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 »

Since ESPN is calling this ”rivalry week,” and the conference races are starting to shape up, I thought I’d do a preview of what to watch this week in college hoops. The weekdays are loaded with good games, but the weekend doesn’t have quite as many matchups that jump out as me as some of the past few have. It’s NBA All Star Weekend though… and Valentine’s Day on Sunday, so maybe that’s a good thing.

• Villanova at West Virginia (Monday, 7PM ET on ESPN) – This should be a great matchup of two of the best teams in the Big East with contrasting styles. West Virginia will probably try to utilize their size advantage on the wings with Da’Sean Butler, Devin Ebanks, and Kevin Jones. Villanova, on the other hand, will try to use their speed and quickness by having guys like Scottie Reynolds, Corey Fisher, and Maalik Wayns constantly putting pressure on the defense with their dribble penetration. This game will be important for both teams in terms of seeding for the NCAA tournament. Both are in the mix for potential #1 seeds.
• Kansas at Texas (Monday, 9PM ET on ESPN) – Texas has really struggled lately dropping 4 of their last 6 games since starting out 17-0 and being ranked #1 in the nation. I still think there’s too much talent on this team to completely freak out and bail on them, but this is definitely a big game for them at home. They need to play with confidence, and each player needs to buy into their role. Kansas is undefeated in Big 12 play but needed overtime in 2 of their last 3. Like Texas, they also have so much talent that it can be difficult to get each individual player playing within themself and doing what they need to do to win games. There is loads up NBA talent on both sides here with probably a minimum if 4 future NBA players on each team. 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 »

1. John Wall (Kentucky) 6′4″ Freshman, PG (1)

2. Evan Turner (Ohio St.) 6′7″ Junior, SG/SF (2)

3. Al-Farouq Aminu (Wake Forest) 6′9″ Sophomore, PF (3) continue reading »

• I really like Gonzaga’s team this year. They’re similar to Syracuse in that they lost some major talent from last year, (Daye, Pargo, Downs, and Heytvelt) but they may actually be a better team. They absolutely stunk against Duke in MSG, but Matt Bouldin still didn’t seem like himself after suffering a concussion 10 days earlier, and I think in general they just had a bad day. They looked much better to me in their win against Oklahoma on Thursday than they did when they won the Maui Invitational a month earlier though. Demetri Goodson hasn’t been great at the point, but they have the luxury of going bigger and playing Bouldin there and bringing in Bol Kong off the bench, who is starting to play better and earning more minutes. The biggest key though has been the emergence of Elias Harris, the 6-7 freshman from Germany who has a game similar to Shawn Marion. He seemed like the 4th option on offense early in the season, and now he’s really asserting himself. I’m going to come out with my weekly NBA Draft prospect rankings after I see a couple weeks of conference play, and Harris is guy that I’ll have ranked pretty high. He’s one of those combo forwards that we’re seeing much more of now as the NBA is becoming smaller and faster and there is more of a premium on spacing the floor.
• Purdue’s victory over West Virginia on New Year’s Day was very impressive. Their ball pressure really exposed the Mountaineer’s point guard issues, and JaJuan Johnson was too much for West Virginia to handle inside. I’d be really interested to see Purdue play Texas or Kentucky. The Boilers don’t come close in talent, but they play with more maturity and take care of the ball better than either the Longhorns or the Wildcats, and their defense is as good as anybody’s. I think the development of Kelsey Barlow as the season goes on will be a big factor in how good they can be come tourney time in March. Barlow is their best athlete, he can guard multiple positions, has a nice handle, and can really get to the basket (he just missed a couple finishes after explosive drives to the hoop against WVU). If he continues to grow, he’ll give Purdue a chance to be a Final 4 caliber team. continue reading »