College Basketball
 

So am I alone in thinking Connecticut is just as good as UNC? Duke isn't all that good just like the teams they've beaten, what's all the hype about?

Last year was an off year for me NCAA wise. I need to get back into it this year..as of right now, I dont have a clue of who's who and who the young guns are.

I haven't had the chance to see Connecticut play yet but with that ogre for a center I think they have a very good chance to beat a UNC team that is vulnerable and injury prone. Also, GO BUCKS!

Who's Who: UNC, Louisvile, Connecticut, Pittsburgh.
Young Guns: Samardo Samuels (Louisville), Greg Monroe (Georgetown), Jrue Holiday/Malcolm Lee (UCLA), Brandon Jenning (Europe), Tyreke Evans (Memphis), B.J. Mullens (Ohio State), Demar DeRozan (USC).
Notes: UNC is considered far and away the best team, possibly one of the best teams ever, I'm of the opinion that Connecticut is damn close, and Louisville can hang with them, maybe Pittsburgh. Down year for the Pac-10 after dominating last year. Big East is dominant with 7 preseason Top 25 teams, headlined by Connecticut at 2, Louisville at 3 and Pittsburgh at 5. Duke has been off to their typical hot start, Oklahoma looks even better than expected.
Biggest upset: Michigan over UCLA.

Yeh, OSU looks good this year. Hatheem Thabeet is a Marcus Camby type players except even bigger and stronger with a better offensive game that's rapidly improving. Connecticut has an experienced physical backcourt that will give lightweights like Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington fits.

OSU will be up and down all year IMO. They've got the talent but no chemistry. When their good they're great, but when their bad, well, they almost lose to Bowling Green. Anyways my college, The University of Toledo, just beat UMass and we're all pumped. Interesting facts: Emeka Okafor Jr. is on our team. He is cousins with the widely known Emeka Okafor. He lives next door to one of my best friends.

I'd like to take a moment to say that Patty Mills is on a whole other level than Ty Lawson. **** all you NC fans talking about how he's unguardable in the open court. Every single point guard with decent speed and handles is unguardable in the open court, doesn't change the fact that Mills is more polished, more athletic and has a better jumper than Lawson. I can't wait to see him blow by the opposition when SM's get on a national stage in the tourney.

Nice to see Michigan basketball off to a good start since the football program is damaged beyond repair. Close game @ Maryland, came up short. We got a rematch @ home with Duke here real soon. Pretty interested to see how that will go down.

Connecticut looked real impressive vs a non-ranked team *cough*. I'm a Duke fan and I realize that NC and Lawson would run a muck vs connecticut atleast by 20.

Haha, funny. UNC's bigs would get exposed by a real League worthy defensive stopper. You can't dunk over this 7' Mr. Hansbrough.

Is there a drug you're taking that makes connecticut look good? Do you realize I'm a DUKE fan saying something good about a UNC team ?

You know I go to UNC and it's sad that you know more about their sports team than I do.

No, it's a 7'3", extremely long, athletic center and one of the top backcourts in the country.

Pitt is so overrated...

Not nearly as much as Notre Dame.

Thats cause you're a woman.

That's so unfair to say. They have beaten everyone they played. The are outstanding defensively. Do I think they are the best in the nation? Probably not, but they deserve the number one ranking at this point.

I don't think they're a bad team, but to me they're no different from UCLa the past 3 years, they go to the Final Four and get crushed by an athletically superior and more offensively creative team. Frankly I think the 'run the shot clock down to 10 then pick and roll' style is outdated in college.

It's tried and true and the best way to win if you're outmanned athletically.

There are two ways of looking at it.

A lot of institutions like UCLA, Kentucky, UNC, Duke and the like will always get NBA caliber athletes.

Schools like Memphis and Florida will play crooked and bend the rules to get those same type of athletes.

A program like Jamie Dixon's and Ben Howland before him at Pitt should be commended for competing with mostly local kids that work their ass of and have one or two pro prospects per year on the roster.

I'm not ragging on the program or the coach, just saying I don't think they'd stand a chance in the Final Four (If they get there).

Name three teams that are considerably better then them.

UNC...who else?

Wake Forest, Connecticut (Same style but superior talent and athleticism) and Duke (They would run Pitt out of the building).

UConn sure, Wake no way on talent and Pitt would pound Duke inside. Only way Duke wins is if threes are falling. Pitt would be a nightmare for coach K that's a terrible example.

Really? When I see Pitt I see a team that's good as long as the entire game is played in halfcourt sets but will fall apart if the other team can get into the open court. They don't have the athletes keep up and they're guards can't handle Duke's pressure. Wake Forest is second only to UNC talent wise, they're stacked. They can score in a lot of ways and force Pitt out of their comfort zone on defense.

I'm not saying Wake can't beat Pitt, but Wake is not even close to UNC in the talent department.

Wake has at most three pros; and really they are project pros in the sens that they'll all leave before there game fully matures.

The Demon Deacons are very young and I don't see them getting past the round of 16. Could be wrong, but I'm pretty confident in this one.

Pitt is a tough out come March. They remind of fairly recent National Champions like UConn in 99 Mich St. in 00 and Maryland in 2002. A Nice senior core and a whole bunch of young talent around it. Young and Fields are flawless under pressure and can control games. Blair is an absolute animal inside and Biggs is also very strong and physical. You can't run much on Pitt because, A) you can't rebound on them B) They are too disciplined to get into a running game.

If they get beat it will be because a team as good or better played a very good game against them.

I think you underestimate the Panthers.

I agree.

Same here. But that's more than Pitt.

Well, we'll come March, this is all speculation. But I must admit that they're vulnerable because of their youth.

If you look at the past few National champs they've all been extremely athletic, pushed the tempo and overwhelmed teams with their speed and length. I don't see Pitt as that type of team. Doesn't mean they can't compete, but I just don't think they will.

Yep, a solid team.

They haven't played a really good pressure D yet. We'll see how they handle it.

We'll see come March.

I still got faith in my Syracuse boys... even though they have dropped in ranking :( They are playing West Virginia tonight!! Let's go 'Cuse!!!

PURDUE baby. March madness is ours.

Poor UCONN, they were my pick to win it all, but with Dyson out I'll take UNC.

Im looking for an upset this year. im saying 7+ seed wins it all.

Don't forget UNC is adding an athletic 7 footer midseason. I hate them, but boy it'll be hard to pick against them come tourney time.

Yeh, my only concern is Roy Willims seems to have lost the magic a little bit. But right now it seems like it would be impossible him to lose with that much talent. Unless they play Kansas in the early rounds.

I wouldn't worry too much about your 7 footer. Roy put him in about 10 minutes into the state/unc game, and he managed to get 3 or 4 (I can't remember) fouls and 2 points, plus state was playing awful after halftime.

I really wouldn't put money on UNC to win, we have been playing inconsistently considering when Maryland played us at home we killed them by like over 30 points, but when we were at Maryland last weekend they beat us by 3 points.

Statistically we have the advantage, but only Greene has really been playing up to potential, plus Roy has still been playing Fraiser who has been pathetic beyond belief this season, he really can't sink a single basket.

Kervokian, do you know anyone on the team personally?

kinda, although I haven't seen him since basketball season has started. And I doubt he remembers my name, but I remember any freakish tall black man coming into my room, kinda intimidating. But pretty much my roommate is pretty good friends one of the players, so he's up in my dorm room every once in awhile.

I don't really hang with the sports crowd here although I do enjoy going to the games.

Well Bobby Hmmm, does UCONN just not match up well with Pitt? I think not having Dyson creates problems on defense, it's really too bad he got hurt. Unless your a fan of Pittsburgh.

Wow, Syracuse-UCONN game much?

lol that was unbelievable.

We need to start a MusicBanter Tourney Bracket Thingy.

I'm game, you have a Yahoo account?

Yup... we could set up a private tourney, get a thread here for it, and get it stickied hopefully.