What We'll Miss Most During the 2015-16 College Basketball Season

It's pretty cool that we're right around the corner from actual college basketball. Enough predicting of things, and more than enough actually watching and seeing results.

There's so much to look forward to, as we know.

The shot clock has been reduced, which means there's belief—but still ample reason for skepticism—that more offense is going to come back across the country. Picking up the pace hopefully means something.

Also, given that talented players leave campuses so early, college basketball hinges on coaches and their personalities. Bringing in bright, well-known leaders such as Chris Mullin (St. John's) and Avery Johnson (Alabama) can only help. However, we also wonder if they'll succeed in their new environs sans previous collegiate experience.

Then we have the Texas hiring of Shaka Smart, which makes Kansas' plan of keeping that Big 12 title streak alive even more intriguing.

Maryland should draw similar scrutiny and praise in a significant uprising of the Terrapins. You want individual talent? We give you Ben Simmons.

So much to anticipate.

But still, there are things we'll miss.

Personalities. Angst. Teams with dreams. There are a few of them with zero innocence this season that will be talked about for all the wrong reasons.

You may have noticed the picture above. We'll miss that Kentucky team too, though probably not for the same reasons across the country as the fans will in Lexington.

So here it is. You're already looking ahead. Fair enough. But we'll take one more glimpse at things we'll long for this season.

Fred Hoiberg's Suaveness

Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press

Not many guys can make the checkered dress shirt look so cool. Or make Ames, Iowa, look like such a high-action place to be (outside of Hickory Park).

But that's what Fred Hoiberg brought back to his hometown.

It's funny to think how crazy we—media, fans, skeptics in general—were when ISU was down-and-out and opted to bring in the never-coached-before Hoiberg to rebuild his alma mater (in a town where he grew up, too). Not many thought it would work.

But in five years he became a transfer's haven and an antidote to miserable offense, going 115-56 and building quite the rivalry with Big 12 kingpin Kansas.

ISU fans can't be too mad. After all, they know (however unspoken it may have been) that Hoiberg had designs on getting back to the NBA (outside of being a player or front-office executive). And he handed Steve Prohm the keys to a sleek car that should get some great mileage this winter.

We'll miss the ESPN Big Monday interviews with Holly Rowe. In raucous arenas, Hoiberg always looked unfazed, no matter the circumstances—shirt perfectly crisp (hair, too) and a Midwestern drawl that played down his competitive streak and ability to rally a team.

Not since Right Said Fred have we considered someone being too sexy for his shirt. But Hoiberg brought a downsized yet still valuable personality to the sidelines of the college game.

Now, the question is if he'll get to dance in Chicago. On this, we sure hope not. That's about the only negative thing we can say about the guy.

Kyle Collinsworth's Triple-Double Mastery

Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

Full disclosure here: I Used to cover BYU at the Provo (Utah) Daily Herald, so it was great to see Kyle Collinsworth take aim last season at a unique NCAA record.

He produced his season record-setting fifth triple-double on February 7, getting a 23-12-10 against Loyola Marymount.

Then March 9 he added his sixth of the year (vs. Portland) and in the process tied a career record with Michael Anderson (Drexel) and some other guy named Shaquille O'Neal.

Becoming the solo record holder is going to be a lot tougher, and it sure seems like he's going to have an uphill battle getting No. 7.

That's because Collinsworth is going to miss Tyler Haws. The school's all-time leading scorer—who surpassed Jimmer Fredette—graduated.

There goes more than 33 percent—68-of-197—of assists Collinsworth produced last year. That's been calculated by yours truly, doing a review of every BYU play-by-play book from last season.

Haws was a terrific mid-range shooter who could also score off his own dribble. His effective field-goal percentage was about 53 percent, per Kenpom.com. What Collinsworth had was a surefire guy to get assists to.

Mind you, we're not saying Collinsworth—a 6'6'' senior guard—will have a worse year or even that the Cougars will for that matter (they were knocked out in the First Four after a stunning second-half rally from Ole Miss). But his role will change (more scoring), and the guys he'll be passing to won't be consistently as money as Haws was. Teams may try to force the ball out of the hands of "Big Russia," but can his teammates capitalize?

Chase Fischer is a streaky three-point shooter. BYU's inside presences, while talented, are young. It would help Collinsworth to have freshman Nick Emery—a scorer in Haws' mold—develop quickly. But it's going to be a different dynamic.

If Collinsworth produces one more triple-double this year, it would be a big deal. He had a perfect team and a perfect storm to do it last year, when only 19 triple-doubles were produced in Division I, and nobody except him had more than one.

The Fun-Loving Nigel Hayes

Associated Press

That's Nigel Hayes above, on the left, enjoying a great laugh with Sam Dekker.

Man, that was a fun team—fun-loving, comfortable in their own skin, worthy of being considered a champion.

And now we're left to wonder what kind of Hayes we'll get. Will he still be a stenographer's dream or vice versa?

Hayes will bear a significant brunt of the pressure after Frank Kaminsky and Dekker went to the NBA. There's the ongoing speculation about how much coach Bo Ryan has left in the tank.

What is known: Hayes is a classic Ryan player. He's gotten steadily better during his stay in Madison. The former Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year transformed into a third-team All-Big Ten selection last season as a sophomore.

He'll be all over preseason All-America boards to begin this season. A lot of respect, and laughs, came with being the Badgers' third-best scorer and No. 2 rebounder.

It sure seems like we'll have to see a more serious Hayes this year. Hopefully, not too much. But we'll miss him flirting with the beautiful stenographers of the world, and hopefully he'll get that chance again with another postseason bid. But could this season come anywhere close to being as fun?

What we have to wonder about Hayes' game is if he is up to the challenge of being a bigger focal point. Even when teams couldn't focus on him, his 54 percent field-goal percentage (inside the arc) was considerably behind Kaminsky's (58) and Dekker's (63).

A True Villain Like Kentucky

Associated Press

There are programs that just seem to get everyone's best, every night.

The Dukes and Michigan States of the world, among a few select others.

But then there are those 2014-15 Wildcats, arguably the most polarizing assembly of talent since LeBron's first year with the Miami Heat.

Kentucky had NBA talent galore but also college experience. We got to know a lot of those guys for considerably more (by today's one-and-done standard) than many teams.

You say Duke is the standard this year? Well, yes, the national champions could be considered that. But then, there's no revenge to be had against the likes of Jahlil Okafor. No justice to be served against Justise Winslow.

It's just not the same.

But last year's UK team was special. You have to agree, whether you were pro-Wildcat or not.

Four first-round picks, led by Karl-Anthony Towns, and that was the start of a six-pick draft night that matched a special 2012 championship team.

When I was on assignment for Bleacher Report during the second weekend of last year's NCAA tournament, it was amazing how a convivial bar in Syracuse, New York, suddenly was glued to the TV as Notre Dame nearly pulled off an upset of epic proportions. It didn't happen that night, much to the chagrin of a bar in western New York, but then Wisconsin came along a week later.

So many wanted to see UK go down. But so many also tuned in. That was good for the popularity of the sport. And all of that UK talent tended to bring out the best in the competition.

There won't be anything like it for a while, much less this season.

A Couple of Great Coaches

Associated Press

Of course, there are different kinds of missing.

We'll be sad that this is the first full season without Dean Smith or Jerry Tarkanian, who died four days apart in February at about the same age (Smith of North Carolina was 83; UNLV's Tarkanian was 84).

The pair of legends couldn't have public images any further apart. Young coaches and players wanted to do things the Dean Smith Way.

Meanwhile, Tarkanian was a vagabond of sorts whom his players—and the UNLV community at large—also adored.

Neither had been in the public eye much in recent years, especially Smith. Though Tark the Shark was visible around Las Vegas and the Thomas & Mack Center, it seemed like more of the talk about both coaches was of their deteriorating health.

Hopefully, we'll continue talking about them, their old teams and their legacies this season, even as both have passed.

Louisville's Innocence

Seth Wenig/Associated Press

There's growing the game. And then there's having online British papers talking about college basketball because of scandal. Not quite the same.

Yet that's where it stands with Louisville, which is being charged in a "tell-all" with escort service. And we're not talking Uber and Ford Escorts.

It hasn't been the greatest time in college hoops (as we'll discover on another slide) regarding scandal and off-court drama. When the Onion is picking on you, you've either made it—or made it hard on yourself.

According to CBS Sports, former recruit JaQuan Lyle, now at Ohio State, confirmed what's being said about Louisville's behind-the-scenes recruiting tactics.

Rick Pitino's team brought a kind of innocence last year that won't exist, for various reasons, this time around. The Cardinals brought in a couple of high-level transfers who should help make the team stop looking like a Saturday rec-league crew when it's shooting the ball. (Its offensive woes were borderline endearing as it gritted its way deep into the NCAA tournament.)

Point guard Quentin Snider—who thrived toward the end of last season upon getting his big chance—will be a sophomore.

For much of the season, don't expect anyone to be talking about replacing leader and team motor Montrezl Harrell. Or Pitino's typically stingy defense.

The conversation will center on what's wrong with the program, and perhaps recruiting in general, behind the scenes.

The Recognizable 2,000-Point Scorers

Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Scoring two thousand points means something.

It's just that we're getting further and further away from being able to recognize the guys who accomplish that total over the course of their career.

Last year's experienced talent to reach that mark included BYU's Tyler Haws and Stanford's Chasson Randle, among a group of solid players who will be known more for their longevity than anything else. (Auburn's Antoine Mason, St. John's D'Angelo Harrison, Oregon's Joseph Young and Providence's LaDontae Henton are the other recognizable names.)

Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller put together a summer list of players who could hit 2K this season. Gonzaga's Kyle Wiltjer would be one of the biggest names, but he's unlikely considering he'd need nearly 900 points—after having 638 last year.

Reigning Big 12 Player of the Year Buddy Hield needs 634, which is slightly more than last year's pace.

Georges Niang of Iowa State basically needs to match last year's total to get there.

Otherwise, the list consists of solid but mostly unremarkable four-year players who are from one-bid leagues.

We'll probably have to designate the 1,000-point scorer as the next major scoring achievement, right?

What Could've Been at Virginia

Chuck Burton/Associated Press

There are always a few situations we regret, because early draft entries typically mean a team or two that could have been special winds up suffering.

We could have nominated Arkansas, though Bobby Portis leaving the Razorbacks was just too obvious.

LSU lost a pair of talented forwards, yet at least it gets Ben Simmons.

We're not going to bother feeling sorry for Kentucky or Duke, or other situations where it was just too obvious that a guy (or more) was leaving.

But Virginia is a little bit of a different story.

Coach Tony Bennett had to figure Justin Anderson was coming back. But perhaps the versatile shooting guard fretted any more injuries in college.

He at least became a late first-round draft pick. So there's no tragedy in an automatic multimillion dollar contract.

He averaged 12.2 points and 4.0 rebounds, shooting 45 percent from three, for a team that went 30-4 and would have gotten some preseason No. 1 consideration had he stayed. He would have been surrounded by a host of talent on a defensive-minded group that in recent years has exceeded Bennett's typical output for offensive flashiness.

True, Virginia did go 7-1 without Anderson. But there's no second-guessing the Cavaliers would be a Final Four force with him back. It'll be a great deal tougher now.

A Larry Brown Title-Talk Revival

Jeffrey McWhorter/Associated Press

Was SMU going to contend for a national championship this year?

Well, not likely...but you can't totally discount Larry Brown, who has won an NCAA and NBA title—and didn't exactly field the odds-on favorite either time.

No one questions Brown's ability to motivate, develop and scheme. And he turned SMU into an AAC power.

It was on the cusp of national stardom this year, led by Nic Moore—the reigning AAC player of the year—after going 27-7 last year.

The Mustangs had gone to the NCAA tournament in 1993; they also went last year, just Brown's third in Dallas.

Just as Brown has created big-time success, this isn't his first rodeo when it comes to his teams running afoul of NCAA rules.

This one features shady academic practices and the school president not looking to appeal a postseason ban.

Brown will also be suspended for nine games. We know he has a history of fleeing. Will the 75-year-old stick this out?

That's some drama we won't want to miss.

The Talk About Tom Crean

Nati Harnik/Associated Press

Face it, folks, we love drama.

That includes hot-seat talk, and there's been plenty of that about Indiana's Tom Crean in recent years.

But that's going to die down in 2015-16.

Dang, we'll miss that.

But having Yogi Ferrell back and Thomas Bryant on board—despite the highly anticipated freshman forward's issue with alcohol over the summer—should help the Hoosiers be quite competitive in the Big Ten and beyond.

Questions may still linger about leadership and accountability, though.

All of the issues are something Crean has to be hoping are left far behind, fast. Or he'll be missing regular trips to his Bloomington office pretty soon.