Welcome Aboard, Rakeem Buckles!

BOOM

 In a move that has been long confirmed without being confirmed due to some academic hurdles that needed to be taken care of, Rakeem Buckles has now officially joined your Minnesota Golden Gopher basketball squadron (according to, uh, someone), and is now awaiting clearance from the NCAA to be immediately eligible to begin play next season (which would be his one and only year of eligibility left which is good because of all those top prospects fighting to join the team in 2014).  Because this is clearly a case of a player wanting to play for a specific coach who keeps moving around (Buckles has followed Rich Pitino from Louisville to FIU and now to Minnesota) I'd say this is a slam dunk waiver case, but the NCAA is a bunch of misguided fascists who once banned the world's greatest receiver for an entire year because he had lunch with Deion Sanders, so who knows.  I'd still say he's likely to join the team, and that's good news because depth up front is the #1 issue for the team this season.

Buckles is a slightly undersized four at 6-7, 215 lbs. but can make up for that with elite athleticism if his knees will allow him to not be Maurice Creek.  He's dealt with two ACL tears so far in his short career, and the health of those knees should decide if he's a major contributor and key to the team, or merely a rotation player.  Either way, this is a big pick-up for the team because it gives them a fourth interior player, but hopefully he got the Kobe blood platelet thing and he's back to 100%, because he certainly flashed a lot of potential prior to the knee thing at Louisville.

Buckles joined Louisville his freshman season as the #78 recruit in the country and 26th best power forward according to ESPN.  He was described as an incredible athlete who was too quick for power forwards to handle and too strong for small forwards to deal with.  His biggest strength was his ability to combine that athletic ability with his great ball-handling skills for someone his size in order to get to the rim almost at will.  That season he played 11 minutes per game for Louisville, averaging 4 pts and 3 rebounds per game, finishing first on the team in offensive rebounding percentage and second in defensive.  He looked like he was starting to put it together in his sophomore year, averaging 7 pts and 6 rebounds in 19 minutes and adding an outside shot to his game (42% on 3s after attempting just six the prior year).  He was the top rebounder percentage-wise on both sides of the ball for the Cardinals, and his DR% was 2nd in the Big East and then bang crash oops knee = dead.  After coming back post-injury he played in limited minutes and limited games for Louisville before transferring to FIU at season's end where it happened again.

There are a million questions with what Buckles can do.  If he had never gotten injured and was just transferring here I'd be like omg, but he did get hurt not only once, but twice.  Maurice Creek basically lost all his athletic ability when that happened to him, but plenty of other players have been able to bounce back to be either the same or near it.  And if he did lose that elite athletic ability, what if he's a dead eye outside shooter now?  He clearly worked on it between his freshman and sophomore year, so who's to say that will all these missed games and a season on the bench he hasn't been doing nothing but shooting?  And what if he did add the jumper and managed to keep the athleticism?  What if he didn't improve his jumper and also can't jump?

Buckles could literally be anything from the fourth big man to a star and I wouldn't be surprised.  It mostly depends on the knees.  I couldn't even begin to guess, but a fourth option in the paint is a definite good thing.  Perhaps I should be more optimistic considering Buckles becomes the all-time leading college scorer among the four options (Buckles 273, Eliason 174, Walker 111, Buggs 0) but two knee surgeries in a little over two years scares the hell out of me.  I can't shake Maurice Creek.  I just can't.  I hope he's healthy, and I hope if he's not 100% he's reinvented himself as a shooter.  Either of those are good.  I'll just concentrate on those things.

Big Ten Preview: #9 INDIANA HOOSIERS

Seems like every year we keep waiting for Indiana to put it all together, and every year they tease you a bit but then end up crashing down like that satellite in that Dave Matthews song.  I mean, on paper they should be a pretty good team:  Maurice Creek and Christian Watford were top 50 guys, with Verdell Jones, Jordan Hulls, Derek Elston, Verdell Jones, Will Sheehey, and Victor Oladipo were all top 150 guys.  To that they add Cody Zeller who ranks as #15.  Really, that's a lot of talent on paper.

Maurice Creek has had a whole bunch of knee and leg injuries leading him to look like a shell of his former self and now looks like he's probably out for the year after another surgery and Derek Elston has been pretty lame so far, but the rest of these guys are in various stages of interesting development.  Jones isn't going to be your lead dog any time soon but can score in bunches at times.  Christian Watford is one of the best all around players in the conference, if not the country.  Jordan Hulls is annoying as shit but he's a good quality point guard who takes care of the basketball and can score when needed.  Victor Oladipo has had some serious high-flying highlights and is looking like a superb athlete.  And I don't know what Sheehey is going to develop into but I see some serious Brian Cardinal potential going on.

The biggest key for this year is Zeller.  If he's an immediate impact player who can put up a nightly double-double or near it they have a chance to at least be on the NCAA bubble at the end of the year.  If he's a year away, so are they.  Scouting reports I've read seem to say that his offensive game is already in very good shape, but based on his size and strength he's going to get pushed around a bit, which will mean defensively and on the boards he could end up being a liability.

Big men (6-10 or bigger) in the Rivals top 20 haven't fared all that greatly lately in their first year:  Adreian Payne, Fab Melo, John Henson, MouphtaouYarou, Renardo Sidney, B.J Mullens, Ater Majok, Ty Walker, Terrence Jennings, and Tony Woods all struggled for one reason or another as freshmen.  The only two exceptions were one guy who was exceptionally athletic (Perry Jones) and one guy who was exceptionally skilled (Greg Monroe).  I don't think Zeller is exceptionally athletic, but there's an outside chance he could be exceptionally skilled (although Monroe had an NBA ready body already).  His brother Tyler made an impact on the Heels the first season he got playing time as sophomore (9 pts/5 rebs per game in 17 minutes per, was buried as a freshman).

I don't know what exactly to think, but he's hyped up the ass when in reality it should be Watford getting all the preseason press.  Maybe he'll live up to it right out of the gate, but I doubt it.  In any case Crean certainly has the Hoosiers heading back towards respectability and he's already got a monster class for 2012 - 4 top 150 guys with two in the top 20.

Great.

DWG Over/Under Conference Wins:  6

Game Preview: Minnesota Gophers vs. Indiana Hoosiers

Coming into this year I thought the Indiana Hoosiers had a chance to surprise some people.  They certainly have some talent:  Christian Watford is one of the best forwards in the league, and he, guards Maurice Creek and Jordan Hulls, and forward Derek Elston were all top 100 recruits two seasons ago.  Junior Verdell Jones was a top 150 guy when he came out as well, as was freshman guard Will Sheehey.  So, at least on paper, there is some talent here.  For whatever reason, however, it just hasn't given stellar results.

Part of the problem stems from last year's unfortunate injury to Creek, who blew out his knee in the 12th game of his freshman year and was out for the season.  Prior to that point, Creek had been averaging 16.4 points per game, including a 31 point outburst against Kentucky.  Coming back this year, it seems he's not all the way back, whether it's physical or mental I don't know, because his scoring is way down at just 8.7 per game, and every other statistic is worse this season.  Maybe the biggest clue something is still wrong is his steals, which have dropped from 1.4 per game last year to a grand total of 3 so far this year in 15 games.  That sucks, and it's unfortunate for him, and it's a big reason the Hoosiers haven't been able to improve this year.

Not to say there isn't anybody putting up numbers here, because Christian Watford is a complete beast, and he's very good at scoring the basketball (not counting the Penn State game).  He leads the team in scoring at 17.2 per game, helped out quite a bit by an ability to get to the line (second in the conference with 99 attempts) and make his shots when he gets there (83%).  And although he mainly gets his points inside and mid-range, he can also hit the three-pointer when he's left open, hitting 16 of 28 attempts this year (42%).

Outside of Watford there isn't anybody who is a consistent threat.  Verdell Jones is the second leading scorer at 12.2 per game, but he's just as likely to score in single-digits as double (50% of each so far this year).  Behind them there are several guys who chip in a few per game, although the guys to really watch are point guard Jordan Hulls and wing Victor Oladipo, both of whom have scored in double figures in each of Indiana's last three games. 
 
The place where the Gophers can really get some points is, and this seems to be a common theme, in the paint.  Although Watford is a good rebounder (5.5 per game), nobody else on the team grabs more than 4.2 boards per game, and the only other players on the roster as tall as him at 6-8 are Elston, Bobby Capobianco and Tom Pritchard, and Pritchard and Capobianco rarely play and Elston's rarely makes his presence known on the court.

So, once again, the best way to win will be to get the ball into Sampson, Mbakwe, and Iverson and letting them go to work.  Not only is that the team's best way to score, but it will also help mitigate the loss of Devoe Joseph, who at present time is still on the team but won't be playing for an indefinite period of time.  I'll have more to say on this subject if he indeed ends up transferring, but for now let's just say he'll be a loss, but not a huge loss.

The most likely way the Gophers lose this one is also a familiar story, and that is once again playing poor defense.  Indiana hasn't been able to put together a good game against a good team, but overall they are a good shooting team.  They make 38.5% of their three-pointers, 41st in the country, and 54.5% of their two-pointers, which ranks 19th.  They've compiled those numbers against some very bad teams and haven't really come close to knocking off a quality opponent.  With the Gophers tendency to let teams get wide open looks, that could easily change tonight at Williams.

Minnesota 71, Indiana 66.

Big Ten Wrap-up, 11/8/2010

Last week the rest of the Big Ten team's kicked off their exhibition slates (Illinois started the week before) and every team in the conference played a game.  Surprise!  They went 11-0, with only Illinois struggling in their game (and Michigan, but they suck).  It doesn't really tell us much as far as beating up on this level of competition but we can find some player trends that can be interesting.  You can find my thoughts on your beloved Gopher hoopsters here, but there were some interesting developments from other teams:

• Illinois turned the ball over 20 and 23 times in their two exhibition games, leading to smaller than expected winning margins (10 and 9 points).  I expect this to be their achilles heel throughout the year, since they haven't had an actual point guard since Chester Frazier graduated.  And yes, I'm aware Demetri McCamey led the Big Ten in assists last year.  I don't care.  You will never convince me he's an actual point guard. 
• Maurice Creek scored 16 points in 20 minutes during Indiana's win over Franklin College.  It's not so much the dominating inferior competition, as it is coming back from a big time knee injury to take a team-high 14 shots in only 20 minutes that tells me he's being aggressive, which likely means there are no lingering issues.
• I was wondering if Purdue would end up with a third scorer emerging or if it would be a collective Robbie Hummel pick-me-up, and the first game was a collective effort with six guys scoring between six and nine points in their game against Indianapolis (Moore and Johnson led with 11 and 13), including talented freshmen Terone and Anthony Johnson.
• Draymond Green has added the three-point shot to his repertoire.  Last year Green shot just 16 three-pointers all year, making two.  Last week in Michigan State's game against Saginaw Valley State he shot three, making two.  Interesting.  Also if he and Maurice Walker ever guard each other in a game that floor is caving in.
• Jershon Cobb is going to make an impact for Northwestern after starting and scoring 12 points in 21 minutes.  He's a top 150 recruit in the country, I'm assuming the first for the Wildcats, and they're looking to him immediately, which makes me think he's probably as good as advertised.  Adding a fourth scorer makes Northwestern far more dangerous and far more relevant.  
• Tim Hardaway, Jr. is certainly not afraid to shoot, and I'm guessing he's going to kill the Wolverines more than once this year.  Despite shooting 1-7 from three and 2-10 overall he led the team in shot attempts and three-point attempts.  
• John Gasser might be the non-descript, non-heraled white freshman who makes the biggest splash for the Badgers this year.  He led Wisconsin freshmen in minutes (20) and points (9), and fun fact:  he's from Port Washington, Wisconsin, which is where the hit TV show Step-by-Step took place.  I always loved Al.  Once she got old enough, I mean.

• Talor Battle is still not getting any help from his front court.  Their senior starting trio tallied just a combined 18 points against a severly undersized East Stroudsberg team with nobody over 6-6 on the roster.  If Penn State is going to make a surprising run to an NCAA bid, Battle's going to need somebody to help out in the paint.  This doesn't bode well.
• I mentioned in my Big Ten preview that the one big weakness for the Buckeyes could be a point guard, but it perhaps freshman Aaron Craft is up for the task because he notched 8 assists to go along with 12 points in the Ohio State rout of Walsh.  It's also tough to get a true gauge on somebody's value when their team wins 102-56, and Adam Boone once looked like the next Magic in an exhibition game, but this certainly isn't a bad sign for OSU. 
• Iowa is still terrible, even if they did manage to win by 45.  And Eric May will probably have to carry the team.  Have fun with that.

So, you see, there are a few nuggets we can take from these games.  Some may be indicators of the future, while some may not, but what the hell, we're just here chat anyway.

COMING UP THIS WEEK

Illinois gets things rolling in the 2k Sports Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, playing UC-Irvine tonight and Toledo on Wednesday as the 2010-2011 College Basketball season gets officially rolling.  Other Big Ten teams play their final exhibition tune-ups during the week before getting things started for real over the weekend, mainly versus cupcake city.  The only two games that could be remotely competitive are the Gophers vs. Wofford and Northwestern vs. Northern Illinois.  Wofford won the Southern Conference last year, almost upset Wisconsin in round 1 of the NCAA Tournament, and return four starters including conference POY (and Minnesota boy) Noah Dahlman.  It should be a good test to see exactly where the Gophers stand this year.  Northwestern vs. NIU is only interesting because it's rare a Big Ten team opens on the road, but the Wildcats should be able to handle them without issue.

AROUND THE NATION  

Still no real games, just a bunch of exhibitions that nobody really reports on unless it's Duke, so no real comments here.  Of note though is the play of Harrison Barnes, a preseason All-American as a freshman.  Let's just say he didn't exactly live up to the hype in his first exhibition game, tallying just .

Coming up, the season gets started for Pitt, Texas, and Maryland early as they join Illinois in the Coaches vs. Cancer tourney and tip-off Monday, with Pitt facing a good tester right out of the box in Rhode Island.  Then everybody gets going over the weekend, with the best games probably Seton Hall @ Temple, Georgetown @ Old Dominion, and Northern Iowa @ Syracuse on Friday, San Diego State @ Long Beach State and Weber State @ Utah State on Saturday, and South Dakota State @ Iowa on Sunday (LOL, at least it should be competitive).

College hoops is here.  It's finally here.

Finally, here are the futures bets I've got for the season. If you can still get any of these teams at anywhere near these odds I would highly recommend jumping on them, although most of them have come considerably down. Because I'm a genius.


TO WIN NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP:
Washington 60-1
Minnesota 150-1
Virginia Tech 200-1
San Diego State 100-1
NC State 200-1
Arizona 100-1
Baylor 30-1

TO WIN CONFERENCE REGULAR SEASON TITLE:
Minnesota 12-1 (BIG TEN)
St. Johns 12-1 (BIG EAST)
Missouri 6-1 (BIG 12)

I also kind of like NC State in the ACC at 8-1, but Duke is so loaded this year it's basically throwing money away betting against them.