The Hoops Junkie

 
I didn’t do the full 24 hour marathon of college hoops on ESPN yesterday, but I did manage to watch quite a bit. And while it is way too early to come to conclusions about teams or players, I did have a few observations from yesterday.

 
• Somehow San Diego State beating Gonzaga last night and now getting hyped as the best team on the west coast is a surprise. I had them at #14 in my preseason rankings and didn’t understand why they weren’t getting more love nationally. They have everybody back from what was a solid team last season, and they even added some perimeter shooting that they needed from transfer James Rahon. The Aztecs strength is their frontcourt though, where they cause matchups problems by basically playing 3 athletic combo forwards across the frontline in Kawhi Leonard, Billy White, and Malcolm Thomas. They could be vulnerable against a team with a good big man who could hurt them in the post, but they take can advantage on the other end with their speed and quickness advantages. The Mountain West looks to be strong again this season with San Diego State, BYU, UNLV, and New Mexico, so it will be interesting to see how things play out there. continue reading »

 
Last week I previewed the South Region and made my predictions, which turned out to be decent but not great. My picks for the regional final, Baylor and Duke, are both still alive, but I picked the wrong team to upset Villanova (I had Richmond instead of St. Mary’s), and I only had Purdue winning one game. With the matchups set for this weekend, here is what to look for in the South Region.

 
(1) Duke vs. (4) Purdue

• Current Line – Duke minus 8
• KenPom Ratings – #1 Duke (2 on O, 3 on D) vs #13 Purdue (67 on O, 4 on D)
• Probable Future NBA Players – Kyle Singler (Duke)
• Fringe NBA Players – Jon Scheyer (Duke), Mason Plumlee (Duke), JaJuan Johnson (Purdue)
• The Pick – Both of these teams are extremely well coached and very solid on the defensive end. Purdue obviously lost a ton when Robbie Hummel got hurt, and it will probably show up even more in this game against a very big Duke team. They’re now playing JaJuan Johnson and four guards, and the guards they do have aren’t talented enough offensively to really utilize any speed and quickness advantages they may have if they find a Duke big like Lance Thomas or Mason Plumlee guarding them. Matt Painter should be commended for the coaching job he’s done, as should the Purdue players for gutting out two wins when most had them losing in the first round, but I think this is where it ends for them.  The Boilers will probably struggle to score against the Duke defense, and even if Purdue does on a good job of defending the Duke perimeter trio of Jon Scheyer, Nolan Smith, and Kyle Singler (it should be fun to watch the smaller Chris Kramer pester Singler, assuming that is who Kramer guards), I think the Duke bigs will be able to offensive rebound and score easy baskets inside to make the difference. Winner – Duke continue reading »

Since it’s getting close to midnight on Wednesday, and I’m out of time and energy to write a full post on my analysis and predictions for the Final Four, I’m just going with a my quick picks so that I have them on the record, and you can make fun of me after all of my teams make me look bad. If you’ve read the bracket breakdown previews for the West, South, East, and Midwest, you know that I’ve got a Final Four of Syracuse, Baylor, Kentucky, and Kansas. It’s pretty chalky with the three number one seeds, but they’ve been the three best teams almost all season long. And Baylor has been the team I’ve been calling the most underrated team since early in the year. Anyway, I’m going with Kansas and Kentucky meeting in the National Championship game giving everybody the matchup they want of the two best teams going head to head. And I have Kansas, my number one team all year, winning the 2010 National Championship. I know it’s nothing exciting, but that’s what I’ve got.

I started off with a preview of the West Region, which I said was the weakest of the four regions. But after looking a little closer at this South Regional, man is it brutal. Here is the full preview with the same format as before using statistics (Ken Pomeroy’s rankings), talent (probable future NBA players based on my NBA Draft Big Board), and my picks with analysis. continue reading »

 
I recently added a page of my NCAA Power Rankings, which I am updating regularly. Check it out whenever you visit the site to see the fluid changes of what I think are the top teams in the country in terms of NCAA tournament potential. The rankings will be a bit different than what you’ll find in the polls as I’m not going strictly by resume but rather how I’d rate teams based on their chances of advancing in the NCAA tournament if it were to start today. Here are my latest rankings with analysis:

 
1. Kansas
2. Kentucky
3. Syracuse
4. Purdue
5. Villanova
6. Duke
7. West Virginia
8. Ohio St
9. Georgetown
10. Kansas St continue reading »

About a month ago I did my early season top 10 and All American teams, so I figured now would be a good time to update them. There’s still plenty of time for things to change, but seeing teams play some big conference games has helped give me a feel for how good some of these squads really are. This time I’m going with a top 16 and ranking them not based strictly on thier resume, but instead who I would pick to win if the tournament started today.

As for the All American teams, I’m selecting who I believe have been the best college basketball players in country to this point in the season. Some guys may be on weaker teams, and some may not turn into good NBA players, but so far this year they’ve been great college players. And since there are so many guys worthy of recognition, I made quite a large honorable mention list. I could’ve gone way deeper too, but I had to stop somewhere.

 
1. Kansas – So deep in talent that they have guys who could be lottery picks who have nights where you hardly notice them (Aldrich & Henry). I think they’re the most solid all around team and like their experience and ability to play different speeds. continue reading »

• Watching Kirk Hinrich play over the course of his NBA career, I still feel like I never know what I’m going to get. I’ve always been a fan of his game, but there are times where he just hasn’t been very good. It seems to be pretty much a mental thing to me though. When he’s aggressive on offense and shoots the ball with confidence, he’s a solid all around guard. He can already defend both guard positions, and he has a nice feel for game, but his offense is so up and down depending on where his head is. It’s been great to see him playing better of late though, and I hope he can keep it up. It’s been well circulated that the Bulls are trying to clear cap space to make room to sign free agents this summer, so it will be interesting to see if anything happens with him before the trade deadline. I’ve read quite a few rumors about him going to the Lakers, and although it may seem like a great fit at first, I worry about his confidence on that team. He’s a guy who needs to have the ball in his hands some on offense and needs to have the mindset to be aggressive. I worry he could end up similar to Jordan Farmar, as a guy who’s not playing up to his full potential due to lack of role and lack of confidence. Regardless of what happens though, I’d love to see Hinrich keep his confidence high and continue to play well .He can be alot of fun to watch.
• If you’re looking for college basketball teams that aren’t ranked very highly now but have a chance to do some damage in March, I’ve got a few for you  – Baylor, Ohio St, and Georgia Tech. None of these teams has a ranking higher than 20 in either poll, but if you look at talent and potential to rattle off a few wins in the tournament, I think all three of these teams has what it takes. They all have their weaknesses though too, as shown by their losses and place in the polls. continue reading »