College hoops are underway meaning I could give two craps about football at this point. After seeing John Wall play, he IS what he was made out to be (and I admit I got sort of skeptical after ALL the hype)....28-2 Run against UNC just doesn't happen for UK, atleast not in the past decade. We are young, turn the ball over a lot, but are LOADED with talent....and we are 8-0. IF we pull out the win in Madison Square Garden against a pretty solid UCONN squad on Wednesday, we should be coasting into the Lousiville game come January with a 14-0 record. UK is inexperienced and sloppy with the ball, but talent alone has won games for them thus far. Should have many kinks worked out by the time conference play rolls around. Duke has great D, Mich ST is overrated, UNC is down even though they have great talent at all spots, and Kansas has looked far from dominant at times but are still No 1 for a reason, definitely the team to beat. I made a venture back in the spring when we landed our recruiting class that we were back, may not be a national title year but I was definitely right. We have all the pieces and very few kinks to work out before we are a SCARY good team. Cousins has been posting phenomenal numbers for his minutes played, if he could just screw that head on right and stay out of foul trouble he could possibly be a better post player than Patterson. Haven't missed a game yet and likely won't for the rest of the year. Exciting times in the Commonwealth, where the basketball coach is more important than the governor.:D
Wall has been very, very impressive thus far int he young season. With their inexperienced roster I'm not sure UK can be a title contender but they definitely look like the class of the SEC right now. ACC--look for duke to repeat its recent early season success. I've said it the last two years and I'll say it again this year, they'll be dominant early but as the season progresses and the legs get tired those 3s don't fall so easily. Sweet 16 out again this year I'd bed. UNC is down and has hardly any guard play, but seeing them rally back from 19 down at Kentucky leads me to believe they'll be an ACC contender. Big 10-Evan Turner going out at Ohio State makes this another year that I'll avoid all big 10 games possible. I agree with Tembry in that MSU is overrated. They caught a hot streak at tournament time last year and they'll have to do that again this year to be a contender. Big 12- Texas is for real as is Willie Warren at OU; other than that I haven't kept up with them much Big East-As always, too many great teams to list. Watch out for WVU, though!
MSU's #2 preseason ranking was definitely high. Preseason rankings are a joke though. They'll be fine as the season goes on. UNC is "overrated" too, especially if their guard play doesn't improve. I think Duke will struggle with a lack of depth that has also plagued them in recent years. The Big Ten winning the challenge vs the ACC was kind of suprisingly. I think its a mix of some of the Big Ten teams improving and some of the ACC teams being down. Texas has looked good even though they really haven't played anyone. They have a lot of talent though and are as deep as anyone in the country. Wall has been impressive, but the 4.5 turnovers per game has to come down if they hope to remain a top team. Freshman or not, that is an alarming number.
If something comes out against Coach Cal OR UK please pile it on, but until either of those happen just drop the whole soul less corrupt talk Jeff. I'll have to agree on pre season rankings being a joke...hell we were top 5 with 50% of scholly players never having played college ball. LOL That said, at this point I think they have proven that they deserve to be near where they are if not where they are....UCONN will be the test..yes they beat UNC but UNC is pretty weak to be honest. They have awesome talent at every position but as a team just haven't quite clicked yet. Vito, yeah the Turnovers have to come down as a team especially....as aggressive as Coach Cal is telling Wall to play, I expect his TOs to remain high though. Our key gameplan kind of hinges on Wall constantly driving and collecting fouls. He HAS to get the other team in foul trouble especially in Key games....Cal is looking for 12-15 TOs a game. Any more is ridiculous but any less and he argues that we aren't being aggressive enough. I'd like to see Eric Bledsoe get his TOs under control before anyone, if Wall goes down its all in his hands and he isn't ready yet. As a team, I like our 38% from 3s (dubbed our worst weakness preseason), I like our +11.1 rebound margin, 8.3 blocks/game is acceptable but with our size should honestly be a bit higher, our TOs at 17.6/game MUST come down some, and our FT % at 68% MUST go up. Our offense is all about making it to the stripe, but it does nothing without sinking them there. We may have two legit First Team All American players on our roster. PPat is consistent and J Wall is climbing the ranks fast. Jerome Dyson is a freak of nature for UCONN and I dont see us handling him too well, but i don't see them containing us very well either. The 1/2 guard matchup between these teams may be the best UK fans will see all year. Should be a great game, once again coming down to Walls performance and how he handles his team. A freshman leader is scary but he has been clutch thus far when needed. I honestly think the top 4 teams at the end of the year are KU, Texas, UK, and either Nova or Purdue.....the teams at the top now I expect to stay there.
The Big East is a scary conference.....they can ALL come to play. U of L is down this year especially compared to last year, I expect them to finish mid pack in that Division. (Hope they do better though)
University of Mass Vacates final four appearance. University of Memphis Vacates final four appearance Eddie Sutton. Let's just not act like these things didn't happen. They did. That being said.................. UK's got a gathering of talent, unlike I've seen since some of the UNC teams.....Mello's freshman (only) year.....UNLV.......and the Fab Five. They're damned good....and "I" think they're better (potentially) than their #5 ranking. I think they CAN win the big dance. I'll say they'll be the most fun team to be a fan of this year. You could literally watch an all-star performance....OR...be scared to death by a gutsy GA team. It wasn't this team.......but I don't think UK fans will forget the words Gardner Webb for a long time. They'll be interesting....and interestingly GOOD.
I'm a die hard Terps fan, I don't really wanna talk about it :D Keep an eye out for MN in the Big10 though
Not a one of those 3 things are because of Coach Cal or UK (within the last two decades anyway). A player accepted money from an NBA scout and another player cheated on his High School SAT and was even cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse to play. Pretty Corrupt college coach by the sounds of it. What I find funny, is when people try and paint Cal in a negative light but don't even use the ONLY possibly negative thing about him as a coach....his ties with WWW. World Wide Wes at Nike that is, this guy has Lebron Kobe and others on speed dial and often wows high school super stars for the promotion of Nike and possible down the road ties with these soon to be stars, and he is Cals best friend. I mean, if you want to plaster a man as a corrupt cheater, atleast use instances where you have SOME validity to the claims. About the team, I couldn't agree more....grossly overtalented for the way they have played thus far. Very exciting to watch and SHOULD be polished into a very tough team to take down by seasons end, but in the mean time UCONN, Tennessee twice, and Florida twice (all in top 15), UofL, Indiana AT IU (even though IU is weak this year)....they have a LOT of potential losses ahead, and also the potential for few to no losses as well. who knows how it will pan out. Kyle I actually pull for Vasquez over in the ACC, mainly cause they usually find away to knock off Duke and occasionally UNC....I just hope they get better.:D Wisconsin really shocked me for a team thats pretty good this year, Duke is no pushover for early in the season.
Tennessee....look out They played really well against Purdue, and should have won that game (they lead by a small margin almost the entire game)
Hey....All I'm saying is....the man got his "cred" on the back of his 2 final fours. Now he has NONE on his resume'. NONE. I don't see Roy Williams; Coach K (or any other national powerhouse coach for that matter) getting theirs stripped. But hey.....those are just the facts. You don't see those things, wearing rose colored glasses.
Well maybe when they become a powerhouse again, we need to form an elusive club lol. Basketball has done a 180 since Buzz Peterson left, he was terrible. They had one good year when Ron Slay was there. Football has been in a downward spiral since Casey Clausen left. Everyone hated him, but he really wasn't bad and was probably our best QB since Peyton Manning. I know Tee Martin won a championship but that was mainly due to the team around him. I also thought for sure Erik Ainge was going to end up being solid, he was built like a Pro QB, but after that underhanded pass in the end zone at LSU, he was never the same. That was the pass that led to him getting benched. He still wasn't terrible though. We are BEYOND due for a good competitive quarterback. To be honest, I'd take Crompton for another year or two. He has turned his game around completely. He has become EXTREMELY effective. If he would have played the whole year like he is now, who knows where we would be. He would have competitive heisman numbers, which sounds ridiculously hard to believe.
I agree Bruce Pearl has been a perfect fit for UTs hoops team. And I thought Fulmer was a great coach, but I'm afraid it was actually time for him to go. I wasn't on board with the move at first, but I think Kiffin has shown it was time. Crompton's turn around being one example of Kiffin's influence. I'm excited about the future of both teams. I'm all for an exclusive UT club. :D
I'd say something about the Vols, but they speak for themselves. :D lol I despise anything and everything in that hideous shade of orange. I just hope for both of their sakes, that Cousins and Chism stay away from each other on the court. Motor Mouth meet Mr. Thug Life and I see technical fouls ahead, lmao. UT home and home series will be a tough one for sure probably, but heck we are lightyears ahead of last years team who readily handed you guys beatings of 19 point margins...so who knows. LOL I will say that they impressed me against Purdue up until Chism shooting a 3. How that was allowed to happen or why he thought he could is beyond my comprehension.
