DBR Podcast #639 - The Computer That Says Duke Is #2

Can we start the season already?

The latest edition of the Duke Basketball Roundup features a look at the rankings of Bart Torvik, who plugged a whole bunch of data into his computer and asked it to give him an analytical preseason ranking of every team in college basketball. It spat out two teams at the very top of the heap, the Houston Cougars and the Duke Blue Devils. It even projects how many points per game Cooper Flagg, Khaman Maluach, and Kon Kneuppel will average next season.

But, before that look at ones and zeroes, the podcast gang has a long conversation about the wild, wild west that is the current NIL landscape. Friend of the podcast Brendan Marks has helped write an article for The Athletic that takes a deep dive into the truth and lies behind NIL and the transfer portal, with some eye-opening anecdotes. The DBR guys give you their takeaways from a revealing and troubling look at how college basketball has been fundamentally changed over the past couple years... and the changes show no signs of slowing down.