College basketball thread...

I'll disagree with you on Neitzel. The kid did it all last year and has stones, too.

But on Mayo, yeah, even worse than projecting him as an All-American are the folks -- Dickie V, among them -- projecting SC in the top half of the Pac-10 when they lost so much off last year's team. I know he's O.J. Mayo, but let's see him deal with the defense he's going to see in that conference this season. Pac-10 basketball quietly has become the opposite of Pac-10 football; it's a defensive meat grinder.

 

Do you cover UCLA? Or are you Afflalo's agent?

 

Let's hope Derrick Rose's night is a sign of things to come for the Chicago Simeon Class of 2007 this season. ;D

 

1) No. 2) I'd be richer if I were.

 

LOOSER!!!

 

Keep the "baiting" to yourself, Norm. ;D

 

But I'm the master baiter!

Wait, uh, what I meant to say was...

 

If they can score.

 

Thanks to Howland's defense, they won't have to score much to win ... say, about 60 per game.

 

That's what Tubby Smith and Kelvin Sampson have always thought.

The defense can be great. But come tournament time, there are going to be a few games, or at least a few key situations, where UCLA will have to simply outscore the opponent. The Bruins won't win it all if they have one of their patented 6-minute scoring droughts every night.

 

Agreed, the team could use a shooter. But I'll put my money on the team that can get a key stop. And since they won't be running into Florida this year ...

 

Mississippi State might not lose a game at home this season.
Undefeated at home.
George Duke Humphrey Coliseum has become a beast of a place to play.
A pair of preseason first-team All-SECs (Gordon and Rhodes) plus several second-year players of note including Tyler H's kid-brother, Ben plug most of MSU's "holes".
This MSU team will rebound from semis loss in NIT, I predict, and earn a high seed in the Bigger Dance.
Been more than a decade since the Final Four run of the mid-90s.
Time to get back to at or near that plateau.