TCQ MAILBAG 11.20.2014

It's just you and me, right?

"The UK love-fest is well-deserved and won't (nor shouldn't) stop any time soon."

UK can kick rocks and all that, but that team is stupid good and also gigantic. I'm sure they'll drop a game or two one night when they may not be as locked in as usual but this team will be the favorite in every game they play from now until the end of March and I'm totally not saying this in an effort to jinx them.

Michigan State. Izzo is a great coach but I don't think he's got the talent to stay in the top-25 very long this year. Unless Dawson and Valentine are going to be consistent threats to score night-in and night-out for the first time in their careers, I don't see how they get enough points on the board to win consistently in the Big Ten. If the Spartans' roster was being coached by anyone else, they probably don't get the benefit of the doubt that Izzo is currently getting. It's not undeserved, but I firmly believe they're under-gunned this year.

I'm sure all options are on the table when it comes to getting rebounds, Crean has spoken multiple times about the best rebounders being the ones who see the most time on the court. Whether Jeremiah April is the answer is something I'm hesitant to agree with. He's played 7 minutes across four games and looks every bit of the raw freshman he was advertised to be. Unless he's been able to establish himself as someone Tom Crean can trust on both ends of the floor despite missing so much time with injury, I'm inclined to doubt he plays very much this year.

This staff has obviously done an excellent job off the court and during the offseason with developing the t-shirt cannon from a physical standpoint, but we know that working out in the gym makes little difference if you can't translate it to on-court success. I'd like to see the t-shirt cannon get into the balcony with a little bit more consistency in practice before I'd be comfortable with giving him major minutes. I think All-B1G is a little premature but he'll be right there next season.

#WellActually it's called the "Victor Oladipo machine thingy."

Any time you lose a Heisman-caliber player, it's a tough loss, especially for a program that doesn't enjoy a vast array of 5-star talent coming to the campus every year. That said, it comes down to how ready the young guys behind him are to carry a larger load. We've seen this year that the young receivers weren't quite up to the task of fully replacing the likes of Cody Latimer, Kofi Hughes, and Ted Bolser, hopefully the transition won't be as touch for the running backs, who aren't as quarterback dependent as receivers are.

I don't have an answer for this question, it just made me laugh.