’09-’10 Men’s College Basketball Outlook
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Posted by Seigle Seigle (Follow Me)- Seigle Seigle is a married man and former Louisiana resident. His little man is 6. His little chica is 15 mos. And he is 26, unreal! - To see more posts by this author click here |
Can’t say season preview anymore because the season is almost 1/4 of the way finished! Time flies. This is long, but very insightful, LOL so here we go:
The PAC-10 sucks miserably this year.
U-Dub is the cream of crop and should have an excellent record heading into March. Give Wash St (although record is good), Arizona, and USC free passes because of new coaches/new systems. Oregon sucks because Ernie Kent sucks, Cali looked bad in NYC, I wish Dawkins would find the magic at Stanford but hasn’t yet and Oregon State lost to one of the worst college basketball programs of all time (Sacramento St). I could care less if Oregon State goes undefeated the rest of the season. That loss is inexcusable.
Interesting team to me will be UCLA. They hired their main target, Ben Howland. He restored pride, dignity and discipline and went to 4 straight Final Fours and starts this year 2-4? Do UCLA fans, since Wooden won 13 National titles, think they deserve more than the couple of Final Fours under Ben’s belt to put Ben’s butt on the hot seat? [Editor's note: Cannot make out the meaning of this sentence; the writer is an English major too] Remember, me thinks too highly of myself a UCLA basketball fan (and Notre Dame football fan, and Kentucky bball fan), and there’s only one team a year that wins a championship.
The Big-12 has a huge gap between haves and have-nots, as has always been the case. Kansas and Texas (since 97 – KU and/or Texas have had the best record in conference 12 times) are in a league all to themselves no matter if every team in the conference has a winning record at this point. Texas is legit and if I had ever done my preseason preview I would have picked them to win the National Championship. The best of the rest in order: Missouri (love Anderson and loved him at UAB and b/c of his Elite8 run last year), A&M (talented), Ok St (cheating as always), Iowa St (Craig Brackins…the truth), Texas Tech (winning games…huge test[shameless plug] v. U-Dub on ESPN2 12/3), OU (Capel – can’t have cancers on your team…which is why Coach K didn’t like the Boozers, Prices, Randolphs at Duke), Nebraska, KSU (check out DC’s own Delonte Hill’s salary if you want to vomit ), Colorado (Bdzelik great coach but tough job), Baylor (I wouldn’t let Scott Drew coach my 6 year old’s team).
The ACC is worse at the bottom than they think they are. The ACC is worse at the top than they think they are too. But, alas, it’s the ACC and they are still light-years ahead of other BCS conferences not named the BIG EAST. More on VaTech, UVA, and Md in other posts but BC, NC St, and Wake have looked suspect to me. UNC will figure themselves out when they figure out which players (of the 20 studs on their team) will be in rotation and which ones will need babysitting. Duke has grit, toughness, and determination that Duke teams haven’t had in the past couple years – WATCH OUT! Haven’t seen much of GT, Miami and FSU although all have started pretty strong. Look for The U to crumble down stretch, BC to be stronger down the stretch and then there’s Clemson. I would have taken them as my pre-season pick but I need to analyze them for you. Coach Purnell has turned the program around, re-energized the campus and community and the “Tigger Fans” love them some Clemson basketball now; but the helter-skelter pace is not good when your bigs and guards just want to jack 3s in transition. Wish I had longer to address their problems (fixable) but still am rooting for them to win the ACC this year – jump on the bandwagon with me.
The Big 10 is solid throughout this year. Legit contenders in MSU (best old coach in America) and Purdue (best young coach in America). Iowa, IU, and Penn St suck, but how special is Northwestern’s season so far. They lost like 10 guys to injuries and just battle. Carmody is always on the hot seat in the toughest job in the conference and wins more than he loses. Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin all have fabulous coaches and Illinois is a streak team.
The SEC is down. I am not a huge fan of the SEC West (Alabama, Ole Miss, Miss St, LSU, Ark, Auburn). The best coach on that side is Trent Johnson at LSU, but he is not stacking talent like he should. Ole Miss will never be the Cincy of the South like their head coach (Andy Kennedy – skreet kred) wants them to be. Arkansas is a joke even tho Pelphrey is like Travis Best at Ok St and will push the envelope (like their mentor Pitino) to get players, and having said that, Rick Stansbury is WORSE!
The problem with guys who cheat is that you always have problems with discipline or keeping people happy – unless they are getting bonuses for winning championships (which in these economic times is hard to make happen! SMH!) And AG at Alabama gets a pass on a bad team in his first year. The SEC East rises and falls with the Blue Grass boys – UK. John Wall is a stud but I just hate almost everything that Calipari resembles. Just think of the impact John Chaney (watch Chaney v Calipari) made on his guys at Temple by picking them off the worst neighborhoods and streets (he was a BLINDSIDE movie before the movie was a thought) in Philly and giving them a place to earn respect and discipline. Then think of the opposite of John Calipari whose only impact to his players will be how much materialistic, gotta-get-mine BS he can put in their minds. I respect Bruce Pearl for the turnaround at Tennessee, but his act is old and he needs to go to another rebuilding project and do wonders. Kevin Stallings is the best coach in the East, but he coaches at Vanderbilt, which actually has a ton of talent with Ogilvy, Tinsley and Taylor, but I’m just not sold. UGA sucks but given a break for first-year HC. USC and UF will battle for 2nd in east, but USC is losing key guys to injuries.
BTW, I wish I could make a conference up of the rest of the great teams in the country, but I can’t and I don’t have time to talk about them right now. Portland, Gonzaga, La Tech, N Colorado, Tulsa, BYU, SF Austin and Western KY to name a few.
THE BIG FRIGGIN EAST. Can’t dream of a basketball junkie’s conference heaven better than the Big East. Great coaches (Calhoun, Boeheim, Pitino, Dixon), great history (Georgetown, St Johns, NOVA, Marquette), great fans (Cincy, Notre Dame), great toughness (West Virginia, Rutgers), off his rocker (Seton Hall’s Bobby Gonzalez), and then the 2010 pee-ons (USF, Depaul, Providence). You can’t try and predict a winner in the conference…see GTown predictions and reality. There is just too much greatness about this conference to write more, and I am a die-hard ACC guy!
Whew, digest that!
and while you’re at it…udothedishes
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How can you mention Big Ten Basketball and not even so much as mention Ohio State? Thad Matta is a great coach, and has consistently made solid runs every year with less talent than most.
Look out for the Buckeyes this year baby.
u right. i missed them completely. wow.
matta, great recruiter, don’t like how he cheerleads from the sideline, he knows he’s not in the game right? they should be solid, but not great. big10 talent is not less than other conferences, it’s just a different brand of bball, different players, etc. i would say the buckeyes have a lot of talent comparatively in the big 10, tho.
Evan Turner could be a top 5 pick in the draft.