Friday’s 2025 Final Four Notes And More
Tick tick tick...getting close!
You may know that Kon Knueppel comes from a basketball family - both of his parents were legends at their schools and his uncle, Tod Kowalczyk, was the first to offer Kon a scholarship (to Toledo).
You may not know that Kon didn’t like basketball until he played it on NBA 2K. Kids today...
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This kind of slipped by us, but Duke’s Justin Robinson is of course a San Antonio native as his father, David, spent his long and legendary basketball career with the Spurs. He now gets to go home for his first Final Four. How cool is that?
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He hasn’t gotten the sort of attention that brother Cooper has, but Ace Flagg is a pretty good player in his own right. He’s committed to Maine for next season and will continue to polish his own game. He’s in San Antonio with his parents to watch Cooper hoop.
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We saw a list of the greatest Blue Devils the other day and while most Duke fans would put Christian Laettner first for obvious reasons, but Grant Hill was not second, which was ridiculous. Even today, Hill is the single best talent Duke has produced.
In a nice note, he’s re-upped with TNT. The contract is simply called long-term, but Hill is knowledgeable and well-liked. It’s great news.
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In 2022, as Jon Scheyer kicked off his head coaching career, he was looking for a team to play in a “secret scrimmage.” He picked a team that “would be the toughest test. They’re the toughest test because of their coach. Their coach is as good as it gets in college basketball period. I admired from afar how they defended.”
That team is Houston and now they will meet in the NCAA tournament. And color Sampson impressed as he gets to something incredible that Scheyer has accomplished: “I’ll tell you how good a job he’s done. Nobody ever talks about Coach K anymore.”
That’s a phenomenal accomplishment, and Mike Krzyzewski helped to make it possible by carefully planning the succession.
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Florida has had a great year and what’s kind of frightening is that they are redshirting the tallest player in the history of NCAA basketball: 7-9 Olivier Rioux. He’s got a lot of work to do, but he can move and he can dunk without jumping. And he’s going to be insanely difficult defensively. However, you can bet on this: guys are going to line up to try and dunk over that guy.
Pat Kelsey had a big first year at Louisville and now he’s building for the future. Kelsey has portal commitments from Adrian Wooley (Kennesaw State), Ryan Conwell (Xavier) and now Isaac McKneely (Virginia). He’s also got a commitment from 5-star point guard Mikel Brown, ranked the #6 player in the nation. Look out, world, here they come.