Delicate

Did I spend too much of Wednesday listening to the Kelce brothers’ podcast? Maybe. Is it just a route to bond with my teenager, who thinks about Taylor Swift all day? Sure. What does this have to do with college hoops?

Let's find out.

1. Memphis still not ruling out Mikey Williams

When news emerged this week that 4-star prospect Mikey Williams — still awaiting his preliminary hearing for his arrest on six felony gun charges back in April — was enrolled in online courses at Memphis, the school clarified Tuesday that he’s not officially a part of the Tigers.

However, once the legal process is resolved, the athletic department will “asses and determine his status with the team,” per the Memphis Commercial-Appeal.

Memphis coach Penny Hardaway spent the summer rebuilding his roster with transfers (they’re still awaiting NCAA clearance for DeAndre Williams to play another season), but that stance from the athletic department sure sounds like they’re anticipating Williams will eventually be able to play this season. For his part, Hardaway is playing it cool.

From the Commercial-Appeal:

Hardaway did not comment if his plans for the 2024-25 season included Williams, if it came to that. The highly touted recruit would certainly play a role for the 2023-24 campaign, but it’s hard to tell just how big that role would be given there are three experienced backcourt on the roster in transfers Jahvon Quinerly, Jayhlon Young and Caleb Mills.

DO YOU HAVE YOUR COPY OF THE ALMANAC?

The essential college hoops preview

We’ve promoted The Almanac for months. This college hoops preview, brought to you by The Field of 68, Heat Check CBB, Three-Man Weave and Verbal Commits, is the must-have content to prep for the season.

So why the generic promo? I used a Taylor Swift image to promote today’s Daily on social media and figured we might have a bunch of potential new customers.

For all you Swifties, her favorite team is probably Belmont, the hoops-proud school located in Nashville. You can read about the Bruins here, and it’ll only cost you like 1% of a Eras Tour ticket.

Order here!

2. San Diego State’s encore

When San Diego State made its run to the 2023 NCAA Tournament title game, it served as a mainstream breakthrough for one of college basketball’s most consistent programs over the last 15 years.

The Aztecs have won at least 21 games in all but one of those years. They’ve surpassed 30 wins four times, and reached 10 NCAA Tournaments.

But when you come so close to the sport’s mountain top, and then lose five essential players, how does that program maintain that momentum?

Mark Zeigler from the San Diego Union-Tribune hit on that topic in this feature. Zeigler’s an excellent beat writer, and was essential reading during their tourney run last year.

Reading it reminded me of something that hit on most of the same factors. Oh yeah. This.

This is what every team preview in The Almanac looks like it. A comprehensive overview with insights from the coach, and analysis of what’s ahead.

So here’s the plan: Buy The Almanac, and keep reading Zeigler all season. That’s what they call a win-win.

3. More support for Maui

First, it was Kansas and Illinois playing an exhibition to help those affect by the Maui wildfires. Then Michigan State and Tennessee did the same, along with Hawai’i and Saint Mary’s.

The latest classy move by college hoops programs comes from Texas A&M, Texas Tech, North Texas and Sam Houston State, who are playing a double-header exhibition event on Oct. 29 to raise money for disaster relief in Maui.

The Denton, Texas, event is a pretty cool move by both those four programs and USportsGroups, which is organizing it.

“We are very excited about Compete 4 Cause Classic and the opportunity that this sporting event presents to combine competition and community,” U-Sports Group President Rhossi Carron says. “The spotlight of this charity game, elevated by Coach McCasland’s return to Denton, should raise awareness and provide financial resources that will benefit so many affected by the catastrophic fires in Maui. Additionally, this event will focus on improving the lives of kids in the local community through our partnership with United Way of Denton County. We look forward to utilizing the C4CC basketball platform to impact the lives of children in Denton County as our thoughts, prayers and resources also go to the Maui community as they recover from the devastation of this tragic event."

And the thing is, we don’t need natural disasters to have events like these every year. A handful of exhibitions before the season are a terrific way to do community fundraising, both on a national and local level.

Let’s hope this trend continues past this year.

4. Nevada hoops and … Taylor Swift?

You need to calm down. America’s sweetheart isn’t jumping from Travis Kelce to Kenan Blackshear or anything.

It’s just that the wildest dreams of the owners for the Grand Sierra Resort Arena — a new 10,000-seat arena that will be the home to Nevada basketball starting in the fall of 2026 — are grand designs for their $1 billion investment.

Like playing host to Taylor Swift.

Sure, T-Swift is used to football stadiums, but don’t blame me if she’s enchanted with this (blank) space. This gorgeous rendering of the arena has plenty of style.*

(*For those keeping track, that’s seven Swift song references. I’m trying to get my daughter to read this newsletter. Sue me.)

The Wolfpack have played at the Lawlor Events Center since 1983, but this would be a significant upgrade in terms of amenities (suites, a hospitality club, etc). Whether it holds the same type of home-court advantage — Nevada is 424-145 at Lawlor — remains to be seen.

Could be a cruel summer if not. (eight)

5. Bracketology officially a word

Sports jargon is filled with words an average person wouldn’t know. Football’s the biggest offender, but hoops does its part with stuff like Euro step, charity stripe or posterize.

But sometimes a word breaks through and enters the lexicon.

We’re getting close with “Bracketology.”

Your parents or kids start using bracketology in every-day life might not be on the horizon. For that matter, I don’t know how frequently I use it.

But we’re getting there.

Beast of the East?

When the DTF podcast did its Big East preview, it was a little surprising to hear how emphatically Terrence Oglesby advocated for Marquette as the best team in the conference. Not that he’s necessarily wrong (Shaka Smart’s squad is gonna be really good again), but discounting Creighton and UConn at this time of the year is quite bold.

Subscribe to The Field of 68 on YouTube here and subscribe here to the DTF podcast.

Links as you wonder if I’ve gone crazy.

• We’ve got a handful of 2024 commits: Christian Alston, Micah Davis, Davis Bynum, and Micah Smith.

• The Big East announced quite a robust TV schedule.

• I need to snag a temporary Philly Inquirer account to read this 4-part series about NIL and the Big 5.

• Another one to pay for: The Athletic does a deep dive on Brett Yormark pushing the Big 12 to 16 teams.

Thanks for reading The Field of 68 Daily! If you have a news tip or feedback, email us at [email protected].