Men's College Basketball 2003-2004 (NO SMACK)

***MOD NOTE***

Just in case y'all (and Lucid) forgot what happened last season.....

**delete pictures**

Sorry. Start a smack thread if wanted. Those pictures are trolling.

 

Re: ***MOD NOTE***

awwww

 

kidding man....


My Pre-Season Outlook

This should be a fun year of ball. The biggest news coming out of the off-season has been the coaching changes at North Carolina and Kansas. Kansas shouldn't feel much of a drop off as Coach Self can recruit nationally, and he can coach a good game. And IMHO he is a better defensive coach than Roy Williams, and defense is pretty much what stopped Kansas from winning a National Championship last season. However, Kansas must replace Kirk Heinrich and Nick Collison. Simien should step in nicely for Collison but Aaron Miles has to step up this season. He'll get help because he'll be playing along side my favorite player in the nation, Keith Langford. The guy is awsome and get beat anybody off the dribble. He was the main reason that the Jayhawk's weren't blown out by Syracuse in the National Championship game.

Williams will get the Craolina kids playing an uptempo game. And in doing so, he'll turn Raymond Felton into a human high-lite reel. He was the best point guard in the nation last season but didn't get the press because Doherety was losing his squad. But under Williams he'll be fully unleashed and the ACC is gonna feel it.

But the Big East is where the power is gonna reside. UConn, Syracuse, and Notre Dame are all legitimate Final Four Contenders. Pitt should be good (not as good as the past 2 seasons, but good all the same), and Miami has a super-star in Darius Rice (cousin of Jerry Rice).

These would be my players to watch, in no specific order. Luol Deng. Hakim Warrick, Raymond Felton, Arthur Johnson, Keith Langford, Ben Gordon, Omeka Okafer, Chris Thomas, Charlie Villenueva, Anthony Roberson, Christian Drejer, Julius Hodge, Jameer Nelson, Bracey Wright, and Gerry McNamara. I'm sure i'm missing a boatload of players. Oh yea, Dee Brown.

 

One Pre-Season Ranking and previews here

I'm sure many are looking at that and wondering how Gonzaga could possibly be ranked 5th. I'm a huge Gonzaga fan, and even I'm a little skeptical of that praise. Our out of conference schedule is brutal again this year, and I'm guessing we'll lose a game or two and fall out of the top 10 before conference play.

Can't argue with Uconn getting so much love -- they're loaded.

It will be interesting to see how things shake out at UNC -- having a healthy Sean May will be a huge boost. How much pressure will Roy Williams be under to get results right away?

I'll also be very curious to see what happens at UCLA. I'm not sold on Howland. He's being hailed as a savior, and has already done well recruiting, but I just don't think anybody will ever make those fans happy.

I can't wait for the season to get rolling. Gonzaga plays Missouri in Seattle in December. Watch it if you can -- both these teams are loaded with talent.

 

I'm stoked that Jameer Neslon came back to St. Joes. He's a stud. Did Christian Drejer come back to Florida? I thought he was MIA, for some reason. Word is he's a bit of a headcase, but he def. has talent. I like to watch Julius Hodge, too. Sort of reminds me of John Starks -- must be the NYC connection.

One player that intrigues me that you didn't mention is Ike Diagou (sp?) from ASU. He was a monster as a freshman.

I'm a mid-major fan, so my feelings are mixed regarding ESPN's revamped Bracket Buster. I like that I'll get to see more teams that don't normally get tv coverage, but, damn, the field is pretty weak. I don't think more than three or four of these teams have any chance to bust anybody's bracket. I love my mid-majors, but does anybody really want to watch Northern Iowa vs. Cleveland State?

 

Yep the ASU stud is a guy I forgot. As I said I'm forgetting boatloads of players. I think this will be a season marked by some really good performances. The talent level around the nation seems to be higher than ever. Some other guys I didn't list was Luke JAckson, Mustafa Shakur, Bozman at UCLA, David Lee, Julius Page, RaShaad McCaants, Patrick Ewing JR, Billy Edelin, Torin Francis, the guy from Providence, Paul Davis....

 

I think he's going to be substantially less effective without Ridnour. The Ducks have a stud freshman pg coming in in Aaron Brooks, but it will be really hard to replace Rid, and I think Jackson will struggle a bit without him.

 

The NCAA rescinded Michigan's tournament ban today. Make of that what you will. I figure they're a bubble tournament team in a relatively down Big 10. Could finish anywhere from 3rd to 7th in the league.

Heck, maybe they'll have a great year and get the 600k out of CWebb that they're looking for.

 

This preview is for Last Year, 2002-3. Look at the players to watch.

 

I'm not sure what you're referring to. The individual team capsules on the front page are clearly for this year. Take the Kansas one, for example:

 

Ohio State at #27,

http://www.athlonsports.com/article/1705/

Odd they didn't make the tourney last year and they are going to have to depend on some players that graduated this year.

The individual team previews are a year old. Ben Howland isn't coaching Pittsburgh anymore.

 

I'm looking forward to the last year of ACC basketball before it's all ruined for football. There are some question marks in the conference, but it's always fun to watch. Can Skip Prosser continue his success at Wake? How's Roy going to do in his first season at NC with players he didn't recruit? Will Chris Duhon play like his national championship year or last year? And how will Maryland do without Steve Blake running the show?

As a Duke fan, it should be a fun year. Sheldon Williams came on strong at the end of the season last year. If Shavlick Randolph can toughen up some, Duke will be better inside. I don't think losing Dahntay Jones will hurt so much, he was an enigma. Duhon has to be effective running the point. Redick just needs to keep finding open shots. That kid is lights out. Luol Deng was the 2nd rated prep player behind LeBron last year. He should be effective immediately.

This Duke team reminds me somewhat of the 2000-01 team. Lots of good sophomores, some senior leadership, and a potentially standout freshman.

 

I'm not much of an ACC fan, but I respect how much quality the conference has, and how much passion the fans bring. Why do you think their big-time football ambitions will hurt their basketball tradition? I figured strong football would help all their athletics, including b-ball, by brining in $.

 

The inclusion of Miami and VT and eventually a 12th member will mean that the conference will split into divisions. That means an end to the balanced home and home schedule the ACC has. The ACC and the Pac10 are the last 2 big conferences where everybody plays each other twice, once at home, once at their place. That's what I will miss.

 

Indeed. Money talks, I guess.

I'm optimistic. They tuned Doh' out at the end of the season, mainly because he was a hardass without the credentials to back it up. Roy will be a hardass too but from what I understand, he has better rapport with players and his record allows him more leeway. But we'll see when practice starts.

Hopefully, we won't see the second half collapses that characterized pretty much every loss last year.

I say this with no smack intended, don't count on it. I don't know, maybe he will settle down this year but he just didn't look comfortable running the team. They looked so much better when Ewing was running the offense. Great athlete, sure, but I'm not sold on Duhon as a playmaker.

The sophomores will be scary though, I think. I expec Randolph to be much more of a presence inside.

 

And freshman Luol Deng might be the best player on the squad. But I still think Reddick is overrated. He is a great deep threat, but he doesn't do much else.

 

Skip, I don't disagree with you at all about Duhon. He's the big question mark surrounding this squad. And I love Daniel Ewing. The ACC Tournament last year was his coming out party. He's explosive.

As for Roy, NC finally got the guy they wanted all along. I think he will be successful at NC, but I don't think they'll be a Final Four team this year. It will take him a year or two to get NC back to that level. A big part of that is that he has to restore confidence back into his squad.

Appoo, all Redick has to do is shoot. He demands a man in his face from so far away that it opens up the insides for guys like Randolph and Williams. He's a zone buster by himself. Other than that, he's very limited. He's a Steve Kerr type player.

 

I don't think Carolina's a Final Four team either (though I am optimistic) and we're still a Sean May injury away from a first round exit. But if Felton improves his shot selection, his only major weakness, McCants responds well to Roy and Noel keeps improving the way he did at the end of the season then we'll be playing well into March.

I'm also curious to see how Redick plays this year. He was virtually automatic early in the year, but teams learned to make him work for his shot - he still made some crazy long 3's, but he wasn't quite as effective down the stretch if my memory serves me right.

Since I'm completely ignorant about non-ACC b-ball, I have a few questions:
- How much will Texas miss TJ Ford?
- Who are the stars at Arizona? They lost Walton, Gardner and their top recruit ended up jumping to the NBA.
- Is Syracuse really a Top 10 team without Carmelo?

 

I think Carolina is a Sweet 16/Elite 8 type team this year. They could get into the Final Four, depends on the brackets.

Redick slowed down big time last year. His own good performance was in the ACC Tournament Final vs. NC State when he went off in the 2nd half to pull Duke out of a deficit. Part of it is that teams learned how to defend him better, but part of it might also have been that he was physically worn down as it was his first collegiate season. Obviously, I hope it's the latter.

As much as I liked Carolina being down the last couple of years, I'm glad that they will most likely turn things around and be a top 10 team again. The Duke vs. NC game is a special event and it's made even bigger when both teams are among the nation's elite.

 

IMHO Felton is the best PG in the country. He'll reallty thrive under Williams' Run N' Gun system. Unfortunatly Carolina might not have the horses to play it for an entire game. They also might not have the horses to play Roy's pressure half court defense for 40 minutes.

-Texas will miss TJ, but they still be a solid top 15 squad. They got a lot of talent coming back and
James Thomas is just awsome on the boards. BTW - This season is just a holding season. They'll more than likely be the #1 ranked team in the nation going into the 04 - 05 season. Thats how good their recruiting class is going to be.

-Mustafa Shakur will be the star attraction at Arizona. He might be an immediate upgrade over Gardner. Channing Fry is a very good post player who is also very athletic. Andre Iguodala is probably their best pro-prospect, and Salim Stoudamire is a very talented 2 guard.

-Syracuse really is a top 10 team. If you could pour talent into a glass they'd have more this season than last season. And it wouldn't be much of a stretch to call this Cuse team the most talented in School history. Every kid on that squad is a top 100 recruit. They have a top 5 in-coming class. In respect to Camrelo, the squad will miss his rebounding the most. He was one of the best rebounders in the nation and it was big part of his game. But if it was allowed, Cuse could play 7 above-average scorers in the floor. In realirt, they'll pay 4 around the twoheaded center. Hakim Warrick is going to draw the double teams that Carmelo used to, Edelin and McNamara is possible the best back court in the nation (even though Gordon and Taliek Brown has something to say about that). Josh Pace has first crack at taking Melo's #3 spot, but he'll probably be over-taken by Nichols, one of the incoming Froshs. This team is GOOD.

 

You pretty much summed up Syracuse for next year. There is only one team that has more talent than 'Cuse in the nation. And unfortunately they are in Syracuse's conferance. Mark these dates down: Feb. 2 at Connecticut and Mar. 7 Connecticut(where Syracuse will break thier attendance record for the second consecutive season.) These games are gonna be battles as UConn was the only team that had 'Cuse's number last year.

And as good as they will be this year they will be even better next year, possible preseason #1 if Warrick doesn't opt for the NBA. They just signed 2 more top recruits and are still in the fray for Rudy Gay who is one of the top 5 high school seniors. Things are looking really good in Orange Land