I don’t worry about talking to myself. Muttering to myself is another matter.

If freshman football and men’s basketball players would be well served academically by being ineligible athletically, wouldn’t the same be true for athletes competing in other varsity sports?

A year in college focused on studies before being allowed to compete is an idea with merit, but please pardon my cynicism. Creating the rule only for football and men’s basketball smacks of limiting the choices of the athletes who tend to have them more than most.

Would rosters, and therefore scholarship limits, be expanded for football and men’s basketball to assure teams have enough people to compete?

Probably, and balancing the number of people in each recruiting class would have more than a little extra importance than it has now. Recruiting classed can’t be re-balanced via redshirting if everyone is redshirting.

Wouldn’t that allow major programs to stockpile more talent than they already have?

Why, yes. Yes it would… And oversigning would move from tactic to art form.

Have the other varsity sports been exempted from the eligibility discussion because they can’t support the cost of additional scholarships and other expenses they create?

That’s the least cynical answer I can conjure for their exclusion. It isn’t as if soccer players or the women’s basketball team spend less time on their sports than other scholarship athletes; so even though restricting their freshman eligibility might be desirable too, the practical matter of paying to have another six or seven soccer players when the sport doesn’t pay for itself might prevent making the change.

Would NCAA members expect the NFL and the NBA, especially the NBA, to revise draft eligibility rules to keep athletes in school longer?

The NBA instituted the age limit because so many of the high school players they drafted, while talented, had no idea how to play the game. Quality of the product suffered. A year in college without playing would recreate that problem, so I’d say that the status quo is a major inhibitor.

If not, what would one-and-done basketball players do?

The NBA Players Association doesn’t want the NBDL to be a minor league in the sense that baseball has minor leagues. It sees the D-League as additional jobs for fringe players that it doesn’t want filled with prospects just out of high school. A few high school players have opted for European professional leagues as an alternative to college, but that’s a difficult transition for most 18 year olds and an equally difficult challenge for a family if it wants to move to support a son. There might be an opportunity for an entrepreneur to start an age group professional league, and it could succeed as long as Isiah Thomas is kept as far away from the league as possible.

Will there be freshman teams, freshman games, and freshman coaching staffs?

So much for academic altruism if there are. For most freshmen, these games would represent more playing time than they have now; and they will practice just as often.

Eliminating Jerian Grant from consideration because I’m biased in his favor, who are the best ACC player of the year candidates?

A lot of people will be on the Jahlil Okafor bandwagon, but I won’t be one of them. Like most freshmen, Okafor needs work on defense… lots of work. There is a difference between having defensive flaws and being a liability on defense. The latter is a disqualifier. Okafor is an incredible talent who will be a great pro in a few years. I’d vote for him to be ACC prospect of the year.

Pre-injury Justin Anderson (UVa) would have been high on my list. That leaves me considering Rakeem Christmas (SU), Terry Rozier (UL), and Olivier Hanlan (BC). I like Christmas (who doesn’t?) because he does so many things well. He scores, he rebounds, he defends, and he’s efficient.

How are the pre-season rankings looking today?

The pundits results are, so far, mixed. The AP preseason top 10 was, in order, Kentucky, Arizona, Wisconsin, Duke, Kansas, North Carolina, Florida, Virginia, Louisville, and Texas.

Kentucky, Arizona, Wisconsin, Duke, and Kansas have been approximately as good as they were expected to be. Virginia has been a top team all season, but that’s only a little better than it was expected to be. North Carolina has been inconsistent and disappointing, and Louisville is a mess at the moment.

Florida has a losing record, and Texas is 17-10 overall and only 6-8 in the Big 12. They are decidedly not the top 10 teams they were supposed to be.

Are Gonzaga (3) and Northern Iowa (10) really as good as their rankings?

Nope.

Which is the best men’s basketball conference this season?

Every conference is top heavy this season, so it doesn’t take a lot of depth to make a claim.

That’s a claim the SEC can’t make. Kentucky is outstanding, perhaps a team for the ages; and Arkansas is pretty good. Texas A&M and Ole Miss aren’t bad, but Florida’s flop has the conference out of the discussion.

The Pac-12 isn’t as good as the SEC. Arizona is very good; but every time I look in on the other conference contenders, I change the channel as I shake my head.

I’m suspicious of every team in the Big Ten that isn’t named Wisconsin, but I respect several of the coaches of teams in the top half of the standings. Decent conference. Maybe a good conference. Not nearly the best.

The best is either the Big 12 or the ACC. I think it’s the ACC, but it isn’t the ACC by a lot.

The Big 12 having 10 teams vs the ACC with 15 makes the ACC a tougher gauntlet. Its schedule creates more legitimate opportunities to lose, especially on the road. The Big 12 goes five deep with solid teams led by Kansas, Iowa State, and Oklahoma. The ACC goes somewhere between 7 and 9 deep with solid teams depending on what you think of Pitt, Miami, and/or NC State; and Virginia, Duke, and Notre Dame are the best top three in any conference.

Keep that in mind as you evaluate Notre Dame’s season. Nobody outside of the ACC has a road schedule that resembles playing at North Carolina, at NC State, at Pittsburgh, at Duke, and at Louisville.

Is the Big East a major conference anymore?

Not really. It’s more like the Atlantic 10 than the Big Ten nowadays; but that’s still pretty good… and it’s much better than the AAC. UConn has to be wondering how it went from major conference powerhouse to getting its brains beat in by SMU and Tulsa in such a short amount of time.

How are Notre Dame’s best non-conference opponents doing?

Massachusetts is decent, 16-11 overall and 9-5 in the Atlantic 10 which is good for fifth place in the 14-team conference. The Minutemen have lost their last two games and are unlikely to make the NCAA Tournament barring a conference tournament run.

Providence is pretty good, 19-9 overall and 9-6 in the Big East which is good for a third place tie with Butler. The Friars beat Butler in January, so their season ending showdown has a chance to be important for the postseason.

Michigan State is tied for second place in the Big Ten with a 10-4 record, 19-8 overall. The Spartans have no quality nonconference victories; and they have some head scratching games such as the loss to Texas Southern in December, a loss to a very poor Nebraska team, and the need for overtime to defeat Northwestern.

I wouldn’t have predicted it after the Irish trashed Purdue 94-63 in December, but the Boilermakers might be the best team Notre Dame played outside of the ACC. They are 18-9 overall, 10-4 in the Big Ten, and tied with MSU and Maryland for second place in their conference. With games left vs Rutgers, Ohio State, Michigan State, and Illinois, a 13-5 conference record is not far fetched. Neither is an 11-7 record, but let’s boiler up and be optimistic.

In what ways has Notre Dame improved over the course of the season?

There aren’t many statistics that favor the Irish in the conference season compared to the non-conference season; and that is to be expected because the game-in, game-out competition is so much better during the conference schedule. For example, three point shooting was 42% in non-conference games compared to 39% in conference games. That isn’t a big drop, but a drop would be expected due to more intense defense and generally better athletes contesting shots.

Thus the improved percentage of assisted shots in conference games is noteworthy. Going into the Syracuse game, ND had assisted 55% of its baskets in ACC games compared to 52% in November and December. If a drop is something to be expected, then an increase of a few percentage points is a nice accomplishment.

Most ND fans understand that this is a good passing squad, but they might not realize is that the percentage of assisted baskets is historically low for a Mike Brey team. The percentage usually is in the mid sixties.

Why is the assist percentage low? It starts with the post. Most of Brey’s teams had a credible (or more than credible) post scoring threat, so halfcourt offense started with feeding the low post. The post man either took the opportunity to score or, if the defense double teamed him, initiated a passing game that found an open man via rapid ball movement.

There is no post scoring threat this season. Instead we have seen penetration from the guards with an eye towards scoring. There still is plenty of good passing, especially from Grant, but it isn’t as necessary to scoring as it has been in the past. This team is unselfish by nature but not by necessity.

Also in the spirit of being good with the ball, Notre Dame’s assist/turnover ratio has held steady at 1.7 for the entire season. That’s tied with Pitt for best in the ACC for the whole season and second in conference games to the Panthers’ 1.9. In short, the Irish take care of the ball.

Is rebounding going to improve by tournament time?

There’s always a chance.

What happened vs Syracuse?

Commence muttering.

Have you enjoyed chatting with me as much as I have enjoyed chatting with you?

I sure have. Let’s do it again sometime.