College Basketball

[Rhom]

Havn't seen a discussion thread on college basketball yet, but I know some teams started exhibitions yesterday and the only team that matters (Kentucky) plays tonight against mighty Pikeville College.

The early hype all seems to surround Carolina, UCLA, and Memphis... but I have to believe there will be a number of teams that come out of nowhere to grab some early season headlines. As to the three favorites, Memphis has the talent to get the job done... but they've shown in the past an inability to live up to that. UCLA is banking an awful lot on Kevin Love... the jury's still out on that one IMO. Carolina seems to be the real deal and Roy can definitely coach, but the ACC is a brutal, brutal conference every year.

Florida will be undefeated entering conference play in January if they can get past equally decimated Ohio State... hell, that's the only time they leave the state of Florida for a game before the calendar rolls around to 2008. The widow's peak in Gainesville knew this would be a rebuilding year and scheduled accordingly... which I believe will severely hurt them in SEC play.

As to my beloved Cats, the one thing I can say is that I honestly think Billy G will get them to hustle and work for every ball like they havn't been accustomed to doing in years. I think the faithful in the Bluegrass State will continue to fall in love with him as this season goes on. If things go well on the injury front, I think they could be a surprise Elite 8 team this year.

[WarGalley]

UNC should be good in the ACC. I'll believe in Kentucky and Kansas if they get to the Elite 8 and not a second before.

I'm not sure who the new Florida starters are and I'm not expecting much from them. Last year's Florida team (and the year before obviously) was the best team ball I've seen in a long, long time.

I'll be keeping an eye on Tennessee in the SEC mostly to see if their coach is all the hype he got when he was hired. At the very least he knows how to fire up a program.

Not too sure who will represent in the Big 10. Wisconsin is good annually and I never, ever count out Michigan State. Just when I think Izzo is fielding a mediocre team, he goes to the Final Four. Indiana should also be interesting. They've got enough talent to do well and their coach did some really good things at Oklahoma.

Not sure how deep the Pac 10 will be other than (I think) UCLA. Gtown and Louisville look good in the Big East too. I don't know how many starters they return but I heard talk about Hibbert being a preseason player of the year pick.

[Rhom]

I think a match up to watch will be Illinois vs Indiana. With the recent revelations of more recruiting violations from Sampson (just what exactly was IU expecting???) and the fact that IU did "steal" that hot freshman recruit from UI, the fans will absolutely grill them when the game is played in Champagne.

As to the SEC, you're absolutely right. It'll be interesting to see if Pearl can fire up his team... or just sweat up his suit coats. He has a bad habit of running his mouth, and I think it'll come back to bite him. He's already complained publicly that UT (the favorite to win the SEC) is on CBS once this year and Kentucky is on seven times. Hey... when you have seven national championship banners and a national following that will boost TV ratings... you can be on TV too Bruce.

[BLU-RAY]

Whooo... a sport we should be legitimate in! Assuming Brook goes to class this quarter. Hopefully we can put together a solid run now that most of our guys have a year of experience (and assuming that they stay healthy).

[dornish prince]

i'm really hoping that this is the year that auburn returns to the dance. we've got upperclassmen out the ying yang and lebo has been with us for a while. now if we could only make a marked improvement in that category called three point shooting...oh, and defense

ETA: i just jumped onto rivals.com to find out that we enter exhibiton play with two seniors suspended...YAY!

[Rhom]

First exhibition is in the books... not quite ready to hang another banner in the rafters of Rupp just yet... but they certainly hustled more than they did when Tubby was here.

Jodie Meeks had 27 points in the first half and they were shooting a much higher percentage than they have as a team in the last 3-4 years.

Let the fun begin! The road to March Madness has begun!!!

[RedEyedGhost]

I'm quite pumped about this season! We've got as much or more talent than anybody in the country - UNC and UCLA may be the only teams with equal talent (I'm not sold on Memphis yet, but Rose does look to be amazing).

UCLA is also counting on Love's to be as good as advertised. At KU we've got Cole Aldrich coming in and every time he and Love went head to head Aldrich got the better of him; unless Aldrich just tears it up most Kansas fans don't expect more than 15min per game out of him this season. Yet, Love's a sure fire one-and-done.

Last year we were damn good, but we were still young. This year we'll be starting Two seniors (Robinson - pg, Kaun - c), two juniors (Chalmers - sg, Rush - sf), and a sophomore (Arthur - pf, probably the most talented player in our starting lineup). On the bench we have superstar in the making Sherron Collins, Mickey D's AA center Aldrich, Darnell Jackson who would start on 90% of D1 teams. Our other bench "smalls" aren't world beaters, but I won't be too worried unless we have two injured players out of Robinson, Chalmers, Collins, and Rush.

I'll believe in Kentucky and Kansas if they get to the Elite 8 and not a second before.

...

Not sure how deep the Pac 10 will be other than (I think) UCLA. Gtown and Louisville look good in the Big East too. I don't know how many starters they return but I heard talk about Hibbert being a preseason player of the year pick.

Really? What did we lose from are E8 team last year that has you questioning us? Julian Wright's 8 pts and 5 rebs against UCLA?

Yeah, Rush tore his ACL, but all indications are that his recovery is proceeding without a hitch. And a torn ACL isn't the career ending injury that it was 10 years ago, several players are back to full strength in less than a year.

G'town should be good. The loss of Green is going to hurt though.

Louisville... I guess for me they are what KU is for you. I'll believe it when I see it. Padgett is soft and gets injured if he breaths wrong. Palacios is out for the season with a torn MCL. TWill is damn good though (I wish we would have got him rather than Micah Downs...).

Whooo... a sport we should be legitimate in! Assuming Brook goes to class this quarter. Hopefully we can put together a solid run now that most of our guys have a year of experience (and assuming that they stay healthy).

Any word on why he was also suspended from the team? Was it to encourage him to get his shit together or is there something else going on?

[BLU-RAY]

Any word on why he was also suspended from the team? Was it to encourage him to get his shit together or is there something else going on?

Maybe Andrik will chime in, he follows on-campus sports more than me, but basically first: he was declared ineligible for fall quarter by the NCAA (kind of sad, given their academic standards, but meh) which means he misses the first nine games, but all those teams (theoretically) suck, so we should (theoretically) be OK.

The suspension (I think it's still indefinite? I dunno) was, yeah, I think just to have him get his shit together; he missed two classes that week or something (seems like a sort of weak thing to get suspended for, given that everybody else misses plenty of classes, but if he's skipping AND not doing the work on his own time, maybe he needs the kick in the ass).

What weirds me out is that his twin brother, Robin, plays basketball right alongside him, but hasn't had any academic troubles yet, and he does more extracurriculars than Brook as far as I can tell (Robin was in Gaieties* last year, and I think he will be again this year).

** Gaieties is the comedic Cal-bashing musical that one of the theater groups on campus puts on before Big Game every year.

[RedEyedGhost]

Maybe Andrik will chime in, he follows on-campus sports more than me, but basically first: he was declared ineligible for fall quarter by the NCAA (kind of sad, given their academic standards, but meh) which means he misses the first nine games, but all those teams (theoretically) suck, so we should (theoretically) be OK.

The suspension (I think it's still indefinite? I dunno) was, yeah, I think just to have him get his shit together; he missed two classes that week or something (seems like a sort of weak thing to get suspended for, given that everybody else misses plenty of classes, but if he's skipping AND not doing the work on his own time, maybe he needs the kick in the ass).

What weirds me out is that his twin brother, Robin, plays basketball right alongside him, but hasn't had any academic troubles yet, and he does more extracurriculars than Brook as far as I can tell (Robin was in Gaieties* last year, and I think he will be again this year).

** Gaieties is the comedic Cal-bashing musical that one of the theater groups on campus puts on before Big Game every year.

Yeah, I think you guys will be fine for those games he'll miss. I fully expect him to not miss anymore than those nine. I assumed it was just kick in the ass "get your shit together" suspension, and hopefully there's not anything else going on. (Why the hell is he skipping class when he just found out he was academically ineligible?? )

[S John]

Beilein left us for some crappy upper midwest school . But on the up-side we're defending NIT champs and now have Bob Huggins formerly of Kansas State and a West Virginia Alumni... also reported to be an alcoholic. We'll see how it goes. Fear the 'Eer!

[Matrim Fox Cauthon]

Honestly, I hate that UNC is ranked #1 because it always puts a great deal of pressure on them and when you are ranked #1, you have no where to go but down the ranks.

[Arbor Gold]

UCLA. Put me down from here through March.

[maize]

Yeah go Michigan... we just got a new coach who lives and dies with the 3. He also runs a 1-3-1 which Tom Izzo actually wrote a book on how to defeat.

Oh well, heres for the glory days of the Fab 5, although officially it never happened.

[Rhom]

Oh well, heres for the glory days of the Fab 5, although officially it never happened.

So does that mean we can get the 93 Tarheels and the 93 Wildcats together to play for the title now? I'd like Mashburn's chances in that game now! That's the ridiculous thing about "vacating wins." I hate when the NCAA does that. We all know that they played in the Final Four. History knows. Leave the damn banners up.

I would certainly agree that Kentucky has a lot to prove before everyone should jump on the bandwagon... but Kansas? Are you kidding me? Those guys have nothing to prove. Maybe an argument can be made that Self has to prove something, but not the team. I'll never forget my feeling of frustration watching the 2nd round game between Kansas and Kentucky last year. The Jayhawks made the Cats look like they were running around with lead-lined shoes. Seriously, the speed of that team was awe-inspiring to me. Watching that game, I remembered thinking that I'd never seen a faster team. Realisitcally, I know that some of Pitino's teams at Kentucky in the mid-90's were every bit as fast or faster... but watching it in the moment was an eye-opening look at just how far Tubby Smith had dragged this program down.

[Speransky]

Yeah go Michigan... we just got a new coach who lives and dies with the 3. He also runs a 1-3-1 which Tom Izzo actually wrote a book on how to defeat.

Oh well, heres for the glory days of the Fab 5, although officially it never happened.

I think Beilein will do pretty well at Michigan. His unusual schemes seem to give his teams an advantage in March, and Beilein coached teams play smart, fundamentally sound basketball. He's never been a great recruiter, but maybe that will be easier for him at UM than it was at WVU.

The funny thing is I'm not upset with him for leaving, I'm just excited to see what Huggins can do in Morgantown.

[maize]

I think Beilein will do pretty well at Michigan. His unusual schemes seem to give his teams an advantage in March, and Beilein coached teams play smart, fundamentally sound basketball. He's never been a great recruiter, but maybe that will be easier for him at UM than it was at WVU.

The funny thing is I'm not upset with him for leaving, I'm just excited to see what Huggins can do in Morgantown.

As a whole we'd like to see the high flying days of Webber, Jalen Rose, Juan Howard, etc etc. But after 5 years of mediocre basketball, most Michigan fans are taking a wait and see approach. With the Detroit and Flint areas to recruit from, Belein should have the talent he needs.

Besides, we got Beilen on the cheap. 1.3 M a year I believe. And yeah the transition for WVU seemed to be pretty smooth anyway.

So does that mean we can get the 93 Tarheels and the 93 Wildcats together to play for the title now? I'd like Mashburn's chances in that game now! That's the ridiculous thing about "vacating wins." I hate when the NCAA does that. We all know that they played in the Final Four. History knows. Leave the damn banners up.

Haha, good matchup. I only wish they'd stop showing the Webber 'time-out' from time to time. It always makes myself wince.

[chionophile]

Clearly, Wisconsin is going to win the Big 10 and the national championship.

Okay, maybe not. I haven't been keeping up with off-season basketball stuff; I'm more of a football guy. However, from what I have seen, we have a promising young team and we may be able to surprise a few people.

[H von T]

I'll be happy if the Gators make the tourney. A really easy pre-conference schedule and 8-8 in the SEC will probably be enough. The team is extremely young and, if they play anything like the young Gator defense in football, we're sunk.

[maize]

Clearly, Wisconsin is going to win the Big 10 and the national championship.

Okay, maybe not. I haven't been keeping up with off-season basketball stuff; I'm more of a football guy. However, from what I have seen, we have a promising young team and we may be able to surprise a few people.

Oh well, Alondo Tucker was fun to watch. At least in the beginning anyway.

[William Stanaforth Donohue]

Clearly, Wisconsin is going to win the Big 10 and the national championship.

Okay, maybe not. I haven't been keeping up with off-season basketball stuff; I'm more of a football guy. However, from what I have seen, we have a promising young team and we may be able to surprise a few people.

It would be nice, after the underachievement in the dance last year and the (perennial) choke artistry on the gridiron. I don't follow the off season much either, so we'll see when the games start. Indiana and Mich State look like they might be major problems.