The season is here. THANK GOD.
You know how everyone always speaks along these lines: “I can’t believe it’s been a ______ since ______ happened. It feels like it was last week.”
That’s not how it is with me and college basketball. By the time the games start, the national title game always feels like it happened two years ago. And that’s how it should be. The college sports get it right: make us wait. Make us crave the sport instead of shoving it down our throats, you know? It sickens me that baseball starts less than 90 days from now.
So let’s address the storylines, trends and changes for 2009-10. The games haven’t begun, so all we can go on is ill-informed foresight on what’s to come. To facilitate this, I’m going to mix in another passion most with a heartbeat and sense of self have: music. Why? Because music is fucking incredible. Google the tune titles if you’re unaware. Expose yourself to some new music every week. You’ll be better for it. Let’s start the score, folks.
Everything Old is New Again. You look at the preseason Top 25 and you notice an abundance of powerhouse programs occupying the top 25. Kansas. Kentucky. Duke. North Carolina. Michigan State. Connecticut, Georgetown, Louisville. Even Michigan cracks the top 15 in each poll — a move so nostalgic you almost want to throw on the baggy shorts.
Head Full of Doubt, Road Full of Promise. What teams are under the radar and a bit miscalculated right now? I’d take a good look at Oregon State, Maryland, South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Kansas State. Come Christmas every year there are a few undefeated or one-loss teams that pop up. I think the schools above have a real chance to earn the right to be called frauds!
Everything In Its Right Place. Derrick Caracter: from lazy work ethic at Louisville to lazy work ethic at UTEP. Derrick Jasper: from pouty attitude at Kentucky to UNLV. Curtis Kelly: from quiet miscreant at UConn to K-State. Elliot Williams: from coach K at Duke to being left at the alter by John Calipari at Memphis. Jai Lucas: from underrated talent Florida to roster-booster at Texas. Ben Hansbrough: from Mississippi State to forgotten member of the Hansbrough family to filling the white-hate quota for Kyle McAlarney at Notre Dame. Wesley Johnson: from Iowa State to needed-body at Syracuse. Jordan Crawford: from Indiana to dunking on LeBron (the most overhyped, useless story of the offseason) to Xavier.
Song for the Dumped. Teams that were ditched by stars and/or coaches for greener grass: Oklahoma (Blake Griffin); UNC (Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington); Arizona State (James Harden); Memphis (Tyrke Evans, John Calipari); Xavier (Sean Miller); Syracuse (Jonny Flynn, Paul Harris); Wake Forest (James Johnson, Jeff Teague); UConn (Hasheem Thabeet); USC (DeMar DeRozan, Taj Gibson, Tim Floyd); Georgetown (DaJuan Summers); Pittsburgh (DeJuan Blair); St. Mary’s (Patty Mills); VCU (Anthony Grant); Washington State (Tony Bennett). Expect every single one of these programs to take a step down this season.
The Horizon Has Been Defeated. Butler is a top-10 preseason team in the Coaches poll (11 in AP). The Bulldogs are one Elite Eight run away from being on the same plane as Gonzaga; while the Horizon League isn’t as weak top to bottom as the Gonzaga’s residence (the West Coast Conference), anything more than two losses in conference for new head coach gang would be a shocker. The boys from Hinkle are eying a 4-seed or better this season.
Dream Life of Rand McNally. Who’s really hitting the road this year? No big boys, per usual. There isn’t one major-conference team that will play more than three true road games (most aren’t playing more than two) before conference play begins. For all of the selection committee’s pleas about playing tough opponents, few schools have the onion(s!) to put themselves on opposing campuses. The conference tourneys—and the matchups they facilitate—have eliminated many worthwhile, high-profile matchups in December.
Can’t Knock the Hustle. Actual text message I receive last week from a former girlfriend, who is a ’Cuse alumnae: “Keep in mind Le Moyne always tries extra hard cause they’re in Syracuse as well.” You just can’t argue with that kind of logic, folks. Related: UCLA 62, Concordia 61. Northwood 71, Florida International 61. Are preseason scrimmages something to worry about? Why not? Is there any real reason for a D-I team to flirt with defeat like this? We’re not talking about able-bodied, unyielding November foes like a Farleigh Dickinson, North Carolina A&T or Cal-State Northridge.
This House is a Circus. In my humble, Internet opinion, these should be the five places—combined with high expectations for 2009-10—to play this season outside of Cameron. 1. Allen Fieldhouse 2. Breslin Center 3. Rupp Arena 4. Hinkle Fieldhouse 5. Dean Dome. I demand the commentors put me in my place by referencing their alma mater.
Man in the Box. After taking a dive into the 2009 Draft pool and fearing the deep end of the late first round, Luke Harangody returns to the delight of just about everyone (Big East foes not included). The spacious scorer from South Bend is a strong POY candidate and came back for the reason so many big, talented white boys do: to win a national title reach the NCAA tournament! If the Irish flirt with moderate success, expect a feature story weekly on The Gody (which the most unoriginal nickname in sports today).
Patience. Arizona. Indiana. Wake Forest. Providence. Texas Tech. New Mexico. Memphis.
Master of Puppets. Yes, depth does mean something in college basketball. Coaches who are able to shuffle in nine, 10 players per night, over the course of a season, have a better shot at making the tournament. Some of the deepest benches basketball this season: Texas, Ohio State, Cal, Butler, Miss. State and …
Helter Skelter. Missouri. Keep an eye on the Elite Eight team you’ve most certainly already forgotten about. Teams will pray they have the bench and oxygen to keep up whenever they go against one of the most entertaining watches in the game. Frenetic, frenzied and fevered, the Tigers’ defense can exhaust you from the comfort of your cushions. Yet, this team isn’t even ranked right now. Expect that to not be the case once January arrives. J.T. Tiller, who is still underrated nationally after winning the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year award (along with KU’s Cole Aldrich), can help keep the deep Big 12 conference title race interesting.
Selling the Drama. ESPN will be broadcasting — like it did last year — 24 hours of continual college basketball. Except, this time, you’ll have 24 hours of live coverage of games. Yep: a 6 a.m. tipoff! Which schools were willing to sell out to play to the moms-and-dads-packing-their-kids-lunches demo? St. Peters and Monmouth. Drexel and Niagara showed a bit of restraint; they’ll be playing at 8 a.m. The 4 a.m. game will be played in Hawaii — 11 p.m. local time. The move is over-the-top and I love every minute of it. A quagmire of games to start the season and one to end it.
At a Medium Pace. Which teams will shoot their wad a bit early? Remember Michigan State a few years back when it scheduled all those heavy-hitters and it cost them a tournament berth? Here’s some of the toughest early-season schedules out there: Texas (Iowa, UNC, Mich. St.); Gonzaga (Mich St., Wake, Duke, Okla., Ill.); UNC (Ohio State, Mich. St., Kentucky, Texas); Butler (Minn., G’town, Ohio St., Xavier); Oklahoma (VCU, Ark., ’Zona, Utah, Gonzaga). Keep in mind the schools above, and other unlisted, will have yet-to-be-known opponents in the litany of preseason tournaments later this month, so there’s plenty of RPI-boosting to be had still.
I Predict a Riot. A national champion pick in November that can be used against me in the court of blog opinion? Fine. I positively loathe picking a champion now (picking a Final Four is even more of a fool’s errand), and it’s kind of scary how tempted I am to take Kentucky, but I’ll go with stability, consistent coaching, hard work and a durable club. I’ll go with Michigan State. Please bookmark this so it can be shoved in my face when the Spartans bow out in the round of 32.
