re: Tide Hoops | Please Anchor

quote:

---

Pelicans, John Petty Jr. Agree To Exhibit 10 Deal

The Pelicans are signing undrafted rookie John Petty Jr. to an Exhibit 10 contract, a source tells our JD Shaw (Twitter link).

Petty spent the last four seasons playing his college ball at Alabama and was a two-time All-SEC player. As a senior in 2020/21, he averaged 12.6 PPG, 5.2 RPG, and 1.9 APG on .420/.370/.734 shooting in 32 games (31.1 MPG) for the Crimson Tide. He went undrafted in July.

New Orleans has three open slots on its preseason roster after cutting Wenyen Gabriel, James Banks, and Malcolm Hill on Tuesday, so Petty figures to slide into one of those spots.

Petty will likely be waived before the regular season begins and looks like a good candidate to end up playing for New Orleans’ G League affiliate, the Birmingham Squadron.

---

LINK

My mom went to Alabama, and my dad went to Georgia Tech. So I'm just hoping everyone has a good time.











Just kidding. Sorry, Dad. Roll Tide.

quote:

---

I think JQ was playing better than anyone to close out last season. I could be wrong but, I think he starts because of his experience and leadership.

---

And in what role did he do his best? Not saying he won't start, but as Oats has mentioned repeatedly, starting isn't what matters. It's minutes, and he'd get plenty of that no matter what the situation is.

quote:

---

Shaedon Sharpe, the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2022 class, is strongly considering graduating early and joining Kentucky for the second semester of the 2021-22 season, source tells @247Sports.

---

Interesting possibility, but he still wouldn't play until the following season.

quote:

---

College basketball No. 1-358 rankings: Preseason countdown concludes with top 68 teams for 2021-22 season

The 2021-22 college basketball season is going to provide us with unique freshman talent, a re-emergence of blueblood powerhouses, the best parade of big men the sport's seen in a decade, a Gonzaga team that's good enough to finish what last year's group couldn't, the send-off season of Mike Krzyzewski, the first FULL season of games in two years, a stream of surprises and another 200-or-so fun storylines that will emerge over the next six months.

But before we can get to that, we've got to wrap up the business at hand. It's time to take the cover off the top of my rankings. Below you will find the 68 projected best teams in men's college basketball in 2021-22.

Here you'll find the Final Four big boys, the NCAA Tournament long shots, the inevitably disappointing No. 8 seeds, the mid-major party-crashers, the under-the-radar Sweet 16 chasers, the sleepers, favorites, well-kept secrets and don't-over-look-them treasures ... all just waiting to be watched in this glorious, cosmic-gumbo of a season ahead.

Whereas the first two installments went from ranking the better teams at the top and worked their way down, we're going to flip this and do a true countdown here, starting with No. 68 and winding our way to No. 1. Without further ado!

---

quote:

---

9. Alabama: This is what the best season in program history gets you: top-10 respect the next season. Nate Oats lost some quality players but has enough returning -- and a top-15 recruiting class -- to allow me to be a little daring and project the Tide so high. What hurts: No Nimari Burnett. A torn ACL will keep the Texas Tech transfer/likely sixth man sidelined. Even without him, SEC coaches told me Jahvon Quinerly will emerge as a top-five player in the SEC, with Jaden Shackelford not so far behind. With five-star freshman combo guard J.D. Davison also in tow, Bama should have the best backcourt in the SEC. Early indications are Furman transfer Noah Gurley is bulking up and ready to play the 5 for a team that famously goes all-in on layups, dunks and 3s. The reigning SEC champs will be heavily tested. I expect them to have 28-30 wins by the time their tournament run ends.

---

LINK

quote:

---

My 12 toughest teams to rank in the top 100:

» Alabama
» Duke
» Dayton
» Ole Miss
» Michigan State
» Georgetown
» Louisville
» Arizona
» Texas Tech
» Rutgers
» St. John's
» Nebraska

---

Do we have a spy for the closed scrimmage this weekend?

We bitch slapped Ga Tech last year in this contest and raised a few eyebrows. It was a harbinger of things to come. A loss would be disappointing to say the least. It shouldn’t be much of a game but we need to start well unlike Nate’s first couple of seasons.

I’m looking for a ceiling of 8-4 in the non-con part of the schedule and anything less is possible. We should contend for the regular season title again and make the tournament without a sweat.

But this is AL-A-BAMA BASKETBALL, where anything is possible as long as it’s heartbreaking. Get ready!

Georgia Tech is still supposed to be decent so temper your expectations a little because we got a lot of new guys who are learning what it takes to win at this level consistently.

Who will be the spy? We gone need some updates or something

quote:

---

I gave my opinion just like you and I guess you missed the part where I said I could be wrong. This team lost a lot of pieces so his role could change.

---

Wasn't trying to offend you. I'm just saying that him not starting wouldn't have anything to do with him not being good enough. I'd have him as the safest bet for best player on the team, but some guys just do really well off the bench. If he's willing to accept the role then I could definitely see it happening with JD and Shack back in the fold.

Oats has shown that he likes to start games with defensive intensity and JD has a much better chance of providing that. It's also great to have the offensive spark-plug off the bench which Quinerly provides in spades.

I'll caveat this by saying I have zero confidence in projecting the starting lineup at any position, but it seems crazy to me that people think there's no chance JQ isn't starting because he was so great last year even though he didn't start last year when he was at his best. We didn't even have a good PG option at the time like we do now. I just think people overrate the starting status is all.

quote:

---

Oats was quoted as saying who starts doesn’t matter at all, it’s who is going to get the most minutes and at crucial junctures in the game

---

I believe strongly that four "crucial juncture" players are JQ, Shack, Ellis, and Gary. After that, not sure.

Yeah I was disappointed with that as well. I’ll probably buy tickets for that game though as long as we don’t come out of the gates looking like shite