Court Vision is taking a holiday hiatus next week, so consider this one final dispatch from 2025.
Normally, this time of year would mean I’m in a festive mood… but then stuff like this pops up and brings out my inner Scrooge. Bah humbug.
1. The worst take you’ll hear all winter
Joel Klatt, a Fox Sports college football commentator, made headlines this week for what even he deemed “the hottest of all takes that I have ever had.” That is, uh, putting it mildly. Listen to this crock:
🔥HOT TAKE from @joelklatt🔥
“We don’t want Cinderellas. We want the best teams playing each other at the end… The NCAA basketball tournament is a joke. It’s the dumbest tournament and the least fair tournament in all of sports.” pic.twitter.com/8eMwoC8b4N
— The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) December 15, 2025
Deep breath. I won’t pretend to fully understand the machinations of the College Football Playoff, or why two Group of 5 teams are included instead of Notre Dame. That said, I can’t remember the last time I heard someone be so wrong, so loudly, about something that isn’t even in their purview.
Don’t get me wrong: I also loved that the four best teams in America made it to the Final Four last season. Clearly, the country agreed. Florida vs. Houston in the national championship game averaged 18.1 million viewers — a 22.1 percent increase from the previous season — and peaked at 21.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched title game since 2019. When the title’s on the line, everyone wants to see Goliath vs. Goliath.
However, if you surveyed 100 college basketball fans nationwide and asked which NCAA Tournament game or team they remember most over the past two decades, what are you gonna hear? George Mason. VCU. Saint Peter’s. UMBC. Fairleigh Dickinson. All complete non-entities entering March … and legends leaving it.
Yet “it sucks for the fans” when those teams advance? Are you kidding? That’s what makes the NCAA Tournament the best postseason in sports: On any given night, anyone can beat anyone.
The thing Klatt seems to grossly misunderstand is that, unlike in college football or professional sports, there are over 350 Division-I men’s basketball teams, each with vastly different styles and levels of talent. In the CFP, or a pro league with only around 30 teams, there simply isn’t anywhere near that diversity of style or dispersion of talent. That’s what makes college basketball unique, and it’s why the sport has dominated a single month on the calendar for decades. As wild as it looks, sometimes you get 7-foot-4 Zach Edey being defended by multiple dudes 5 feet 9 or shorter.
Also, remember the dialogue from the spring, and how frustrated fans were that last season’s NCAA Tournament didn’t have any Cinderellas? People tune into the NCAA Tournament as much for those moments as they do epic clashes of the best teams in the nation.
If you want to watch flawless basketball at the highest level, the NBA is right there. Chaos, though, is part of the special sauce in college, embedded in the sport’s DNA. It’s given rise to legends like Steph Curry and Sister Jean.
Respectfully, anyone who doesn’t understand that has no business discussing the sport at all.
2. Tennessee’s unsung hero
Not only did Tennessee enter Tuesday night against No. 11 Louisville on a three-game losing streak, but it also did so without starting forward Cade Phillips, who is set to undergo season-ending shoulder surgery. Phillips is the longest-tenured player on Rick Barnes’s team, and although he isn’t a statistical standout, averaging only 3.8 points and four rebounds per game, the 6-foot-9 junior was a key part of the Vols’ frontcourt rotation. It was fair to wonder how, or if, Tennessee would respond.
The answer? A resounding 83-62 win over the shorthanded Cards, who played without star point guard Mikel Brown Jr. Let’s focus on Tennessee, though. Specifically, let’s talk about junior big Jaylen Carey, who might be exactly what Barnes needs.
He’s a 6-foot-8, 267-pound wrecking ball of a human, but one with touch and a second jump that belie his larger size.
Tuesday night, when he posted his second double-double this season, with 12 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and two steals, was one of his best all-around games since transferring from in-state rival Vanderbilt this offseason. He now led the Vols in rebounding (or tied for the team lead) in six of the team’s 11 games, including the past five straight, against the likes of Houston, Kansas and Illinois.
According to KenPom, Carey ranks fourth among all D-I players in offensive rebounding percentage, grabbing a staggering 21.1 percent of available offensive boards. If that holds up for the rest of the season, it would make Carey the most prolific offensive rebounder in Barnes’s 11-year tenure in Knoxville.
Carey can thank his frame and second jump for his offensive rebounding prowess, as he showcased against Louisville. Watch how he out-rebounded three different Cards on this first-half play, despite giving up 3 inches to Louisville center Sananda Fru.
He’s developed into a decent post scorer. At the very least, he’s an automatic mismatch anytime he’s defended by a non-big. Anyone who played pickup at a local gym as a teenager and defended grown adults can relate to 6-foot-4 guard Ryan Conwell trying to provide any sort of resistance to Carey down low:
I also can’t get enough of Carey’s game because of his surprising passing acumen for someone with his physical profile. Including the win over Louisville, Carey has four games this season with at least three assists.
It’s only one example, and Tennessee being in a 3-on-2 offensively tilts the math in the Vols’ favor. However, this is textbook work from Carey on how to collapse a defense in transition and then kick out for the open 3.
Barnes didn’t start Carey against UL, and he may opt not to because of his on-court fit next to fellow big Felix Okpara. Still, Carey’s stock is clearly rising. If the Vols are going to make a run at the SEC title, then they’ll need him to continue ascending.
3. He left a Final Four team before the NCAA Tournament. Now it’s clear why
Blind resume test: Which of these teams has the best NCAA Tournament argument?
TEAMABC
RECORD
8-3
10-2
7-3
KENPOM RANK
29
36
30
TORVIK RANK
35
32
25
NET RANK
34
33
42
WINS ABOVE BUBBLE
1.5
0.7
0.1
Q1+Q2 RECORD
2-3
1-2
1-3
Team A is … Auburn, ranked in the Top 25. Team C is … UCLA, a preseason darling that’s struggled out of the gate. Team B?
That would be … Miami, which has flown under the radar to start Jai Lucas’ tenure and has itself in NCAA Tournament striking range as conference play begins.
What makes Lucas and Miami’s situation more fascinating is how their marriage started. The 37-year-old left Duke before the ACC and NCAA tournaments to start remaking his roster, a choice that, months later, has clearly paid off. Yes, Lucas missed out on a Final Four run, and Duke was down an assistant, but in the current landscape, Lucas probably won’t be the only coach facing such a decision.
“It really ended up being the only way I could have done this, and the only way I feel like we could have been in this situation,” Lucas told The Athletic. “It would’ve ended up being like six weeks or something that I would have missed. (My players) would have all been elsewhere. I wouldn’t have known what to sell because I’m not down there.”
Instead, Lucas made the tough choice and put himself in a position to build a tournament team in Year 1.
Lucas’ first commit, former Indiana big Malik Reneau, proved to be his most important. Reneau leads the Hurricanes in scoring (20.5 ppg), is second in rebounds (6.8 per game) and is managing the rare feat of posting a career-high offensive rating while also taking a career-high percentage of his team’s shots. The rest of Lucas’ transfer haul, guards Tre Donaldson (Michigan) and Tru Washington (New Mexico), plus fellow starting big Ernest Udeh Jr. (TCU), have also been solid, completing a top-heavy lineup that has lost only to ranked teams BYU and Florida.
Miami’s nonconference resume isn’t anything outstanding, with wins at Ole Miss and on a neutral site over Georgetown being the highlights, but it’s solid. It has no blemishes that could come back to hurt the Hurricanes on Selection Sunday. Unfortunately, Lucas doesn’t get to face his old boss Jon Scheyer this season, but Miami still has seven other top-50 KenPom opponents on its ACC schedule.
Win three or four of those, and Lucas may successfully flip the 7-24 team he inherited into one that goes dancing.
Along the way, he’s laid the blueprint for how future high-major assistants might approach the coaching carousel.
“It’s the climate of college athletics and where it’s going,” Lucas said. “You can’t afford to wait. And then the portal with the date and the timing, it’s almost necessary. You have to.”
Jai Lucas left Duke’s coaching staff during the Blue Devils’ tournament run to start working on Miami’s roster. (Matt Pendleton/ Imagn Images)
4. The nonconference goes out with a bang
There are (sadly) no college basketball games from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day, and no nationally consequential ones until the first real day of conference play, Dec. 30. But before the nonconference concludes, we’ve got one more banger weekend. Somehow, I’m 6-4 in game picks this season … and not trying to go into the new year on a losing skid.
No. 22 St. John’s (7-3) vs. Kentucky (7-4) in Atlanta (Saturday, 12:30 p.m. ET, CBS): The Rick Pitino bowl! The Cats finally beat a high-major foe last weekend, knocking off Indiana at home, but I’m not sure if that says more about IU or UK, which still has major shooting woes. The Johnnies remain a work in progress, too, especially on the perimeter, but I trust the Red Storm more, even in Catlanta. The pick: St. John’s
No. 12 North Carolina (10-1) vs. Ohio State (8-2) in Atlanta (Saturday, 3 p.m. ET, CBS): We’d probably be talking more about the Buckeyes if they weren’t on the wrong end of a buzzer-beating 3 against 5-6 Pitt, but OSU still has one of the nation’s most potent offenses when all’s going right. Accordingly, UNC could really use Seth Trimble for this game. The senior guard is back practicing after fracturing his forearm in mid-November and might return just in time to defend Bruce Thornton. Even without Trimble, good luck to the Buckeyes stopping Henri Veesaar and Caleb Wilson. The pick: North Carolina
No. 8 Houston (10-1) vs. No. 14 Arkansas (9-2) in Newark, N.J. (Saturday, 5:30 p.m. ET, CBS): Probably the best game of the weekend, and one that pits Houston’s wrought-iron defense against Arkansas’ (at times) electric offense. Tennessee beat Houston in Las Vegas by living at the free-throw line, and while the Hogs shoot it well from the charity stripe once they’re there, can they get there consistently? Either way, that probably determines the game. I like Houston’s experience against a younger John Calipari team. The pick: Houston
No. 6 Purdue (10-1) vs. No. 21 Auburn (8-3) in Indianapolis (Saturday, 6:30 p.m. ET, Peacock): Steven Pearl is off to a solid start as head coach, but this is as tough a matchup as he could ask for: in Purdue’s backyard, with a work-in-progress defense, against the nation’s most efficient offense. It might take another 25-point-plus effort from Tahaad Pettiford to keep up with the Boilermakers. Purdue has clobbered back-to-back high-major teams after getting embarrassed by Iowa State at home. The pick: Purdue
No. 3 Duke (11-0) vs. No. 19 Texas Tech (8-3) in New York (Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN): The Red Raiders have lost to all three Top 25 teams they’ve faced, but Cam Boozer vs. JT Toppin should be worth the price of admission. Tech’s defense has been uncharacteristically leaky, and the Blue Devils have simply been top-to-bottom better. The pick: Duke