passes you just don't expect and Burke too for a 69 guy who I'm sure started off probably you know a lot of times ends up getting penciled into the power forward spot but really he can definitely play on the wing with a really pretty shooting stroke uh and he too is a really uh gifted passer and he's a lefty uh which always seems to help so um Caleb I I know you you had another comment before we leave UCLA yeah I was just going to say I think uh stepanovic could be a pretty interesting X Factor Off the Bench uh last few years they've had Singleton come off the bench who is definitely like a markably better shooter um for his career I believe Singleton's like over 40% from the three-point line and stanovich for his career is like 34% I think um and so I'm really curious like as an older player coming into this system coming onto this team can can cronin's offense manufacture him threes in a space and in a place where he can take that percentage and like jump it jump it up um a couple of percentage points and become like a real value ad and kind of an offensive spark Off the Bench in maybe a way that Singleton has been able to in the last couple years yeah yeah and I I really think you know the bigs on this team you know uh really don't uh offer a ton of shooting uh at least the ones we're projecting to get most of the minutes except for Burke uh and even the guards aren't uh it's like I said I haven't seen Sebastian Mack play so I I can't really comment yet on his shooting um but I I know vday you know the one part of vay's game that's not smooth is his shot uh he's pretty good with a pull-up and he's excellent with floaters and he's very you know he's amazing some of the floaters he makes but and I was impressed with his pull-up game so but he he he really does like to attack the basket and and he just doesn't when he does a catch and shoot he doesn't get the ball off quickly and there's a little he's got a lot of lot of motion in his hips uh and usually when a guy has a lot of motion in his hips it it means he's not a great shooter but you know all these guys all these European guys coming in are 18 years old um so they have a lot of room to growth and and the the thing I worry in terms of NBA the the thing I worry the least about at this age is shooting a shooting so um you know that's the one thing I think can really come along you know it's hard to jump higher it's hard to be you know have better lateral movement and all that stuff uh I think it's even somewhat more difficult to become a better dribbler or or have a better feel for the game though all those things can somewhat improve but I think shooting is the one thing you really can improve dramatically you know between 18 and 25 5 years old so all right any other comments about UCLA a little bit of Cronin talking about the guy you were talking about Lazar stefanovic and just the fact that he was a the fact that he's a junior and he kind of knows maybe where to go on the court is going to help with all the Freshman presence that they have right right so we're gonna talk about Arizona and uh again coming off another one of those Seasons where you know they really were you know like a top 10 team most of the season and then they go into the tournament and lose to Princeton so they did that under Shawn Miller and they now they're doing it under Tommy Lloyd so I'm hoping this team uh can bounce back or not bounce back but just kind of uh put a good run together uh soon or people might start I don't know questioning Tommy Lloyd I is that possible I don't know I mean they do great in the regular season but anyway let's talk about what Arizona lost first of all they lost uh aulas telis to the NBA they lost uh point guard uh K CA to West Virginia Courtney Ry is now in the pros Cedric Henderson now in the pros in Adama ball a player who didn't get a ton of playing time but I think has a lot of potential has moved on to Santa Clara where I said when we previewed that conference uh that he could be a first conference uh type player um but yeah we shall see and he moved on to the uh West Coast Conference where Santa clar plays so coming back they they have a fair amount starting off with keelen Boswell who reclassified last year was playing at a SE as a 17-year-old and man he just got better and better as the year went on I'm really high on uh keelen Boswell they also bring out the the beast in the paint Omar Balo and uh he's the conference's leading returner in Wind shares at 5.1 they also bring back pel Larson uh the sharp shooting Wing uh Henry uh or hry I I think it's they say he says it Henry but uh visar uh Power Forward uh got some playing time he can stretch the floor um and he's now a sophomore and then there's uh phelip uh bokan um who didn't get a ton of playing time last year he's a forward uh and also Center Dylan Anderson uh again another I believe he's a sophomore the basically a lot of these freshman from last year beside Boswell didn't get a lot of playing time and now they stand to see more action however Arizona also uh used the portal uh very well uh they brought in Caleb love who initially committed to Michigan and I'm not sure what happened there but Caleb love is now from North Carolina uh moved on to Arizona and they also brought in J Jaden Bradley uh who was involved in that uh um not Leonard Miller Brandon Miller he was involved in that Brandon Miller incident uh off the court um don't know how much he really had to do with it but um he's the one that picked up Miller after the shooting but uh he transferred and we kept on saying last year that after it became public that Bradley was involved in that uh incident which took someone's life he didn't play the same for Alabama he went from looking really good in the first half of the Season then that then that news went public and he did not play the same he was awful in the second half of the Season uh then they bring in uh forward Kesha Johnson a power power uh kind of guy little undersized so undersized power forward but really good Defender rebounder um and then they also have freshman uh boy how do you say Monte that's my best pronunciation Monte AAS cras okay so Monte AIS creas uh coming in as a freshman he saw some some good minutes uh with zirus who's a top level uh team in the Lithuanian League um so they got another big man coming in and lastly KJ Lewis uh who's a three store three three star four star kind of guy coming in at shooting guard so I'm going to start off with you Caleb um you know I you know they you know to Bellis is is definitely going to be a hard uh piece to replace but uh to me it almost seems like this team's bringing in more than it lost yeah I'd agree with that I think I am a little lower on Caleb love I I don't I don't know how much addition he's gonna actually be yeah but I'm also I'm also like a little higher on Jaden Bradley um I it's interesting you noted kind of his change in the season kind of after that incident right happened um I'm hoping that like no matter what his involvement was that this kind of Fresh Start is going to be really good for him I remember watching him going all the way back to IMG and like really liking his presence in the court and I think him and kylin Boswell together could be a really good backourt and especially like thinking about we just talked about UCLA and man like where's their primary ball handling going to come from and Arizona's got two guys if depending on what you think about Caleb love even three guys that could be really good steady um primary ball handlers and then I mean no matter what you think about Umar Balo like he as you said he's a beast down low he's a great rebounder he is always going to be efficient in the basket and I think with that group of guys and then Kesha Johnson kind of being this um multi-positional um defensive Wing I think they're going to be playing A Lot F playing pretty fast being able to get up and down pressuring people on defense um I even think like KJ Lewis could be an X Factor he didn't shoot a ton in high school but he was in the high 30s in high school in his three-point shooting percentage and is is like a low 80% free throw shooter and so I think like he also could be a pretty good X Factor like an energy guy off the bench um coming in against some second units I think could' be really good so I think they've got a lot of good pieces um to to play with this year right what do you thought Zack yeah kind of just talking about uh what he was just talking about Caleb was just saying about KJ Lewis I think that he has a chance to be impactful uh just with his powerful style play he's physical so and he's really good in the open floor so if he can get these big guys running and maybe make some plays that way he can find some minutes and then cras you know I read he was um the top Defender and basically one of the leaders in efficiency and free throw attempts so if they can get him to be aggressive you know just in the time that he's in I think that could definitely be a help yeah yeah and it's certainly nice to have another seven-footer you know um I think they have three I think Anderson is also s feet um or close to it so and vasar is uh is Big too um the difference is with all the other guys as vasar can shoot um you know one thing I'm gonna say about Caleb love and and we've talked about Caleb love so much on this show she probably rename it the Cale love show but uh uh do you think he gets an nil deal off of that if we do that um you know one thing I will say you know the guy shot selection horrible but we found out you know after the season RJ Davis and he had a running Feud RJ Davis you know said he wasn't gonna you know uh wasn't going to pass the love and love I guess was going to do the same and so maybe we saw some of those crazy shots coming from Love because he figured well if Davis doesn't feed me the ball I this is the only way I'm going to get any shots now the other thing I'm going to say is if you if you've been if you follow North Carolina closely you know Hubert Davis to me has gotten away from the Roy Williams you know one of the best things about North Carolina and that was running you know so much of North Carolina's offense seems the last two years has come you know halfcourt and not a lot of running and Caleb love you know really fun is the best in the open court he does have the moves he does have the ability to create the shot it's just he needs to learn to be a better team player and so hopefully maybe the new environment where people don't hate him you know might uh might help you know because Bosley and Bradley uh are both you know very willing to share the ball um and so yeah uh Larson too I think is key to this team um you know he can be deadly shooter but he was kind of off last year I think he ended up starting and then toward the end of the season he was coming off the bench I think he needs to regain his touch somebody has to because I think any of those guards especially Bradley you can't count on to knock down a shot so you're gonna need lson to be consistently making threes and hopefully love can improve in that department too I think the potential is there as long as he's not taking like NBA like hero shots and just catch the ball and shoot you know and and then I think you know they'll have two Shooters on this team maybe even Visa you know stretching the floor um something that telis I thought could do and he actually showed a lot of as a freshman but as his career moved on he got away from but the one thing you know about Tommy Lloyd's team is this team's going to run okay and they have the horses to do it so so um yeah and of course balow you can count on 15 and 10 every night you know we can we can kind of pencil in um Omar balow Kean Johnson Boswell and Caleb love do you think he goes big or small with that fifth spot and leans towards like somebody like fair and Larson maybe a little bigger or goes with a little bit more playmaking um and ball handling with somebody like yeah yeah um it all depends on what he wants to do with Larson you know two years now he's been playing you know even though larsson's probably both of the last two years has probably been the fifth best team be fifth best player on his team he often likes to bring him off the bench so I think then it's it's bizarre um just because they're going to need some pop you know from the shooting Department um and i' love Jaden Bradley uh you know when they when Alabama beat Houston last year he was the guy and I don't know if you remember that game but they were getting crushed by Houston and Bradley you know just kept on attacking and attacking and attacking you know and he was so Fearless attacking the rim as as a as a freshman and he was getting you know Houston's a physical team and they were just you know bouncing him around and he just kept on getting up and he really spurred the rally to bring alab back in that game and I was like moving up my draft board and I was like oh my God I can't wait to see this kid you know knock down shots consistently he could be a star but you know everything went everything blew up after you know the that I know you can say that what's that I don't know if you can say everything blew up after somebody got shot well I mean fell apart um no I yeah I mean we we talked about that a lot and and and I I it seems like he definitely was on the peripheral of that whole thing um there were some questions how he got involved at all but um you know I I I think he may have this this a guess but you know my guess is he just wants to put that ugliness behind and he couldn't do that at Alabama I hope so yeah yeah all right Zach what do you think you think he goes big or small I'd say he probably goes small just knowing that he wants to run yeah basically you have six guys that are solid proven even very good players that are returning in Boswell Ballo love Bradley lson and the TR uh transfer uh Kad Johnson and then like UCLA they have a lot of incoming Talent OR talent that wasn't used like you know guys who didn't play much as a freshman last year um that can rival UCLA's uh incoming class and many of these guys are European so you got highly regarded Center uh Mo motos uh creas and then you have uh another freshman that we didn't even talk about before uh polius uh m and then you have KJ Lewis a freshman shooting guard Phillip uh borov vichan uh a forward who was a sophomore last year and of course uh Henry uh vasar we've been talking about a lot and Senator Dylan Anderson my one concern about this team is shooting uh Larsson is the only proven three-point shooter and even he for his career 38% but only on 2.4 attempt per game uh love is 32% on 6.2 attempts per game Boswell last year as a freshman shot 39% but only on 2.2 attempts per game um and then uh moros morosus uh is has some ability to shoot uh Boro vinin has some ability to shoot and vasar has some ability to shoot but that's they're they're basically unproven so so that's where we sit with Arizona you know they they certainly have the overall talent but is there enough shooting on this squad you know love is going to have to shoot better Boswell's going to probably have to do it on higher volume and one of the new guys is also probably going to pick it up from the front Court as a shooter all right so we'll move on to uh USC um third best team in this conference last year um and they lose Drew Peterson their Mr do everything kind of a uh point forward uh who's now uh on a exhibit 10 with the Miami Heat they also lose uh Trey white a wing to Louisville uh Rees Dixon Waters moves on to San Diego State he was the Sixth Man of the Year last year in the conference and Malik Thomas uh a wing moves on to Southern Florida uh White Never quite lived up to his uh I believe he was a top 25 recruit uh five-star guy so I don't think he's ever quite uh but I think he's still only a junior now so um not sure why he didn't fit in uh Peterson is a big loss and Dixon Waters is a is a significant loss who they bring back though and I'm gonna say this I'm gonna say this this is this is one of those Tik Tock moments I think Boogie Ellis and Kobe Johnson could have been considered the possibly the best back court in the nation not even considering the freshman class that USC might have the best back court in the nation but now they bring in Isaiah ker the number one overall recruit in this freshman class and bronny James to join those guys uh other pieces uh returning are Vince iuo um who had he too had an incident very much like bronny James had to be revived on the court at practice uh and that slowed his uh progression then he injured his shoulder I believe toward the end of the season and so he he missed the beginning part of the season because of a heart and the end because of a shoulder and uh but he too top 25 guy five-star guy got all the talent in the world uh to be you know a potential NBA player for sure but the guy who started for them last year was uh veteran Josh Morgan who who's the top the conference's top returner in bloxs per game and blocks percentage uh he averaged 2.2 blocks per game last year they also bring kajani right back who was a high recruit uh and uh boy uh a AIA sellers uh a wing who uh he was a three fourstar guy last year they're both sophomores so bringing joining Collier and James in this recruiting class are Artin Paige a power forward he's a top 50 guy Brandon Gardner is a forward he's a top 100 guy and then from the portal they got DJ robman Dennis Rodman's son uh he's a wing small forward uh does a little of everything but I think his best uh trait is shooting which is kind of funny considering his father um so having said all that what do you what do you make of this team Zack I mean I think that this team has a lot of potential for sure it definitely depends I think bronny James timeline is still a little bit uncertain and I know he's not I don't think he'll he would honestly make too big of a difference this year uh with the time he's missed um I see DJ Rodman being that fifth starter though um and being someone who gets a lot of rebounds for them and and I know you just said he's a shooter but I think he's going to be getting uh close to 10 rebounds for them a game hopefully wow wow um Caleb yeah I think this is another really fun team I I don't think it's like that spicy of a take as you said that like Boogie Ellis and Kobe Johnson by themselves would be the best B Court in the Pack 12 and then you throw in Collier um I'm curious to see how Collier does not that I think he's going to like underperform but I don't man in a in a normal class I like don't think he'd be the number one guy um and so it's really tough to to for me to come in and like see projections of him being like an all Pack 12 player I don't like think that's going to happen but I do think the three of them together are going to be pretty interesting and I do I do think Brony would have an impact um I do really like this team though I like kill Johnny Wright I liked him coming out of Sierra Canyon a few years ago and I think like getting Morgan in last year and like bringing being able to bring him back is super important I think the chance of uh iuu playing more than brne James is pretty good um and then Arrington Paige isn't gonna play a lot but like in the long run he was a pretty good Center in high school he played with Collier they played high school ball together and so I think like that connection is going to be pretty important again like I just think this this team almost uh comes down to defense like the last two teams we talked about um it was kind of a little bit more offensive focused with especially some of the shot the shooting on the outside but man with with Boogie and Kobe Johnson like I think scoring is going to be great I think Coler is gonna be able to be really effective off the ball from Boogie um can he be a better passer well hasn't I think so I think like in his Fifth Season he'll be um able to like make the right passes and Coler attacking second side actions is going to be pretty unfair with his like physicality and his explosion off the court um I I would like love to pick this team to win the conference I really like their guards I really like Rodman as the fourth um kind of like fourth the fourth perimeter guy kind of again that like do it all forward um I I don't I don't know if they quite have enough to like take the conference but I do the top four of this conference though is just like really solid and really good and it kind of just going to be like what team gels the most um to to kind of who wins the Pack 12 I think right right you know I mean there's so much potential you know dripping off this team with especially with IA chuku and and bronny James um figuring not to start right away because James uh as far as I know is still hasn't uh you know I know he's begun his rehab but uh I don't think we're going to see him right away or if we do it's going to be very limited minutes uh I mean I've got no I've got no inside information but I would almost assume he like doesn't play this calendar year yeah yeah yeah that's right like at least at least until Christmas yeah yeah that makes sense that makes sense um but you know the back court you know I mean Boogie Ellis is a great shot Creator great shooter uh Kobe Johnson is just one of the best guards nobody in the nation talks about it tremend mendous Defender um and uh Collier you know I think uh playmaking I think he might end up being you know the guy who kind of stir the drink um and he's great at attacking the rim um so yeah I mean this team has a lot um you know a couple stats I didn't mention by the way you know Boogie Ellis uh leading returner in this conference for three-pointers made 8 three uh shot 39% from Deep last year Johnson is the leading returner in steals per game and steel percentage at 2.2 steals per game and I mentioned Morgan is the leading returner in uh shot blocking Andy Enfield um you know we we know he's a defensive oriented coach uh so that's going to be interesting uh but um he's already got some great Defenders uh but I'm I'm just curious about the new guys uh if they're going Buy in but um yeah I mean I think if everything falls right for this team I mean I don't think final four is out of out of the question are you that high on are you that high on Boogie like Boogie and Kobe as the backourt you're kind of like sky the limit for that well and then you got two seven Footers you know uh and then you know uh and and you know bronnie if bronnie I said if everything goes right you know and so that's it's that's assuming bronnie is going to be playing you know 25 minutes a game too you know that's a that's a big if but I do think as as I mentioned earlier uh big big Duke fan and um I remember Boogie was originally originally like six years ago a Duke commit and I was pretty excited for his ability to shoot from off the dribble and off the catch and it's been pretty pretty cool to just see him like continue to grow both in his ility and in his uh shot selection just like every year and just continue to add to his repertoire where like now he's at least in college a a pretty good and above yeah just a really solid three- level scorer yeah well I I love Boogie um I I think he has NBA potential for sure all right so let's move on to uh Oregon and um Oregon uh you know just missed the tournament last year I had to settle for the NIT and they lose kle we uh former top 10 recruit uh five star who had a up and down season last year for the Ducks he moves on to Indiana they have longtime combo guard will Richardson who was kind of like uh the glue that kept this team together for the past four or five years uh he he moves on to the pros Quincy garer uh forward moves moves on to Illinois and raldo Sor moves on to Oklahoma coming back they have nefale Dante the big man in the middle uh he's the conference's leading returner rebounds per game at 8.4 rebound percentage at 8. or 18.3 and player efficiency rating at 28.6 you have Nathan Biddle who was a very high recruit uh finally uh freshman season was marred by injuries last year he you know was playing behind Dante and wear but as they uh Dante got hurt and wear wasn't playing well uh bidd got really good time toward the end of the season showed his ability to and he played mostly at the center uh for those games uh showed his ability to play inside and out um really good player himself uh they also bring back kesan baramy who missed some time last year with injuries Jermaine uh he's point guard uh combo guard Jermaine Kinard uh also believe missed time last year with injuries he's a combo guard and shooting guard uh Brennan Rigsby also returns then uh in the uh portal they got Cario okendo from Georgia he's a wing shooting guard uh tremendous athlete uh great transition player makes some spectacular dunks um and then in the uh their recruiting class features three top 30 players and power forward kwami Evans point guard Jackson Shell stot and small forward Wing mookie cook um all right so what do you make of the Ducks Zack so yeah cook basically um so then when you look at their three freshman mookie cook is not going to be playing until late December at the earliest he underwent ankle surgery uh but if you look at kwami Evans you know he's he's thin right now um but if he fills out I think he could definitely be a post player he's got a smooth jumper he can finish with both hands and he could definitely help on both ends of the floor uh he's definitely he's got a lot of athletic and a ton of length so I think there's a lot of potential there um on the defensive end and then also was just like a slasher and you know a a gunner on the offensive end and then looking at their other freshman and shakes uh Jackson shelstad you know he has an elite handle and so that could help and in the high school he definitely had the ability to score at all three levels so if he can relate that into the NCAA or and show that he can do that here too that'll definitely be a help for them because if those three freshman can step up then hopefully that can help with the the guys that have been there right right um Caleb um what do you what do you make of this Oregon squat maybe this is like a a foretaste of like what's to come later if we actually get down to to kind of brass tax and talk about who do we think G to win but for me Oregon is kind of like my sneaky pick um I I really love shell stad in the back court I know Muki cook isn't ready to start the season um but I think he could be a pretty big addition on the wing a little bit more of a power player like somebody to play in transition versus like a shooter but I a lot of my thoughts really come from my I'm a big believer in Shell stad I like neon do neon DOI um Dante and then I think bidd as you mentioned earlier like bidd showed that he can he can provide some of that outside shooting and so I think like that's going to be a good one to punch um I think kwami Evans might be a little bit more of a long-term project I don't think he's going to be a one andone frankly I think they have enough guards on the perimeter and enough shooting that like shell stead can kind of set the table I I don't know if he's GNA start on on day one I haven't heard um I haven't heard if alman's like comments on that but I think he like long term as we go down the season is probably going to take that starting role um and like to me that's not even a a question I'm not like terribly concerned I think that's where he's going to end up and I think he can do a really good job setting the table and I think clearing out the minutes um in the front court for both bidd and and uh and Dante is going to make that rotation a little bit more smoother than having uh K whale back there and having kind of all three um so I I like really like this Ducks team coming in I really like their freshman class I know there's not an immediate like need but I do think this this particular Freshman Class can set the table um and really take them up another tier um maybe in a way that like another I know UCLA has the has the Internationals but really take this kind of group up another tier um I'm in super intrigued by them yeah I I kind of think that you know uh Evans top 15 recruit five-star guy so I actually think he's kind of the key to this team this season in the sense that I don't think the guards or the wings are big enough to to play four of them together cook cook maybe but we're not g we're probably not going to see him till January so I I don't know if you can start Dante and Biddle together you can on the offensive end because Biddle can shoot but what about the defensive both you know yeah one of them's not gonna be able to guard in the perimeter right effec both they're both seven-footers and Dante is a big man I mean he's like he's like an inshape uh Kofi Coburn um and so Biddle is also a seven-footer so that's why I think you're going to have to see Evans you know play some at the four uh uh and you know I I think that's you know defensively that's going to be necessary uh to get they're going to need somebody to grab rebounds beside Dante and Biddle they're going to need somebody to you know they're gonna need size along with all these other you know ler guys y I'm assuming especially once we get to the inced tournament the the five will be either Dante or bidd probably Dante just because I think he's been oh yeah you know he's been there a little longer and then I think you're you're going to end up see Evans and cook on the wing shell St at the guard like I think by the time we get to the tournament you could legitimately see the three freshman starting and then it's like which one of the returning guards kind of gives them enough um two-way versatility to like plug into that starting five right right yeah and the problem with what's been the problem with barel and Kenard in the past is they're shooting um they just they're kind of like uh I haven't don't know what barel shot last year but I I have them in this my mind they're like 33% three-point Shooters yeah so uh bellam he's a 34 for his career um so yeah uh and Kenard I think is probably about the same so let's move on to Arizona State um they they snuck into the tournament uh into the first four last year they lose uh Desmond Cambridge uh shooting guard to the pros uh DJ horn their combo moved on to NC State uh Warren Washington great shop blocker moved on to Texas Tech Devin Cambridge a wing uh Desmond's brother uh still has one more year he moved on to Texas Tech as well and Austin Nunes uh a point guard uh who is only a sophomore now didn't get a ton of playing time last year moves on to Old Miss Marcus Bagley Marvin's brother uh who didn't see a ton of time uh moves on to the Pros last time I heard I think he was on a on a exhibit 10 of the Sixers um Luther Muhammad uh uh moved on uh great defender former highest state player moved on uh to graduated uh Devin Brennan uh backup center moved on to Grand Canyon and Enoch uh Bou uh I think that's how you say it he is was a high recruit I think top 25 recruit uh who didn't seem to click with Bobby Hurley which many of his players seemed to be and um he moved on to Fresno State and so uh you know I don't think Bobby Hurley is the easiest guy to go along and when you look at all these defections you this is like a team that was going through a coaching change uh what's left is Frankie Collins he's the leading returner in the conference for assist percentage at 30.6 Alonzo Gaffney another Ohio State transfer he's never really lived up to his potential uh and jamaah Neil a wing uh not much left incoming of course there's a bunch of players incoming and to top the list is Adam Miller a shooting guard from LSU had a had a fine season as a as a freshman in Illinois had a Dreadful season last year at LSU which he's not the only player to have a Dreadful season last year at LSU they also bring in Shawn Phillips from LSU uh three three four-star guy didn't play a ton at LSU uh Kamari L comes in I believe Kamari is a sophomore he didn't see a lot of playing time at Louisville I think he's a top 50 guy uh coming into Louisville um so they also bring in some guys who got some significant playing time uh and could be solid contributors I don't expect any of these guys to be stars but uh that would be Zade mix a center from UC USF uh Bryant I'm not sure how you say Bryant's name uh [Music] sellin uh not sure Bryant s Bryant you're you're you're now officially Bryant s yeah s bang I don't know if yeah that's what I was gonna say but uh yeah he's a power forward for Tulsa you know I have seen him play um not a lot of offense but he's he's a rebounder shot blocking type of guy um Bryson long a shooting guard comes in from Houston Christian Jose Perez just joined the team after all kinds of uh weird things going on in Arizona with him uh not so much necessarily his fault but I I thought I heard he was dismissed from West Virginia which is so odd I mean his story we've documented a couple times on the show um but yeah Jose Perez combo guard joins from West Virginia Malachi Davis uh joins from T Tah aie Community College uh pretty good Joo player uh and then of course in the uh in terms of recruits they have a aille Watson a power forward and uh brilon green a shooting guard those guys are both three stars uh they're top 200 recruits um so yeah and so Miller uh I don't know if I finished my thought with him but uh he has yet to receive a transfer waiver uh from the NCAA so their most prized incoming guy um may not play for may not be eligible to play this season so Zach what have any thoughts on this Arizona State team which is basically overturning the roster yeah I always think it's difficult when you are doing that overturn your roster I think that was nine players you mentioned that he that Bobby Hurley had to fill and that's a lot but I do like Bobby Hurley as a coach and I think that he has the kind of grit and mentality to get them to play well together I think think it depends on if they can mesh and you know kind of run what he's telling you know run how he how he tells them and um get to play get to playing the way that they can play yeah yeah um yeah it's just so many pieces to put together and and and Perez just joining the team this week on top of it all uh Caleb what are your thoughts I think Zach said it well a lot of pieces lot of overhaul um I I don't foresee Arizona State making another uh making it back to the tournament I think this team has a lot of talent and I think you you shared that kind of going through some of the new guys like Frankie Collins um big name big-ish name coming out of high school didn't maybe not hit his potential at Michigan but I think like is an interesting Talent Alonzo Gaffney was a I'm pretty sure a top 100 guy coming out of high school like there's some Talent there yeah I thought I I liked Kamari Lans coming out of high school um I think he could be interesting I mean and and all of it again coming back to like Adam Miller is kind of looming over I think without a doubt he has the talent to be the top scorer on the team and kind of be the guy that everybody else orbits around but like if he's not there I don't I don't know who's who's going to be the leading scorer um I think Perez could be interesting just as like a senior as an upper classman right I actually I actually like their their recruiting class in three years but but not but not this year um so I just think like it's gonna it it might be a tough year for Arizona State not that they're going to be a bad team just there's a lot of new pieces and kind of some kind of some personalities on the team that they're going to have to kind of fit around behind a coach that as you said like rubs some people the wrong way sometimes but yeah it'll be I think it'll be a fun team a lot of a talented team certainly yeah uh you know I mean the the back court of Collins and Miller on paper could be you know really Dynamic but if if Miller if Miller doesn't play then you're probably looking at Perez starting um along with Collins and then you're probably looking at Phillips at Center and Lans and Gaffney the forward spots um and you know a lot of ifs there you know you know all those all those guys have never at least to this point have lived up to their potential um and I mean Gaffney looks the part he's got it like an NBA like body but this doesn't produce much just doesn't produce a ton on the court I think he only played I think he played less than 20 minutes last per game last year so yeah so we'll move on to Washington State I'm one of those teams that made the NIT last year and um they've lost uh some if you're not living on the west coast you might not know these names but they were some pretty good players they lost including Muhammad gay uh was drafted by the Hawks Justin pal uh who's on an exhibit 10 he's combo guard uh with someone uh TJ bomba trans shooting guard transferred to Villanova Rodman DJ Rodman uh we talked about uh has moved on to USC and ADR deong um a promising Center another top 100 recruit freshman last year didn't play a lot he's moved on to San Jose State now what they bring back are some uh some good pieces um but I just most of them are kind of like wings and shooting guards so uh I just don't know uh if there's enough they bring back Jade uh Mullins he is the conference's leading uh returning three-point shooter he shot 43% last year from Deep on 4.3 attempts per game uh they have Andre javoski uh or Yak Yakami uh and he uh he's also kind of a shooting Wing um not as good as Mullins but you know he can he can shoot pretty well they have kammani winu a small forward and they also bring back uh miles rice a combo guard didn't play a lot last year um incoming uh is in freshman they have Center uh Ruben chinello uh who is uh three fourar guy coming in its Center they also bring in through the portal Isa Isaac Jones the power forward for Idaho Joseph yapu a shooting guard from Kansas and Jaylen Wells from forward from Sonoma State which is a D2 Powerhouse so uh what do you thinking Zach here uh does it look like they just have enough to compete with the rest of the conference that's my initial thought and like you mentioned I think is is their size they're just when you look at Arizona and even UCLA with who they have coming in you're you're looking at needing you know at least one or two seven-footers and then uh a really good playmaker to keep up with those with those teams and if you have anyone people that are guys that are under seven foot playing Center they're going to have be pretty good and I don't think that these guys that Washington state has the development at that position or the shooting to keep up with the top top contenders in the packed La this year yeah yeah um I I actually think they'll be okay in the shooting Department um you know they were second in the conference last year but like you said size I think is going to be a major issue everywhere else and they don't really have a a point guard I mean miles rice looks right now uh to be their point guard and he has very little experience what do you think Caleb yeah anytime that you lose four out of your top five scorers four out of your top five Playmakers and four out of your top five rebounders it's probably going to be a step back season um and I think that's unfortunate because I really liked the direction that kle Smith was taking Washington State um I like Jade Mullen in the back court I like um yakam Yakami uh I like both of them like you said I think their shooting is not going to be a problem um but I do think the defense and the rebounding and that size and toughness um might not quite be there for them to make a run but I think they could be fun especially at home right right yeah yeah and uh speaking of home uh you know these the teams that play in the mountains usually have a significant home court advantage and next team we'll talk about is Utah they didn't get invited to the n but they could have they were they were definitely right there uh they lose uh Marco Anthony a wing uh to graduation uh he was a tremendous rebounder for a little guy and of course the aforementioned uh Lazar stanovic uh who the wing moved on to UCLA they bring back Brandon Carlson a center power forward uh seven forter uh he's the conference's leading returner and plus minus at 9.4 what a great number they also bring back po uh relly warstore at point guard and he's the leading conference's leading returner for assists per game at five they bring back Wing Gabe Matson uh Power Forward Ben Carlson and uh sophomore Center keba ke I believe ke is a sophomore um and he's kind of he's he can't stretch the floor like Carlson but he's a nice backup good good Defender good rebounder energetic player uh coming in from the port they have Davon Smith point guard from Georgia Tech Center Lawson lovering from Colorado um and Cole Baja from a small forward from Washington good shooter and lastly they bring in freshman uh Jake Wallen a forward uh he's a top 200 guy um so some pieces here uh especially Carlson who might be in the running for Player of the Year in the conference what do you think it's Zach yeah I mean it's going to I think it'll be it'll depend and the fans are going to be looking at their three-point shooting over there because they um they definitely were struggling last year for three-point shooting but and then they also lost Lazar um but maybe some of their guys like Madson and can step up and be good at three-point uh be a good from percentage from three-point shooter this year and help them kind of win a couple games but I don't see them uh placing in the top three in the no no no middle of the pack seem more reasonable to me um you know Baja can definitely shoot um so um I think he's actually an upgrade at the Wing Spot over uh stefanovich but um yeah uh but still I I I see this team middle of the pack what do you think Caleb really good really like you said really good middle pack team probably makes it this year I think returning they returning a couple of guys that I think um give them that continuity and that um and as we've really seen I think over the last couple years in college basketball like the older teams tend to do well and I think that I really think that's going to help them kind of like round out their starting group um so I yeah solid middle of the pack team like nothing crazy but should head to the NIT right right all right we'll move on to Colorado um Colorado uh interesting team and of course uh we will be talking to probably their best player uh a first team All Conference player trist and D Silva but we first we'll talk about who they lost uh we just mentioned lovering is the s um is moving on to um Utah Nik Clifford a small forward uh has moved on to uh Colorado State Ethan Wright shooting guards moved on to the pros and Jaylen gaban uh a wing is graduated so four players um not nothing no one who was probably the best player on that team but Clifford lovering and Wright certainly gave that team pretty minutes uh so returning is a bunch of good players uh in starting off with Tristan D Silva kind of do everything forward KJ Simpson a combo guard uh probably be the point guard this year uh he got he struggled with injuries uh or illness last season missed some games uh hurt them down the stretch Javon Hadley uh good Defender uh Wing uh small forward type uh luk O'Brien a forward to return Julian Hammond a combo guard jbon ruin who had a nice freshman season last year uh returns at wing and Joel Herbert who red shirted last year behind lovering uh big big guy Center uh former top 150 guy uh three star four star guy uh he will uh get some playing time this year uh as I said he R shirted last year now incoming some really interesting pieces first we'll talk about The Freshman coming in and first one is Cody Williams a wing number seven overall on the composite recruiting rankings and Assan JP uh a center uh exactly 100 in the composite rankings and also from the portal they bring in big huge Eddie lamin uh from TCU who actually had U some problems with the coaching staff there last year and actually left the team just before the NCAA tournament which didn't sit well with a lot of people at TCU and yeah we didn't really have any good things to say about him either when he did that uh because TCU really lacks size without lamin um so he gets a fresh start at TCU so Zack uh what do you think about this team it seems to me that uh at least Cody wood Williams uh um is going to probably be counted on for significant minutes here I would think yeah I mean from what I've gathered he's a fluid player he's smooth he's 68 uh I mean he can score and make plays but I've also know that he can facilitate so we'll see if he can make that happen in the Pack 12 and in the NCAA um maybe you know you know get his teammates open and see what he can do uh if he can be a playmaker or kind of where he's going to fit into that offense and if he can help him win right what do you think Caleb I think this is probably starting like starting kind of the next tier um in the Pack 12 I think they're definitely going to be a little lower than Oregon usfc Arizona new way I would probably if we were to like map it all out I think that'd probably have them above Washington State Silva especially if that group is easily the best player um he actually was Colorado's best shooter last year and like almost 40% um I know it's a little bit of a hot take but I'm not that high on Cody Williams um I think he could be a good player in a couple years but I think Jaylen really like Jaylen blossomed late as it was um and and so I think people looked at Cody and saw this like freak of an athlete and was like oh maybe he's going to be ahead of the curve but I still he's pretty raw offensively um and of the Nike hoop Summit games I think he looked a little overwhelmed with the physicality um I think kind of their two the two x factors to me really are going to be uh man let me I had it pulled up it's going to be uh Javon Ruffin and Julian Hammond both of them were in the like s minute a game Mark last year and Ruffin was at like 35% from three and Hammond was at like 34% from three and so with those two really starting to step into a bigger role with um losing right on the wings like I think they could really open up the offense for Silva and Simpson I think guy I don't think he's gonna be really pushing this team offensively um I almost think lampin can be more more important on the offense of in than Cody Williams is like a Down Low like with Silva as a 40% shooter and then lamin being down down low like I think that gives a pretty good inside out combo from your bigs um I like I like Assan jop long term I think he's a pretty good ball handler for a big guy um and I think he's like pretty flexible on the defensive end but he's probably not going to play a big role this year push for a tournament birth I don't know if they'll get there but I do think they're gonna I do think they're gonna push for I like this Colorado team I think they're gonna be a fun team yeah I I think they're gonna fall into a that second tier group it's going to be you know on the bubble all year um I think uh you got the top three and then you got there's probably like three or four teams right below the top three that are going to be pushing to make the T the NCAA tournament on the bubble and I think Colorado will be in that group I agree with you guys about Cody Williams uh he's got a long way to go offensively he's mostly a rim rim attacker and a catch and shoot guy and he has still has a long way to go as a shooter good Defender good athlete um but yeah um I I don't know if he I don't know if it's going to be wise for him to come out this season uh for the draft um KJ Simpson's a scorer and uh he he and S A tied for the team League uh lead and so uh you got two really good scores you know lampkins gonna probably give you you know 12 and eight every night uh and jop is uh you know could be there as well as a as a nice backup because lamin did struggle with injuries at times last year and then they have all these other pieces that didn't play a lot of didn't get a ton of minutes or certainly will get more being more involved get more minutes this year him and Ruff and Hadley uh I think they're all solid players so I think all the pieces are there you know this team's got some insides some outsides got some depth uh got some defensive pieces uh should be should be a good year for Colorado so next up is Washington uh who didn't make the postseason last year uh the good news is they're they're not losing anybody that's they're going to lose sleep over you know Noah Williams uh a wing last year uh he's had in previous Seasons had given them some good minutes but he struggled with injuries last year and actually he's still hurt he's in the transfer portal but no one's picked him up I assume he still not completely healthy uh you have Kenyan uh menifield uh point guard moved on to Arkansas that probably hurts the most because he had a promising freshman year last season uh Cole bosma as we mentioned before Mo has moved on to Utah Jamal May aay uh never quite lived up to his recruiting rankings he's graduated PJ Fuller probably could say the same about him uh and he has shooting guard has moved on to Detroit Mercy they bring back some good pieces um Keon Brooks uh he did a lot of good things for this team he's the conference's leading score at 17.7 points per game also the conference's leading returner and for three throws made at 127 and he made uh made them at a clip of 79% also the leading returner for usage percentage at 28.8 then you have um senator Braxton Mia uh he uh is the conference's leading returner at 70.6 field goal percentage and also offensive rating at 1244 that's kind of deceiving the his offensive rating he's not not he's really a limited offensive player is like is a rim Runner uh putback stuff like that but he you know making 71% of his shots that kind of tends to boost your offensive rating uh they also bring back uh combo guard Corin Johnson and then Frank K Nang um uh who didn't hardly play last year and was projected to be the starting center but since he hardly played and unfortunately kep Nang is still injured and we're not quite sure when he's going to be uh ready to play uh recovering from a knee injury however Washington's bringing in a ton from the portal including uh combo Guard Paul mahe from Ruckers small forward Moses wood excellent shooter uh coming in from Portland severe wheeler uh played at Georgia Kentucky uh little point guard he joins the team freshman shooting guard top 50 guy Wesley Yates joins the team uh Willam breidenbach a power forward Center comes in from Nebraska he was a pretty uh highly Rec recruited fresh or when he was a freshman now I think he's I'm not sure what he is uh they also bring in Anthony Holland uh Wing from Fresno States been a solid player for years and also they bring in a shooting guard Nate colies uh who shot the lights out last year I believe is a freshman at Lamar um yeah he averaged uh 17.7 points per game interesting same number as Brooks uh shot 48 from the field 37 from Deep 76 from the free throw line also averaged 2.6 rebounds two Steals and one. two or excuse me two assists and 1.2 steals per game so highly productive at Lamar uh playing at Washington is a little different but man that's a bunch of a nice group of veterans coming in and yeah the high highly regarded freshman in Yates so Zach what do you what do you make of this Washington team with all all these new pieces plus some pretty good players coming back yeah yeah one thing I found interesting when I was looking at it is that then their first uh in the first part of the Season non-conference play they're going to be playing four top 20 teams going into it so they're really going to find out whether you know whether they mesh well together and what kind of team they are so far looking at Yates I he averaged 20 points in high school and so if he can bring that shooting that would really help uh and so that wood isn't the only one shooting threes for them right right yeah uh Moses wood is a is a great shooter uh has has you know uh could possibly make the you know the NBA um and Mahi is a great all-around guard um some some nice pieces there uh joining Keon Brooks who's already proven to be like an he was second Team all conference last year I I expect him to be first team all conference this year um and they got a lot of they got some some sight uh size and Mia and Kang and Breeden Bach so yeah this team has a lot of you know in shooting and yeah this team's looking round shaping up really well you know it was nice to see from my perspective uh I really don't like it you know the Jim beheim system and of course Co coach Mike Hopkins was worked for beheim for years okay and when he first came to Washington it it just looked like Syracuse West and um he played 99% Zone and uh but this year uh or last year excuse me you know he actually started to move away from that he had a 70 dir split for Zone and man and um I think you know that helps I don't I don't think I personally I I think it's got to hurt recruiting to some extent to know that you're going to be playing Zone all the time um and um but yeah he's starting to move away from that beheim system which beheim used for years but Syracuse as we saw really has kind of fallen off uh in the last five to 10 years in terms of recruiting and success and so forth um so I think he's wising up so Caleb what do you what do you think of this Washington Husky team another team I'm pretty excited for I think offensively they'll be pretty good like I like Brooks coming back um as you talked about with Nate K Lamar is not Washington right that's not the Pack 12 but I do think he's going to be good Off the Bench I like Wesley Yates coming in too I think I think he'll be good I like uh M coming over from ruers like I think that adds some good veteran leadership huge fan of severe wheeler but you know he's a guy that's been around and played in some big games I think another like solid tier 2 team I like what Washington has going here it'll be interesting to see what guys like get a super 60 year what guys kind of like keep it around for the next couple of years um I'm hoping the the center Frank kinak is going to be I don't I don't think I said that last name right I'm hoping he's gonna this year uh it's kep Nang kep n kep Nang I do think I do hope he is healthy um I lik him a little in high school like think he can add some um good good Center down good good run down low at the center position for them yeah yeah yeah it once he gets healthy of course I think some interesting pieces overall yeah yeah all right so we'll move on to Stanford and uh of course we had uh Our Guest uh Spencer Jones uh who's kind of the leader of that team and the nice thing about Stanford is despite you know the their disappointing seasons over the last few years of probably of any team uh in the conference they probably bring back back the most uh they lose Harrison Ingram who forward who moved on to UNC never quite lived up to his very very lofty recruiting rankings uh they lose a point guard Mike okell who really didn't play well the last couple years and Isaiah Silva uh good shooter uh moves on to Long Beach State uh he's a shooting guard um but they return a ton uh including Spencer Jones um uh Maxi uh Max Rond uh a center from France beautiful footwork uh on that guy uh really good offensive Center uh the Brandon Angels good allaround forward Mike Jones solid outside shooter shooting guard they bring back two uh power forwards who gave them solid minutes last year and James ke and Max Morel they bring back Ryan Agarwal who was a pretty high recruit he's a wing uh and Benny geler returns also seldom used uh but may be needed this year to give some minutes at point guard and also they bring back a red shirt freshman uh Jaylen Thompson he was a top20 guy didn't get to play last year and then from the portal they added they added the much needed uh leadership and Lead guard ability of Jared bidm from Providence uh he figures to start right away and also they bring in two prize recruits in Andre sto yakovich uh number 25 in the composite rankings he's a wing and the son of peda sto yakovich and they also bring in Kanan Carlile uh if you guys who watch overtime Elite might know him athletic shooting guard uh and he was number 52 in the composite rankings so Zack what do you make of Stanford they're going to have a uh I think they're going to have a tough time this season but I do think that they will definitely have something to fight for if they you know are a team that likes their coach because like I think you mentioned it but I I don't I think if um the I think if the coach wants to keep his job they're probably gonna have to find a bubble um spot to get into the NCAA um just because of the struggles he's had recently and uh but I do like St yakovich coming off the bench as a shooter and their other freshman that they have as well right right yeah no I I actually didn't uh but hos is definitely probably the coach in this conference who's most on the hot seat for sure he's 112 uh he's only three games above 500 in his time there 112 to 109 in win loss uh this team is definitely overachieved underachieved especially last year I I thought this team was going to be a bubble team last year uh and uh but hos has never taken this team to the NCAA they haven't even made the NIT since 2018 so um yeah what do you think Caleb I mean I think part of the reason for the underachievement over the last couple years has to be at least last year Harrison Ingram not for the last year or two Le living up to what we thought he could be um as his high billing and so you really lose him but you bring back a lot of really good a lot of really good guys a lot of really good pieces I really like Spencer Jones I really like what R can add I think Brandon Angel's got a lot of good a lot of good talent as well like I think those three are a really solid to bring back um I'd love to see if can get some run on the ball especially earlier in the year um either him or uh Benny giler that you were mentioning I I think that point guard spot and kind of that like lead guard setting the table is going to be what's important to them um bham doesn't off does not offer a lot of off the- dribble shooting so he's not going to be really creating a ton of space for other people himself but I do think they have some good shooting I love I love sto yakovich coming to Stanford I think he is a great he's going to be a great college player um and there's not going to be that pressure on him to like come in and be the off the dribble guy from day one but man I think he's a dog he is a competitor I I think it was at the hoop Summit where he was obvious yeah I think it was at the hoop Summit with all of these top high school guys and he's like winning Sprints down the basketball court um in just like Dead Heat Sprints so like even athletically I think he's pretty slept on um man I I think they're probably going to be on the bubble team again I I don't I don't know if I would say like hos really unless they just bot him out I'm not terribly concerned about him losing his job but like I think this team has the you know first of all I I I think this team has the talent the depth the inside the outside uh to definitely be in that second group bubble bubble teams and I think they at least have to make the NIT for him to keep his job um and I I I really do um I mean they haven't even done that since 2018 I know but I think they should be and personally you know when I evaluated uh Stanford last year I wasn't expecting huge things from Ingram I I already learned you know that he's just not the player we thought he was um and so yeah but I I think there was more to it to that I mean hos has just had more talent and he's just never gotten the best out of those guys now I will say when they moved on to the pros uh you know Fair well when they had moved on to the pros a lot of those guys seemingly I could name Stanford player after Stanford player lately that have you know over the last 5 to 10 years who were like you know five-star recruits and they didn't play very well in college and and they still got drafted because they were five-star guys and then they're no longer in the NBA um so yeah it's anyway you know it's Stanford's a tough job because of the the recru of the the academics uh but you know I think what's key to this team if bham I I I know bham is not a great offensive guy but he is a good floor General he is he is gritty yeah and and I I think you know he is the key if he stays healthy and keeps all these other guys because because besides Spencer Jones and B them there's really not a lot of lot of and Mike Jones uh who's a you know kind of a you know he's kind of like a six-man type of guy um there's really not a lot of these guys are young and so I really think but if he can stay healthy and and and run this team properly I think think they could definitely sneak in uh to the NCAA uh and they should be in that group that's it's on the bubble I would not be surprised if they snuck into the tournament and like push for IND tournament bid right right all right now we we only got two teams left and these guys are the guys who uh were living in the basement last year uh Oregon State uh they bring in no one which is surprising uh the the most significant player they lost was Glenn Taylor Wing uh one of their better scores one of their High guys in minutes last year he moves on to St John's now a lot of the guys coming back are on the young side uh so there is a nice base for the future but I just don't see it happening this year uh the the two most interesting guys the two guys that are on our draft board our point guard Jordan Pope and Michael R uh a small forward athletic small forward you probably haven't heard of these guys but these guys are you know were really good last year flashed a lot of potential and they're nice pieces to build around but as I said Oregon State brings in no significant recruits no significant guys from the transfer portal um so you're gonna have a young team here pretty much uh and Pope and R are definitely guys worth watching but I I you know I just don't see a lot of Hope here for Oregon state am I wrong Z no I mean there's one player that did miss the final 23 games last season is a junior he's their Center he's 72 uh Cole Mario yeah yeah so I mean you know if he can come back he wasn't doing very well when he was playing but he's 72 and he missed 23 games so he'll be a senior maybe if he can come back and make any type of an impact or a difference he did Miss 23 games so that would be the only only thing that I could point to right now that would maybe be like them some getting someone new right Cole Mariel was considered a five-star Prospect in high school and he suffered an injury and he's been hampered by injuries throughout when he was at Maryland now at Oregon State um he's just never been able to stay healthy so this is uh it's kind of like Harry Giles kind of story but he hasn't even played nearly as much as Harry Giles uh ever did it at Duke so um yeah you're right though I mean if Cole could actually ever regain what he had when when people were considering him a festar guy uh yeah this team could probably uh you know surprise some people but as of now I'm not counting on that right Caleb uh Oregon state does have one newcomer Thomas indong he's a freshman out of the NBA Academy of Latin America um he played for Canada in the 2022 digit scoring games um but he only averaged like six points and five rebounds um so like is he gonna be a game changer probably not but he could be like an interesting piece down the road um I I really think a lot of a lot of Oregon State's hope to get out of the base is going to come from internal development I liked what I saw at of Pope last year he's a really good shooter especially off the dribble but as you said they don't have a lot of continuity their roster across the board is still pretty young at least from a lot of their big minute guys um they'll probably still unfortunately be towards the bottom this year right right and then we're gonna talk about California who was absolutely Dreadful got rid of their coach long overdue uh Mark Madson former Los Angeles Laker comes in from Utah Valley um I don't even know if it's worth mentioning who California's lost because actually I think this is a case of uh addition addition by subtraction but they've lost a lot of players uh the most interesting uh returner is Devin ASU of course Devin is a a former uh I think he was a five- star uh played to Kentucky um he's kind of been languishing in California had a nice season last year and he gets some help this year uh Matson did a nice job of pulling in people um you know from other schools added one uh a couple of promising freshmen so I'll go over those uh Jaylen Tyson a wing comes in from Texas Tech excellent Defender um he was a former four five star guy um needs to improve on the offensive end but uh this is a guy who could definitely be an NBA player fedar AAC comes in from Texas Tech but he played for Matson at Utah Valley before he TR transferred to Texas Tech AAC is a beast in the paint uh rebounding machine postscoring machine uh he will definitely give this offense uh consistent production in the paint and they bring in Jaylen hes former Virginia Tech Guy former Northern Arizona guy he's a little uh combo guard uh who can put up points in a hurry uh but he's very streaky they bring in Wing uh keante Kennedy from Memphis another solid player and in the freshman class includes Rodney Brown uh a wing top 200 guy and Vladimir pavlovich a point guard uh not ranked because he's a European but he too um might have a positive impact on this team right away because they don't really have a true point guard um maybe I mean asku will definitely be running the show but um in terms of a backup pure point guard they don't really have one that I that I'm aware of so uh pavlovic might play a little more than people might expect so Zack what do you make of the cow bears are they in the basement uh again this year or do they move up you know I'm a I'm a mark Madson fan so I'm GNA say they move up at least one spot maybe not the bottom even though they are projected I think or their odds to win the title are amongst the worst in the NCAA so yeah there's not much hope in that respect um but I'm like I said I'm a mark Matson fan and uh I think he's going to bring some energy and hopefully at least bring some stainability to the program moving forward yeah yeah what do you think Caleb I'm Gonna Bump them up one spot from what from in the conference um I I mean man they are just they're just starting from nothing I do like what Matson brings um into the team I think asku hopefully will be healthier he missed like 15 games last year with a hernia um and at this point he's veteran continue some veteran presence and I think like Con in the back court con's going to be a good score for them and um the the transfer from Texas Tech AAC a and never say his name yeah AAC and Tyson both coming from Texas City yeah AAC I think I mean yeah I think especially AAC like that's going to really give them some good balance on the offensive end especially between ASU come on the outside um similar to you I think pavlovich will be interesting I I don't think he's gonna like be a GameChanger but I think if if ASI sits or I I just don't I don't see them getting above man like even like Utah Washington State Arizona State all of them just kind of have like higher institutional level of return um that I don't in a talent level across the board um that I don't see like cow getting above but I do think there's some really fun pieces there yeah I I think that when you look at a starting lineup of ASU K Tyson Kennedy and ACH that's a competitive starting five uh and I think for sure but then everything then everything gets really iffy and so I think this team is going to Ste deal some wins uh I still think they're going to finish in the bottom four but I don't think they're going to finish in the basement um they're definitely moving immediately in the right direction uh and I think they're going to have a starting five you're GNA have a starting five where you're gonna say you can't Mark Cal as an automatic win this year right all right so let's move on to our predictions who wins this conference Zack I'm GNA go with Arizon I think they're highlevel transfers um and you know with along with Balo I think they're going to take the conference all right what do you think Caleb oh man I like really want to have a spicy pick here I would love to say like UCLA size wins out or I know I was pretty hyped on Oregon earlier I would love to say man the USC's back court steps up as the best in the conference but Arizona's top six top seven is really good um I I know I don't I don't love Caleb love but like I do really like Jaden Bradley I do really like kylin Boswell and and Ballo is just a beast down low and kha Johnson is like the perfect College four um it it has to be it has to be Arizona all righty I too am going with Arizona and I like USC to be the second best team I I think it's going to be close between Arizona and USC and I'm counting on bronny James at least being a uh a decent bench contributor you know coming back at some point and at least giving them you know like maybe 20 minutes a game um and so I think it' be close between those two teams I think UCLA has to be destined for third because they just have any continuity that uh you know compared to Arizona and USC especially so yeah all right Zack who do you think how many bids does this conference give uh you know get and who are the at llarge bids we already know we all like Arizona to get in yeah so I think I'm gonna go with five because I'm going to throw Colorado in there and I'm just going to throw that in there because of what we talked about just today and how high how high some of us were on them and yeah why not um but yeah I think UCLA USC Oregon and then I think Colorado can can sneak in there I like it I like it um I'm gonna I'll just add that right now for you um I think uh yeah I think that's very reasonable how about you Caleb I'm also gonna go with five but I'm choosing a different fifth team I'm gonna go um I like some of the guys they bring in I Moses wood who I forgot mention earlier is also a lights out shooter on the wing I like uh M coming over from ruggers I like y Ki coming in from Lamar um Keon Brooks is probably gonna challenge for Pack 12 player of the year um so I think Washington is going to be my fifth my fifth team from the Pack 12 good call good call and I I like both of your picks I I too uh think my I automatically I'm penciling in USC UCLA so the conference is going to get at least three I think they will get a fourth and that's a tough call for me between Washington Oregon Stanford and Colorado I think all four of those teams will be in play down toward the end of the season I and that's what I think you guys saying that this conference gets five bids is not outlandish uh but I'm gonna go with four and my fourth team is going to be Washington uh I just really like those veterans they're bringing in those are smart basketball players that are joining this team and I think there there's not going to very experienced players and I don't think there's going to be a you know like UCLA's got to bring together a bunch of young guys Washington already got a handful of players that have been there including Brooks and then they're bringing in all these veterans I I'm gonna go with Washington as the fourth team if I had to pick a fifth team I would agree with both of you and my fifth team would be Oregon all right so now let's go to player of the year what do you think Zack I'm gonna go with Balo uh returning as option for Arizona and you know they're they are predicted to win the conference and he's probably going to be their top option so I'm thinking if he can uh produce at that rate then he should be the player of the year right right uh I see you also have Boogie Ellis on your list is he think you think he's a runner up I think he would be a runner up yeah especially if Collier can come in and open up the floor and you know give him even more opportunity to score and be a playmaker yeah I definitely think he can come in second pull close for first too right right I think if USC does win the conference the Boogie will definitely get a lot of votes um all right what do you think Caleb who are your picks you want to pick Boogie Ellis um four of the last winners of the Pack 12 Conference Player of the Year have been perimeter guys um so I think I think Boogie has a really really strong case as you said if USC is in that especially even if they're in the mix for the but at the end of the day I I hate that I have to agree with Zach course Zach oh jeez I gotta go Mar Balo I just no interesting here um I I think just ball down low like he has taken such a jump in his conditioning and like his ability to get um to create space down low to are of out position early in the shot clock and I think like Jaden Bradley is going to offer some good consistent up in places that he's going to score um I know Arizona is going to want to run but kind of that second look that second option every time Arizona come literally every time Arizona comes down is going to be like is balled down low and he's going to be pushing probably 18 and eight 16 eight like that's that's pretty good and pretty consistent and I think Arizona will probably come out on top yeah I think I think it's more going to be like more like 17 and 10 you know he's gonna get more boards this year without telis there there you go all right so I got once again gentlemen I I have I have to I have to agree with you guys uh this is the toughest Player of the Year selection I have made so far and I actually think this award could possibly go to a freshman uh I think that's an outside shot but I think people like Isaiah ker oh Colorado's Cody Williams uh Andre sakovich maybe maybe but I'm gonna go with Balo uh I I think Boogie Ellis will be right there I think Oregon's uh neala Dante will be there and I think Washington's Keon Brooks will be there as well I'm going with Balo uh he's probably going to be the best player in the best team he led the Comforts and win shares last year and if you know anything about uh history you know wind shares is I don't think it's a a number that voters actually look at but it turns out like in the NBA almost always the MVP winner is like top three in win shares um so Balo is the leading returner there um and I just think you know he's going to even produce more without tiell uh there on the inside with him um yeah and uh and don't sleep on this guy's athleticism um you know he he's he's a better athlete than he than he looks um so yeah that's my pick all right so now we wrapped up the conferences but before we wrap up the show we're gonna bring on Tristan D Silva who Zach predicted his team would make the tournament uh and we're gonna I uh interviewed Tristan a couple days ago we're gonna roll that interview and then uh we that will'll wrap things up our second guest today is Colorado forward Tristan D Silva a 2023 First Team all Pack 12 selection as a junior last season Triston averaged 15.9 points 4.8 rebounds 1.3 assists and 1.3 steals per game while shooting 50% from the floor 39% from deep and 76% from the foul line he ran in the top 10 of the Pack 12 for points per game steals per game field goal percentage effective field goal percentage player efficiency rating in Wind shares Tristan how you doing welcome to the show I'm good I'm good thank you for having me sure sure so uh how's it feel to be at the last pack 12 media Day Ever it's crazy to think about I mean personally it's probably going to be my last one and then collectively as a pack is going to be the last one too so yeah um kind of historic yes in a sad way um yeah so how was your summer uh do anything special it was good it was good I mean uh in the spring I was kind of testing the waters uh obviously pull pulled my name uh out of the draft um and then we were working out uh as a as a collective in in Colorado um in in June and July and then I was I was back home for a couple weeks too and then I came back started workouts again and then got right into practice in school so that's kind of my my daily life right now did you say you went home to Germany yeah I was home for for a couple weeks oh what what time of year was that um like July end of July till beginning August did you did you pay any attention to the World Cup of course that's huge yeah yeah unfortunately uh at least the friend of mine who we had on the show coaches uh in the BBL um was telling me that something went down in the world of soccer football and uh there was like a big news story I think it was about the national team and it kind of like over eclipsed the uh yeah they they dropped the news in like halftime halftime of the championship game that they fired the coach right just yeah but um I mean I'm not going to start talking about politics and all that so right right right so uh in in testing the waters uh I can't recall um did you go to any combines or did you just do private meetings or I was I was supposed to um unfortunately I couldn't uh had a had a minor minor injury that that set me back for uh like 10 days to two weeks um and then I ended up working out for two teams okay okay um but you're all healthy now I'm all good now all right good good all right so you know for your career you've made steady progress uh over your first three seasons with the Buffalo last year was a breakout year in terms of scoring overall productivity efficiency what what's the next phase of your development is there is is there a particular aspect of your game that you've been focusing on the off season um yeah I mean there's a lot of there's a lot of aspects of the game that that you can constantly improve every year that's what I'm trying to do I'm trying to stay on that Trend uh that I've that I've been having these past three years and just just build on this past year that I had and and you know kind of improve in every aspect uh scoring decision making rebounding defense um all that just to make sure that we um you know win this year that we that that everything that I'm doing is contributing to winning right right so as far as the team goes um you know I'm going to review for the listeners kind of like where you guys stood you know the buffalo have made the postseason and all three of your Seasons freshman year you went to the NCAA last two years you went to the NIT um of the guys who played at least 20 minutes last season five return including yourself at guard we got KJ Simpson uh and Javon Hadley who both were hampered by injuries last season and they're back after missing some time right they're healthy right yeah and uh then you have uh Javon Ruffin who you know filled in at times last year he figures to play more minutes this season uh and then you have TC TCU transfer Eddie lamin um coming in for the Departed uh Lawson lovering who transferred to Utah and you have highly talented freshman Cody Williams uh probably replacing the Departed uh NE Clifford who transferred to Colorado State Additionally you got two three SL fourstar guys uh joining the team and Joel Herbert who red shirted last year he's the center and power forward assigned uh jop um how do you think this team shaping up and and how do how would you compare last season Squad to this season yeah I think it's a it's a completely different team uh I me we're we're a much younger group but I feel like you know there there's a lot of Talent on this squad and there's a lot of you know um you know a lot of skill and a lot of you know we we have all the set pieces we just got to put it together and be consistent with it and I feel like um you know with with the way things have been going and and practices and all that I have a really good feeling about it so um I'm really confident this year all right is there one particular player who has especially impressed you that's the thing I mean we we go at each other every day in practice and you know it's it's um it's really every every single player that's out there that that's just you know given it all and and really willing to put it all on the line just to just to get the the win at the end of the day um and that's that's what really is is the difference from from last year to this year I feel like okay the overall competitive Spirit and the Talent that's on the team right right right um would you say you may have been on track you know if it wasn't for KJ's and javon's injuries last year I mean you may have even made the ncaa's last year perhaps you think I mean you beat Arizona um but those injuries kind of left you thin at guard toward the end of the season yeah I mean a little bit um you know obviously obviously that hurt us um with with uh two of our main guys being out with with injury or or sickness um in that case um so it it definitely slowed us down but um you know we that's where we're ready this year and we we ready to attack and ready get to get back at it right right um in terms of your role uh do you expect that to change you know for example we know that a good portion of your points last year came in the post lampin is kind of a beast in the paint it's going to be taking up a lot of room down there um so have they have the coaches talked about your role maybe adjusting somewhat this year um probably a little bit you know more more being a ball handler um but at the end of the day I'm trying to I'm still trying to stay as versatile as I am um or as I was last year and I mean that that helped me a lot to to be able to play multiple positions and you know score from from multiple areas on the court um so I'm I'll try to try to keep that up um and just Implement that with with the rest of the guys that we got and the the rest of the the you know skill that we got on the team right right so what would you say is the key to to making the NCAA tournament this year I'll say being consistent uh every single day and you know not not taking games for granted practice for granted um and just knowing that you know every single possession matters and if you go if you have that mentality and you got enough Talent work ethic you're in shape then that's already half the battle I feel like um because if if you're always aware of that then you're never going to take possessions off you're never going to take games off um and then you won't have uh game slip away like we had last year um and you know you you'll build have that are consistent every day and that'll ultimately uh help you stay on that winning track right right makes sense um so you're a native of Germany your brother Oscar played at Stanford now playing in Spain for Barka uh have you two play discussed at all down the road playing for the German national team and would you no I'm serious I'm serious and uh because I was I was talking about that with uh with one of the media people here at the the media day um one of my one of my you know wishes for the future basketball related I was like I'll see I'll see the the Vagner Brothers playing together in Orlando and playing together for the national team and I'm like I want that too yeah so it's it's up there yeah it's um to me it's it's the purest form of basketball and I I I I watched every minute I could good um what do do you have other options like you know your father being Brazilian uh you speak Portuguese uh do you and Oscar have you discussed like playing for Germany or Brazil uh for me that was not really a question um I I know at some point for Asuka was um you know some some form of consideration but um at the end of the day you know we we've lived all our life in Germany so we probably more more bound to that um but technically there there is an option yeah right right and uh German team is in good shape being the world champion so uh yeah I wouldn't I I think I would just just on that note I would probably prefer to play in Germany but uh yeah now yeah for sure all right well I'm looking forward to that I hope that happens for both of you um so you you mentioned uh dreams or or wishes inside of basketball uh my last question is uh outside of basketball uh when you're all done when the career your career is all over I I know for example I know you're a very talented trumpet player and uh you could have possibly gone that direction as a professional so after basketball's over and do you have dreams of like maybe uh pursuing a career in music or or or something else maybe I mean who knows uh I don't really I'm not I'm not sure you can take a break for let's say I'll play 15 years I'm not sure you can play uh you can stop playing for 15 or 20 years and then just pick it back up like that um so I'll have to see on that but um it happens in the movies well yeah I'll keep you updated on how realistic that was yeah yeah well well okay so so what what have you been thinking I mean I know we're talking years down the road but yeah um you know what other goals do you have in life I mean I'm a I'm a I'm a finance major right now so I'm you know I'm I'm kind of building my network at at CU and um you know kind of Dipping my toes into the business World um and that's that's that's the thing that I always find interesting is you know when I talk to to a former players um what they or how they got into you know their businesses how they uh um you know started their their um their companies or or join other people to to um you know bring something on the way um so probably go to that direction um not not exactly sure I I couldn't tell you right now but something that direction okay okay yeah that's good so so you know some people like you know always want to be in basketball coaching stuff or or or or general manager or something like that but you you kind of kind of think you're going to Once basketball's over basketball's over I mean I don't know that yet right okay yeah maybe you know maybe I'll end up being a coach even though coach boy always says we shouldn't get into coaching but we'll see we'll see what happens I don't know so Coach Bo says don't get in the coach that's kind of funny if you're smart enough don't do it right that's what he says right he probably wouldn't trade a day yeah no he wouldn't he loves it so yeah I might SLI yeah I might I might get into into that too right you're 2 you're 21 so yeah plenty of time all right Tristan I I want to make I want to thank you for uh joining us today and I wish you and the team the this season and let's do this uh you know again down the road for sure all right thank you for having appreciate it yeah it was fun thank you oh yeah thank you all right that was a great interview with Tristan um and uh great episode guys uh you have any final thoughts before we wrap it up my final thoughts would just be that yeah I think Arizona is definitely going to take it this season and uh I think we'll see Arizona in the final for wow wow that's that's a hot take I you know I I uh I don't know if anyone I don't know if I'd like any of the teams in this conference for the final four but sweet 16 I can definitely see I'm getting two or three in the sweet 16 um yeah so uh as always I want to thank our listeners and I want to thank our special guest both Tristan the Silva and Spencer Jones if you ever M miss an episode you can get caught up up at Hoops prospects.com we'll be back uh actually we'll be back soon cuz we're going to do our big 10 preview and uh we got a couple special guests there uh so ready to wrap it up gentlemen ready to talk about the Big 10 [Music]