DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum College Basketball!

Tonight is the "Midnight Madness" (If you can even really call it that anymore) around the country! Thus kicking off the best sport on the planet, college basketball!

Here's your Top 25:


1 Kentucky
2 Michigan State
3 Louisville
4 Duke (3)
5 Arizona
6 Kansas
7 Syracuse
8 Florida
9 Michigan
10 Ohio State
11 North Carolina
12 Oklahoma State
13 Memphis
14 Gonzaga
15 Virginia Commonwealth
16 Wichita State
17 Marquette
18 Oregon
19 Connecticut
20 New Mexico
21 Wisconsin
22 Notre Dame
23 UCLA
24 Indiana
25 Virginia

Here's my Predictions for the year :


Final Four :

Kentucky, Michigan State, Florida, Arizona

National Champion : Kentucky


Player of the Year : Marcus Smart, Oklahoma State

Freshman of the Year : Julius Randle

2014 #1 Draft Pick : Andrew Wiggins



Biggest surprise team : Iowa (They make the tournament comfortably as a 5/6 seed after finishing in the Top 5 of the Big Ten)


Biggest letdown : Sticking the the Big Ten, I'll say Indiana. I think this team has the potential to be very bad this year.


This years Cinderella : Denver


Any thoughts/predictions for this season?

Final Four:

Sparty - Izzo's best and deepest team in years
Kansas - Most talented Kansas team in years and that is scary
Marquette - The surprise team in the bunch. Buzz Williams gets his guys over the hump finally.
Lousiville - Can you bet against them anymore? Yes they lost some talent, but it was all replaceable.


Biggest Bust - Kentucky...I hate to say it, but I just feel like this could be a team with too much talent and not enough experience. They caught lightning in a bottle the other year, but I don't think they can replicate it with as many rookies as they have. That being said...I think they go Sweet 16 as a 4-6 seed and enter the tourney like 20th in the nation...Expectations have really risen since Calipari showed up eh?

Biggest Surprise - Can you say Oregon or Wichita St? I don't think so...these are two really good teams...but they will go deep again.
but 2 surprise good teams are coming out of the ACC in my opinion in Miami and NCST...Miami because Larranaga has most of his guys in and will replace Kadji and Larkin and Scott more seamlessly than you think...because they'll be his guys.
NCST, essentially the same thing. Yes Zo, Leslie, and Purvis are gone...but now the roster is essentially Gottfried's in all the main minute getters...and 7'2 Jordan Vandenburg I think finally steps up as a legit 5...


Player of the year: Andrew Wiggins
Freshman of the Year: Same

Best Conference: ACC
Biggest Bust: New Big East...wont quite be what everyone expects it to be...though a talented conference. or the AAC...that's going to be a horrible conference.

Call me when football season is over

Biggest surprise to non die heard fans: Southern Methodist. Larry Brown is an all time great and has some good talent at SMU.

November 12th is gonna be one hell of a show!

The Champions Classic with Kentucky, Duke, Kansas and Michigan State ends after this year.


There's talks of a new one starting next year involving Kentucky, Ohio State, North Carolina and UCLA.

I really can't wait to see Buckeyes new basketball facility.

http://buckeyextra.dispatch.com/content/...pectations.html

First Kentucky exhibition game tonight!

Happy college basketball season, everyone!

J/C Candy

I just got a spot with the Kent State Mens Basketball team. First practice today was an eye opener. All my basketball experience had been from the stands, or my coaching experience has been HS/MS/Youth . To be in the paint around these huge guys flying around the basket is just surreal. You just do not get a sense of the size,speed, and power of a D1 basketball player from the stands, or on TV, and this is a mid major, not even the biggest and best. Looking forward to this season and being at practices, on the bench, and around the huddles this season. Hopefully I can absorb as much as I can, and keep moving on up.

KING

Here's some shocking news, Andrew Wiggins says this will probably be his last year in college.

The Andrew Wiggins hype is getting a little out of control.

I like Wiggins, and I think he's incredibly talented. Super athletic. However, he's FAR from a polished product. I still think he's very raw.

You can't question his athletic ability, but I think people are going to be surprised how far he has to go to be this sure-fire #1 overall, future Hall of Fame player that people are hyping him up to be.

So excited for meaningful college basketball!

This is easily my favorite sport.

If these Freshmen can learn to play together, there's really not a flaw in their games and how it relates to Calipari's system.

Andrew Harrison - 6'5, big bodied point guard who can bully his way into the lane and start the dribble drive.

Aaron Harrison - 6'5 Shooting guard with the ability to slash and finish around the rim, also with a 3 point jumper.

James Young - 6'6 sharpshooting SF and elite defender

Julius Randle - 6'9 PF who in my mind is the best player in the country. Not only is he big and powerful around the rim, but the guy can step out and knock down jumpers.

Willie Cauley-Stein - Athletic 7 footer who can finish around the rim. Gonna see lobs to WCS a lot this year.


This team is MADE for the dribble drive. You're going to see the true DDMO run this year in a way Calipari hasn't done since he's been at Kentucky.

I hope these kids can put it together and learn to play together, because if they do, it's going to be incredibly fun to watch in March.

First games tonight!

Cant wait.

Quote:

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Julius Randle - 6'9 PF who in my mind is the best player in the country. Not only is he big and powerful around the rim, but the guy can step out and knock down jumpers.

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I dunno TopDawg, this guy has played one game in college basketball against UNC-Ashville and suddenly he's the best college basketball player in the country....... lol


I hope my Conn Huskies get a chance to play your Wild Kittens in March though. I was so frustrated by this whole conference realignment thing as I like to see the Huskies play the best, always. Well I'm pretty excited about my team this year too. If we continue to play the way we did in the first half against Maryland last night, March will be pretty crazy as well........

Seems that the AAC should go to Louisville, with Memphis and SMU the other teams that get the talk. That's alright though, when we play all those teams, they'll get worked over too. Cinci doesn't get talked about, but we'll take them to the shed as well, just for giggles

Our teams are different though. Yours, you mention 5 guys who probably weren't starters last year. Four freshman. My team, one new starter....... and plenty of experience. And we were pretty good come the end of the year last year (for a team that had nothing to play for). We beat a highly ranked Syracuse team in the final meeting between us and our long-time rival for the foreseeable future (final game of the season).

Well anyway, I can't really say Good Luck, as your team is on my top 3 most despised basketball team list (UK, Duke, UNC), but I sure hope we see each other in March my man. And I too am very excited about this year's basketball season. We both play Florida, so I'll keep an eye on how you guys do verses us. Not really a fair way to measure two team's worth, but at least it's something. Conn for another title baby!

Buckeyes going REALLY small with the starting 5.

Starters are: Craft, Smith, Scott, Ross, Williams

And Scott is draining 3's

Craft's still on that team, I thought he was a senior last year and was trying to make it in the NBA? Same guy? Aaron Kraft?


Hope to play your Buckeyes in March as well. I've been waiting for us to have our showdown CandyMan. Once again, your team seems to be ranked ahead of my Huskies. And as always, I take any team ranked ahead of the Huskies personally, lol

I agree with you about Juluis Randle.

As the season goes on I think he will start to open many eyes around the country that are fixed on Parker and Wiggens.

Randle is so big and strong it is unfair that he can handle the ball and play on the outside as well as he does. He is a double double waiting to happen.

My post about Randle being the best player in the country was before they even played last night. He won't get the publicity of Wiggins/Parker because he's a PF not a flashy guard like then and he's on a team filled with stud freshmen but he will be the best all around player in the country this year.

Parker vs Wiggins at 10

Michigan State 71
Kentucky 64

Duke 78
Kansas 70

kentucky hasn't learned to play as a team on either end and has a bunch of really poor tendencies, but, man, they are HUGE. they make the Spartans look like midgits and MichState isn't exactly a small team. if Cal ever gets them on the same page, then this will be a ridiculous team.

and, Izzo has another machinelike efficient team. the man is a master.

Look at Wiggins frame. He can easily bulk up.

Impressive showing by the "Big 3 Freshmen."

Can we all agree that these new handchecking rules are a joke?

Hell, they benefited Kentucky more than hurt us last night and I still think they're awful.

Just brutal to watch.

I agree - I watched the OSU vs. OU game last night and it was ridiculous.

55 total fouls, 34 of them on Ohio.
Ohio had 5 players foul out of the game, many with lots of time left.
OSU scored almost 1/2 of their points from the line.

It was an excruciatingly slow, boring game full of stoppages that drove me insane.

I don't necessarily disagree with cutting down on some of the handchecking.

Look at teams like Louisville before this year, they mugged you all the way down the court. It was very frustrating that it never got called, I get that.

But, they're going overboard with it. This is actually in the rule book ...

If a player turns his back to the basket and the defender puts his hand on his back ... It's a foul.

WHAT?

So basically you have to just let post players back you down and you can't do anything. They're making it to where you can't play defense in the post. Pathetic.

Don't say that about the Cavs tanking. People on this board don't like that. I was alone in the NBA thread when I suggested going out and losing 60 games and getting a good ping pong ball lol.

I like the hand checking rule on drives as the Big East was just becoming a joke with how they allowed people to grab and clutch (Aaron Craft is another who used the rules to his advantage alot).

On post-ups though, you have to be allowed to do something. Perhaps allow the forearm but not the hand (which gives you strength, but you cannot use your dexterity to move people as easily?). Chest to back is just giving too much to the offense.

The whistles don't bother me for stoppages yet because I think everyone will adjust and they'll go down. But, the rule itself (as you mentioned too) is an issue.

These new rules are a joke.


I'm coaching JUCO this year and through 5 games...we've had 5 different games called by 5 different sets of referees.

I watched 6 different games during that marathon and saw 6 different games called.

I legitimately cannot understand what is and isn't a foul anymore because of these new rules and emphases. Theyre awful.

The amount of FTs in the game makes it feel like an NBA game. Ridiculous.

Our offense is awful.

However, we have some shooters. We will get hot in February. Just need some guys to develop.

If they want to improve scoring, and the game to be a better product they should try to get rid of the one and done with the nba. That's what is hurting the game. Just too many young playing that aren't ready.

We've got some exceptional athletes on this team. It'll be a work in progress but we have a very good team.

Sam Thompson needs to start over Lenzelle Smith at SF.