Eye On College Basketball

Parrish and Norlander were all over the country this week, covering top-five matchups in person and reporting on them for CBS Sports. This special Saturday episode leads with Kansas beating Tennessee late Friday night at Barclays Center. From there, the guys get to Virginia's 6-0 start (10:03) and what happened in Vegas with Michigan State, Texas, UNC and UCLA (13:06). On the other side of things,...

The undefeated talk is over. Duke didn't make it past Thanksgiving without a loss. No. 3 Gonzaga beat No. 1 Duke 89-87 in the championship game of the Maui Invitational. Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander lead this Thanksgiving podcast with that -- and give their thanks to the listeners, of course. From there, the guys got into what worked for Gonzaga and evaluated Duke's freshmen both on Wednesday a...

At the top, Norlander and Parrish open on Hawaii. Then it's on to Villanova (12:42), which lost again on Saturday — to Furman. Also 2-2: Syracuse (20:49). The Orange lost to UConn and Oregon at Madison Square Garden. Which team is more disappointing at this stage? Speaking of disappointing losses, Indiana let one get away at Arkansas on Sunday (26:07). How about the 3-ball this season (31:18): tea...

Friday's episode leads on arguably the most shocking result of the season so far: Michigan's 73-46 win at Villanova on Wednesday night. From there, Parrish and Norlander touch how good Tennessee's looked to star the year (16:30), get into Zion Williamson's hilariously ridiculous statistical pace so far (17:45), and move on to Ohio State (24:40), which has the best two road wins of any team in coll...

Georgetown went in and got a road win at Illinois on Tuesday night, doing so behind the entertaining play of freshmen duo James Akinjo and Mac McClung (:50). It's been a long time since the pod talked about the Hoyas. Parrish and Norlander also get into the Big Ten's quality start (16:30) before transitioning to Thursday night's key game between Syracuse and UConn (21:48). Also at MSG on Thursday...

After a weekend with a few notable upsets, Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander open with West Virginia being the only ranked team to drop a game to an unranked team. Then it's onto Auburn (8:20), which looked great Friday night in an 88-66 win over Washington. Oh, and Duke freshman Zion Williamson (13:01) got 27 points, 16 rebounds, six blocks and four assists in Sunday's 94-72 win over Army. Just an...

Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander address, for the first and likely only time this season, some of the absurd early talking points already bubbling up around Duke. They open with the reaction to the reaction of Duke's debut, then get into some unexpected trivia about starting lineups on past Final Four teams. From there, they touch on the Justice Department giving the go-ahead to the NCAA to start i...

No. 4 Duke's 118-84 win over No. 2 Kentucky was record-setting in many ways. The Blue Devils' freshmen showed up, showed out and exceeded the hype. And now Duke should probably be No. 1 in every legitimate poll out there. For Kentucky, yikes. How concerned should John Calipari be? Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander provide immediate reaction from Indianapolis after they watched Duke go supernatural a...

College basketball has finally wised up and made the adjustment to its schedule that benefits the sport best. For the first time in the modern era, college hoops will start its season on a Tuesday night. The Champions Classic is the big event -- but there are four other really good games happening elsewhere. Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander offer up their thoughts and predictions on Duke, Kentucky,...

You need this episode, college hoops fans. It's the final piece of wide-ranging preseason college basketball content to hold you over the final weekend without college basketball until April. Matt Norlander and Gary Parrish get into some of the big and small predictions that they expect to see as early as next week and as far off as the national title game. The season is ALMOST HERE!

Is the R.J. Barrett love overstated heading into the season? Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander open this episode by discussing the CBS Sports All-America teams and focus on Barrett's widespread recognition as a preseason national player of the year. They get into their picks, look at the POYs in years past and also try to identify the one player not on the A-A list who has the best shot at being a F...

Now it's time for hoops hoops hoops. Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander get into what we can expect for 2018-19, and they start by discussing Final Four darling Loyola-Chicago. Ramblers overrated? Not here. Norlander has them at 63 in his 1-353 ranking of every team in the sport. The guys also ask: Which preseason top 15 team is most likely to miss the NCAAs? Which team outside the top 20 is best sui...

A shock wave was sent through college basketball on Wednesday when Jim Gatto, Merl Code and Christian Dawkins were all found guilty on seven total counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Matt Norlander has been covering the trial from Manhattan, and he and Gary Parrish react to the verdicts and also lay out why this case was tipped in the government's favor from the get-go. Do those three men r...

There is a boatload of new information to get to -- and we've got some on-court preview content as well. Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander open this week's episode by extensively discussing and picking apart just what happened in federal court during week three of the college hoops corruption trial. it was troubling for Kansas and LSU especially -- but Duke is suddenly a part of this story, too. Zio...

Two critical government witnesses took the stand this week in the case of US vs. Gatto et al., which is the massive trial that has college basketball collectively curious, if not nervous. Matt Norlander was in New York City all week to watch and report what happened. On this podcast, he and Gary Parrish discuss the biggest statements and evidence brought to light this week. In short: it wasn't goo...

It's been a few weeks -- but the guys are back! Matt Norlander had a second child, so the podcast went on a brief hiatus, but he and Gary Parrish are in typical rhythm as they catch you up on the start of the highly anticipated federal trial in connection to college basketball corruption. Oregon was named, as were others like Arizona and NC State. The start of this trial brings up interesting plot...

On this episode, Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander dive into some details with Rick Pitino's new book and debate over what it really accomplishes. They also touch on the dilemma surrounding Loyola-Chicago. Final Four darlings from last season, the Ramblers had a hard time scheduling in the non-conference for 2018-19. Most big-time programs wouldn't play them. Is this a reality we should just accept,...

Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander have a fun-loaded, nearly hour-long podcast heading into Labor Day Weekend that touches on a number of topics. In recent weeks, the duo has published their annual Candid Coaches series over at CBSSports.com. It touched on the FBI investigation, Rick Pitino's next job (in coaching?), the new NCAA rules, the best coaching hire of 2018, and who coaches pick in the Jord...

On Wednesday, the NCAA officially announced the end of the RPI era. The Division I men's basketball selection committee will now use a new metric, known as NET, to rank and sort teams for inclusion to the Big Dance. So what is NET, why is it better, and where did the NCAA still come up short? Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander give you a detailed but easy-to-understand overview of what awaits for Mar...

It's a pretty slow time in college basketball right now. No coaches are on administrative leave. No notable players have been arrested. There's not much going on. But Kentucky just wrapped a four-game trip to the Bahamas. And Duke is in the middle of a three-game trip in Canada. So Matt Norlander and Gary Parrish had no problem getting 20-plus minutes out of those two things. Some fun developments...

The NCAA on Wednesday announced sweeping changes to college basketball's bylaws and recruiting calendar -- and new legislation that gives more entitlements to student-athletes. But how much will it matter? Will it solve any problems within sport? Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander answered those questions in this episode. The announcements created some nice headlines that'll possibly fool the uninfor...

Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander spent the week in North Augusta, S.C. and took in their annual viewing of the Peach Jam. There is speculation and real concern from virtually every coach they spoke to that the NCAA is going to overhaul July recruiting to the point where coaches are no longer allowed to attend tournament events that are held by apparel companies. What's the NCAA up to, and will they...

Welcome back to the pod. On this episode, Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander try to get to the bottom of who should be No. 1 heading into the season. Kansas has a good case, but Kentucky's could be better. And why not Gonzaga, though? The Bulldogs just added a coveted transfer for next season. The guys get into all of that, plus have a discussion on college stars who are stumbling to start Summer Lea...

Matt Norlander and Gary Parrish open with discussing Wendell Carter Jr.'s mother's comments about how she was "pissed" when Marvin Bagley III reclassified, enrolled at Duke and caused her son to play a secondary role. After that, the guys discuss ... 18:45: Thanks to the late additions of Reid Travis and Ashton Hagans, Parrish has Kentucky ranked No. 1 in the CBS Sports Top 25 (and one). 24:20: An...

Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander have a 56-minute podcast entirely dedicated to the 2018 NBA Draft, including an opening debate about what is happening with Michael Porter Jr. Is a hip issue now affecting his stock? Norlander says he wouldn't draft him. Parrish is torn. They get into Deandre Ayton's case (is it so convincing?) as the top prospect, and try to predict two top-10 projected picks who w...