College basketball 2009-10 running thread No. 1

No one in general.

I just think the players at UNC right now are vastly overvalued when it comes to the NBA.

I would rate Sanders from VCU equal with Davis from UNC, but in a second over the the skinny UNC kid. I just don't see Hanson (is that his name?) ever being strong enough to play in the NBA.

 

It's Henson. And he's not playing a ton of minutes this year because he isn't strong enough. However, if he gets in the weight room, he could be a stud. Aren't you the one always talking about how kids should stay four years in school, and now you're going to say a kid isn't good enough for the NBA after half a season? That doesn't exactly add up.

 

I think I saw him projected as a lottery pick on ESPN. I just cannot get my head around that.

 

Louisville and North Carolina, the number one and two overall seeds in last year's NCAA Tournament, respectively, seem to be racing each other to the NIT.

Louisville lost to Seton Hall tonight. That's three straight, and four-of-six.

 

IU gets its first Big Ten road win under Tom Crean, 67-61 over Penn State, who I was told prior to the season was supposed to be "better than usual."

They're still shitty.

 

Seriously, WTF has happened to SEC basketball? It's so...BAD.

No, I'm not saying he should be on the hot seat, but in a hypothetical world...is there anything that causes UF to get rid of Donnovan other than a personal off court scandal? This could be three straight years in the NIT.

 

Actually, the SEC is a LOT better this year than it was last year, when it sucked balls.

If you recall, they only got three teams in the NCAA Tournament, including Mississippi State, which would not have made it if they hadn't won the conference tournament and the automatic bid.

This year, they have a dominant team at the top in Kentucky, which is looking like it has Final Four potential, a strong No. 2 in Tennessee, and 4-5 pretty solid teams in the middle (Vandy, Ole Miss, State, Florida and Bama).

I don't think the league gets six bids, although it's possible, but they could easily get five, which is a hefty improvement over last year.

 

So in other words, anyone who applied for the IU beat writer gig and didn't get it last year shouldn't be too bummed?

 

The SEC's problem is apathy. Outside of a few programs, none of them really care if they win basketball games. Auburn has a coach that has been to one NIT in six seasons, and he's not on the hot seat. It took eons for Alabama to finally get rid of Mark Gottfried, even though he underachieved in Tuscaloosa from day one. State pretends to care, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of outrage over the fact that the Bulldogs have underachieved over the last few years despite having a pretty good crop of talent.

Kentucky and Arkansas are the only programs that really, truly care about the results on the basketball court. LSU, Florida and State care, but not on the same level. And SC, Georgia and Tennessee try to care when they have a coach that makes them care. Some of these programs draw as many (or more) fans to a baseball game than they do to basketball games.

They all try to win. It's just that not all of them really care if they do.

 

That's pretty spot-on, Crash. I might even argue that Arkansas doesn't *really* care, either. Certainly not like Kentucky.

Basically, taking Kentucky out of the mix, SEC schools want to win, but don't *need* to win.

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And an amazing finish to the Florida-South Carolina game, FWIW. Devan Downey is fucking amazing.

I'm not sure if I should be pissed at the finish or not.

 

It was a helluva finish to the Florida-SC game, though it looked like the SC guard got away with a double dribble on his drive.

And Fox is doing a pretty amazing job at Georgia, which was bloody awful a year ago.

 

Since I only saw the second half of the UConn-Texas game, I have a skewed impression, but they looked about nine levels of performance above what I've seen in their other games.