I was standing next to Big Joe at the Arch Madness final last year, and Malik Yarbrough was trying to shake and bake and dribble drive through three defenders to the basket, and Joe said, "That's right. Do it yourself. Try to do too much." Yarbrough got his own rebound, in part because the shot was so bad after it was put up in desperation around defenders. And he tried to go up again, through two or three players, and Joe said, "Come on, try it again.... You can do it all yourself......" And the two or three people around us all laughed because that's EXACTLY what he did.... try to score by himself through three defenders.

Yes, I know Yarbrough is very talented, and most players can't guard him one-on-one. And he gets a LOT of assists from drawing a single defender and dishing off. But he doesn't have much discipline, nor do a lot of ISU players. And they're particularly bad at the beginning of the season, when they seem to have forgotten over the summer and fall all the things that work well in team-oriented ball.

By the way, they just released their non-con schedule today. If ISU comes out of the gate and beats both Florida Gulf Coast at home and Belmont on the road (where Belmont is 172-27 since opening their building), I'll take notice.

Grambling barely cracked the top 300 in Kenpom last year. I'm shocked they are so high in this.