College basketball: What to keep an eye one

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By the way, Dennis Cox sitting in for Adam Gold today. I'm going to go in order of basketball games in terms of tip-off time today. So we have a couple 7 o'clock tips and a 9 o'clock tip. We have, let's go to Madison Square Garden first. Let's go to Duke taking on Baylor. So it's the number 21 Blue Devils taking on number 10 Baylor. So I'm going to give you what I like, something I like about each of these teams for Duke, State, Carolina. Something that I like and also something to watch out for.

Something that kind of concerns me a little bit. What do I like about Duke? I love their ball movement. And they're doing a lot of this right now without Tyrese Proctor. Tyrese Proctor has been out since the Georgia Tech game, ankle injury. I don't expect him to play today. He's just getting off of crutches as of a week ago. John Shire said on Tuesday last week that the explosiveness still isn't there, mostly just doing a lot of stationary stuff.

It's going to take him a little bit of time to work back into being back into the rotation. But I love their ball movement and what they generate. Go back to their game against Hofstra, 22 assists on 33 made shots.

I know it'd be like, oh, it's Hofstra. That's still great ball movement. It's still high-end ball movement. By the way, they assist on about 56% of their shots, does Duke this season. But their ability with Roach, with McCain, Caleb Foster, even Filipowski as well, their ability to move the ball quickly and switch, you know, attack one side of the court, get the defense to rotate, swing at weak side and get open looks. It's impressive to me. I like the way they move the ball offensively. Something to keep an eye on.

Something to be kind of concerning a little bit. Low post defense. Christian Reeves, sophomore, 7 foot 1. He's been out for the last couple of games as well. I don't know if he's going to be playing against Baylor or not. That I'm not entirely sure of, but I know he's been out. Ryan Young, graduate, senior, started a lot of games at center at 6 foot 10. Hasn't been getting a lot of minutes off the bench. John Shire really has tightened up the rotation. We're seeing Ryan Young again, who started games for Duke, now in his second season in Durham. Just been getting about six or so minutes the last couple of games.

That's it. So now you're relying on Kyle Filipowski as your top post defender, along with Mark Mitchell. You're asking Filipowski and Mark Mitchell to be your rim protectors. And I know Filipowski is seven feet tall. I know he had three blocks in the game against Hofstra, but how long is this sustainable? To me, Filipowski, he's a stretch four.

Not a five. Not a guy that's going to stand there in the post. And especially when you get the big guys that come in, some of the big, more dominant post players.

I don't know if physically he can handle that. So how long is this sustainable? So that's my thing when it comes to Duke basketball right now.

How sustainable is it down in the low post? I want to see what Duke can do in terms of developing someone else in the big. Maybe when Christian Reeves comes back, maybe they start working it.

Or, I don't know, maybe you just go small ball and you just play up tempo. We're going to see what John Shire does as he adapts throughout the season in terms of his roster right now. But the guy that they're missing, it's Derek Lively. Derek Lively last season, when he came back off his injury in the last half of the season last year, was perfect for Duke because he bought into his role as a rim protector and rebounder as a center and was a lottery pick for a reason. Now, he's having a lot of fun playing alongside Luka Doncic in Dallas right now in the NBA.

He's having a lot of success. I can only imagine how really good, really good this Duke team could be if they had Derek Lively on their roster right now. Alright, another 7 o'clock tip. So by the way, that game is a 7 o'clock game up in Madison Square Garden. But in a game here that's actually being played in North Carolina at PNC Arena, it's NC State taking on St. Louis. Here's something I like about NC State, their guard depth. They have a lot of guys that can handle the basketball and shoot from the, shoot from the perimeter. DJ Horn, Jaden Taylor, guys that transferred in, Casey Morsell, been with, on the team for a few years, Dennis Parker Jr. I don't like him just because we share the same name, but he's a 6 foot 6 guard, kind of plays a little bit more of a 3 because of, because of his height. But also he's a freshman by Cole Connell transfer. Now you throw MJ Rice who's coming off injury. He's a 5 star transfer from, from Kansas. Who's from the state of North Carolina and Cam Woods into the mix as well. A lot of guys to work in, in the backcourt for Kevin Keats, which allows them to play with a lot of speed, allows them to play with a lot of tempo and they can really pressure all over the court. Now you got to play with a small lineup, but you have that kind of depth, which kind of gets me to actually a couple things to keep an eye on when it comes to NC State.

One it's figuring out your rotation because up until about a week and a half ago for NC State. Hello, it is Ryan and I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favorite social spin slot games on ChumbaCasino.com. I looked over the person sitting next to me and you know what they were doing? They were also playing Chumba Casino. Coincidence?

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And it wasn't up until just last week because of the temporary restraining order that the federal courts issued against the NCAA regarding two time transfers. Cam Woods wasn't allowed to play up until just recently. So now you're adding after Horn, Taylor, Morsell, O'Connell, Parker, now you add M.J. Rice and Cam Woods into the mix. Now Cam Woods actually played the most points, excuse me, played the most minutes off the bench for Kevin Keats in their last game. Played 18 minutes, had nine points. M.J. Rice played 13 minutes. Again, he's still working his way back from injury.

So figuring out your rotation is one thing to keep in mind. But my second thing to keep an eye on for NC State basketball right now, can you get more from the low post? D.J. Burns right now averaging over 13 points a game, actually leads the team in assists with 28 this season overall.

But Mohamed Yara, been a little bit banged up, missed a game, only played five minutes in their most recent one. But he's more of a rim protector and a rebounder. And Ben Middlebrooks, the transfer from Clemson, really hasn't provided a whole lot this season. So outside of D.J. Burns, they haven't really gotten much post-production. So that's kind of where things sit right now for NC State.

So a couple of things for Kevin Keats to figure out. He now actually has his full roster for the first time really all season. If D.J. is actually fully back and able to play today against St. Louis. Again, he did play five minutes in the last game, but is he actually full go?

I don't know. To be determined. But there's a lot of guys that Coach Keats needs to figure out how he wants to manage in terms of minutes, how he wants to manage his rotation. And getting more out of the low post for NC State. Nine o'clock tip tonight at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, number 11 in the country, taking on number seven, Oklahoma in the Jumpman Invitational. So home game for UNC, right? Which, by the way, Dukes at Madison Square Garden, pretty much a home game. NC State's at home against PNC. UNC's in Charlotte, basically a whole game. Third straight game versus a ranked opponent on a neutral court for Carolina. Most recently against Kentucky and before that, UConn. The game against Kentucky in Atlanta, the game against UConn up in New York.

Here's what I like about UNC. RJ Davis, Harrison Ingram, Armando Bacott. Those three, for the most part this season, have been getting the job done.

Now there's been a hiccup. I know, like, for example, Bacott against Kentucky, just nine points, six, seven rebounds. But you can pretty much on most nights count on Armando Bacott getting you 15 points and 12 rebounds. You can count on that.

Most of that night in and night out. The Kentucky game was the exception. But those three overall have been providing the scoring throughout this year. RJ Davis is at the top or near the top of the ACC in scoring at 21.6 per game. Dude's playing like an All-American. I think it also helps him that he gets to play off the ball quite a bit because Elliot Cadeau, the freshman who leads the team in assists right now, is able to do a lot of things to allow RJ Davis to play off ball. I think it's benefiting RJ Davis a lot. But he's at 21.6 points per game. Harrison Ingram is shooting over 43 percent from three while also being third on the team in assists, third in points per game, and second in rebounds.

Kind of gives you three-level scoring. And Bacott, like I said, double-double player just about every night. Those three are getting it done. Now, something to keep an eye on when it comes to Carolina basketball going forward, it's secondary scoring. Cormac Ryan, the graduate transfer from Notre Dame, had a big game against Kentucky.

Twenty points. He's in there to be an outside shooter, to shoot three. He was in the slump. But he broke out of it against Kentucky.

Can he back that up tonight against Oklahoma? Elliot Cadeau, the freshman that I mentioned, leads the team in assists as a freshman. He has 40 assists this season. But we're still waiting for that big-time offensive scoring output from Elliot Cadeau. This team will need secondary scoring moving forward. This is a really good basketball team. Really good basketball team. It's the reason why they're right there against Kentucky and right there against UConn. But, again, right there isn't good enough.

Like, hey, we're right there. We're so close to winning. They're going to need that secondary scoring that's going to turn those defeats into victories. This is where you need a guy like Jalen Withers, the transfer from Louisville, to add a little bit more down in the post alongside Bacott. This is where they need Jalen Washington to develop a little bit more. Can Seth Trimble provide a little bit more off the bench?

What about Paxton Wojcik? Some of these guys need to continue to add and supplement those other top three guys with Bacott, Davis, and Ingram. Right now, it's those big three for UNC. They need to get a little bit more secondary scoring, just North Carolina. But, nonetheless, really good team. Really great basketball team, North Carolina.

So, there it is. Duke in action tonight against Oklahoma. NC State in action at home against St. Louis against the Billikens.

And they have Carolina taking on Oklahoma. Big night of college basketball in the state of North Carolina. It's going to be a fun night. Fun night.

I'm excited for it. Park yourself in front of the television and watch basketball. There you go. It's a good excuse to not move for a while and eat snacks.

Yes. I don't know why I throw in snacks, but why wouldn't you throw in snacks? Who doesn't want snacks? Cash prizes every day. Adds up when you play at Pulse Casino. Pulse.com. Over 700 casino-style games and counting.

And no terrible lounge singer. Promise. Hey, that's pretty mean. There's always a new reason to play. Cash prizes every day of the week. P-U-L-S-Z dot com. Pulse in your pocket, you can play anywhere. P-U-L-S-Z dot com. P-U-L-S-Z dot com. Hey, that's pretty mean.