Hey the Preseason Top 25 polls just came out. You know what that means, time to write about how bad all these teams suck. I'm taking a look at the AP poll instead of the Coaches poll because I chose it at random. Spoiler alert: The Gophers aren't in here.
1. NORTH CAROLINA. They only lose J.P. Tokoto who entered the NBA Draft for some reason but that's fine because I think he mostly made people mad at his shooting. Marcus Paige is back and he's really good when he's not being terrible. They had zero outside shooting other than him last year, and unless one of the freshman can shoot (one supposedly can) or somebody else learned how to hit a 3-pointer in the offseason this is not the best team in basketball. Also I just read Paige is out for 3-4 weeks with an injury so maybe that will lead to somebody else being good. SPOILER: nope.
2. KENTUCKY. Hell I don't know.
3. MARYLAND. It's hard to wrap my head around Maryland being this high, but I can't argue with it. They were a 4 seed in the tournament last year and even though they didn't make it out of the weekend they were still a solid team. Melo Trimble came back and might be the best player in the conference, they added two big time transfers, and got a late commitment from Diamond Stone who is supposed to be awesome despite the ridiculous name and fills their only real hole. Still, three seems really freaking high.
4. KANSAS. Want to hear something that will blow your mind? Perry Ellis is back for another year. Even so, these guys are my pick for title winner. Ellis sucks but he's not completely useless, and even if he is Kansas has everybody back (except Kelly Oubre who was meh anyway) and they're adding two McDonald's All Americans who are both forwards. This team is deep as all hell, all they need is someone to make the leap. With so many above average players in both ability and pedigree you'd think somebody's going to do it, and if two or more do these guys will be really, really good. Bet on them. Do it. Go do it. They're like 10-1. Do it.
5. DUKE. Uh, you guys know they lost Tyus, Okafor, and Justice Winslow, right? This is all because Grayson Allen, who makes J.J. Redick look downright lovable, had that good stretch in the National Championship game, isn't it? Does he really seem like the kind of player who can carry a team for a while season. NOT BLOODY LIKELY. Good luck with him and one million freshmen. Oh, right, they got a transfer from Rice coming in too. Yes, Rice. The college. If you read any preview of Duke this year they call out a transfer from Rice as a huge positive. I am currently making a dismissive wanking motion.
6. VIRGINIA. Hoops nerds like to tell you that if you think Virginia basketball is boring, you don't really understand basketball. Well I understand basketball and I know what the pack line defense is and all that and I'm telling you - Virginia basketball is freaking boring as all hell. And basically the whole team is back again to be boring and annoying and get handjobs from announcers. Ugh. Stop already.
7. IOWA STATE. If you asked me to guess where Iowa State was rated I would have said like I don't know, maybe mid-20s or something so this is a bit of a surprise. But I guess Georges Niang is back which seems impossible and possibly illegal, and, you're not going to believe this, but the Cyclones get a couple of big deal transfers from other programs. Add that to almost the whole team being back and I guess I see why they're this high. They should be really fun and pretty good until one of their players gets suspended.
8. OKLAHOMA. The opposite of Virginia, these guys are fun as hell to watch and since Buddy Hield, who is basically a lock to lead the Big 12 in scoring, is back they probably will be again. They also ranked 8th in defensive points per possession, so it is actually possible to play fast, fun, and good defense all at the same time. Take notes, Cavaliers. Also, this is way too high for these guys.
9. GONZAGA. Lots of people say stuff like man Gonzaga is overrated, they stomp the WCC, get all this Final Four type buzz, and then flame out. Last year they finally made the Elite 8, which is definitely an accomplishment, but also just the second time they've gotten that far, the last coming in 1999. So I don't know that they've proved that they're anything more than a small conference bully. They've got a rock solid front court, but lose their entire back court so things could be rough early. This section was extremely boring.
10. WICHITA STATE. They have Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet back. That right there is enough to win the Missouri Valley. No really, you take those two and Greg Marshall and you could roll out of their with three toddlers and the Shockers would roll. Unfortunately it is both unsafe and illegal to play with toddlers so Wichita State will use real players to complement those two. I don't really feel like looking up who any of those players are, but since Wichita has been good for so long at this point I'm guessing they're probably pretty good.
11. VILLANOVA. God that sucked when these guys got bounced last year, and not just because they were my non-Kentucky pick to win. They were so freaking good. Then a dopey NC State team knocks them off. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, that's kind of Villanova's thing. Also their thing: guards. And they have a bunch of them again. So expect the Wildcats to shoot a ton of three pointers, own the Big East, grab a high seed, and flame out early. It's what they do. Lesson learned.
12. ARIZONA. Stanley Johnson, T.J. McConnell, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, and Brandon Ashley are all gone. That is a lot of people to be gone. However Arizona is Arizona, and it must be nice to be Arizona, because they get a star transfer from Boston College and picked up one hell of a recruiting class, including stealing Allonzo Trier from the Gophers. Also, they still have Kaleb Tarczewski and he is awesome and looks like he would fight you. And you would die.
13. MICHIGAN STATE. Another team with a couple of big losses which catches a break with a big time transfer, ready to step right in. For Sparty it's Eron Harris who only scored over 17 points per game in his last season at West Virginia, no big whoop. I'm really fascinated by Lourawls Nairn (remember him?) here. He only took 8.5% of the team's shots when he was on the floor. The lowest Gopher with any real minutes played was Bakary Konate at 11.1%, which is actually way higher than Nairn. I only found two other Big Ten players under 10% last year (Jaylon Tate of Illinois and Jeremiah Kreisberg of Northwestern) but both played far fewer minutes than Nairn. So like, is that his thing? What does he do if nobody guards him? He's the anti-chucker, which in a way, is as fun as a real chucker. I love watching how teams guard Rajon Rondo - they don't. I hope that's what happens with Nairn.
14. CAL. This team could be like whoa. I bet them at 60-1 to win the whole thing this summer, and I still like them now down all the way at 20-1. They have a ton back from last year's team, not a great year, admittedly, and add two Top 10 recruits. Yes, that's TWO top 10 recruits. If the name on the jersey was Duke instead of Cal this would be a Top 5 team. Plus, I like Cuonzo Martin as a coach. This is my favorite sleeper this year.
15. INDIANA. Oh come on! Do we not play defense any more in basketball, because if this is offense only I would say the Hoosiers are too low, but overall? No chance. It's the same team. The only difference is they got some stud recruit center, but can one player suddenly take a swiss cheese defense and make it good? Or even passable? No. Maybe Antoine Broxsie back in the day, but nobody can make Yogi Ferrell look good on defense. Should score a lot of points though. Gopher/Hoosier games should be in the 160s.
16. UTAH. I know they have at least one, and maybe two, big giant tall guys, and that's generally a good start when it comes to basketsball. Ok I decided to check and they only have one, but he's really good you guys! His name is Jakob Poetl and he's a possible lottery pick who held Jahlil Okafor to 6 points and 4 turnovers in March. He can score, rebound, and block shots and now that Delon Wright is gone he should be the offenses focal point. Should be fun. No idea about all these other guys.
17. WISCONSIN. Oh come on! You're kidding me. Look, I love Nigel Hayes, I love him as much as I could ever love a Badger. I think he's most likely a more skilled Noah Vonleh and I loved Noah Vonleh and thanked Jehova every day that Tom Crean was such a terrible coach. But the Badgers are basically Hayes, Bronson Koenig who is whatever fine, and then nobody else. I know people say it's stupid to bet against the Badgers and Bo Ryan, but people like blood sausage too. People are morons. Badgers suck this year.
18. VANDERBILT. Here's another team I like, although I can also see them sucking. On paper it looks good - a potential lottery pick at center (Damian Jones) surrounded by shooters (Riley Lachance (remember him) and Wade Baldwin (him too) among others, and a team that really gelled as the season went on with most of the team back. Vandy started out 1-7 in SEC play, but closed out 8-2 and looked really good, so yeah, on paper this looks good. In reality, it's Vanderbilt so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
19. NOTRE DAME. Jerian Grant is gone, which is a fairly huge deal considering the game plan was generally "hey Jerian, go do everything for us." The back-up for that was, hey Pat Connaughton, you go do stuff instead but oops, he gone. Zach Auguste is a super stud, I'll give you that, and he's probably going to be better than Noah Vonleh, but somebody has to get him the ball. In summation, these guys suck.
20. UCONN. They have Amida Brimah who I love because he blocks like, every shot ever taken, and their transfer train is rolling, picking up Sterling Gibbs (who is kind of a dick) from Seton Hall to go with Rodney Purvis whom they stole from NC State last year or maybe the year before. Actually looking at this roster I've heard of like, everybody which seems goodish. How the hell is Omar Calhoun still in college basketball? That's insane. Also, I probably watch too much basketball.
21. LSU. One of my favorite sleepers this year. Tons of guard play back and they're bringing in the #1 recruit in the country and another big deal new guy too who just got eligible. As far as negatives go, I have a short list of what I call "dumb teams to never ever bet on" who are always dumb and do stupid stuff and lose when they shouldn't because they are dumb every year no matter what. LSU is on that list.
22. BAYLOR. Baylor still? I figured they'd drop off the face of the map with recruiting violations or something by now, but here we are. The front court has a monster in Rico Gathers who is basically a bigger Montrezl Harrell (yes bigger) without the jump shot, but their entire back court is gone. Oh what's that? A really young back court coached by Scott Drew? I smell some early season anti-Baylor wagers.
23. PURDUE. Another team I like, mainly because facing them is like going against a bunch of gigantic monsters from a Goosebumps book. A.J. Hammons is seven feet tall, 261 lbs., Isaac Haas is 7-2, 297 lbs., and incoming freshman Caleb Swanigan is 6-9, 260 lbs.. It would be pretty sweet if they figured out a way to play all three at the same time. I mean, it wouldn't make a lick of sense, but it would be pretty sweet. Anyway, Purdue plays pretty good defense, and it's probably going to be even better next season. They also can't shoot at all. So there are going to be some ugly, ugly games.
24. BUTLER. I tried to write about Butler like 4 times. That's probably enough.
25. MICHIGAN. Michigan loses nobody from last year's team, and that's good even though last year's team missed the tournament. That was more because Caris LeVert and Derrick Walton played only 37 combined games than Michigan being an actually crappy team, because I am learning John Beilein is a wizard who doesn't make crappy teams. They're still basically lacking any kind of skilled or capable big man and Zak Irvin is kind of wild out there, but this should be a pretty good team. Probably better than this ranking. Man, if Purdue could trade one of their big dudes for a shooter from Michigan, that would be pretty sweet. College sports needs trading, would be so awesome. Not like they care about the kids anyway, which is ok because neither do I. PLAY GAMES FOR MY AMUSEMENT!!!
Showing posts with label LSU. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LSU. Show all posts
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Oh. Hello.
It has been a long damn time since I posted. A month. Not dead, just lazy. I do plan to be back full force once Gopher basketball gets going, I really do. For now, since at least 1 person is asking for a new post, I'll write something.
- Welcome aboard, Eric Curry! Quickly following up the Amir Coffey signing (yay!) the Gophers also picked up forward Eric Curry. He's a combo type forward from Arkansas, and while he's not ranked on Coffey's level he's well regarded in his own right: ranking #106 by 247sports national composite and the #21 ranked power forward. He ended up besties with Coffey and once Amir signed Curry was pretty likely to follow in what hopefully becomes a trend.
He's described as a combo forward, which generally means he's either too fast for PF and too strong for SF or too weak for PF and too slow for SF. Hopefully the former and it sounds good so far. Scouting reports tout his athleticism and he's already got a decent amount of polish posting up which will be a nice change for a Gopher team that hasn't had a true post up artists since, I dunno, Ralph Sampson I guess. Before you jump all over that remember Ralph had some moves. Curry's other highly touted attribute is his "high motor" which means the Sampson comparisons can pretty much end now.
His weaknesses are he needs to get stronger and he needs more of a perimeter game. Well, he's a high school senior right now, and I'm pretty sure the ESPN scouting report just rubber stamps "must get stronger" on early every recruit because that's a pretty common and understandable need. The perimeter game should come around because, get this, he's a 78% free throw shooter. Sign him up!
- The Twins season ended, you may have learned, and I struggle whether or not to say this was a successful season though I lean towards yes. We got to watch some meaningful baseball almost all the way to the final day of the season - that's good! Then again, they cratered and didn't get the Wildcard spot - that's bad! Though, they probably weren't as good as their record anyway - that's bad! But we got to see a glimpse of many of the future hopefully building blocks of future success - that's good! So I'll stick with slightly good. Here's some other Twins stuff:
1. Say good-bye to Trevor Plouffe. I found some sight the other day that gave projected arbitration salaries for players, and Plouffe is guessed at $7.7 million. I like Plouffe and he's a decent player who works hard and seems like a good dude and was part of some very bad teams without complaint, but at that salary, with Miguel Sano slated to be the third baseman for the next billion years, the world's most unmovable contract stuck at 1st, and a slew of younger, cheaper bats that need DH appearances and spot starts there's nowhere for him to play. Whether via trade or simply non-tendering him I just can't see him sticking around, which is unfortunate because he's WonderBaby (who is now 7)'s favorite player, though she calls him Treasure Poof.
2. Do the Twins need an ace? More on the need for an ace later, if I feel like and/or remember, but I don't think this is doable. They've tossed way too much money at Ricky Nolasco, Ervin Santana, and Phil Hughes lately to really go after it, unless they were going to pony up the big bucks and do it right by going after David Price or Jordan Zimmermann or something but I don't see that happening. With Hughes, Santana, Kyle Gibson, and a slew of young arms worth trying out I'm not even sure they need to do anything with the starting staff (but the bullpen? Fire everybody). There are enough decent names out there that if they can get a steal (a real steal, like that 2/$20 million contract the Cubs gave Jason Hammel) then it might be worth it. But please, no 4 year deal for Jeremy Guthrie. Please.
3. Overall the future here seems pretty neat. They need a catcher and a shortstop for sure and those are not very easy to fill so hopefully dudes who are already here can fill those roles, but other than Brian Dozier's second half cratering things seem pretty clear. I hated the Torii Hunter signing when it happened because that money could have been better spent, but hell, maybe there is something to clubhouse chemistry and veteran leadership. I'd be happy to see him back at a reduced rate assuming he's cool being the 4th outfielder at best. Next year should be pretty fun. Looking forward to it.
- Seems like we are heading towards a Royals vs. Mets World Series. I'm good with that. Of the playoff teams you had teams that were too successful (Cardinals), too evil (Yankees), too rich (Dodgers), too big of assholish fans (Toronto), too unlikable (Rangers), too it hurts because it should have been us (Astros), and the Pirates, Cubs, Royals, and Mets, and you have to eliminate the Cubs because the whole Back to the Future thing is already more irritating the constant DFS commercials.
- Wolves should be pretty fun. Rubio-LaVine-Wiggins-Towns-Dieng. Could be a lot worse, right? At least it should be fun. A legit shot at back-to-back Rookie of the Year winners, finding out if LaVine can be like, good, and seeing if Rubio can stay healthy is a good reason to at least occasionally watch. I mean, Rubio running a break with those two wings and Towns trailing? That's awesome.
And how good can Towns be? Rookie of the Year is pretty much a lock, the only question is can he challenge for MVP. I say yes. Did you see him hitting those threes against no defense this offseason? I mean, most guys can't do that. And have you seen his preseason stats? Averaging 10.7 pts, 6.7 rebs, and 1.0 blocks per game, but that's only in 21 minutes per game! If you extrapolate that out to a whole game it comes out to something like 35 pts, 18 rebounds, 9 assists, and 7 blocks per game. You know the last player to put up those kind of numbers? Yep, that's right - Hot Sauce. Towns is that good.
- I know what you're thinking - "this blog sucks now." But I know what else you're thinking, why is there no mention of this year's Gopher hoops team? Well, I'm not ready yet. I'll rip something off at some point, but right now it's like, no. I am not ready to write about Joey King just yet, and I don't really know how to spin the Bakary Konate/Gaston Diedhiou stuff into a positive, nor can I figure out how to look forward to Carlos Morris being a big key to the season. I'll get around to it, I swear. For now, let me write something quick about other NCAAB stuff.
- ACC is going to be garbage, relatively speaking. Only North Carolina looks poised to be good. Duke lost everybody and will now count on Grayson freaking Allen, Virginia I'm pretty sick of already so move on, Louisville lost literally their entire roster, Notre Dame without Jerian Grant is meaningless. Miami and FSU could be semi-interesting but in general I'm expecting the Big 10 to take the challenge thing.
- LSU is one of my big sleepers and you can still get them at 50/60-1 to win the National Championship. Yes, they lost Jordan Mickey and Jarrell Martin, but they have a ton of guard play coming back and two absolute stud recruits in do everything big man Ben Simmons (likely #1 pick in next year's draft) and swingman Antonio Blakeney (who is now linked to the Louisville "scandal"). There are a lot of questions about the front court, though Simmons can maybe do it all, but all those guards back and a monster recruiting class scream contender to me.
- Another team I like a lot is Cal (don't worry, Justin Cobbs is gone). They pick up the #4 and #7 players in the entire country, both front court guys, who join their three best players, all guards. Add in Cuonzo Martin, a really, really good coach, and you'd be a fool to pass them up at 20-1. A FOOL!!
- I might end up doing a Big Ten preview post, and if I do I promise I won't be like every other writer and say something like "based on talent the Badgers shouldn't be this high, but Bo Ryan blah blah blah barf" No! This is the year the Badgers suck ass. They are gutted. They have Nigel Hayes, who I love and is awesome, Bronson Koenig, who is annoying and super hateable and sucks, and that's it. All of their other players suck. They won't be bottom of the basement, but there's zero chance this team makes the NCAA Tournament. None. Zero. None.
- A Big Ten team I do like a ton this year is Purdue, though that seems like a not uncommon thought. And their games are going to suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck to watch. Massive rim protection in A.J. Hammons and Isaac Haas (Hammons is elite, Haas is 7-2 so should get there eventually) is joined by 6-9 Caleb Swanigan, one of the top couple center recruits in the country, and Raphael Davis is back who, you surely don't remember this, won B10 defensive player of the year. They also couldn't shoot for shit last year and there's no real reason that should change. I fully expect multiple games where they win without breaking 50 points.
- Oh yeah, speaking of points we have a new shot clock now at 30 seconds. Even better though they got rid of the 5-second closely guarded rule. I'm not sure if that's a positive change as far as the game goes, but it's going to be super fun to go to games this year and hear morons yell "5 seconds!" one billion times because nobody reads anymore. Also, speaking of going to games, Snacks and I were lining up our trip out to Sioux Falls with our sons to go check out the Gophers vs. Oklahoma State game and then right as we were figuring stuff out bam, it turns out my parents' have this dumb christmas party that same day where we are supposed to be blackjack dealers or something. Thanks a lot, mom and dad.
- Perry Ellis, the 37-year old Kansas power forward, is back for another year. He has now surpassed Wade Lookingbill, Jess Settles, and Brian Cardinal for longest tenured player in college basketball history.
- I don't know. I guess that's all for now.
- Oh yeah. Also Rick Pitino 100% knew there were sex parties for recruits and also that happens at every single school. Haven't you seen He Got Game?
- Welcome aboard, Eric Curry! Quickly following up the Amir Coffey signing (yay!) the Gophers also picked up forward Eric Curry. He's a combo type forward from Arkansas, and while he's not ranked on Coffey's level he's well regarded in his own right: ranking #106 by 247sports national composite and the #21 ranked power forward. He ended up besties with Coffey and once Amir signed Curry was pretty likely to follow in what hopefully becomes a trend.
He's described as a combo forward, which generally means he's either too fast for PF and too strong for SF or too weak for PF and too slow for SF. Hopefully the former and it sounds good so far. Scouting reports tout his athleticism and he's already got a decent amount of polish posting up which will be a nice change for a Gopher team that hasn't had a true post up artists since, I dunno, Ralph Sampson I guess. Before you jump all over that remember Ralph had some moves. Curry's other highly touted attribute is his "high motor" which means the Sampson comparisons can pretty much end now.
His weaknesses are he needs to get stronger and he needs more of a perimeter game. Well, he's a high school senior right now, and I'm pretty sure the ESPN scouting report just rubber stamps "must get stronger" on early every recruit because that's a pretty common and understandable need. The perimeter game should come around because, get this, he's a 78% free throw shooter. Sign him up!
- The Twins season ended, you may have learned, and I struggle whether or not to say this was a successful season though I lean towards yes. We got to watch some meaningful baseball almost all the way to the final day of the season - that's good! Then again, they cratered and didn't get the Wildcard spot - that's bad! Though, they probably weren't as good as their record anyway - that's bad! But we got to see a glimpse of many of the future hopefully building blocks of future success - that's good! So I'll stick with slightly good. Here's some other Twins stuff:
1. Say good-bye to Trevor Plouffe. I found some sight the other day that gave projected arbitration salaries for players, and Plouffe is guessed at $7.7 million. I like Plouffe and he's a decent player who works hard and seems like a good dude and was part of some very bad teams without complaint, but at that salary, with Miguel Sano slated to be the third baseman for the next billion years, the world's most unmovable contract stuck at 1st, and a slew of younger, cheaper bats that need DH appearances and spot starts there's nowhere for him to play. Whether via trade or simply non-tendering him I just can't see him sticking around, which is unfortunate because he's WonderBaby (who is now 7)'s favorite player, though she calls him Treasure Poof.
2. Do the Twins need an ace? More on the need for an ace later, if I feel like and/or remember, but I don't think this is doable. They've tossed way too much money at Ricky Nolasco, Ervin Santana, and Phil Hughes lately to really go after it, unless they were going to pony up the big bucks and do it right by going after David Price or Jordan Zimmermann or something but I don't see that happening. With Hughes, Santana, Kyle Gibson, and a slew of young arms worth trying out I'm not even sure they need to do anything with the starting staff (but the bullpen? Fire everybody). There are enough decent names out there that if they can get a steal (a real steal, like that 2/$20 million contract the Cubs gave Jason Hammel) then it might be worth it. But please, no 4 year deal for Jeremy Guthrie. Please.
3. Overall the future here seems pretty neat. They need a catcher and a shortstop for sure and those are not very easy to fill so hopefully dudes who are already here can fill those roles, but other than Brian Dozier's second half cratering things seem pretty clear. I hated the Torii Hunter signing when it happened because that money could have been better spent, but hell, maybe there is something to clubhouse chemistry and veteran leadership. I'd be happy to see him back at a reduced rate assuming he's cool being the 4th outfielder at best. Next year should be pretty fun. Looking forward to it.
- Seems like we are heading towards a Royals vs. Mets World Series. I'm good with that. Of the playoff teams you had teams that were too successful (Cardinals), too evil (Yankees), too rich (Dodgers), too big of assholish fans (Toronto), too unlikable (Rangers), too it hurts because it should have been us (Astros), and the Pirates, Cubs, Royals, and Mets, and you have to eliminate the Cubs because the whole Back to the Future thing is already more irritating the constant DFS commercials.
So really, Royals and Mets gives me probably two of my top three choices (with the Pirates). And yeah sure, the Mets are terribly run organization and the Royals are kind of dickish and have the most clueless manager in the playoffs, but you're never going to get perfect. It should be fun and I won't be annoyed no matter who wins. What's wrong with that? Plus the less R.A. Dickey there is to watch, the better. Though I will really miss watching Kyle Schwarber play outfield.
And I'm determined to do a live blog of at least one World Series game. I think I have almost every year, so I can't just stop now.
And I'm determined to do a live blog of at least one World Series game. I think I have almost every year, so I can't just stop now.
- Wolves should be pretty fun. Rubio-LaVine-Wiggins-Towns-Dieng. Could be a lot worse, right? At least it should be fun. A legit shot at back-to-back Rookie of the Year winners, finding out if LaVine can be like, good, and seeing if Rubio can stay healthy is a good reason to at least occasionally watch. I mean, Rubio running a break with those two wings and Towns trailing? That's awesome.
And how good can Towns be? Rookie of the Year is pretty much a lock, the only question is can he challenge for MVP. I say yes. Did you see him hitting those threes against no defense this offseason? I mean, most guys can't do that. And have you seen his preseason stats? Averaging 10.7 pts, 6.7 rebs, and 1.0 blocks per game, but that's only in 21 minutes per game! If you extrapolate that out to a whole game it comes out to something like 35 pts, 18 rebounds, 9 assists, and 7 blocks per game. You know the last player to put up those kind of numbers? Yep, that's right - Hot Sauce. Towns is that good.
- I know what you're thinking - "this blog sucks now." But I know what else you're thinking, why is there no mention of this year's Gopher hoops team? Well, I'm not ready yet. I'll rip something off at some point, but right now it's like, no. I am not ready to write about Joey King just yet, and I don't really know how to spin the Bakary Konate/Gaston Diedhiou stuff into a positive, nor can I figure out how to look forward to Carlos Morris being a big key to the season. I'll get around to it, I swear. For now, let me write something quick about other NCAAB stuff.
- ACC is going to be garbage, relatively speaking. Only North Carolina looks poised to be good. Duke lost everybody and will now count on Grayson freaking Allen, Virginia I'm pretty sick of already so move on, Louisville lost literally their entire roster, Notre Dame without Jerian Grant is meaningless. Miami and FSU could be semi-interesting but in general I'm expecting the Big 10 to take the challenge thing.
- LSU is one of my big sleepers and you can still get them at 50/60-1 to win the National Championship. Yes, they lost Jordan Mickey and Jarrell Martin, but they have a ton of guard play coming back and two absolute stud recruits in do everything big man Ben Simmons (likely #1 pick in next year's draft) and swingman Antonio Blakeney (who is now linked to the Louisville "scandal"). There are a lot of questions about the front court, though Simmons can maybe do it all, but all those guards back and a monster recruiting class scream contender to me.
- Another team I like a lot is Cal (don't worry, Justin Cobbs is gone). They pick up the #4 and #7 players in the entire country, both front court guys, who join their three best players, all guards. Add in Cuonzo Martin, a really, really good coach, and you'd be a fool to pass them up at 20-1. A FOOL!!
- I might end up doing a Big Ten preview post, and if I do I promise I won't be like every other writer and say something like "based on talent the Badgers shouldn't be this high, but Bo Ryan blah blah blah barf" No! This is the year the Badgers suck ass. They are gutted. They have Nigel Hayes, who I love and is awesome, Bronson Koenig, who is annoying and super hateable and sucks, and that's it. All of their other players suck. They won't be bottom of the basement, but there's zero chance this team makes the NCAA Tournament. None. Zero. None.
- A Big Ten team I do like a ton this year is Purdue, though that seems like a not uncommon thought. And their games are going to suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck to watch. Massive rim protection in A.J. Hammons and Isaac Haas (Hammons is elite, Haas is 7-2 so should get there eventually) is joined by 6-9 Caleb Swanigan, one of the top couple center recruits in the country, and Raphael Davis is back who, you surely don't remember this, won B10 defensive player of the year. They also couldn't shoot for shit last year and there's no real reason that should change. I fully expect multiple games where they win without breaking 50 points.
- Oh yeah, speaking of points we have a new shot clock now at 30 seconds. Even better though they got rid of the 5-second closely guarded rule. I'm not sure if that's a positive change as far as the game goes, but it's going to be super fun to go to games this year and hear morons yell "5 seconds!" one billion times because nobody reads anymore. Also, speaking of going to games, Snacks and I were lining up our trip out to Sioux Falls with our sons to go check out the Gophers vs. Oklahoma State game and then right as we were figuring stuff out bam, it turns out my parents' have this dumb christmas party that same day where we are supposed to be blackjack dealers or something. Thanks a lot, mom and dad.
- Perry Ellis, the 37-year old Kansas power forward, is back for another year. He has now surpassed Wade Lookingbill, Jess Settles, and Brian Cardinal for longest tenured player in college basketball history.
- I don't know. I guess that's all for now.
- Oh yeah. Also Rick Pitino 100% knew there were sex parties for recruits and also that happens at every single school. Haven't you seen He Got Game?
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
NCAA Basketball Preview - SEC
While the Pac-10 has been down and gotten most of the press/talk about being the worst major conference in college ball lately, the SEC hasn't been far behind. It's less notable because of Kentucky and Florida's success, but some of the traditional power teams have been way down, specifically LSU and Arkansas.
Things seem to be looking up however, with Vanderbilt looking very strong (they'd probably be ranked first in any other conference outside this and the ACC), Alabama looking strong, and LSU looking to be improved this year. Also I'm really just writing this to push the pictures down so they aren't "above the fold" because somebody once requested I do that because otherwise they pull up my blog at work and BAM hot chick right in front. So that's why I'm still typing.
1. KENTUCKY WILDCATS. If you're sick of John Calipari and Kentucky, this isn't the year for you because this might be slimey Cal's best team ever. He got a break with Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb opting to stay in school and brings in the #1 recruiting class in the country and maybe the best of his career with PF Anthony Davis (#2), SF Mike Gilchrist (#3), PG Marquis Teague (#5), and PF Kyle Wiltjer (#22). Just those six together with filler would be a top 10 team, but Kentucky still has . Is this the year Calipari finally puts it all together and walks away with the National Title? Good god, I hope not. That slime ball and Kentucky hoops in general can go to hell.
2. VANDERBILT COMMODORES. Vandy has a big chance to be really, really good this year. Unfortunately they were really, really good last year too and still got bounced by Richmond in the first round - not unlike the previous year when they got bounced in the first by Murray State. If they're going to make a run anytime soon this is the year to do it - they've got all five starters back and nine of their top ten scorers. John Jenkins might be the best shooter in the league and has surpassed Jeffrey Taylor as the best player on this team - and Taylor still has a shot to be All-SEC First Team. Their point guard led the SEC in assists, which makes sense giving those two guys he's dishing to, and they have a couple very solid post men including the sweet named Festus Ezeli. They also bring in a good class highlighted by Dai-Jon Parker, one of the best recruits in Vandy history. Seriously, they're loaded. If they can't make a run with this group they might as well disband the hoops program and become the full-time nerd school they're destined to become.
3. FLORIDA GATORS. The good news is that the Gators are absolutely loaded at guard, and you need guards to win. They return Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton, who were their top 2 scorers last year and add Rutgers transfer Mike Rosario, who led his team in scoring 2 years ago and was a big time recruit as a freshman, and freshman Bradley Beal, the #4 recruit in the nation. So yeah, they're set in the back court. The front court, however, is a big question mark because all three starters are gone. Patric Young is still here, and he was a highly regarded center a year ago and played well as a back-up last season. If they can figure out what to do with their big men or make a 3/4 guard offense work they are going to be a very, very dangerous team in March.
4. ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE. Essentially the inverse of Florida, the Tide are loaded in the paint but
have serious question marks on the perimeter. JaMychal Green might be the best interior player in the conference, and he returns as the #2 returning scorer among perimeter players and the #2 returning rebounder in the conference (both behind UK's Terrence Jones), and the man who'll be starting right next to him, Tony Mitchell, is #3 and #4. On the perimeter there's talent, if not experience. Travis Releford, the team's third leading scorer last year, is back and a couple of newcomers are top 30 recruits in Trevor Lacey and Levi Randolph. Actually, now that I'm writing this I want to swap Bama and Florida here, but then my first sentence doesn't make any sense and I'd have to redo the whole thing.
5. MISSISSIPPI STATE BULLDOGS. The Bulldogs will go as far as Renardo Sidney and Dee Bost's heads will take them. Neither was the team's leading scorer last year (that was Ravern Johnson who is gone) but it's hard to argue they aren't the two most talented players. Of course, Sidney is overweight, disappears and floats through games at times, and got in a well-publicized fight with a teammate last season, not to mention the mess of trouble he went through with the NCAA. Bost missed the first 14 games last year after not withdrawing from the NBA draft in time and not keeping his academics in order. All the NCAA trouble should be behind them, but Sidney is the type of guy who could score 30 and grab 15 boards in a game or just as easily score in single-figures and grab just a couple boards. Not to mention that he gives the impression he's a bit of a ticking time bomb who could do something that would get him suspended again. Awfully fun to watch though.
6. LSU TIGERS. It hasn't really felt right the last two season's with LSU at the bottom of the SEC, but things should be looking up this year. Their top four scorers are back and they add in their first McDonald's All-American since 2005 in Johnny O'Bryant, a center who Rivals ranks as the 4th best at his position amongst all freshmen (#46 overall). And what a nice coincidence, center is exactly what LSU needed most. The perimeter is manned by sophomores Andre Stringer and Ralston Turner who were both top 150 recruits last year and both had successful first seasons, with Storm Warren (team's best rebounder) and Iowa State transfer Justin Hamilton joining O'Bryant on the inside (I didn't know players actually transferred OUT of Ames). LSU won't be a great team and likely won't challenge for an NCAA Tournament bid, but they'll at least get themselves out of the cellar and moving in the right direction.
7. ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS. Despite bringing in what Rivals ranks as the #11 class in the country, John Pelphrey was fired after another subpar season by Arkansas. Luckily new coach Mike Anderson was able to hold on to the class, and that's doubly good because leading scorer, noted sharpshooter, and horribly named Rotnei Clarke (who is white, fyi) transferred after the switch and third-leading scorer and leading rebounder Delvon Johnson has graduated. It's basically going to be Marshawn Powell with a whole bunch of unproven guys, both older and the newcomers. The two new guards (B.J. Young and Ky Madden) can both play either guard spot and were both top 30 type recruits, so they should thrive under Anderson. Should be fun to watch, either way.
8. TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS. I don't really like living in a world where Tennessee isn't a top tier SEC basketball team, but after Bruce Pearl tried to single-handedly destroy the program that looks like where we sit with five of the team's top six scorers from last year gone and one of their top recruits opted out and signed on with Louisville instead. The lone big-time returner is guard Cameron Tatum who has been a bit of a disappointment thus far in his career, averaging around 7.5 points per game. He's always been a 3rd or 4th option, but will have a chance to be the man this year. There's plenty of other talent (why wouldn't there be since Pearl was a cheater) if not experience, with freshmen PG Chris Jones and SG Josh Richardson, sophomore SGs Jordan McRae and Trae Golden, junior center Kenny Hall and SF Jeronne Maymon, and senior PF Renaldo Woolridge all former top 100 recruits. So really, these guys could finish anywhere from 4th to 12th and it wouldn't be a surprise. With a good new coach in Cuonzo Martin I'm guessing they'll be ok.
9. OLE MISS REBELS. The last four years had to be a bit disappointing for the Rebels (assuming anybody there cares about something besides football) because they had Chris Warren (not the RB) one of the best players in Ole Miss history and all they could muster was a couple of NIT Final Fours without a single NCAA berth. Now Warren is gone along with his back court mate Zach Graham and they're combined 34 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists per game with them. As you can imagine, this leaves a fairly gaping hole. The good news is that Jelan Kendrick, formerly of the Memphis Tigers and was ranked the #15 best recruit in the country in 2010, is on board and becomes eligible after the first semester - he will immediately become Ole Miss's best player. Assuming he manages to stay on the team (read this for a quick synopsis of this dude's mental issues) he and fellow NBA prospect Terrance Henry should at least keep Ole Miss competitive.
10. AUBURN TIGERS. Auburn was completely awful last season with losses to teams like Presbyterian, Asheville, Samford, Jacksonville, and Campbell and their leading scorer and rebounder from last season transferred to Missouri, but there isn't a complete lack of hope for the Tigers. Kenny Gabriel is a double-figure scorer who is back, point guard Frankie Sullivan is returning from a season ending knee injury last year, while a couple of transfers (Varez Ward from Texas and Noel Johnson from Clemson) will likely immediately jump into the starting lineup. They also add 6-10 center Willy Kouassi, the #66 freshman in the country and SG Cedrick McAfee (#145), so although they won't be in contention for an NCAA bid any time soon, at least there's a little bit of reason for hope.
11. GEORGIA BULLDOGS. No team was hit harder by early NBA entries than Georgia with Trey Thompkins and Travis Leslie taking off. All those two were responsible for last season was 45% of the team's points, 44% of their rebounds, 30% of their assists, 38% of their steals, and 46% of their blocks, and took 42% of the team's shots. So yes, there are some big shoes to fill here. They do have 3rd leading scorer and starting PG Gerald Robinson back, so that will help, and stud recruit Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (#12 overall) will probably immediately start next to him, but besides Thompkins in the paint they also have to try to replace their top 2 other post men, and there's just nobody here to do it.
12. SOUTH CAROLINA GAME COCKS. So this team won 5 SEC games last year. Their best player, Bruce Ellington, decided to play football and, although he is supposed to rejoin the team it won't happen until after football season and South Carolina is probably heading to a bowl. Their second best player graduated, and their third best player decided to transfer to LaSalle who is terrible. I'd say things are not looking super great. You know how it seems like the Cocks either beat or put a scare into somebody good at home every year? Yeah, don't expect that this year. As the Gin Blossoms once said, "Don't expect too much from me and you might not be let down."
Other previews:
Big 12
ACC
Atlantic 10
Pac 12
Things seem to be looking up however, with Vanderbilt looking very strong (they'd probably be ranked first in any other conference outside this and the ACC), Alabama looking strong, and LSU looking to be improved this year. Also I'm really just writing this to push the pictures down so they aren't "above the fold" because somebody once requested I do that because otherwise they pull up my blog at work and BAM hot chick right in front. So that's why I'm still typing.
1. KENTUCKY WILDCATS. If you're sick of John Calipari and Kentucky, this isn't the year for you because this might be slimey Cal's best team ever. He got a break with Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb opting to stay in school and brings in the #1 recruiting class in the country and maybe the best of his career with PF Anthony Davis (#2), SF Mike Gilchrist (#3), PG Marquis Teague (#5), and PF Kyle Wiltjer (#22). Just those six together with filler would be a top 10 team, but Kentucky still has . Is this the year Calipari finally puts it all together and walks away with the National Title? Good god, I hope not. That slime ball and Kentucky hoops in general can go to hell.
2. VANDERBILT COMMODORES. Vandy has a big chance to be really, really good this year. Unfortunately they were really, really good last year too and still got bounced by Richmond in the first round - not unlike the previous year when they got bounced in the first by Murray State. If they're going to make a run anytime soon this is the year to do it - they've got all five starters back and nine of their top ten scorers. John Jenkins might be the best shooter in the league and has surpassed Jeffrey Taylor as the best player on this team - and Taylor still has a shot to be All-SEC First Team. Their point guard led the SEC in assists, which makes sense giving those two guys he's dishing to, and they have a couple very solid post men including the sweet named Festus Ezeli. They also bring in a good class highlighted by Dai-Jon Parker, one of the best recruits in Vandy history. Seriously, they're loaded. If they can't make a run with this group they might as well disband the hoops program and become the full-time nerd school they're destined to become.
3. FLORIDA GATORS. The good news is that the Gators are absolutely loaded at guard, and you need guards to win. They return Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton, who were their top 2 scorers last year and add Rutgers transfer Mike Rosario, who led his team in scoring 2 years ago and was a big time recruit as a freshman, and freshman Bradley Beal, the #4 recruit in the nation. So yeah, they're set in the back court. The front court, however, is a big question mark because all three starters are gone. Patric Young is still here, and he was a highly regarded center a year ago and played well as a back-up last season. If they can figure out what to do with their big men or make a 3/4 guard offense work they are going to be a very, very dangerous team in March.
4. ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE. Essentially the inverse of Florida, the Tide are loaded in the paint but
have serious question marks on the perimeter. JaMychal Green might be the best interior player in the conference, and he returns as the #2 returning scorer among perimeter players and the #2 returning rebounder in the conference (both behind UK's Terrence Jones), and the man who'll be starting right next to him, Tony Mitchell, is #3 and #4. On the perimeter there's talent, if not experience. Travis Releford, the team's third leading scorer last year, is back and a couple of newcomers are top 30 recruits in Trevor Lacey and Levi Randolph. Actually, now that I'm writing this I want to swap Bama and Florida here, but then my first sentence doesn't make any sense and I'd have to redo the whole thing.
5. MISSISSIPPI STATE BULLDOGS. The Bulldogs will go as far as Renardo Sidney and Dee Bost's heads will take them. Neither was the team's leading scorer last year (that was Ravern Johnson who is gone) but it's hard to argue they aren't the two most talented players. Of course, Sidney is overweight, disappears and floats through games at times, and got in a well-publicized fight with a teammate last season, not to mention the mess of trouble he went through with the NCAA. Bost missed the first 14 games last year after not withdrawing from the NBA draft in time and not keeping his academics in order. All the NCAA trouble should be behind them, but Sidney is the type of guy who could score 30 and grab 15 boards in a game or just as easily score in single-figures and grab just a couple boards. Not to mention that he gives the impression he's a bit of a ticking time bomb who could do something that would get him suspended again. Awfully fun to watch though.
6. LSU TIGERS. It hasn't really felt right the last two season's with LSU at the bottom of the SEC, but things should be looking up this year. Their top four scorers are back and they add in their first McDonald's All-American since 2005 in Johnny O'Bryant, a center who Rivals ranks as the 4th best at his position amongst all freshmen (#46 overall). And what a nice coincidence, center is exactly what LSU needed most. The perimeter is manned by sophomores Andre Stringer and Ralston Turner who were both top 150 recruits last year and both had successful first seasons, with Storm Warren (team's best rebounder) and Iowa State transfer Justin Hamilton joining O'Bryant on the inside (I didn't know players actually transferred OUT of Ames). LSU won't be a great team and likely won't challenge for an NCAA Tournament bid, but they'll at least get themselves out of the cellar and moving in the right direction.
7. ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS. Despite bringing in what Rivals ranks as the #11 class in the country, John Pelphrey was fired after another subpar season by Arkansas. Luckily new coach Mike Anderson was able to hold on to the class, and that's doubly good because leading scorer, noted sharpshooter, and horribly named Rotnei Clarke (who is white, fyi) transferred after the switch and third-leading scorer and leading rebounder Delvon Johnson has graduated. It's basically going to be Marshawn Powell with a whole bunch of unproven guys, both older and the newcomers. The two new guards (B.J. Young and Ky Madden) can both play either guard spot and were both top 30 type recruits, so they should thrive under Anderson. Should be fun to watch, either way.
8. TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS. I don't really like living in a world where Tennessee isn't a top tier SEC basketball team, but after Bruce Pearl tried to single-handedly destroy the program that looks like where we sit with five of the team's top six scorers from last year gone and one of their top recruits opted out and signed on with Louisville instead. The lone big-time returner is guard Cameron Tatum who has been a bit of a disappointment thus far in his career, averaging around 7.5 points per game. He's always been a 3rd or 4th option, but will have a chance to be the man this year. There's plenty of other talent (why wouldn't there be since Pearl was a cheater) if not experience, with freshmen PG Chris Jones and SG Josh Richardson, sophomore SGs Jordan McRae and Trae Golden, junior center Kenny Hall and SF Jeronne Maymon, and senior PF Renaldo Woolridge all former top 100 recruits. So really, these guys could finish anywhere from 4th to 12th and it wouldn't be a surprise. With a good new coach in Cuonzo Martin I'm guessing they'll be ok.
9. OLE MISS REBELS. The last four years had to be a bit disappointing for the Rebels (assuming anybody there cares about something besides football) because they had Chris Warren (not the RB) one of the best players in Ole Miss history and all they could muster was a couple of NIT Final Fours without a single NCAA berth. Now Warren is gone along with his back court mate Zach Graham and they're combined 34 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists per game with them. As you can imagine, this leaves a fairly gaping hole. The good news is that Jelan Kendrick, formerly of the Memphis Tigers and was ranked the #15 best recruit in the country in 2010, is on board and becomes eligible after the first semester - he will immediately become Ole Miss's best player. Assuming he manages to stay on the team (read this for a quick synopsis of this dude's mental issues) he and fellow NBA prospect Terrance Henry should at least keep Ole Miss competitive.
10. AUBURN TIGERS. Auburn was completely awful last season with losses to teams like Presbyterian, Asheville, Samford, Jacksonville, and Campbell and their leading scorer and rebounder from last season transferred to Missouri, but there isn't a complete lack of hope for the Tigers. Kenny Gabriel is a double-figure scorer who is back, point guard Frankie Sullivan is returning from a season ending knee injury last year, while a couple of transfers (Varez Ward from Texas and Noel Johnson from Clemson) will likely immediately jump into the starting lineup. They also add 6-10 center Willy Kouassi, the #66 freshman in the country and SG Cedrick McAfee (#145), so although they won't be in contention for an NCAA bid any time soon, at least there's a little bit of reason for hope.
11. GEORGIA BULLDOGS. No team was hit harder by early NBA entries than Georgia with Trey Thompkins and Travis Leslie taking off. All those two were responsible for last season was 45% of the team's points, 44% of their rebounds, 30% of their assists, 38% of their steals, and 46% of their blocks, and took 42% of the team's shots. So yes, there are some big shoes to fill here. They do have 3rd leading scorer and starting PG Gerald Robinson back, so that will help, and stud recruit Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (#12 overall) will probably immediately start next to him, but besides Thompkins in the paint they also have to try to replace their top 2 other post men, and there's just nobody here to do it.
12. SOUTH CAROLINA GAME COCKS. So this team won 5 SEC games last year. Their best player, Bruce Ellington, decided to play football and, although he is supposed to rejoin the team it won't happen until after football season and South Carolina is probably heading to a bowl. Their second best player graduated, and their third best player decided to transfer to LaSalle who is terrible. I'd say things are not looking super great. You know how it seems like the Cocks either beat or put a scare into somebody good at home every year? Yeah, don't expect that this year. As the Gin Blossoms once said, "Don't expect too much from me and you might not be let down."
Other previews:
Big 12
ACC
Atlantic 10
Pac 12
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
SEC College Basketball 2010 Preview
There are good looking women in the SEC.
SEC EAST
1. Florida Gators. I'm not a huge fan of their guards, because I think both Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton can get a little too out of control and both have a tendency to shoot shots that they shan't be shooting, but there is not denying their talent and the Gators have a stellar front court. Chandler Parsons is a Mike Miller clone sans the bad hair and with a slightly worse jump shot (and he single-handedly won me my fantasy college hoops league last year) and Alex Tyus and Vernon Macklin are very good as long as you don't count free throws. In a down year for the SEC, the Gators are clearly the class of either division.
2. Kentucky Wildcats. In what I'm going to assume is about to become a tradition until Calipari is arrested for money laundering, Kentucky lost an assload of good players to the NBA but is reloading with an assload of talent. It's almost a perfect job of recruiting, actually, because these guys are not only talented but cover all five positions: You have PG Brandon Knight (Rivals #6 overall), SG Doron Lamb (#21), SF Stacey Poole (#33), PF Terrence Jones (#13), and C Enes Kanter (#3 overall). Of course, the biggest question is if Kanter will end up eligible, because they aren't particularly strong on the interior without him, but this year will be plenty athletic and is near-perfectly built for the dribble-drive offense Calipari loves. I'd consider this #2 prediction their downside. Well, the actual downside was it turns out Cal has been cheating (NO WAY) and they kick everybody off the team or something. That would probably be worse.
3. Georgia Bulldogs. Georgia may very well be on their way back to relevance, believe it or not. Travis Leslie is an absolute stud, and what Rodney Williams should aspire to become, and they have the league's leading returning scorer and rebounder in power forward Trey Thompkins. These guys should be two of the best players in the conference, but what makes this team really interesting are a couple of newcomers: freshman forward Marcus Thornton and point guard transfer from Tennessee State Gerald Robinson. Thornton could be a great one, with both size and athleticism, and Robinson is the kind of scoring point guard (averaged 15 and 18 points per game in his two years at TSU) who can end up making or breaking a team. I consider these guys a solid sleeper this year.
4. Tennessee Volunteers. I don't exactly know how Bruce Pearl being a huge cheater is going to affect this team, but they're a bit of an enigma already so this doesn't help with the rubix cube here. I've seen them ranked anywhere from 2nd to 4th in various previews, and with three major contributors and starters gone (four if you want to count Tyler Smith) the second place predictions seems awfully optimistic to me. I guess it really depends on how good you think freshman point guard Tobias Harris can be (Rivals #7), and how much of an improvement Cameron Tatum and/or Scottie Hopson can make. I think those three will be pretty studly, but they're all perimeter guys and the Vols are going to be weak on the interior. Plus I wouldn't surprised if Pearl is dismissed/suspended/whatever and this whole thing collapses.
5. Vanderbilt Commodores. If Northwestern is the nerds of midwest, and Stanford is the nerds of the west coast, then Vanderbilt is the nerds of the southeast. And for nerds, they've had a pretty good run of success lately, making the NCAA Tournament three of the last four years with a sweet16 appearance thrown in. This looking like it's going to be a down year, however, with two double-digit scorers (center A.J. Ogilvy and point guard Jermaine Beal) lost to graduation, but they've built the kind of program at this point where they'll be back soon enough. Sophomore Jeffery Taylor is one of the most athletically gifted players in the conference and should blossom with an increased role on offense, and classmate John Jenkins is a three-point marksman who hit nearly 50% of his threes last year on his way to averaging double-digit points per game. And they're probably all really smart, too. NERDS!!!
6. South Carolina Gamecocks. Remember Devan Downey? He and his 22 points per game have graduated. Along with Dominique Archie (who only played five games last year due to injury) and his 14.4 ppg, Mike Holmes (who only played in seven before being kicked off the team) and his 9.4, and Brandin Raley-Ross and his 10.6. So yes, they're losing a lot. They still have a decent enough inside/outside combo in Ramon Galloway and Sam Muldrow, but let's just say if they were an NBA Jam combo they'd never get picked outside of South Carolina. Coach Darrin Horn loves to play an uptempo style, but with just Galloway and Lakeem Jackson back with significant back court experience, he'll be relying on newcomers and although it's a good class, that's not generally a sign of success. This isn't Kentucky.
SEC WEST
1. Mississippi State Bulldogs. It sucks that Jarvis Varnado graduated, because that guy was as fun to watch as anybody so pardon me if I'm weeping like a fat girl at a prom with no cake while I type this, but the Bulldogs have enough coming back to win their division and make the tournament, mostly because the defied the odds and went 2-0 against the NCAA fascists this offseason. Dee Bost, last year's #3 scorer at 13.2 ppg, declared for the NBA draft, then pulled his name out after the deadline, and instead of following it's own rules they are letting him back to play another year after sitting out the first handful of games. He'll be joined on the suspended bench to start the year by PF Renardo Sidney, last year's #16 ranked freshman by Rivals who sat out of all of last season during an NCAA investigation into something or other, but he'll be playing after a nine game timeout. Add these two to Ravern Johnson, their leading returning scorer, and Miss State should be dancing this year. With a big thanks to the NCAA for actually being reasonable, not exactly their strong suit. It's probably in recognition of how much it sucks to lose Varnado.
2. Mississippi Rebels. Chris Warren is back, again (he's apparently under the Jess Settles plan), but he loses his two back court buddies (Eniel Polynice and Terrico White) who combined to give the Rebels one of the best three-man back courts in the country amongst teams who didn't make the NCAA tournament last year. He won't be alone back there, however, because Ole Miss will welcome one of the best names in the country to the program in point guard Dundrecous Nelson (#89 Rivals), as well as Nick Williams, a transfer from Indiana who averaged nearly double-digit points in his year with the Hoosiers. If the Rebs can get some help in the front court they could finally bust through the bubble and make their first NCAA Tournament since 2002. Gotta be sick of being predicted to be a tournament team only to end up in the NIT, no?
3. Arkansas Razorbacks. Mike Pelphrey continues to grab good recruiting classes, but at the same time there seems to be sort of an undercurrent that things might not be all rosy, or maybe that's just the Courtney Fortson affect. And speaking of Fortson, I think I'm pretty glad he never ended up a Gopher, because it seems he may have been just as good at killing his team as he was at helping it. In any case, Pelphrey has this program humming like a good ole fashioned jug band drinkin' moonshine while prepping for a coon hunt. And if that sounded racist against southerners, it probably was. I've been to Arkansas.
4. Alabama Crimson Tide. Mikhail Torrance was an absolute stud for the Tide last year. Unfortunately, he's gone. Fortunately, however, they still JaMychal Green, who is a beast on the block, and swingman Tony Mitchell, who had a very good freshman year and should only get better. They also have a hell of a freshman point guard coming in with Trevor Releford, who may be the most important cog. According to something I read, Tide coach Anthony Grant wants to run an uptempo offense, but didn't have the point guard to do it and went slow down instead (their tempo ranked #247 last year), and the hope is that Releford is the guy who can be turned loose. It might work, and there's talent here, I just don't think it's enough, even in the SEC West.
5. LSU Tigers. Every year I keep waiting for LSU to get back to relevance, but every year it seems they're still stuck down at the bottom of the division - and this year won't change that. Storm Warren is a solid guard, but the other stand-out returner, forward Bo Spencer, peaced out from the program after being declared academically ineligible (at LSU? LOL). With that they are very young and I'm not even sure they know what all they have since Warren is the only returning player who averaged more than 4.6 points per game last year. There is some talent, with SG Aaron Dotson a Rivals top 150 player last year and a good class this year with three more Rivals top 150 types, so they might be on their way back to relevance, just not yet.
6. Auburn Tigers. Things were already going to be tough with four starters graduating (including your top three scorers), but the news got worse when Frankie Sullivan, the lone returning starter, ended up needed ACL surgery that will likely keep him out all year and the Tigers' two top recruits, Luke Cothron (Rivals #45) and Shawn Kemp, Jr. (#105) were both ruled academically eligible for the year (Cothron has since fled to UMass). This leaves Auburn with Earnest Ross as their top returnee, a sophomore guard who averaged 2.8 points and 3 rebounds in 13 minutes per game last year. In other words it's going to be a long year. At least it will be warm.
SEC EAST
1. Florida Gators. I'm not a huge fan of their guards, because I think both Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton can get a little too out of control and both have a tendency to shoot shots that they shan't be shooting, but there is not denying their talent and the Gators have a stellar front court. Chandler Parsons is a Mike Miller clone sans the bad hair and with a slightly worse jump shot (and he single-handedly won me my fantasy college hoops league last year) and Alex Tyus and Vernon Macklin are very good as long as you don't count free throws. In a down year for the SEC, the Gators are clearly the class of either division.
2. Kentucky Wildcats. In what I'm going to assume is about to become a tradition until Calipari is arrested for money laundering, Kentucky lost an assload of good players to the NBA but is reloading with an assload of talent. It's almost a perfect job of recruiting, actually, because these guys are not only talented but cover all five positions: You have PG Brandon Knight (Rivals #6 overall), SG Doron Lamb (#21), SF Stacey Poole (#33), PF Terrence Jones (#13), and C Enes Kanter (#3 overall). Of course, the biggest question is if Kanter will end up eligible, because they aren't particularly strong on the interior without him, but this year will be plenty athletic and is near-perfectly built for the dribble-drive offense Calipari loves. I'd consider this #2 prediction their downside. Well, the actual downside was it turns out Cal has been cheating (NO WAY) and they kick everybody off the team or something. That would probably be worse.
3. Georgia Bulldogs. Georgia may very well be on their way back to relevance, believe it or not. Travis Leslie is an absolute stud, and what Rodney Williams should aspire to become, and they have the league's leading returning scorer and rebounder in power forward Trey Thompkins. These guys should be two of the best players in the conference, but what makes this team really interesting are a couple of newcomers: freshman forward Marcus Thornton and point guard transfer from Tennessee State Gerald Robinson. Thornton could be a great one, with both size and athleticism, and Robinson is the kind of scoring point guard (averaged 15 and 18 points per game in his two years at TSU) who can end up making or breaking a team. I consider these guys a solid sleeper this year.
4. Tennessee Volunteers. I don't exactly know how Bruce Pearl being a huge cheater is going to affect this team, but they're a bit of an enigma already so this doesn't help with the rubix cube here. I've seen them ranked anywhere from 2nd to 4th in various previews, and with three major contributors and starters gone (four if you want to count Tyler Smith) the second place predictions seems awfully optimistic to me. I guess it really depends on how good you think freshman point guard Tobias Harris can be (Rivals #7), and how much of an improvement Cameron Tatum and/or Scottie Hopson can make. I think those three will be pretty studly, but they're all perimeter guys and the Vols are going to be weak on the interior. Plus I wouldn't surprised if Pearl is dismissed/suspended/whatever and this whole thing collapses.
5. Vanderbilt Commodores. If Northwestern is the nerds of midwest, and Stanford is the nerds of the west coast, then Vanderbilt is the nerds of the southeast. And for nerds, they've had a pretty good run of success lately, making the NCAA Tournament three of the last four years with a sweet16 appearance thrown in. This looking like it's going to be a down year, however, with two double-digit scorers (center A.J. Ogilvy and point guard Jermaine Beal) lost to graduation, but they've built the kind of program at this point where they'll be back soon enough. Sophomore Jeffery Taylor is one of the most athletically gifted players in the conference and should blossom with an increased role on offense, and classmate John Jenkins is a three-point marksman who hit nearly 50% of his threes last year on his way to averaging double-digit points per game. And they're probably all really smart, too. NERDS!!!
6. South Carolina Gamecocks. Remember Devan Downey? He and his 22 points per game have graduated. Along with Dominique Archie (who only played five games last year due to injury) and his 14.4 ppg, Mike Holmes (who only played in seven before being kicked off the team) and his 9.4, and Brandin Raley-Ross and his 10.6. So yes, they're losing a lot. They still have a decent enough inside/outside combo in Ramon Galloway and Sam Muldrow, but let's just say if they were an NBA Jam combo they'd never get picked outside of South Carolina. Coach Darrin Horn loves to play an uptempo style, but with just Galloway and Lakeem Jackson back with significant back court experience, he'll be relying on newcomers and although it's a good class, that's not generally a sign of success. This isn't Kentucky.
SEC WEST
1. Mississippi State Bulldogs. It sucks that Jarvis Varnado graduated, because that guy was as fun to watch as anybody so pardon me if I'm weeping like a fat girl at a prom with no cake while I type this, but the Bulldogs have enough coming back to win their division and make the tournament, mostly because the defied the odds and went 2-0 against the NCAA fascists this offseason. Dee Bost, last year's #3 scorer at 13.2 ppg, declared for the NBA draft, then pulled his name out after the deadline, and instead of following it's own rules they are letting him back to play another year after sitting out the first handful of games. He'll be joined on the suspended bench to start the year by PF Renardo Sidney, last year's #16 ranked freshman by Rivals who sat out of all of last season during an NCAA investigation into something or other, but he'll be playing after a nine game timeout. Add these two to Ravern Johnson, their leading returning scorer, and Miss State should be dancing this year. With a big thanks to the NCAA for actually being reasonable, not exactly their strong suit. It's probably in recognition of how much it sucks to lose Varnado.
2. Mississippi Rebels. Chris Warren is back, again (he's apparently under the Jess Settles plan), but he loses his two back court buddies (Eniel Polynice and Terrico White) who combined to give the Rebels one of the best three-man back courts in the country amongst teams who didn't make the NCAA tournament last year. He won't be alone back there, however, because Ole Miss will welcome one of the best names in the country to the program in point guard Dundrecous Nelson (#89 Rivals), as well as Nick Williams, a transfer from Indiana who averaged nearly double-digit points in his year with the Hoosiers. If the Rebs can get some help in the front court they could finally bust through the bubble and make their first NCAA Tournament since 2002. Gotta be sick of being predicted to be a tournament team only to end up in the NIT, no?
3. Arkansas Razorbacks. Mike Pelphrey continues to grab good recruiting classes, but at the same time there seems to be sort of an undercurrent that things might not be all rosy, or maybe that's just the Courtney Fortson affect. And speaking of Fortson, I think I'm pretty glad he never ended up a Gopher, because it seems he may have been just as good at killing his team as he was at helping it. In any case, Pelphrey has this program humming like a good ole fashioned jug band drinkin' moonshine while prepping for a coon hunt. And if that sounded racist against southerners, it probably was. I've been to Arkansas.
4. Alabama Crimson Tide. Mikhail Torrance was an absolute stud for the Tide last year. Unfortunately, he's gone. Fortunately, however, they still JaMychal Green, who is a beast on the block, and swingman Tony Mitchell, who had a very good freshman year and should only get better. They also have a hell of a freshman point guard coming in with Trevor Releford, who may be the most important cog. According to something I read, Tide coach Anthony Grant wants to run an uptempo offense, but didn't have the point guard to do it and went slow down instead (their tempo ranked #247 last year), and the hope is that Releford is the guy who can be turned loose. It might work, and there's talent here, I just don't think it's enough, even in the SEC West.
5. LSU Tigers. Every year I keep waiting for LSU to get back to relevance, but every year it seems they're still stuck down at the bottom of the division - and this year won't change that. Storm Warren is a solid guard, but the other stand-out returner, forward Bo Spencer, peaced out from the program after being declared academically ineligible (at LSU? LOL). With that they are very young and I'm not even sure they know what all they have since Warren is the only returning player who averaged more than 4.6 points per game last year. There is some talent, with SG Aaron Dotson a Rivals top 150 player last year and a good class this year with three more Rivals top 150 types, so they might be on their way back to relevance, just not yet.
6. Auburn Tigers. Things were already going to be tough with four starters graduating (including your top three scorers), but the news got worse when Frankie Sullivan, the lone returning starter, ended up needed ACL surgery that will likely keep him out all year and the Tigers' two top recruits, Luke Cothron (Rivals #45) and Shawn Kemp, Jr. (#105) were both ruled academically eligible for the year (Cothron has since fled to UMass). This leaves Auburn with Earnest Ross as their top returnee, a sophomore guard who averaged 2.8 points and 3 rebounds in 13 minutes per game last year. In other words it's going to be a long year. At least it will be warm.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Week in Review - 2/8/2010
You cretins probably don't realize how difficult it is to run a blog, especially when you do a critically acclaimed and widely recognized Week in Review every Monday with an Awesome and Sucks section. Like, what am I supposed to do about this Gopher basketball game?
They won a road game on a last-second shot: Awesome. But it was against Penn State: Sucks. They played well enough to essentially dominate the game: Awesome. But a serious of mistakes in the final minutes almost let the game slip away: Sucks. Huge shot by Westbrook to win the game: Awesome. But it wouldn't have come to that if Westbrook hadn't made maybe the biggest of the mistakes down the stretch: Sucks.
Seriously, I didn't feel any excitement at all after he hit that shot, it was something closer to relief mixed with exasperation. About the only good thing about this game was Ralph turning into a monster. Snake once told me I expected too much out of Ralph too soon, and I think he was right. I was looking for this monster to emerge too early in his career, but I can see the career arch I had envisioned beginning to take shape. I'm starting to think two Big Ten Player of the Year awards was a bit too optimistic, but one is practically a given - assuming he stays two more years.
Anyway, I think the best strategy is just to ignore this game. It really means nothing other than now we have to watch a few more games before we can give up on this team. I'm still looking forward to a few NIT games.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Gonzaga. The Zags dropped a WCC game to San Francisco two weeks ago, ending their nine game win streak, but if you thought it was some kind of indication that they weren't awesome you are sadly mistaken my buddy friend. They started out this week with a complete drubbing of one of this season's pretenders to the WCC crown - Portland (Gopher fan: *cry*), waxing the Pilots 76-49, and then picked up a nice win on Saturday, beating Memphis at the FedEx Forum (that's in Memphis, genius). Beating the Tigers isn't quite the same feather in your cap it used to be the last few years, but beating a good team, and a good home team, in their place is always a good indication of a tough team. I don't love Matt Bouldin (GrandSlam's favorite player, FYI) but he can light it up when he needs to. Stephen Gray is the next Jeremy Pargo, Elias Harris is the next Austin Daye, and Robert Sacre is the most athletic center I can remember Gonzaga having. I don't think they're a final four threat, but they're closer to that than some of the versions we've seen of the Bulldogs before who were just ripe for a first round upset.
2. UNLV. Right now the Mountain West has probably two guaranteed bids - BYU and New Mexico - and there is probably room for one other team, either UNLV or San Diego State. The Rebels just took a huge stride towards grabbing that bid, blowing out BYU in Las Vegas in a game that was much less close than the 88-74 score would indicate. UNLV jumped out to a 15-2 lead to start the game and led 47-18 at one point before letting the foot off the gas. Former Memphis transfer Tre'Von Willis led the way with 33 points, 8 assists, and five rebounds, following up his 15-8-8 effort earlier in the week against Wyoming. The Rebels already have wins over Louisville, Arizona, and Nevada in the non-conference season and have already beaten New Mexico and San Diego State to go along with that win over BYU, so assuming there are no major hiccups they are in pretty good shape to grab a bid. Just don't lose to teams like Air Force or Colorado State or anything.
3. New Orleans Saints. I'm actually pretty bummed about this despite betting on the Saints. First, because I'm kind of a half-assed Colts fan and it sucks to keep watching the greatest QB of all-time (yeah, I said it) keep losing in the playoffs due to other people's mistakes. Secondly, the whole "Saints are destined to win to make up for Katrina" crap is mind-blowingly retarded. Seriously, how stupid are you people? A Super Bowl is going to make up for eighty-bajillion dollars in damages and a kajillion deaths? I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure God still owes New Orleans a whole lot. And then he goes and has Chris Paul get hurt? Nice guy, your god. Anyway, congrats to the Saints. Sean Payton outcoached Jim Caldwell to infinity, Drew Brees executed perfectly, and that onside kick to start the 2nd half might have been the ballsiest call in history. This was probably the first Super Bowl in history where I didn't hate at least one of the teams, so I'm happy either way. But I would have been way happier if the Colts won. Also the Sidler is probably on suicide watch (he's from Indiana). Yes, again.
4. Steve Stricker. I haven't written a word about golf since the season started back in January, mainly because all the tournaments thus far have had less than thrilling player fields, but this week I have to give props to Stricker. After two good rounds, Stricker was in a tie with Dustin Johnson at ten under heading into the weekend, both three shots clear of the third place golfer. Rather than sit back, Stricker got after it again on Saturday, posting a five under 66, the second-best round of the day, which staked him to a huge lead going into the final round, a lead that let him simply coast to the championship with a 70. It was a very impressive and convincing win over a pretty good field that included Phil Mickelson, Paddy Harrington, Hunter Mahan, Luke Donald, Ernie Els, Jim Furyk, and notorious homo Stew Cink, among others. It seems strange to say Stricker is the #2 golfer in the world, but it's now official - he is.
5. Bracket Busters. The matchups for Bracket Busters were announced this week, and for once they managed not to screw it up. Of course, as usual there are a ton of matchups and a lot of them include teams like Presbyterian (RPI 318), UT-Martin (RPI 335), and Marist (RPI 337), but the eleven tv matchups are pretty intriguing with 19 of the 22 teams having an RPI under 100. The highlight is Siena at Butler, with Butler probably ok either way but Siena really needing this win to get an at-large, but there are six other games involving ten other teams that have NCAA At-Large bid ramifications (at-large hopefuls in bold): Old Dominion at Northern Iowa, William & Mary at Iona, Louisiana Tech at Northeastern, Akron at Virginia Commonwealth, Charleston at George Mason, and Wichita State at Utah State - although both W&M and GMU lost this week, probably ending their chances. In year's past there was usually one, maybe two games worth watching, but this year there are at least seven. The only thing really missing is a couple of Ivy League squads in Cornell and Harvard, but I guess the nerds have to nerd it up in their precious library and can't come out and play. Way to go, Poindexter! Enjoy your English Lit degree when you're serving my kids fries at a drive-thru on our way to a skiing trip.
WHO SUCKED
1. Michigan. If it's frustrating to be a Gopher fan this basketball season, and it most certainly is, try to imagine being a Michigan fan. Picked by most analysts to be a NCAA Tournament team and in the top five or so in the conference this season has been a huge struggle. A tough schedule and some poor play led to the Wolverines coming into conference play with a 6-5 record, but with a very good RPI and SOS they had a pretty good chance at a bid if they just played well against conference teams. However they dropped the opener to Indiana and have been faltering ever since. I win over UCONN two weeks ago could have been a rallying point for a late season push, but since then Michigan has gone 2-5, culminating this week in a blowout loss at Northwestern and then a blowout at home against Wisconsin, dropping them to 4-7 in the Big Ten and 11-12 overall, aka not even eligible for the NIT. This is what happens when a coach (Beilien) tries to force the players on his team to play in his stupid everybody bomb three-pointers at all times system when those players can't shoot. It's like a team of Paul Carters out there just bombing away.
2. LSU. Maybe it isn't exactly fair to call out LSU this week since they did play Tennessee and Kentucky, but they had them both at home, lost both, were completely embarrassed by Kentucky (lost 81-55), and it has become impossible to ignore the fact that the Tigers are now sitting at 0-9 in SEC play. Ouch. They were just in the Final four in 2006, and made the tournament last year and stretched eventual champ UNC into a damn good game. What happened? They still have Tasmin Mitchell, who is one of the best overall players in the NCAA, but everybody else is gone from last year, and the new guys all suck. Bo Spencer, a three-point specialist last year who shot 40% behind the line, has been unable to move into a more prominent role and is shooting just 28% from three this year. It's just depressing. I like my LSU teams to be hyper-athletic and capable of beating anybody at any time. Not on nine-game losing streaks with a win over Rice as their best of the year. And did I mention that Kentucky was winning 42-14 at half on Saturday? Yuck.
3. LaSalle. If you ever want proof that I'm an idiot, you can ring up my preseason LaSalle prediction as your latest in a long, long, line of evidence. I was blinded in the preseason by a returning super-stud scoring machine (Rodney Green) and a super fancy brand new freshman center (Aaric Murray) and picked them to finish second in the A-10. Well it turns out they suck, and this week eliminates any doubt. They had two home games - the first a nice chance to pick off a top team with Rhode Island coming in, the second a simple win over St. Louis - and obviously they lost them both or I wouldn't be here typing this right now. LaSalle is now 3-6 in the conference, tied for 8th with crap factory Duquesne, and is at 11-12 overall. Like Michigan, they are now not even eligible to make the NIT since they are under .500. Sounds like a killer CBI match-up. Between this and my pimping of Cincinnati it's pretty clear my eye for talent is worse than someone who thought Troy Williamson would be a super star (bogart). Ohio State better come through for me.
4. Cincinnati. Oh yeah, Cincinnati. The team I pimped as a final four sleeper this year. Whoops. They might still make the tournament and all, currently sitting at 5-6 in the Big East with a couple of really good non-conference wins already on the resume, but you can go ahead and forget about them making any kind of run barring Lance Stephenson turning into Carmelo Anthony in the next month. This week was a pretty good barometer of what type of team we have here. Good teams beat bad teams on the road and beat other good teams at home. This week the Bearcats played Notre Dame on the road and Syracuse at home - they went 0-2 and neither game was even close, which tells me this isn't any kind of special team whatsoever, just another lame-o team like so many out there. Deonta Vaughn has taken about twenty steps backwards, Stephenson has been just ok, Ibrahima Thomas hasn't made much of an impact, and everybody else here is just meh. I'm so disappointed.
5. Reggie Wayne. If you're looking for a goat for the game, don't bother with Peyton or Caldwell, look to Wayne. Targeted eleven times he came up with just five catches for 46 yards. He let a perfect pass go right through his hands at the end of the game which would have been a touchdown (also we could maybe look hard at Pierre Garcon here if we're talking dropping passes). Most importantly, he slipped on the big Peyton INT that Porter returned for a TD. If he doesn't slip, that's either a catch or, at worst, an incompletion. Instead, he slips and can't get back for the ball, and you know the rest. Yeah. It's not Manning this time, it's Wayne. And with Garcon and Collie on board and Gonzalez coming back from injury, it's probably time to trade him while his value is high. Maybe to like, the Vikings or something. I don't know, just brain storming here.
Seriously though, I am happy for the Saints. They're almost impossible to hate, other than the whole "team of destiny" crap and the fact that Reggie Bush is a big piece of crap yet Bogart loves him. Seriously, he totaled 25 rushing yards and 38 receiving yards in the game. You know what's even worse? He covered the OVER with both of those. Seriously. Dude sucks. He's the next Dave Meggett. But he does have Kim Kardashian, so who am I to argue?
And if you aren't excited now, you should start getting excited because it's RIVALRY WEEK on ESPN! Woo! What does that mean? Well, like every other year, it pretty much just means North Carolina and Duke play this week, and then they pretend that a bunch of non-rivalries are rivalries so they can call it a "week." Whoopy.
They won a road game on a last-second shot: Awesome. But it was against Penn State: Sucks. They played well enough to essentially dominate the game: Awesome. But a serious of mistakes in the final minutes almost let the game slip away: Sucks. Huge shot by Westbrook to win the game: Awesome. But it wouldn't have come to that if Westbrook hadn't made maybe the biggest of the mistakes down the stretch: Sucks.
Seriously, I didn't feel any excitement at all after he hit that shot, it was something closer to relief mixed with exasperation. About the only good thing about this game was Ralph turning into a monster. Snake once told me I expected too much out of Ralph too soon, and I think he was right. I was looking for this monster to emerge too early in his career, but I can see the career arch I had envisioned beginning to take shape. I'm starting to think two Big Ten Player of the Year awards was a bit too optimistic, but one is practically a given - assuming he stays two more years.
Anyway, I think the best strategy is just to ignore this game. It really means nothing other than now we have to watch a few more games before we can give up on this team. I'm still looking forward to a few NIT games.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Gonzaga. The Zags dropped a WCC game to San Francisco two weeks ago, ending their nine game win streak, but if you thought it was some kind of indication that they weren't awesome you are sadly mistaken my buddy friend. They started out this week with a complete drubbing of one of this season's pretenders to the WCC crown - Portland (Gopher fan: *cry*), waxing the Pilots 76-49, and then picked up a nice win on Saturday, beating Memphis at the FedEx Forum (that's in Memphis, genius). Beating the Tigers isn't quite the same feather in your cap it used to be the last few years, but beating a good team, and a good home team, in their place is always a good indication of a tough team. I don't love Matt Bouldin (GrandSlam's favorite player, FYI) but he can light it up when he needs to. Stephen Gray is the next Jeremy Pargo, Elias Harris is the next Austin Daye, and Robert Sacre is the most athletic center I can remember Gonzaga having. I don't think they're a final four threat, but they're closer to that than some of the versions we've seen of the Bulldogs before who were just ripe for a first round upset.
2. UNLV. Right now the Mountain West has probably two guaranteed bids - BYU and New Mexico - and there is probably room for one other team, either UNLV or San Diego State. The Rebels just took a huge stride towards grabbing that bid, blowing out BYU in Las Vegas in a game that was much less close than the 88-74 score would indicate. UNLV jumped out to a 15-2 lead to start the game and led 47-18 at one point before letting the foot off the gas. Former Memphis transfer Tre'Von Willis led the way with 33 points, 8 assists, and five rebounds, following up his 15-8-8 effort earlier in the week against Wyoming. The Rebels already have wins over Louisville, Arizona, and Nevada in the non-conference season and have already beaten New Mexico and San Diego State to go along with that win over BYU, so assuming there are no major hiccups they are in pretty good shape to grab a bid. Just don't lose to teams like Air Force or Colorado State or anything.
3. New Orleans Saints. I'm actually pretty bummed about this despite betting on the Saints. First, because I'm kind of a half-assed Colts fan and it sucks to keep watching the greatest QB of all-time (yeah, I said it) keep losing in the playoffs due to other people's mistakes. Secondly, the whole "Saints are destined to win to make up for Katrina" crap is mind-blowingly retarded. Seriously, how stupid are you people? A Super Bowl is going to make up for eighty-bajillion dollars in damages and a kajillion deaths? I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure God still owes New Orleans a whole lot. And then he goes and has Chris Paul get hurt? Nice guy, your god. Anyway, congrats to the Saints. Sean Payton outcoached Jim Caldwell to infinity, Drew Brees executed perfectly, and that onside kick to start the 2nd half might have been the ballsiest call in history. This was probably the first Super Bowl in history where I didn't hate at least one of the teams, so I'm happy either way. But I would have been way happier if the Colts won. Also the Sidler is probably on suicide watch (he's from Indiana). Yes, again.
4. Steve Stricker. I haven't written a word about golf since the season started back in January, mainly because all the tournaments thus far have had less than thrilling player fields, but this week I have to give props to Stricker. After two good rounds, Stricker was in a tie with Dustin Johnson at ten under heading into the weekend, both three shots clear of the third place golfer. Rather than sit back, Stricker got after it again on Saturday, posting a five under 66, the second-best round of the day, which staked him to a huge lead going into the final round, a lead that let him simply coast to the championship with a 70. It was a very impressive and convincing win over a pretty good field that included Phil Mickelson, Paddy Harrington, Hunter Mahan, Luke Donald, Ernie Els, Jim Furyk, and notorious homo Stew Cink, among others. It seems strange to say Stricker is the #2 golfer in the world, but it's now official - he is.
5. Bracket Busters. The matchups for Bracket Busters were announced this week, and for once they managed not to screw it up. Of course, as usual there are a ton of matchups and a lot of them include teams like Presbyterian (RPI 318), UT-Martin (RPI 335), and Marist (RPI 337), but the eleven tv matchups are pretty intriguing with 19 of the 22 teams having an RPI under 100. The highlight is Siena at Butler, with Butler probably ok either way but Siena really needing this win to get an at-large, but there are six other games involving ten other teams that have NCAA At-Large bid ramifications (at-large hopefuls in bold): Old Dominion at Northern Iowa, William & Mary at Iona, Louisiana Tech at Northeastern, Akron at Virginia Commonwealth, Charleston at George Mason, and Wichita State at Utah State - although both W&M and GMU lost this week, probably ending their chances. In year's past there was usually one, maybe two games worth watching, but this year there are at least seven. The only thing really missing is a couple of Ivy League squads in Cornell and Harvard, but I guess the nerds have to nerd it up in their precious library and can't come out and play. Way to go, Poindexter! Enjoy your English Lit degree when you're serving my kids fries at a drive-thru on our way to a skiing trip.
WHO SUCKED
1. Michigan. If it's frustrating to be a Gopher fan this basketball season, and it most certainly is, try to imagine being a Michigan fan. Picked by most analysts to be a NCAA Tournament team and in the top five or so in the conference this season has been a huge struggle. A tough schedule and some poor play led to the Wolverines coming into conference play with a 6-5 record, but with a very good RPI and SOS they had a pretty good chance at a bid if they just played well against conference teams. However they dropped the opener to Indiana and have been faltering ever since. I win over UCONN two weeks ago could have been a rallying point for a late season push, but since then Michigan has gone 2-5, culminating this week in a blowout loss at Northwestern and then a blowout at home against Wisconsin, dropping them to 4-7 in the Big Ten and 11-12 overall, aka not even eligible for the NIT. This is what happens when a coach (Beilien) tries to force the players on his team to play in his stupid everybody bomb three-pointers at all times system when those players can't shoot. It's like a team of Paul Carters out there just bombing away.
2. LSU. Maybe it isn't exactly fair to call out LSU this week since they did play Tennessee and Kentucky, but they had them both at home, lost both, were completely embarrassed by Kentucky (lost 81-55), and it has become impossible to ignore the fact that the Tigers are now sitting at 0-9 in SEC play. Ouch. They were just in the Final four in 2006, and made the tournament last year and stretched eventual champ UNC into a damn good game. What happened? They still have Tasmin Mitchell, who is one of the best overall players in the NCAA, but everybody else is gone from last year, and the new guys all suck. Bo Spencer, a three-point specialist last year who shot 40% behind the line, has been unable to move into a more prominent role and is shooting just 28% from three this year. It's just depressing. I like my LSU teams to be hyper-athletic and capable of beating anybody at any time. Not on nine-game losing streaks with a win over Rice as their best of the year. And did I mention that Kentucky was winning 42-14 at half on Saturday? Yuck.
3. LaSalle. If you ever want proof that I'm an idiot, you can ring up my preseason LaSalle prediction as your latest in a long, long, line of evidence. I was blinded in the preseason by a returning super-stud scoring machine (Rodney Green) and a super fancy brand new freshman center (Aaric Murray) and picked them to finish second in the A-10. Well it turns out they suck, and this week eliminates any doubt. They had two home games - the first a nice chance to pick off a top team with Rhode Island coming in, the second a simple win over St. Louis - and obviously they lost them both or I wouldn't be here typing this right now. LaSalle is now 3-6 in the conference, tied for 8th with crap factory Duquesne, and is at 11-12 overall. Like Michigan, they are now not even eligible to make the NIT since they are under .500. Sounds like a killer CBI match-up. Between this and my pimping of Cincinnati it's pretty clear my eye for talent is worse than someone who thought Troy Williamson would be a super star (bogart). Ohio State better come through for me.
4. Cincinnati. Oh yeah, Cincinnati. The team I pimped as a final four sleeper this year. Whoops. They might still make the tournament and all, currently sitting at 5-6 in the Big East with a couple of really good non-conference wins already on the resume, but you can go ahead and forget about them making any kind of run barring Lance Stephenson turning into Carmelo Anthony in the next month. This week was a pretty good barometer of what type of team we have here. Good teams beat bad teams on the road and beat other good teams at home. This week the Bearcats played Notre Dame on the road and Syracuse at home - they went 0-2 and neither game was even close, which tells me this isn't any kind of special team whatsoever, just another lame-o team like so many out there. Deonta Vaughn has taken about twenty steps backwards, Stephenson has been just ok, Ibrahima Thomas hasn't made much of an impact, and everybody else here is just meh. I'm so disappointed.
5. Reggie Wayne. If you're looking for a goat for the game, don't bother with Peyton or Caldwell, look to Wayne. Targeted eleven times he came up with just five catches for 46 yards. He let a perfect pass go right through his hands at the end of the game which would have been a touchdown (also we could maybe look hard at Pierre Garcon here if we're talking dropping passes). Most importantly, he slipped on the big Peyton INT that Porter returned for a TD. If he doesn't slip, that's either a catch or, at worst, an incompletion. Instead, he slips and can't get back for the ball, and you know the rest. Yeah. It's not Manning this time, it's Wayne. And with Garcon and Collie on board and Gonzalez coming back from injury, it's probably time to trade him while his value is high. Maybe to like, the Vikings or something. I don't know, just brain storming here.
Seriously though, I am happy for the Saints. They're almost impossible to hate, other than the whole "team of destiny" crap and the fact that Reggie Bush is a big piece of crap yet Bogart loves him. Seriously, he totaled 25 rushing yards and 38 receiving yards in the game. You know what's even worse? He covered the OVER with both of those. Seriously. Dude sucks. He's the next Dave Meggett. But he does have Kim Kardashian, so who am I to argue?
And if you aren't excited now, you should start getting excited because it's RIVALRY WEEK on ESPN! Woo! What does that mean? Well, like every other year, it pretty much just means North Carolina and Duke play this week, and then they pretend that a bunch of non-rivalries are rivalries so they can call it a "week." Whoopy.
Friday, October 30, 2009
NCAA Basketball Preview: The SEC
I have no idea what happened to the SEC. This used to be a really, really good conference, but seems to have slipped since the Florida back-to-back championship teams and is now pretty much the worst of the major conferences. Things are looking to turn, however, as there are a couple of big-time contenders here now and the conference as a whole looks like it is getting a whole lot better. I also hate that they split out their conference into East and West divisions. Unnecessary and annoying. In protest, I will be listing them as a whole, not breaking it down by division. Take that Robert E. Lee!
1. Kentucky. Well I for one can't wait to see this John Wall character. You can't read anything about Kentucky or even the NCAA basketball season as a whole without him being mentioned. The comparison I see a lot is "a better Derrick Rose" which like, whoa. He's on everybody's award winner predictions lists, anywhere from the SEC Player of the Year all the way up to National Player of the Year, and he hasn't played a minute yet. There's plenty of talent around him, that's for sure. Patrick Patterson is insanely good, and for some strange reason is still in college rather than the NBA, and that recruiting class Calipari paid to come to Lexington is out of this world. Other than Wall, who is #1 on the Rivals 150, they also got PF DeMarcus Cousins (#2), C Daniel Orton (#22), PG Eric Bledsoe (#23) who I desperately wanted to become a Gopher, and G Jon Hood (#55). Holy god. The talent is there, anything less than a final four appearance is going to be a disappointment (this assumes the eligibility issues with Wall are resolved and he ends up playing.)
2. Mississippi State. I love Jarvis Varnado. Love him. I had a chance to watch him in a game a couple of years ago as a sophomore, and fell in love with his defense - he averaged 4.7 blocks per game last year to lead the nation and, barring injury, will almost certainly become the all-time leader in blocked shots in NCAA history. But it gets better. After being a defensive force his first two seasons, before last year he worked on his offensive game, developed some low-post moves, and increased his scoring from 8ppg as a sophomore to 13 per game last year. Even more, I read this offseason he's worked tirelessly on adding a mid-range jumper. Based on his ability to improve year over year, I can't wait to see his new offensive game, and he could be gunning for All-American status. All this from a guy who already has a triple-double in his career and several other near misses. The Bulldogs are hurt a bit by recruit Renardo Sidney (Rivals #16) being ruled ineligible, but there is a lot here surrounding Varnado. The Final Four might be aiming a bit too high, but you can expect MSU to be a major contender.
3. Tennessee. Despite losing a bunch of players last year, the Vols were a bit of a disappointment last year, finishing up an uneven season with five losses by 3 points or less, including their loss to Oklahoma State in the NCAA Tournament. The good news is that everybody is back, and they add two key pieces in PF Kenny Hall (Rivals #74) who will help shore up the inside game, and juco PG Melvin Goins (#62 Juco), who can help at point guard - a weakness last year, especially in SEC play. Another issue that needs to be fixed is the three-point shot, once a huge weapon for Tennessee it proved to be an achilles' heel last year - the Vols shot just 31.5% behind the line, worst in the SEC and 286th in the country. The hope is that sophomores Cameron Tatum and Scotty Hopson, now with a year of college hoops under their belts, can improve, and that might end up being the difference between an average team and a great team.
4. Vanderbilt. I've managed to pretty much completely avoid Vanderbilt for years, except for when Derrick Byars was there, that guy was a freakin' stud. I wonder what he's up to, hold on. Let's see, bounced around a few different NBA teams without ever sticking, and ended up playing the last couple of seasons in Germany and France before hooking on with the Bakersfield Jam in the D-League last year. He averaged 18 points per game for them and made the all-star team, was invited to Bulls training camp this year, made the team and is on the opening night roster. Sweet. Oh, and all the magazines and previews and everything say Vandy is going to be really good this year. I do know they have a beast down low whose name I can't remember.
5. Arkansas. I've been following Courtney Fortson closely since the Gophers were after him, and I still can't decide if I wish he was here or not - even with the current PG situation. On the one hand, his stats are amazing - 14.5 points/5.9 assists/5.5 rebounds - incredible for a 5-11 freshman, and he notched a triple-double in just his seventh ever game, and nearly had two more against Oklahoma and LSU, not exactly horrible teams. On the other hand, his turnovers are wildly high (4.4 per game) including a game where he turned the ball over 10 times in 29 minutes, he's not a very good shooter (31% from three, 60% from the line), and he once went 7-27 from the floor in a game. All in all, the dude is wildly talented, and assuming he reigns in his game and continues to improve with age, he's going to be a star - so yes, I do wish he was a Gopher. There is plenty of other talent back, including three other double digit scorers, and a very good recruiting class, so the Razorbacks should be in the NCAA hunt. Of course, after their huge nonconference wins over top ten teams Oklahoma and Texas last year we thought that too, before they inexplicably went 2-14 in the SEC. Well, not that inexplicable. They had more turnovers than assists last year. That's not good, FYI.
6. Ole Miss. This team is loaded on the perimeter. If you haven't had a chance to watch Chris Warren play, I highly recommend you look for them on tv. Warren is a driving force and is nearly unstoppable with the ball, but he got hurt last year and only played in 11 games, dooming the Rebels to a season that ended after the SEC tournament. That shouldn't happen this year, assuming nobody gets hurt. With all the injuries last year, Terrico White was thurst into a starring role and he thrived, winning SEC Freshman of the Year honors. Assuming they get decent play from the front court, these guys are going to put a ton of points on the board. It's if they can stop anybody that's in question - they were the worst defensive team in the SEC last season.
7. South Carolina. It turns out this conference is even deeper than I thought, because the Gamecocks feel like a team that should be much higher than 7th in their conference. Two of their three big guns are back, and guard Devan Downey has the look of a player who will contend for the SEC Player of the Year. He can score (37 against Baylor last year), but also turns the ball over way too much (8 TOs to 0 assists in that same game and just a 1.3 Ast/TO ratio). If he can control the ball it will go a long way towards getting South Carolina back in the NCAA tournament. Also I can never, ever, like this team since they stole Georgia Tech's "Lethal Weapon 3" nickname, when it was obvious to anyone that they were just a bunch of gunners and a total mirage - a belief completely vindicated when they went down as a #2 seed. Karma, baby. Karma.
8. Florida. I suppose losing your whole team after back-to-back national championships usually entails a rebuilding process, but it seems that it's not going all that well for the Gators. Not that it's Billy Donovan's fault, since he's been hit by players leaving the program early the past couple seasons (Speights, Calathes, Lucas). Even so, it doesn't feel quite right having Florida this low, and it wouldn't surprise me at all to see them in the NCAA tournament, especially if Kenny Boynton (Rivals #12) is as good as advertised. He will pretty much have to be, because although Florida has some nice talent in their frontcourt - including transfer Vernon Macklin from Georgetown - the backcourt really needs some help. Outside of Boynton, point man Erving Walker, who had a pretty good freshman year last season, is about all they have.
9. Alabama. I'm sort of thinking I have Alabama too low here, they could easily finish as high as fifth, but since I've already typed this out and the control key on my keyboard doesn't work, I don't feel like cutting and pasting. Although he's not the team's leading returning scorer, sophomore JaMychal Green might be the key for the Tide this season. He was a stud recruit last season (Rivals #21), and had a very good freshman campaign (10pts, 8 rebs, 2 blks per game), which included six double-doubles. If he continues to improve and can become the offensive focal point it will go a long way towards a good season for the Tide. Among a big and talented group of newcomers is Shawn Kemp, one of I assume several sons of THAT Shawn Kemp, one of my favorite NBA players of all-time. (NOTE: I am finding conflicting information, some sources say he is signed with Alabama, others say he has reopened his recruitment which seems weird since the season starts in like two weeks so I don't know what is going on except that there has been a hole in my soul since Kemp retired and it would be nice to have another Shawn Kemp to take his place).
10. LSU. The Tigers had an excellent season last year, making it to the second round of the NCAA tournament, but the team has been gutted by graduation, and now they will return just two guys who averaged more than 2 points or 8 minutes per game last year. Those two are pretty good - Bo Spencer is an excellent shooter and Tasmin Mitchell is absolutely one of the best inside/outside players in the country and will be in the NBA next season - but there isn't much else here. A small recruiting class leaves the Tigers thin and inexperienced, and although Mitchell will be fun to watch, I don't see a whole lot else fun happening in the bayou this season. They'll be back at the top soon enough - next year's recruiting class is a top 20 type of class already - but not this year.
11. Auburn. Remember last year, how Auburn won 10 conference games but still couldn't get an NCAA tournament bid because they went 10-4 through a non-conference schedule that would make Glen Mason blush? Yeah, most of the good players from that team are gone. Their leading scorer and assist man is back in DeWayne Reed, and he'll have a couple of guys to dish to on the wing who love to bomb the long ball in Tay Waller and Frankie Sullivan, but looking down low is going to be an issue. Coach Jeff Lebo brings in a gaggle of 3-star players, three of them with good size, and will need one of them to play well or have one of the nondescript veterans step up. They are still set up as a team that could get hot on the right night and knock off a much better team thanks to their shooters, but they aren't getting anywhere near the NCAA tournament.
12. Georgia. How bad is it for the Bulldogs right now? CollegeHoops.Net does a preview of their top 144 teams every year, and this year Georgia failed to make the list [Gophers = #18]. Teams on the list include Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Jackson State, South Carolina State, and Iowa. They're worse than Iowa - ouch. Two minor reasons for optimism - new coach Mark Fox, who had a lot of success at Nevada, and sophomore forward Trey Thompkins, a top 30 recurit last year who had an excellent first year for the Dawgs. My new favorite player though might be their center Albert Jackson, who played more than 19 minutes per game last year despite his incredible 1-to-5.2 assist to turnover ratio, thanks to his season total of eleven. The next Yinka Dare, perhaps?
Other Previews
Conference USA
Atlantic 10
Mountain West
Atlantic Coast
Big Twelve
Big East
1. Kentucky. Well I for one can't wait to see this John Wall character. You can't read anything about Kentucky or even the NCAA basketball season as a whole without him being mentioned. The comparison I see a lot is "a better Derrick Rose" which like, whoa. He's on everybody's award winner predictions lists, anywhere from the SEC Player of the Year all the way up to National Player of the Year, and he hasn't played a minute yet. There's plenty of talent around him, that's for sure. Patrick Patterson is insanely good, and for some strange reason is still in college rather than the NBA, and that recruiting class Calipari paid to come to Lexington is out of this world. Other than Wall, who is #1 on the Rivals 150, they also got PF DeMarcus Cousins (#2), C Daniel Orton (#22), PG Eric Bledsoe (#23) who I desperately wanted to become a Gopher, and G Jon Hood (#55). Holy god. The talent is there, anything less than a final four appearance is going to be a disappointment (this assumes the eligibility issues with Wall are resolved and he ends up playing.)
2. Mississippi State. I love Jarvis Varnado. Love him. I had a chance to watch him in a game a couple of years ago as a sophomore, and fell in love with his defense - he averaged 4.7 blocks per game last year to lead the nation and, barring injury, will almost certainly become the all-time leader in blocked shots in NCAA history. But it gets better. After being a defensive force his first two seasons, before last year he worked on his offensive game, developed some low-post moves, and increased his scoring from 8ppg as a sophomore to 13 per game last year. Even more, I read this offseason he's worked tirelessly on adding a mid-range jumper. Based on his ability to improve year over year, I can't wait to see his new offensive game, and he could be gunning for All-American status. All this from a guy who already has a triple-double in his career and several other near misses. The Bulldogs are hurt a bit by recruit Renardo Sidney (Rivals #16) being ruled ineligible, but there is a lot here surrounding Varnado. The Final Four might be aiming a bit too high, but you can expect MSU to be a major contender.
3. Tennessee. Despite losing a bunch of players last year, the Vols were a bit of a disappointment last year, finishing up an uneven season with five losses by 3 points or less, including their loss to Oklahoma State in the NCAA Tournament. The good news is that everybody is back, and they add two key pieces in PF Kenny Hall (Rivals #74) who will help shore up the inside game, and juco PG Melvin Goins (#62 Juco), who can help at point guard - a weakness last year, especially in SEC play. Another issue that needs to be fixed is the three-point shot, once a huge weapon for Tennessee it proved to be an achilles' heel last year - the Vols shot just 31.5% behind the line, worst in the SEC and 286th in the country. The hope is that sophomores Cameron Tatum and Scotty Hopson, now with a year of college hoops under their belts, can improve, and that might end up being the difference between an average team and a great team.
4. Vanderbilt. I've managed to pretty much completely avoid Vanderbilt for years, except for when Derrick Byars was there, that guy was a freakin' stud. I wonder what he's up to, hold on. Let's see, bounced around a few different NBA teams without ever sticking, and ended up playing the last couple of seasons in Germany and France before hooking on with the Bakersfield Jam in the D-League last year. He averaged 18 points per game for them and made the all-star team, was invited to Bulls training camp this year, made the team and is on the opening night roster. Sweet. Oh, and all the magazines and previews and everything say Vandy is going to be really good this year. I do know they have a beast down low whose name I can't remember.
5. Arkansas. I've been following Courtney Fortson closely since the Gophers were after him, and I still can't decide if I wish he was here or not - even with the current PG situation. On the one hand, his stats are amazing - 14.5 points/5.9 assists/5.5 rebounds - incredible for a 5-11 freshman, and he notched a triple-double in just his seventh ever game, and nearly had two more against Oklahoma and LSU, not exactly horrible teams. On the other hand, his turnovers are wildly high (4.4 per game) including a game where he turned the ball over 10 times in 29 minutes, he's not a very good shooter (31% from three, 60% from the line), and he once went 7-27 from the floor in a game. All in all, the dude is wildly talented, and assuming he reigns in his game and continues to improve with age, he's going to be a star - so yes, I do wish he was a Gopher. There is plenty of other talent back, including three other double digit scorers, and a very good recruiting class, so the Razorbacks should be in the NCAA hunt. Of course, after their huge nonconference wins over top ten teams Oklahoma and Texas last year we thought that too, before they inexplicably went 2-14 in the SEC. Well, not that inexplicable. They had more turnovers than assists last year. That's not good, FYI.
6. Ole Miss. This team is loaded on the perimeter. If you haven't had a chance to watch Chris Warren play, I highly recommend you look for them on tv. Warren is a driving force and is nearly unstoppable with the ball, but he got hurt last year and only played in 11 games, dooming the Rebels to a season that ended after the SEC tournament. That shouldn't happen this year, assuming nobody gets hurt. With all the injuries last year, Terrico White was thurst into a starring role and he thrived, winning SEC Freshman of the Year honors. Assuming they get decent play from the front court, these guys are going to put a ton of points on the board. It's if they can stop anybody that's in question - they were the worst defensive team in the SEC last season.
7. South Carolina. It turns out this conference is even deeper than I thought, because the Gamecocks feel like a team that should be much higher than 7th in their conference. Two of their three big guns are back, and guard Devan Downey has the look of a player who will contend for the SEC Player of the Year. He can score (37 against Baylor last year), but also turns the ball over way too much (8 TOs to 0 assists in that same game and just a 1.3 Ast/TO ratio). If he can control the ball it will go a long way towards getting South Carolina back in the NCAA tournament. Also I can never, ever, like this team since they stole Georgia Tech's "Lethal Weapon 3" nickname, when it was obvious to anyone that they were just a bunch of gunners and a total mirage - a belief completely vindicated when they went down as a #2 seed. Karma, baby. Karma.
8. Florida. I suppose losing your whole team after back-to-back national championships usually entails a rebuilding process, but it seems that it's not going all that well for the Gators. Not that it's Billy Donovan's fault, since he's been hit by players leaving the program early the past couple seasons (Speights, Calathes, Lucas). Even so, it doesn't feel quite right having Florida this low, and it wouldn't surprise me at all to see them in the NCAA tournament, especially if Kenny Boynton (Rivals #12) is as good as advertised. He will pretty much have to be, because although Florida has some nice talent in their frontcourt - including transfer Vernon Macklin from Georgetown - the backcourt really needs some help. Outside of Boynton, point man Erving Walker, who had a pretty good freshman year last season, is about all they have.
9. Alabama. I'm sort of thinking I have Alabama too low here, they could easily finish as high as fifth, but since I've already typed this out and the control key on my keyboard doesn't work, I don't feel like cutting and pasting. Although he's not the team's leading returning scorer, sophomore JaMychal Green might be the key for the Tide this season. He was a stud recruit last season (Rivals #21), and had a very good freshman campaign (10pts, 8 rebs, 2 blks per game), which included six double-doubles. If he continues to improve and can become the offensive focal point it will go a long way towards a good season for the Tide. Among a big and talented group of newcomers is Shawn Kemp, one of I assume several sons of THAT Shawn Kemp, one of my favorite NBA players of all-time. (NOTE: I am finding conflicting information, some sources say he is signed with Alabama, others say he has reopened his recruitment which seems weird since the season starts in like two weeks so I don't know what is going on except that there has been a hole in my soul since Kemp retired and it would be nice to have another Shawn Kemp to take his place).
10. LSU. The Tigers had an excellent season last year, making it to the second round of the NCAA tournament, but the team has been gutted by graduation, and now they will return just two guys who averaged more than 2 points or 8 minutes per game last year. Those two are pretty good - Bo Spencer is an excellent shooter and Tasmin Mitchell is absolutely one of the best inside/outside players in the country and will be in the NBA next season - but there isn't much else here. A small recruiting class leaves the Tigers thin and inexperienced, and although Mitchell will be fun to watch, I don't see a whole lot else fun happening in the bayou this season. They'll be back at the top soon enough - next year's recruiting class is a top 20 type of class already - but not this year.
11. Auburn. Remember last year, how Auburn won 10 conference games but still couldn't get an NCAA tournament bid because they went 10-4 through a non-conference schedule that would make Glen Mason blush? Yeah, most of the good players from that team are gone. Their leading scorer and assist man is back in DeWayne Reed, and he'll have a couple of guys to dish to on the wing who love to bomb the long ball in Tay Waller and Frankie Sullivan, but looking down low is going to be an issue. Coach Jeff Lebo brings in a gaggle of 3-star players, three of them with good size, and will need one of them to play well or have one of the nondescript veterans step up. They are still set up as a team that could get hot on the right night and knock off a much better team thanks to their shooters, but they aren't getting anywhere near the NCAA tournament.
12. Georgia. How bad is it for the Bulldogs right now? CollegeHoops.Net does a preview of their top 144 teams every year, and this year Georgia failed to make the list [Gophers = #18]. Teams on the list include Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Jackson State, South Carolina State, and Iowa. They're worse than Iowa - ouch. Two minor reasons for optimism - new coach Mark Fox, who had a lot of success at Nevada, and sophomore forward Trey Thompkins, a top 30 recurit last year who had an excellent first year for the Dawgs. My new favorite player though might be their center Albert Jackson, who played more than 19 minutes per game last year despite his incredible 1-to-5.2 assist to turnover ratio, thanks to his season total of eleven. The next Yinka Dare, perhaps?
Other Previews
Conference USA
Atlantic 10
Mountain West
Atlantic Coast
Big Twelve
Big East
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Some Things
A few things from last night:
Ohio State 73, Penn State 59. This doesn’t quite kill PSU’s NCAA hopes, but they are in some serious trouble now. This one hurts a bit extra because the Nittany Lions had a lead in the second half, but the Buckeyes scored 25 of the game’s last 35 points. Jeremie Simmons came up huge for Ohio State, scoring 17 points and hitting four threes on a night where Evan Turner scored just six points and inexplicably took just four shots. Also of note: PJ Hill is still a douche.
Providence 81, Pitt 73. In a win bigger than Kim Kardashian’s ass, the Friars knocked off #1 Pitt in Providence to give their NCAA hopes a huge boost, nearly as huge as Kim Kardashian’s ass. An absolute must win for Providence to keep their hopes alive, and they got it. The Friars instantly go from the wrong side of the bubble to right smack dab in the middle of it. With two road games left, the Friars need to win at Rutgers on Sunday or the final Big East game at Villanova becomes another must win.
Stephon Marbury will finally have to play for pay. Point guard and noted glory hog retard Marbury was cut by the Knicks yesterday, and is reportedly on his way to a no-doubt tearful reunion with KG on the Celtics. Marbury hasn’t played in a game since January 11, 2008, but was still collecting his $20 million a season salary to not to anything much at all. He agreed to a buyout with the Knicks and will reportedly sign with the Celtics for the league minimum, since he clearly doesn’t need any more money unless he spends it like Kenny Anderson. Verdict: Pretty much a lose/lose here. Marbury will probably cry about not being the #1 option on the Celts after a week, and now he has to actually do some work to get paid a lot less. I don’t know about you, but sitting around on the couch playing x-box, drinking forties and smoking the dope all while getting paid $20 mil a year sounds pretty good to me.
Erik Bedard is getting better. The Mariners’ Bedard, recovering from shoulder surgery, pitched to live batters in Spring Training yesterday, the first time since the surgery to remove cysts and tissue in his pitching shoulder. I’m sure the Mariners are a bit miffed and all, since they gave a boatload of prospects to get him from the Orioles last year, but I’d start him against dead batters instead. Even Matt Guerrier can get out most dead batters (ERA just 3.50 vs. Zombies). Seriously though Seattle fans, at least you got Bedard instead of Kris Benson and his highly irritating, though hot, gloryhog on a Marbury-level former stripper of a wife Anna (pictured above).
Marvin Harrison has officially been released. It will be interesting to see what happens. The Colts will be fine, Gonzalez looks like the real deal and with the weapons they have this wasn’t a tough call once he wouldn’t restructure. As for Marvin, one possible landing spot would be Philly, which is funny because my junior year of college I played a dynasty on Madden and drafted a receiver named Pete Harrison out of Syracuse and pretended he was Marvin’s brother and he was awesome. I’m like some kind of Nostradamus..
LSU continued to be the dominant power of the SEC. The Tigers knocked off the Gators, 81-75. It brings the Tigers to 12-1 in the conference, and is their ninth straight win. LSU really isn't a great team, but the SEC is really down this year, which seems bizarre considering they might have been the best conference for a stretch not too long ago, but now they are this year's version of the Big Ten.
Last but not least, Spring Training games start today! The Twins take on the Red Sox at 6:05 tonight. You know what they say, when your bench players take on another team's bench players in the Spring Training opener, you can pretty much see how the season will play out.
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