Take a tour through the world of college basketball as we discuss the major conference powers, the Cinderella hopefuls and even a word about the local teams in the Division II Peach Belt Conference, all in episode one of The (New) Clint Bryant Show:
Time Stamps
00:00 – Introduction
2:30 – Coach mentions unveiling his own Top 25 and the number of unranked teams beating ranked teams this season
3:30 – Saturday’s SEC-Big 12 Challenge
7:30 – Touching on Augusta University vs USC Aiken last week and the Peach Belt Conference race
11:20 – Clemson and Miami to meet this Saturday in Top 25 clash
13:15 – Kennesaw State’s emergence under Amir Abdur-Rahim
18:30 – The College of Charleston’s loss boots Cougars out of AP Top 25
19:45 – No. 1 Purdue and Player of the Year favorite Zach Edey
22:00 – Comparing “Coach Bryant’s Top 25” to the newly released AP Poll
38:45 – The last time Clemson was undefeated at home and the story of Coach Bryant getting first assistant coaching job at Clemson in the 1970’s
53:15 – Coach Bryant’s “best story of the week”
54:15 – Coaches in trouble
We recorded the extensive debut episode of The (New) Clint Bryant Show during Monday’s lunch hour, moments after the weekly release of the latest AP Top 25 College Basketball Poll. But Coach Bryant brought his own top 25 list, which proved to be kinder to the likes of the College of Charleston, and stricter on “blue bloods” like Kansas and Indiana.
For example, the AP voters booted the College of Charleston from the No. 18 slot in last week’s poll all the way out of the top 25 after Saturday’s 85-81 loss to Hofstra. The “Clint Bryant Poll” kept the College of Charleston in the mix at No. 21, giving the Cougars credit for their 20 consecutive wins preceding the slip up.
Meanwhile, the AP voters only moved Kansas three spots down from No. 8 to No. 5 this week. I suppose that’s one spot for each of the three consecutive losses for the Jayhawks leading up to Saturday’s bounce back victory on the road over unranked Kentucky, a fellow blue blood, in the SEC-Big 12 Challenge. Bryant sent the Jayhawks all the way to No. 14 after their recent skid.
There’s a lot of basketball left to be played
Like the AP Poll, the Clint Bryant Poll excludes brand name programs like Duke, North Carolina and Kentucky. And although the AP made room for Indiana (No. 21) and UConn (No. 24), Bryant left them out. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t think those traditional powerhouses won’t make a serious run come NCAA Tournament time.
“Right now we’re sitting here at the end of January… January 30. And UNC and Duke are not ranked in the top 25 in the country, I don’t think, in their poll, the AP Poll, or the Clint Bryant Poll,” Bryant said with a chuckle. “Also, I have Kentucky and Indiana outside of the poll, along with UConn. They all have good teams, and I believe they will make the NCAA Tournament without a doubt. They won’t be the type of seeds that they have been in the past, one, two or three seeds. But last year North Carolina was an eight seed, and they made it all the way to the final game.”
Again, there’s a lot of basketball left to be played
At about the 19:45 mark, right before we started comparing the two polls, Coach Bryant disagreed with me that Zach Edey, the dominant 7’4” center for unanimously No. 1 ranked Purdue, has essentially sewn up the Naismith Player of the Year award. Edey scored 38 points and snagged 13 rebounds in a runaway win over Michigan State Sunday. But again Bryant reminded there is a lot of basketball left to be played.
“Zach is good,” Bryant agreed. “He’s really, really good. But I think it’s a little early to be calling him player of the year already.”
An informed perspective
While the AP Poll has an 87-year history and relies on votes from 63 writers and broadcasters, the Clint Bryant Poll is powered by his 50 years of hands-on experience at various levels of college basketball. As explained in Friday’s preview for the new show, Bryant served as Augusta University’s Athletic Director for 34 years before retiring last June. He head coached the men’s basketball team for the first nine years of that tenure while the program spent three of those seasons in the NCAA Division I Big South Conference, and six in the Division II Peach Belt Conference.
Before coming to Augusta, Bryant served as the Associate Head Coach for the University of Miami for four seasons. And before that he was as an assistant coach for Clemson for seven years. Accordingly, Bryant is looking forward to attending Saturday’s game between No. 23 (AP) Miami and No. 20 Clemson at Littlejohn Coliseum, where he’ll participate in a “Clemson basketball reunion” and be recognized on the court during a break in the action.
Along with a tour around the college basketball world as it’s currently situated, Bryant describes during the episode how he came to land a coaching job at Clemson after playing basketball for Belmont Abbey in college. I don’t know anybody else who can call up stories about coaching against the likes of Michael Jordan, James Worthy, Ralph Sampson, Dean Smith and Jim Valvano. That’s one more reason I’m grateful and excited to have Coach Bryant as a guide through the stretch run of the college hoops season.
