Surprisingly, I’ve yet to write about anything college basketball-related this year. I got a few requests to do a thorough preview, similar to my college football and NBA work, but the college basketball landscape is just too expansive to cover in such a way. Look, I know I have a lot of free time on my hands, but not THAT much. Regardless, I have been watching, and a few things have jumped out at me this season. What, exactly? I’m glad you asked…
-- I was discussing the topic of “great teams” with Big Brother the other day, and I think only two teams fit the bill this year: Kansas and Texas. Kansas’ depth is downright silly. Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich are the known commodities (and preseason All-Americans), but the addition of Xavier Henry to an already-stable core of Collins, Aldrich, Markieff Morris, Marcus Morris, Tyshawn Taylor, and Tyrel Reed gives the Jayhawks depth at every position. Elijah Johnson and Thomas Robinson are two more blue-chip recruits, and they have problems getting playing time. By making the Sweet 16 last season with such a young group after the departures of Brandon Rush, Darrell Arthur, Mario Chalmers et al, the Jayhawks were the proverbial favorite to do big things with everyone returning this year. Throw in the NBA-ready Henry, and things went to another level. Kansas has yet to play any top-notch opponents, and their scare against a solid-but-not-great Memphis team was a bit troublesome, but I see no reason why the Jayhawks won’t be in Indianapolis come late March. They have size, skill, athleticism, and depth at every position. On paper, there isn’t a team that can challenge them, except for…
-- …Texas!! That’s right, the same team that’s playing for the football national championship also has one of the top basketball teams in the country as well. I’ve seen Texas play several times this year and I love what Coach Rick Barnes is doing with this squad. Last year, point guard was the big issue for them, and shooter A.J. Abrams was forced to handle the rock a little bit too much when, really, all he wanted to do was shoot jumpers. This year, the Longhorns feature a solid point guard duo of J’Covan Brown and Dogus Balbay. Varez Ward was also seeing some time as a creator until his unfortunate season-ending quadriceps injury a couple weeks ago. This increase in stability has allowed double-double machine Damion James and much-improved big man Dexter Pittman to get better looks at the basket. James is averaging 15.7 points and 9.4 rebounds per game, and Pittman chips in 14.3 points and 5.7 rebounds per outing. Pushing Texas over the top is the freshman duo of Jordan Hamilton and Avery Bradley. These two guys were as highly-touted as it gets and have been impressive already in this young season. Bradley’s playmaking ability from the guard position is quite good, and Hamilton’s versatility on the wing allows Barnes to mix and match his lineups based on the other team’s squad. There is no shortage of talent in Austin, and I truly think Texas could be a very, very dangerous team come March. It’s going to take a great effort at both ends of the floor for someone to beat them; the Longhorns aren’t going to beat themselves like they did so many times last year.
-- Everybody knows that I love Jay Wright. He’s a sharp dresser, has tremendous basketball acumen, and seems like he’d be a lot of fun to hang out with. However, I don’t quite trust Villanova as a team yet. The Wildcats sport a phalanx of talented guards featuring Scottie Reynolds, Corey Fisher, Corey Stokes, Dominic Cheek, and Maalik Wayns. These guys can all create off the bounce and set up one another for open shots and good looks at the basket. The problem for ‘Nova comes on the interior. Antonio Pena, a former high school teammate of Sebastian Telfair in Brooklyn, has been great early on, but there is not much depth behind him to rebound and defend the post. Duke transfer Taylor King is their second-best rebounder this season, but his game is more centered around shooting and perimeter play. With the announcement that stud freshman forward Mouphtaou Yarou (yes, I spelled that without assistance) would likely miss the season after being diagnosed with hepatitis B, the Wildcats are suddenly void of any inside presence should Pena get in foul trouble. Freshmen Maurice Sutton and Isaiah Armwood will probably be relied upon more, but neither has the size to match up with Big East big men right now. This could be a problem for Wright and his boys down the road, but all is well on the Main Line…for now.
-- I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again: the Big Ten gets no boost from beating the ACC in the annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The ACC has gotten the upper hand time and time again over the past decade, but that hasn’t meant much to the conference overall, seeing as how Duke and North Carolina are the only two teams to make a Final Four since 2003. Meanwhile, the Big Ten has sent Michigan State, Illinois, Ohio State to the national title game in the same timeframe. The ACC and Big Ten normally get the same number of teams into the Dance (37-36 bids in favor of the ACC over the same period), but since most of the ACC teams go out before the first weekend is over, is that really something to brag about? Were it not for Roy Williams’ Tar Heels, the ACC wouldn’t have a whole lot of bragging to do anyway. The last non-UNC team from the ACC to make the Final Four? Duke…in 2004. The matchups aren’t always the best (see: a ranked Duke team playing an unranked Wisconsin team this year while a ranked Ohio State team played an unranked Florida State team) and these things happen so early in the season, that you’re not really sure which teams are good yet. Besides, if they were really serious about it, they’d have each team play TWO games against teams from the other conference like the Big 12 and Pac-10 do in their annual series.
-- Welcome back, Billy D, it’s good to see you. After Florida won back to back NCAA titles, they missed the tournament for the following two seasons. After the failed Nick Calathes experiment, coach Billy Donovan has the Gators back in the rankings. Led by the Erving Walker/Kenny Boynton backcourt, and getting good play from Alex Tyus and Vernon Macklin down low, Florida is vastly improved over last year’s team. The aforementioned Calathes was a very gifted player, but his selfishness and lack of leadership skills didn’t make Florida a very good basketball team. Now that he’s playing professionally in Greece, the Gators look like a much more relaxed and synergetic team; a testament to Donovan’s coaching and ability to mold his teams into a unit. Donovan has had a lot of success in his career and, as a college basketball fan, I’m frothing at the prospect of he and John Calipari going head-to-head twice a year for the next two decades.
-- Speaking of Calipari, I’m not yet sold on Kentucky. I know, I know, everybody’s gonna call me a hater and give me the height, weight, and 40 time of John Wall, but I don’t care. They’re too enigmatic as a team to definitively say whether or not they’re going to be an elite team. As good as they looked in the first 15 minutes against North Carolina, that’s how bad they looked for the next 15. As good as they looked in the first 5 minutes against Connecticut, that’s how bad they looked for the next 20. Until they establish consistency in their play, they’re going to look good enough to beat Kansas at times and, at others, look bad enough to need overtime to beat a mediocre Stanford team. The Wall/Eric Bledsoe backcourt is quick, talented, and prolific, but not exactly dependable. Patrick Patterson is the only guy who plays big minutes that you know is going to bring it every minute he’s on the floor. DeMarcus Cousins is a question mark, Darnell Dodson is a streaky shooter, and Daniel Orton is a foul waiting to happen. Until Big Blue lets me know that they’re serious about competing for 40 minutes every night (sorry to sound like a coach here, but there are reasons that these things become clichés), I will vacillate between putting them in the Final Four and sending them back to Lexington before the Sweet 16 begins.
-- My favorite teams this year are (in order): Florida State, Indiana State, Indiana, Baylor, Villanova, Charlotte, Seton Hall, and BYU. Florida State, Indiana State, and Indiana have been in that order since I was, roughly, 5 years old. The others are just randomly thrown in for various reasons. Baylor – Scott Drew is my boy. Villanova – I have a man-crush on Jay Wright, and it’s getting kind of serious. Charlotte – I grew up about 5 minutes from the campus and have fond memories of going to Niners games in my formative years. Seton Hall – I’ve always liked head coach Bobby Gonzalez and really want to see him succeed. BYU – It’s legit watching a bunch of white guys play a wide-open style and do so with such success.
~~ Lank
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