Rutgers looking to get back on track versus Seton Hall

Rutgers basketball faces Seton Hall this weekend.

After losing their first road game of the season on Wednesday, Rutgers basketball is looking for redemption on Saturday night. The Scarlet Knights are set to face Seton Hall as the Big Ten program looks to end their two-game losing streak.

Entering this matchup, Rutgers will need to be a lot better defensively. In their last two losses to Wake Forest and Illinois, they allowed 152 points. They have not scored more than 58 points in a game during that span. On Saturday night, things will not get any easier as Seton Hall is undefeated at home.

As Rutgers looks to end the Pirates undefeated run, Clifford Omoruyi is one player to watch. He has been a rebound machine this season but only scored 11 points in his last two games. Getting him back on track will be essential for the Scarlet Knights offense.

 

Additionally, Rutgers will be tasked with containing Kadary Richmond. The Brooklyn native is averaging 15.1 points per game for the Pirates while shooting 50 percent from the field. In Seton Hall’s last game against Baylor, he scored 18 points.

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While the Pirates are favored in this game, Rutgers is hungry for a win. Saturday represents a perfect opportunity for the Scarlet Knights to conquer their road demons and record their first win of December.

Aggregate NBA mock draft 2.0: Paolo Banchero, Chet Holmgren, Jabari Smith battle for No. 1

In order to help us get a better sense of where all of the projected top prospects in the class stand as of right now, we compiled mock drafts from ESPN, NBADraft.net, CBS Sports, The Athletic, Bleacher Report, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo, Basketball News and USA TODAY Sports Media Group’s For The Win.

Please note that these rankings reflect the composite score to get a feel for consensus, not our own opinion.

Since our last update, the players who have improved the most spots are Ismael Kamagate (Paris), Moussa Diabate (Michigan), Azuolas Tubelis (Arizona), Hugo Besson (New Zealand), Efe Abogidi (Washington State),  Iverson Molinar (Mississippi State), Justin Lewis (Marquette), Max Christie (Michigan State), EJ Liddell (Ohio State), and Ochai Agbaji (Kansas).

The most notable prospects making their debut on our rankings are Trevor Keels (Duke), Bryce McGowens (Nebraska), MarJon Beauchamp (G League Ignite), Keon Ellis (Alabama), Christian Koloko (Arizona), Wendell Moore (Duke), Blake Wesley (Notre Dame),  Josh Minott (Memphis), Zach Edey (Purdue), and Johnny Davis (Wisconsin).

Some of the top prospects who did not make the cut this time included Hunter Sallis (Gonzaga), Brandon Huntley-Hatfield (Tennesse), Kobe Bufkin (Michigan), Mouhamed Gueye (Washington State), Jahvon Quinerly (Albama), Adam Flagler (Baylor), Jaylin Williams (Auburn), Matthieu Gauzin (Le Mans), Isaiah Wong (Miami), Marcus Williams (Texas A&M), and Tyson Etienne (Wichita State).

Otherwise, you can learn the latest updates on every single prospect who has been included in recent mock drafts by scrolling below.

HoopsHype’s Alberto de Roa contributed research to this report

2022 NBA Mock Draft 2.0: Predicting all 59 picks, starting with Paolo Banchero

After a few games, we have a much better idea of how prospects like Paolo Banchero and Chet Holmgren will be used until the 2022 NBA draft.

After a few games, we have a much better idea of how prospects like Paolo Banchero and Chet Holmgren will be used until the 2022 NBA draft.

Preseason mock drafts, like the one we published back on Aug. 11, are especially challenging. Predictions are mostly guesswork based on uninformed priors until we’ve seen the usage of how each coach will implement the prospects we are evaluating.

Additionally, several players used the offseason to work on certain skill sets (e.g. Kansas’ Ochai Agbaji is now a much better shooter) in ways we couldn’t have projected.

As such, even though it’s only been a few games, it’s a lot easier to discuss the 2022 NBA draft now than it was even just last month. The season is underway for college basketball — and the G League Ignite, Overtime Elite, and several international leagues —  which means draft boards are shaping up.

After a ton of movement, as of right now, here is how we see the 2022 NBA draft unfolding.

Draft order is pulled from Tankathon. All stats are accurate as of 11/22/21.

On top of that, sources have told The …

On top of that, sources have told The Athletic that Kadary Richmond is closer to 6-foot-7 now than the 6-foot-5 he was listed at when he was with Syracuse. The big concern with Richmond is the jumper, but his disruptiveness on defense and ball skills give him a pretty high floor. Seton Hall is another team I think the polls are drastically underrating in the preseason. The Pirates didn’t get a single top-25 vote in the preseason despite a team loaded with older perimeter players such as Jared Rhoden, Bryce Aiken, Jamir Harris and Myles Cale. With Richmond around as well, they have every opportunity to be the second-best team in the Big East behind Villanova.

6 bold predictions for the 2021-22 men’s college basketball season

While predictions can be a fool’s errand, we’ve got some takes we wanted to get off our chest before the season officially kicks off.

The men’s college basketball season is one of the most chaotic times of the year for sports fans because it is always so unpredictable.

This year will be especially fun — there will be more fans in the building, which means we’ll see some wild stuff from student sections around the nation. It’s also the last year that Mike Krzyzewski will coach Duke and the first year Hubert Davis will lead North Carolina.

While predictions can be a fool’s errand, we’ve got some takes we wanted to get off our chest before the season officially kicks off.

2022 aggregate NBA mock draft: Debut ranking of all notable prospects

The 2021 NBA draft class finished their first go-around in the summer league, which means evaluators are fully focused on next year’s class.

The 2021 NBA draft class finished their first go-around in the summer league, which means evaluators are fully focused on next year’s class.

In order to help us get a better sense of where all of the projected top prospects in the class stand as of right now, we compiled mock drafts from Bleacher Report, Yahoo, The Athletic, Yahoo, SB Nation, NBADraft.net, CBS Sports, and USA TODAY Sports Media Group’s For The Win.

Please note that these rankings reflect the composite score to get a feel for consensus, not our own opinion.

Collegiate teams who had more than two players appear on a mock were Auburn, Baylor, Duke, Kentucky, Michigan, Tennessee and UCLA. Three players will be on the G League’s Ignite roster and one is on Overtime’s Elite squad.

Additionally, seven players are rostered in Spain and four are playing in Australia’s NBL. There are also three players on Serbia’s KK Mega Basket included.

Freshmen one-and-done candidates who didn’t make the list but could climb on to join during the season: Harrison Ingram (Stanford), Trevor Keels (Duke), Bryce McGowens (Nebraska), Josh Minott (Memphis), Kowacie Reeves (Florida), Bryce Hopkins (Kentucky), Nathan Bittle (Oregon) and Jeremy Sochan (Baylor).

Some of the most notable collegiate returners who were snubbed from these rankings: Marcus Williams (Texas A&M), Jonathan Davis (Wisconsin), Kofi Cockburn (Illinois), Zach Edey (Purdue), Adam Miller (LSU), Colin Castleton (Florida) and Tyson Etienne (Wichita State).

Relevant international prospects to know who were not included below: Fedor Zugic, Lefteris Mantzoukas, Jayson Tchicamboud, Nikita Mikhailovskii, Yoan Makoundou, Tom Digbeu and Makur Maker.

Otherwise, you can learn the latest updates on every single prospect who has been included in recent mock drafts by scrolling below.

HoopsHype’s Alberto de Roa contributed research to this report

Main Image: Coley Cleary / USA TODAY Sports Media Group

2021 NBA Mock Draft: Predicting all 59 picks, starting with Chet Holmgren

Let’s look ahead to next year’s draft.

We are only a couple of weeks removed from the 2021 NBA draft and it’s silly to publish a mock draft for next year. But let’s do it anyway.

Because frankly, far away as though it may seem, ten months can go by fast. Although a lot is going to change, some things stay the same. For example, I published my first mock draft of the 2020 cycle in May 2019 and all three of the first projected picks heard their names called within the first three picks nearly fifteen months later. Much of the rest, of course, is utterly wrong and embarrassing. But it is still helpful to track progression and regression.

Before we discuss the next crop of future NBA talent, however, let’s address the elephant in the room. You have probably noticed that the headline said this mock draft highlights 59 picks. No, that isn’t a typo.

Allow me to explain. The Milwaukee Bucks have forfeited the rights to their second-round pick in the 2022 NBA draft due to violating league rules regarding an attempted transaction made back in Nov. 2020. While it sucks for the additional person who is going to go undrafted, undrafted free agency isn’t the worst thing.

Otherwise, the order of this draft was determined by reversing the NBA futures odds courtesy of Tipico SportsBook. The teams whose odds fell outside the eight best in each conference composed the projected lottery. Meanwhile, all picks involved with previous trades were included in the order as well.

Another quick housekeeping note: My mock drafts tend to be fairly data-driven. But that can sometimes lead to some blind spots for evaluating prospects playing outside the NCAA (e.g. high school, AAU, FIBA, etc.), which made pre-season mock drafts particularly difficult.

That’s no longer the case thanks to the help from our fantastic new partners over at Cerebro Sports, a stats and analytics resource that scrapes box scores to determine how top basketball prospects have stacked up against all their previous competition.

With all that in mind, far away as we may be from draft night on June 22, here is how I see everything shaking out just based on what we know so far:

30 of the best college prospects who won’t be declaring for 2021 NBA draft

A look at the big names you won’t see in this year’s draft.

As we approach the early entry deadline for the 2021 NBA draft, we have a sense of which players are set to return for another year of college basketball.

While scouts are more focused on the draft on July 29, evaluators around the league already have tabs on the best prospects that will continue their time in the NCAA next season.

Note that this list does not include notable names who have declared for the 2020 NBA draft but are just “testing the waters” like Isaiah Jackson, Miles McBride, Marcus Bagley, JT Thor, Matthew Mayer and Jason Preston.

Instead, the following players have either announced that they are returning or are expected to return to their team for the upcoming 2021-22 campaign:

2021 NBA Draft Big Board 2.0: Top prospects playing in March Madness

This includes some names to watch in the men’s tourney.

March Madness is set to begin, which means for college basketball fans, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. But it’s also one of the busiest times for scouts and executives around the NBA.

Last season, the men’s NCAA Tournament was canceled due to COVID-19, which makes the stakes even higher for those involved in this year’s event. It will be a fascinating few weeks of basketball, all unfolding in Indiana, and the games are sure to further illuminate who may be most worth targeting in the 2021 NBA Draft.

But in addition to the spotlight of college basketball fully underway, we have now also seen the entirety of the 2021 G League season. That included the inaugural campaign for the Ignite, a pathway to the NBA for top talents who sought an alternative to the NCAA. Their exciting playoff run taught us more about prospects including Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga.

So with those results in mind, and with the college basketball postseason on the horizon, we have ranked the Top 100 prospects most likely set to make the jump to the NBA next season.

Our methodology for the rankings includes conversations with folks around the league, learning the general consensus surrounding a player, as well as a deep dive into stats and game film.

To put everything in perspective, we have also included everyone’s previous ranks from our last update, published on Jan. 22. This helps show whether a player is trending up or trending down and also helps illuminate how much can change in just two months of action.

As the madness begins during the men’s NCAA Tournament, follow along to see how these players are performing, as many will make a case to move up or down once the nets are cut on Apr. 5, 2021.

5 college basketball players improving their draft stock ahead of March Madness

Included: Oregon’s Chris Duarte, Baylor’s Davion Mitchell and more.

As college basketball is set to turn the page from a strange regular season to the start of the March Madness tournament, we wanted to take a look at the players who have improved their draft stock of late.

Last time we did this exercise back in January, we highlighted a wide range of candidates, extending from raw sophomore big man Kai Jones to polished sharpshooting senior wing Corey Kispert.

This time, we have taken a similar approach, including upperclassmen and underclassmen alike. These are the players who may not have been on the minds of executives before the season but who have played their way into serious consideration.

We have also added some honorable mentions who are likely top targets in the 2022 NBA Draft but would qualify for this group if they opted to turn pro after this season.

Note that all statistics are accurate as of games before March 2, 2021.