CBB With Danny Z: Wild Week Of Postgame Rants, Cooper Flagg Wants Another Year And More
Another week in college basketball, another epic array of fantastic content. As always, there's too much to cover, but I'll do my best in this week's edition of CBB With Danny Z.
Have thoughts on college basketball that you want to share? Shoot me an email at dan.zaksheske@outkick.com or a tweet @RealDanZak.
College basketball coaches let loose during their postgame press conferences
The story of the week, to me, was how many major college basketball head coaches just let it rip during their postgame press conferences. Of course, you had to expect that UCLA head coach Mick Cronin would be one of them, since he does it all the time.
But he wasn't alone! Notre Dame head man Micah Shrewsberry got so animated that he eventually smacked the microphone off the table and then just bounced.
Enjoying these? Good, because we're not done! Arkansas head coach John Calipari was also fed up and let loose to the media following his team's loss against Texas A&M.
Room for one more? This one wasn't during a postgame press conference, but rather in the locker room. And it didn't happen this week, but back in December – however, the video surfaced this week.
St. John's coach, Rick Pitino – a major contender for Coach of the Year – laid into his team at halftime of a game against Providence. The Red Storm trailed by 13 points at the break, but apparently, Pitino's fiery speech got the team going, and they rallied to win with a big second half.
Cooper Flagg says he wants to return to Duke for another season
Wait, what? The presumptive No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, Duke freshman sensation Cooper Flagg, says he wants to play more college basketball?? Huh!?
Welcome to the world of NIL, where it's not as financially irresponsible for players to stay in college rather than bolt to the professional ranks as soon as possible. And, according to Flagg, he's down for another run with the Blue Devils.
Now, it's only February. A lot could change for Flagg over the next couple of months. If Duke won the NCAA Tournament, he might want to head off to the NBA. That being said, it might also matter which team wins the NBA Draft Lottery.
If it's a team for which Flagg doesn't want to play, he could roll the dice next year. Again, because he's making millions in NIL money, he doesn't have to jump to the NBA immediately. That being said, he's still in for a massive raise by going pro rather than staying in college.
Could Cooper Flagg actually stay at Duke for another season rather than head to the NBA Draft?
(Imagn Images)
But this is a terrific sign for college basketball if star players would rather spend more time at that level than just be a one-and-done. There's no bigger star in the sport right now than Flagg, so his decision could reverberate for future athletes, as well.
There's a lot riding on his decision, for him, for the NBA, for college basketball… don't expect him to take it lightly. As someone who prefers college basketball to the NBA, I hope we get another year of Flagg at Duke.
Bad beat of the week…
There weren't as many terrible beats this week, especially compared to last week, and there weren't many bad beats in major conference action. Although, depending on when you bet Kentucky/Texas, this one could have stung…
That's pretty bad, but the line in the game moved quite a bit due to players being ruled out with injuries prior to the game, so that one might not have affected that many bettors.
So, the bad beat of the week goes to Akron -3.5. The Zips led Central Michigan by 9 with just 38 seconds left on the clock. Somehow, 16 points were scored in the last 30 seconds and too many of them were by Central Michigan. Here's the heartbreaking final play:
Some of OutKick's great college basketball coverage this past week…
- Illinois Coach Brad Underwood Makes Interesting Comparison Between Cooper Flagg And Caitlin Clark
- Terrence Shannon Drops 'Upside Down' Charity Merch, Poking Fun At Jersey Ceremony Flub
- Struggling With Free Throws, Wofford Center Resorts To Shooting Them ‘Granny Style’
- Louisville Cardinals Forward James Scott Dons "Bane" Mask Following Injury
Roundball roundup…
Doug Gottlieb tracker…
Hey, Doug Gottlieb and the Green Bay Phoenix finally won a game! Prior to Sunday's win over Wright State, Green Bay's last victory came on Nov. 19 against SIUE, 89 days prior. But Gottlieb managed to stop the bleeding before the losing streak reached three months.
With that win under his belt, Gottlieb was feeling himself, posting on X "15 more games to go."
The only way that Green Bay has 15 games left is if they run the table in the Horizon League tournament and then win the NCAA Tournament. Let's just say, I'm skeptical that's going to happen.
But, hey, you can't have a 16-game winning streak without winning the first one, so who knows??
Brad Underwood pulls extremely classy move after loss to Wisconsin…
After the Illini lost to Wisconsin, Illinois head coach Brad Underwood canceled the customary postgame handshake between the two teams.
For those who thought Underwood was being a sore loser, he wasn't. Quite the opposite, in fact. Illinois' entire team was dealing with a terrible illness and Underwood wanted to protect the Wisconsin players from further exposure.
Well, that's it for me this week. Just a heads-up that I am on vacation next week, so CBB With Danny Z will be taking a short break. But we'll be back before the start of the conference tournament season, so don't you worry.
Indiana's Mackenzie Mgbako probably wants these two shots back. Well, at least one of them…
We covered the hilarious notion that the SEC is .500 in conference play as a league, because that's how math works, but I'd be remiss if I didn't share Kentucky head coach Mark Pope playing into the joke…
Want to see something included in a future "CBB With Danny Z"? Shoot me an email at dan.zaksheske@outkick.com or a tweet @RealDanZak.