College Basketball 2006-2007

[snoodmonger]

Official practices start in two days.

 

It's a big year for KU, bigger year for Self. He probably needs at least an Elite Eight to ease the critics. I'm stoked, though. Big non-con test vs. Florida over thanksgiving should tell us a lot about both teams.

 

How's your team looking?

[C.C.]

Official practices start in two days.

 

It's a big year for KU, bigger year for Self. He probably needs at least an Elite Eight to ease the critics. I'm stoked, though. Big non-con test vs. Florida over thanksgiving should tell us a lot about both teams.

 

How's your team looking?

 

DePaul looking pretty good in the Big East. A young team who should get better this year.

[fromthestretch]

Purdue has their two best players back this year. Both missed pretty much all of last season and combined are good for about 35 points a game plus good defense. They should be one of the most improved teams over last year.

[SouthSideRyan]

Frightening, the bad king of frightening.

[UMFan83]

Official practices start in two days.

 

It's a big year for KU, bigger year for Self. He probably needs at least an Elite Eight to ease the critics. I'm stoked, though. Big non-con test vs. Florida over thanksgiving should tell us a lot about both teams.

 

How's your team looking?

 

DePaul looking pretty good in the Big East. A young team who should get better this year.

 

DePaul also got 2 top 40 recruits for next year and are in the running for the #3 prospect (on rivals) Rose.

 

I am a Michigan and DePaul fan. It's really hard to be a Michigan fan after they started out 16-4 and ended up not making the tourney. I am not looking forward to another Michigan disapointment.

[C.C.]

Official practices start in two days.

 

It's a big year for KU, bigger year for Self. He probably needs at least an Elite Eight to ease the critics. I'm stoked, though. Big non-con test vs. Florida over thanksgiving should tell us a lot about both teams.

 

How's your team looking?

 

DePaul looking pretty good in the Big East. A young team who should get better this year.

 

DePaul also got 2 top 40 recruits for next year and are in the running for the #3 prospect (on rivals) Rose.

 

I am a Michigan and DePaul fan. It's really hard to be a Michigan fan after they started out 16-4 and ended up not making the tourney. I am not looking forward to another Michigan disapointment.

 

DePaul did very well recruiting this summer. If they top it off with Rose they will be a team to watch next year. I see Katz ranked Depaul # 37 in the sizzling 50. Which is pretty cool...I can't wait until they start.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

I think all of the Hawkeyes are finally out of jail. Let's see -- Pierce: check. Henderson: check. Smith: check.

 

Partially kidding, preparing for a long season.

[fromthestretch]

Official practices start in two days.

 

It's a big year for KU, bigger year for Self. He probably needs at least an Elite Eight to ease the critics. I'm stoked, though. Big non-con test vs. Florida over thanksgiving should tell us a lot about both teams.

 

How's your team looking?

 

DePaul looking pretty good in the Big East. A young team who should get better this year.

 

DePaul also got 2 top 40 recruits for next year and are in the running for the #3 prospect (on rivals) Rose.

 

I am a Michigan and DePaul fan. It's really hard to be a Michigan fan after they started out 16-4 and ended up not making the tourney. I am not looking forward to another Michigan disapointment.

 

As long as Amaker is coaching there, get used to disappointment.

 

The folks at Seton Hall were overjoyed when he left.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Farmar, Hollins and Bozeman gone.

 

Collison and Shipp should handle most of what Farmar and Bozeman brought. Replacing Hollins is going to be tougher. Hopefully Mata, Wright and Aboya are up to the task.

 

Dragovic looks great, Shipp is healthy, Collison is bigger, Luc Richard has a jumper now. :)

 

I'm pumped!

[Transmogrified Tiger]

How's your team looking?

 

I have no idea. I can only hope that Anderson's system makes a big difference, and Keon Lawrence continues to score like a madman like he was doing during the summer. I think at the very least it will be more exciting to watch than last year, and I don't think it's possible to get blown out more often than we did last year.

[CubColtPacer]

Indiana's got an interesting team this year. The focus on the offense will be D.J. White. As most people know, he only played 5 games last year with the broken foot that he broke twice during the season. That appears to be healthy, and he's up to 260. He should contend for Big 10 player of the year with Alondo Tucker.

 

After D.J., it gets a little murkier. Earl Calloway at point guard really came on during the tournament last year-can he establish consistency? A.J. Ratliff and Rod Wilmont are two guards who have huge potential that I.U. fans have only seen flashes of during their time at I.U.-can the coaching change really spark them to who they can be? A couple of JUCOs, Mike White and Lance Stemler-what kind of an impact especially early are they going to have? Ben Allen, their Austrailian center-he supposedly is going to play in the post this year, where he was terrible as a freshman. Can he play better inside?

 

There are lots of questions, but the potential is great. Look for Indiana to get better as the season goes along, and they are probably 3rd to 5th in the Big 10 right now. They will probably be a team that relies on great defense more than anything else, as they have some defensive talent combined with Sampson's style of coaching.

[soccer10k]

Is it March yet?

[Andy]

ND's not going to be any good. The keys are going to be if Kyle McAlarney can be as good as he looked in spurts last year running the offense. It'd be foolish to hope for a Chris Quinn type season (Quinn was among the most underrated players in all of basketball last season thanks to his miserable team), but if he can score 10-12 points a game and run the offense well that'd be more than acceptable. Russell Carter has the most talent by far on the team, but he's a senior and has yet to put that talent together consistently, though he was getting there at the end of last season. Rob Kurz is a decent big man who can shoot 3's as well as anyone on the team and is a ballhawk on the boards. Oh, and Colin Falls is the best pure shooter in the country. The main problem is going to be depth. Beyond the starting five (assuming Luke Zeller is the fifth), there's really no one with meaningful game experience other than Ryan Ayers, who played plenty in the Irish's two NIT games and looked good. Definitely a rebuilding year but it will be fun to see what happens.

 

Ball State is in the same boat as ND - young team led by a couple of good seniors who has major size deficiency. With one added wrinkle: This is the first year of the Ronny Thompson Era at BSU. The good news is that we managed to get a 6-10 260-pounder, Micah Rollin, to play center. The bad news is that he scored 4 points a game in NAIA play last year (granted it was his first season of organized basketball in his life). The team's going to be led by the guards Skip Mills and Peyton Stovall. Skip led the MAC in scoring last year and piled up 38 points in a valiant but losing effort in the first round of the MAC tournament last year, and Stovall was the leading returning scorer in the conference coming into last season when he tore his ACL in the 2nd game. Backing them up will be Brandon Lampley, Anthony Newell and Jalon Perryman, who all had one game each where they looked incredible but couldn't produce consistently, unsurprising since they were all freshmen. D'Andre Peyton will be the main source of inside scoring, he is a 6-6 220 pounder that plays bigger than that and really began coming on nicely at the end of last year.

 

On the whole, I'd be surprised if either of my teams finished above .500 in conference play, but both have bright futures.

 

And wow that wasn't supposed to be that long a post.

[Flames24Rulz]

SIU has extremely high expectations this season. We're going to be ranked in the top 15-20 to start out the season and we have every starter returning from last year's team as well as most of our bench players from last season. Add that in with a 3-star recruit in Josh Bone, a JUCO transfer, and a walk-on 7 footer, we are going to have some amazing depth this season. Anything less than a Sweet 16 appearance will be a disappointment. I can not wait for the basketball season to start here.

 

Illinois is going to be a mid-pack Big 10 team this year, barring a miracle, and NIU is going to be a mid-pack to lower-pack MAC team this year. NIU lost their three top players last year and had a decent recruiting class, but I'm not expecting any of their freshman to do anything spectacular this season.

 

As mentioned, I can not wait for the college and NBA basketball season's to get here :D

[Flames24Rulz]

Official practices start in two days.

 

It's a big year for KU, bigger year for Self. He probably needs at least an Elite Eight to ease the critics. I'm stoked, though. Big non-con test vs. Florida over thanksgiving should tell us a lot about both teams.

 

How's your team looking?

 

DePaul looking pretty good in the Big East. A young team who should get better this year.

 

DePaul also got 2 top 40 recruits for next year and are in the running for the #3 prospect (on rivals) Rose.

 

I am a Michigan and DePaul fan. It's really hard to be a Michigan fan after they started out 16-4 and ended up not making the tourney. I am not looking forward to another Michigan disapointment.

 

DePaul did very well recruiting this summer. If they top it off with Rose they will be a team to watch next year. I see Katz ranked Depaul # 37 in the sizzling 50. Which is pretty cool...I can't wait until they start.

 

DePaul could be one of the most improved teams in the country this season. They can't get much worse than what they were last year, plus like you mentioned, they had a great recruiting class. They could go from worst to first in the Big East in just a couple of years. I don't think they'll be at the top of the conference this year, but they should be able to contend for a spot in the Big Dance.

[Derwood]

I'm looking forward to both the DePaul and PSU seasons. Both teams are young and on an upswing.

[C.C.]

I'm looking forward to both the DePaul and PSU seasons. Both teams are young and on an upswing.

 

They are and I was so pissed when they got Wainwright to be the coach. Now I'm eating crow big time. He's a good coach and the kids really listen to him. Plus he can recruit! It's good to see DePaul on the upswing again.

[CuseCubFan69]

I can't wait for the college basketball season to start. Syracuse has a top class coming in with Paul Harris and next years is even better.

[tadowdaddy]

The Cats are looking good. Cartier and Hoskins back, along with the rest of a team that was very competitive in the Big 12. Add Huggins and 2 legitimate big man recruits, along with a scoring JUCO guard and possibly Bill Walker before the start of the Big 12, and WOO! Looking like a potential Top 20 team by year end! I haven't been as excited about KSU bball in years.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

I think an NC is possible, but 07-08 looks even better for UCLA, with Love and Stanback coming in.

 

<3 Ben Howland.

[hawkeyecub]

I'm pretty excited. Iowa obviously won't finish 2nd in the Big Ten or get a 3 seed in the NCAA's this year, but I think we can finish around 4th in the Big Ten and get into the NCAA's. For the first time in four years, no Jeff or Bru in the starting lineup.

The frontcourt is the major flaw of this team.

 

Our backcourt could and probably should be among the top 3 or so in the Big Ten. Haluska could be first team All-Big 10 and Henderson is about as good as it gets defensively in the backcourt. They're both good rebounding guards which is needed with our weak frontcourt.

Some in the know are saying Tyler Smith is our most talented recruit since at least Ricky Davis and possibly Roy Marble. 6'7 SF who was ranked 30th coming out of high school, committed to Tennessee, de-committed when they fired Buzz and went to prep school last year where he was ranked 41st in the country. We landed him over Kentucky, Pitt and Cincy and need a big impact.

 

Overall the team will be more athletic than Iowa has been in the past. If they can find a way to play defense like last year, they can have a solid season in a down Big Ten.

Oh and we do have the 3rd longest home winning streak in the nation to preserve.

[rawaction]

Indiana's got an interesting team this year. The focus on the offense will be D.J. White. As most people know, he only played 5 games last year with the broken foot that he broke twice during the season. That appears to be healthy, and he's up to 260. He should contend for Big 10 player of the year with Alondo Tucker.

 

After D.J., it gets a little murkier. Earl Calloway at point guard really came on during the tournament last year-can he establish consistency? A.J. Ratliff and Rod Wilmont are two guards who have huge potential that I.U. fans have only seen flashes of during their time at I.U.-can the coaching change really spark them to who they can be? A couple of JUCOs, Mike White and Lance Stemler-what kind of an impact especially early are they going to have? Ben Allen, their Austrailian center-he supposedly is going to play in the post this year, where he was terrible as a freshman. Can he play better inside?

 

There are lots of questions, but the potential is great. Look for Indiana to get better as the season goes along, and they are probably 3rd to 5th in the Big 10 right now. They will probably be a team that relies on great defense more than anything else, as they have some defensive talent combined with Sampson's style of coaching.

 

Will definitely be an interesting team. I don't know what to think. Definitely can be great defensively. Gonna look a lot like Kelvin's OU teams with a bunch of games in the 50s. Calloway needs to carry over from late last year. Wilmont needs to take the next step to becoming a better scorer. Ratliff needs to play a much bigger role and pretend every game is Kentucky. White needs to show what he did as a freshman.

 

I don't know what to think about the JC guys, but we're gonna need a lot of help from them. I don't see the freshman of this year (or last for that matter outside of Allen) being big factors.

 

The team is pretty weak at the wing positions (SG, SF) with just Wilmont and Ratliff having any kind of experience. Shaw is gonna have to play some big time minutes this year. Vaden's loss will hurt a ton, especially early.

[illiniguy]

Well Rich McBride sure changed how our team looks on paper. I still think we will be the third best team in the big ten behind Wiscy and OSU though. I think Randle is going to be very, very improved. Jamar Smith is a player. Shaun Pruitt was our best best post player at some points last year. The two freshmen should be good. I don't get why everyone is so down on top 50 player Brian Carwell? Plus we got Warren Carter.

[SouthSideRyan]

Plus we got Warren Carter.

 

This is why I'm down on the entire team.

[hawkeyecub]

Well Rich McBride sure changed how our team looks on paper.

 

How long is he expected to be suspended?

 

The Big Ten is down but it should be exciting at least for the sheer unpredictability of it all. Wisconsin should be the unanimous favorite with OSU second as long as Oden is ready for Big Ten play. I think Illinois is just a step down and then you have have Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, Michigan State, Purdue and maybe even Penn State that are tough to call. It really is impossible to sort through those teams right now.