College Basketball Thread

[T-RICH49]

Originally Posted by jballa838

signing day is wednesday. how awesome is that?

more awesome if Ben McLemore chooses KU like I think he will

[DiG]

peshon howard is the truth. that is all. if you dont know...now you know.

[PalmerToCJ]

Best time of the year. I cannot explain how much I love college basketball (not just UK).

Rankings seem a lot like last year. Consensus #1 and a #2 people are fairly confident with... The rest just kind of randomly fall in line.

Really gets aggravating the way the NCAA drags their feet getting kids eligible, it cannot possibly take this long.

I think the Selby situation is just as ridiculous (if not more so) than Kanter. They aren't going to dig up any new information, either they're eligible or they're not.

[SeanTaylorRIP]

Originally Posted by Dirty Thirty

peshon howard is the truth. that is all. if you dont know...now you know.

Yup he looks legit. Jordan Williams btw should contend for ACC POY.

[JRTPlaya21]

Cody Zeller to Indiana & Norvel Pelle to St. Johns.

[PalmerToCJ]

Just when I open my mouth Kanter is ineligible, crap lol.

[dabears10]

So here is my yearly preview of the team no one else will care about, my Illinois State Redbirds.

This will definitely be a rebuilding year. After graduating two All-Valley performers in Osiris Eldridge and Dinma Odiakosa the Redbirds will be looking for some scoring from a very young team. The starting lineup will consist of likely 3 sophomores in Jackie Carmichael, Justin Clark, and John Wilkins. The other two starters will likely be seniors Alex Rubin and Tony Lewis. The team should have quite the size with Carmichael, Wilkins, and Tony Lewis will all be over 6-7. Wilkins will likely play on the perimeter at 6-9 with a silky smooth jump shot and not a huge will to drive to the hoop.

Alex Rubin looks to be the leader of the team mostly in spirit, he will likely not lead the team in any statistical category. He has played smart basketball and can really frustrate the opposing point guard with his positioning making up for his lack of lateral quickness.

Justin Clark has a chance to lead this team in scoring after a disappointing freshman season. Hopefully this season we see his scoring arsenal that led him to have the second most 3 pointers in Missouri high school history.

Clark's high school teammate Jon Ekey will be fun to watch this year. At 6'7 and incredible hops Ekey led the state of Missouri in blocked shots his senior year. He also has a nice shot and is able to put the ball on the floor. With Ekey coming off the bench ISU will have quite the shot blocking duo in Ekey and Carmichael.

As most of you have stopped reading this poorly written preview I will just put out a quick prediction of the Missouri Valley conference.

1. Wichita State Shockers
2. Creighton Blue Jays
3. Missouri State Bears
4. Northern Iowa Panthers
5. Illinois State Redbirds
6. Bradley Braves
7. Southern Illinois Salukis
8. Drake Bulldogs
9. Indiana State Sycamores
10. Evansville Purple Aces

Wichita returns 4 of 5 starters and has two 7 footers in Stutz and Orupke. Also they have the league's best scorer in Toure Murray. Creighton will have a strong front court with Kenny Lawson and Gregory Echenique (Rutgers Transfer, sorry scotty) and another Korver in Kaleb. Missouri State has a bunch of scorers and will probably be a surprise in the Valley early on but I do not believe they will be able to hold out in the end.

All in all this will probably be a 1 bid league this year, again, but many preseason magazines are predicting 2 bids. I don't really see it, but it depends on how the MVC does in OOC, where ISU will not help anything as they have the worst OOC schedule in the conference, and especially win the challenge vs the Mountain West Conference.

[T-RICH49]

Originally Posted by PalmerToCJ

I think the Selby situation is just as ridiculous (if not more so) than Kanter. They aren't going to dig up any new information, either they're eligible or they're not.

could not agree more.Self has even stated in a presser recently that Josh is growing increasingly frustraed with how long it's taking

[derza222]

Villanova basketball begins tonight!! Also maybe I'm biased but I think the Seton Hall-Temple game tonight should be really interesting. Temple plays a really disciplined, methodical style and we're not sure what Seton Hall plays under Willard but their previous teams really got up and down the floor and scored a lot. Plus Temple's ranked in the 20's and SHU has a lot of talented veterans and a shot to get there by the end of the year...should be a good opener and a solid test for both teams.

[T-RICH49]

Rumor going around is Selby will be cleared tommorow

[djp]

Miami playing decently on the road at Memphis.

[yodapoop]

I'll write a preview for UWM. We are alrady 1-2, we play in Butler's confrence, so we have no ******* shot at going anywhere while I am here. And God willing, that will be two years.

[djp]

Miami has some pretty good basketball players, they just always seem so underdeveloped, particularly the guards. They just play too much 1 on 1 and don't understand the concept of running an offense. Reggie Johnson is a beast, though. Looks like he will have some problems with fouls throughout the year, however.

[yo123]

Other than Pullen I am seriously confused as to why Kansas St. is the third best team in the country.

[thenewfeature06]

Yup in my preseason ranks I had them at 11th or 12th tbh and I looked at there roster today and realized Clemente might of not been an nba player but was pretty important to that team. V-tech is always competitive and coming into this game there was a chance they could win but they must be gassed because they are playing worse.

[yo123]

They're going to be damn good because Martin is a great coach, they're great defensively, and Pullen is tough as nails but I'm feel pretty confident in saying that every team in the top 10 is more talented than them, maybe farther down than that.

[SeanTaylorRIP]

Unfortunately Wally Judge appears to have not made any improvements. Kstate is ranked highly though because they one have the longest and deepest front courts in the country and are led by the guard play of Pullen.

[BuckNaked]

If I hear one more thing about Sullinger's ass....

[yo123]

Ohio State is damn good this year. Sullinger is an All American candidate, they have solid backcourt/wing play with guys like Diebler, Buford, and Lighty and they have a very unselfish style of play. Great ball movement tonight.

Point guard is an issue though, and they need a few more guys on their bench to step up this year though because they've only played 7 guys tonight.

[BuckeyeDan17]

Yeah, a lot of us fans are nervous about Craft carrying us through the season at PG. Tonight his most impressive attribute was his ball-handling against the full-court press. Not shabby for a fresh. I think he he will continue to improve along with the rest of the team. I like where we're at 2 games in.

[adschofield]

K-State is overrated trash. Can't wait to see them flame out and finish 4th in the conference.

[Texas Homer]

Ohio st. looked LEGIT tonight.

Let me talk about a couple of Texas players for a second. Jordan Hamilton and True Freshman Big-Man Tristan Thompson both have looked pretty good this season on the court.

[iowatreat54]

Wooooo Iowa dominates UL-Monroe 68-40 for the first win of Franball!!!

1 win down, 10 to go (to surpass the abortion of a season last year).

[sweetness34]

Originally Posted by adschofield

K-State is overrated trash. Can't wait to see them flame out and finish 4th in the conference.

The one thing K-State lacks is a secondary scoring option from the outside. Pullen is a beast, but right now it's tough to see another guard taking a big step. That said, their front court is nasty and they handled VT last night without Kelly.

Should be fun watching Texas, KU, KSU Missouri and Baylor battle it out for 1st place in the conference though.

[thenewfeature06]

Kemba Walker had 46 the other night... weak competetion but dear god