College hoops conference previews

By Matt Smith

ACC

North Carolina: With Tyler Hansbrough opting to return for his ninth year (so it seems) the Tar Heels will be the best of this very tough conference. Hansborough has plenty of talent around him with returning sophomores Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Deon Thompson.

Duke: The Blue Devils should shoot back near the top of the conference, despite the loss of Josh McRoberts to the NBA Draft. Greg Paulus, Gerald Henderson and John Scheyer are a year older and DeMarcus Nelson will provide the senior leadership. They have a very, very good trio of freshman coming in with Nolan Smith, Kyle Singler and Taylor King.

Maryland: The Terps are going to be very young, with James Gist as their only established force, but I never count out Gary Williams’ squad so I am not about to start right now.

NC State: This is a team a lot of experts are high on after last year’s run to the ACC Tournament final despite a 5-11 conference record during the regular season. Guards Gavin Grant and Courtney Fells will lead the way, but I am not sold on them just yet.

Clemson: Is this the year they finally reach the Big Dance? Probably not. But they have enough returning talent to make you think they should. James Mays and K.C. Rivers should give them an inside/outside tandem that will keep them competitive in most games.

Georgia Tech: I think the ‘Jackets are a team to watch out for, despite the departure of Javaris Crittenden. Anthony Morrow, Jeremis Smith and Ra’Sean Dickey make a solid trio of upper classmen and they have some young talent in McDonald’s All-American Gani Lawal, to go with it.

Virginia: Sean Singletary is really good. The rest of the team, not so much. He is going to have to score 40 a game for them to repeat last year’s performance.

BC: I hate picking an Al Skinner team so low, because of their grind it out style, but looking at their roster I was still expecting to see players like Troy Bell and Craig Smith. Upon further review, it was pretty much just Tyrese Rice and then a bunch of guys nobody has ever heard of.

Florida State: They always have very athletic players, sort of make a case for the NCAA Tournament and then lose to Dayton or someone like that in the NIT.

Virginia Tech: Last year was a real feel good year for the Hokies, but then all the other good players graduated and left Deron Washington all alone. Welcome back to mediocrity Seth Greenberg.

Wake Forest: Can’t imagine the team being exactly prepared nor excited for this season after their coach dies.

Miami: Bad.

A10

Rhode Island: The Rhody’s return all five starters including Will Daniels and his 17.4 points per game. Jimmy Baron (14.6) and Kahiem Seawright (11.3) also return with double-digit scoring averages.

Xavier: Hard to go against a team with the track record that the Muskateers have, but they lost quite a bit to graduation. Drew Lavender is a gamer at the point guard spot and freshman Dante Jackson is a highly thought of recruit at shooting guard.

GW: Carl Elliot is gone, but Maureece Rice and Travis King are back along with a strong recruiting class led by Miles Beatty.

Fordham: Another team returning five starters, coming off an 18-win season and they will be led by seniors Marcus Stout (15.3 ppg) and Bryant Dunston (14.5 ppg).

Massachussets: The Minutemen will probably finish much higher because they have enough talent at most positions, but the loss of Stephane Lasme is going to hurt.

St. Joe’s: They have a lot of people returning, but they went 9-7 in conference last year. I don’t see them jumping any of the big dogs above.

Dayton: Outside of Brian Roberts (18.5 ppg) and Charles Little (10.5 ppg) the Flyers have very, very little offensive firepower returning.

Saint Louis: The Billikans lost just two seniors and return some talented players, meaning they could make life tough on some top A-10 teams, or become a top A-10 team themselves.

Charlotte: The 49ers have just five returning upper classmen and only one, Leemire Goldwire (14.5 ppg) that made any impact last year.

Temple: In their first year without John Cheany they went 12-18 and nobody was sent in to break another players arm. Look for some improvement this year, but probably nobody breaking another players arm on purpose.

Duquesne: The Dukes have five starters returning. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Plus they need to keep their players from getting shot.

Richmond: Despite four starters coming back, the Spiders should be pretty much horrible.

St. Bonaventure: Four wins in conference is a start for the Bonnies. The crazy thing about this season is that they actually have room to go down.

La Salle: They let St. Bonaventure finish in front of them last year…..ouch.

Big East

Louisville: Somehow David Padgett and Juan Palacios are still at Louisville. There must be a special rule for Rick Petino because his players either leave after a year or two or play for seven or eight. With those two bigs, coupled with a very talented sophomore in Edgar Sosa I think the Cards are going to be a serious contender all season.

Georgetown: I do like this team, not as much as the pollsters do with them in the top five. I think Jeff Green meant so much to them. They pretty much have everyone else back including Gigantor, AKA Roy Hibbert along with gaining a pair of McDonald’s All-Americans in Austin Freeman and Chris Wright.

Pitt: We just got done dealing with Aaron Gray for four years, so now here come to more hug freshman in Gary McGee and Austin Wallace. It will be the same type of Pitt team that has been successful for years, grind it out, play solid defense and finish in the top three in the Big East.

Syracuse: Never count out the Cuse!! They have the second coming of Gerry McNamara coming back in Eric Devendorf along with six other upperclassmen and two stellar freshmen in Donte Green and Johnny Flynn.

Marquette: Dominic James and Jerel McNeal are enough to convince me the Golden Eagles are going to compete.

Villanova: Scotty Reynolds will be a legit player despite his inconsistencies as a freshman. He will be joined by another McD’s All-American in Corey Stokes.

Connecticut: I don’t foresee the Huskies going 6-10 in conference again. Maybe like 8-8 this year. They were so young last year and this year they actually have a senior and four juniors.

Notre Dame: We’ll see if Luke Harongody can stay healthy and if Kyle McAlarney can stop smoking pot long enough for them to win some games.

West Virginia: It’s hard to pick a Bob Huggins coached team this low, but the Big East is going to be tough. I think they will compete, but probably not jump over that hump quite yet.

St. John’s: The Johnnies are slowly, but surely, getting better. Anthony Mason Jr. is the closest thing they have to a star, but they have a lot of talented freshman.

Providence: They always seem to give teams a hard time and they always seem to be led by some guy whose name I can’t pronounce.

DePaul: Off the top of my head, I can’t name a single starter. I know they have some really tall dude from Nigeria.

Cincinnati: Always loaded with good players, never loaded with discipline. They are really young this year, give them a few years.

Seton Hall: Is Danny Hurley still playing for the Hall? If not, it’s going to be a long year. Remember when Duke scored the first 83 points of the game against them?

South Florida: I got nothin. Look for them to win two to four games in conference.

Rutgers: Now if Greg Schiano could only take over the basketball program…….

Big Ten

Michigan State: I’m not going to hit the panic button because of an overtime loss in an exhibition game. A lot of big time teams lose early in the year to small schools, so the Spartans got theirs out of the way before it even matters.

Indiana: McDonald’s All-American Eric Gordon leads a strong group of freshmen into Bloomington, a group that includes a Richmond kid in Eli Holman. Let’s not forget they have that D.J. White guy back. He’s pretty good.

Ohio State: Don’t count them out just because some of the young studs left. They have a new 7-footer, and though he is no Greg Oden, Kosta Koufos could be a good Big-Ten player.

Wisconsin: The Badgers lose some athleticism but still have the big slow guys coming back with the return of Brian Butch and three other players 6-10 or taller.

Illinois: I really hope Jeffrey Jordan gets some playing time. Awesome.

Purdue: They turned a corner last year and I think they can continue to be competitive.

Iowa: How many points a game do you think Luke Recker is gonna score? If not him, it will be some other goofy looking white guy.

Michigan: Wolverine basketball hasn’t been the same since the Fab Five came in and took all the programs money and left them high and dry.

Minnesota: Tubby Smith is an idiot.

Northwestern: Their football team has more wins heading into November than this team will win in conference.

Penn State: See Northwestern.

Big 12

Kansas: They are going to be f&@*ng good. Julian Wright left, but Sherron Collins and Brandon Rush stayed and they still have Mario Chalmers and Sasha Kaun.

Texas: I think the conference will be down as a whole, that’s why the Horns can lose a guy like Kevin Durant and still be picked to finish second. D.J. Augustin better be ready to score 40 a game.

Texas A&M: It’ll take at least a year for them to undo all the good that Billy Gillespie did, so they should be fine for this season.

Texas Tech: Is this the year Bobby Knight gets the Red Raiders over the hump and makes them a very good team? I think so.

Oklahoma: They were young last year, but still talented. I think they will bounce back and could be led by 6-10 freshman Blake Griffin.

Kansas State: Bob Huggins left enough in place for them to be competitive in the conference and they have a McDonald’s All-American named Michael Beasley from Washington, DC coming in.

Missouri: I think they are going to be in just about every ball game because they have enough talent, but in the end they will go 8-8 in conference and 18-12 overall. Same old story.

Oklahoma State: Very young, not enough star power. Probably won’t be a huge threat in the conference for a couple of years.

Iowa State: Remember when they were good? I do. Then Larry Eustachy had to ruin everything by getting drunk with the college kids and groping all the young girls.

Baylor: I like that Scott Drew has them playing hard and they have come a long way since the Dave Bliss thing.

Nebraska: Now they can’t even use the excuse, “Well, we’re better than you in football.”

Colorado: Can’t name one guy. They’ll be bad, so who cares?

Big West

Long Beach: New coach, lost some kids to graduation but should still have enough talent to win the conference again.

Poly: They have a lot of kids returning, and will definitely pose the biggest threat to the 49ers.

Fullerton: Gotta like a team with just one underclassmen and the rest juniors and seniors. I have a hunch about them, but I am too scared to go against the defending champs.

Santa Barbara: Chris Devine, Big West second teamer last year, has to lead the way.

Pacific: Anthony Brown is a solid player and they should be much better than last year.

Irvine: Do they still throw toilet paper on the court if they score the first bucket of the game?

Northridge: Jonathan Heard leads an otherwise pedestrian group of players.

Riverside: Looking to build on that one conference win from last season!!

Conference USA

Memphis: So good for this conference. They are going to roll through it, get a high seed because of it and then lose in the Sweet 16 or Elite 8. I can’t wait to see what stud freshman Derrick Rose can do.

Houston: This is like D.J. Qualls being a runner up to George Clooney in People magazine’s 50 most beautiful people. It will be Memphis, then everyone else battling for second place.

UCF: Six seniors return to a team that won 22 games last year. Could they be the team that Memphis destroys in the conference final?

UAB: I really miss the days of Squeaky Johnson and the crew running up and down the court like bunch of Tasmanian Devils.

UTEP: They killed me in my NCAA Tournament pool in 2005, but I am going to keep rooting for the Miners to do well. That’s why I have them rated probably too highly.

Southern Miss: They won a bunch of games last year, but with just four upperclassmen this year should be more of a struggle.

Tulane: They are very young, fairly talented but it won’t stop Memphis from beating the living crap out of them.

Tulsa: They lack any real returning scoring threat.

Marshall: We are….horrible. Can’t wait to see how bad Memphis pummels them.

Rice: What kind of a name is Rice for a school anyway?

SMU: Memphis = murder. At least Eric Dickerson went to school here.

East Carolina: Memphis is going to kill them even worse than all the others.

Missouri Valley

Southern Illinois: Of course the Salukis are going to win this incredibly competitive conference, be ranked all year and then be a thorn in everybody’s side during the tournament.

Creighton: They are pretty young, but I still feel like they will be in the running for a conference title and an NCAA berth.

Wichita State: They were a flop last year after having high expectations, but I expect them to play better this year with no expectations.

Bradley: Jeremy Crouch and Daniel Ruffin combined to score over 27 points a game last year and I would expect them to improve on that this year.

Northern Iowa: Eric Coleman returns with his 13.1 ppg and 9.1 rpg as he looks to get the Panthers back into the tourney picture.

Missouri State: They return nobody that was in the conference’s top 15 in scoring last season.

Illinois State: Levi Dyer was one of the top three-point shooters in the conference last year and will need to be so again for ISU to have any chance.

Drake: The Bulldogs lost their top two scorers and the outlook for this season is bleak.

Evansville: Matt Webster’s production is going to be hard to replace.

Indiana State: They better hope Larry Bird comes back.

Mountain West

UNLV: Lon Kruger has a very talented team and he got them to believe in themselves during last year’s tournament run. We’ll see how the team adjusts with the loss of his son, Kevin Kruger, to graduation. Kevin was basically an extension of the coach on the floor last year.

Air Force: Will last year’s collapse haunt them? Instead of being highly ranked and then crashing, I expect them to fly under the radar most of the year, finish with basically the same record and make the tourney because there won’t be an ugly collapse involved.

BYU: Last year’s champs really lost a lot as Trent Plaisted is their returning leading scorer at 12.5 ppg.

Wyoming: I really like their backcourt of Brad Jones and Brandon Ewing who combined to score 38 points a game last year. Plus, I was Wyoming in NCAA basketball on Playstation once and I dominated, so maybe that will carry over.

Utah: Are there no good Mormon basketball players anymore or are they all going to BYU now? The Utes used to be so good. I expect them to be a bit better this year.

New Mexico: Nine upperclassmen and just three underclassmen. I would expect the Lobos to get back to competing in the MWC.

San Diego State: Graduation really hit hard. They only have one player returning (Lorrenzo Wade) who averaged double figures last year (10.5 ppg).

Colorado State: Expecting a drop off with a young team this year. I guess they can’t drop far, since they went 6-10 in conference last year.

TCU: They have a guy on their roster named Alvarado Parker who doesn’t even have a home town listed. I guess you can’t be good if you don’t even know where your players are from.

Pac-10

UCLA: So they return nearly everyone and then add Kevin Love!?!? This team is going to be scary good.

Oregon: Aaron Brooks will be hard to replace, but nearly everyone else is back.

Arizona: Another great recruiting class and plenty of talent coming back.

USC: Everyone is holding their breath as they wait to see how good O.J. Mayo is.

Washington State: I think they are a quality team that plays a style conducive to their roster, but I think that last year they played a bit over their heads.

Stanford: How is Brook Lopez be at Stanford and be ineligible? Isn’t that an oxymoron?

Washington: They should be able to score a lot of points, as usual.

Cal: I keep seeing DeVon Hardin advertised all over BART on my commute, so I am being tricked into believing he is good.

Arizona State: Herb Sendek will get the program turned around eventually and he has already brought in a McDonald’s All-American in James Harden.

Oregon State: Barf.

SEC
East Division

Tennessee: Chris Lofton is going to shoot a lot. The Vols are going to score a lot. This is supposed to be Bruce Pearl’s year, and I think he really has something going.

Kentucky: Billy Gillispie jumped ship, he got himself an extremely talented freshman in Patrick Patterson and he inherited a quality roster which included a great shooter in Jodie Meeks.

Florida: Don’t count them out at all. They are very young, but they recruited two McDonald’s All-Americans in Nick Calethes and Jai Lucas. I think they’ll be just fine.

Vandy: From year to year I can never figure out who their best players will be, but they find a way to win 20 games most of the time.

Georgia: Rough times have fallen upon them ever since their players couldn’t take classes where all they had to do was answer what a three-pointer is.

South Carolina: Not even good. Not even a little bit good.

West Division

Arkansas: People are high on the Hogs, but I would like Stan Heath and his team to actually do something. I think they are good enough to win the West, but that doesn’t mean I think they are a top 25 team.

Alabama: Will they continue to be a disappointment? Well, this conference is fairly week so it only takes a slightly above average team to do well. Ronald Steele and Alonzo Gee make them a dangerous team.

Mississippi State: They were 8-8 in the conference last year and I expect nothing more than that this year.

Ole Miss: Why do they get to be Ole? What’s wrong with just Miss? What is a Running Rebel anyway? Do most Rebels run?

LSU: They still have some good players hanging on from the Final Four run (Tasmin Mitchell, Garrett Temple) but it won’t be enough.

Auburn: It’s just not a basketball school, plain and simple.

WCC

Gonzaga: Josh Heytvelt isn’t on shrooms anymore and the Professor isn’t there to shoot them out of games any longer. They will win the conference again, and won’t do it with three losses.

Saint Mary’s: Only a couple of seniors, but a lot of returners. The Gaels will be the bridesmaid.

Santa Clara: They had their chance last year, but didn’t take advantage and now graduation has crippled them a bit. It’s all up to Brody Angley now, who I covered in high school. Am I cool, or what?

USF: Had some problems with recruits this year including a very good player out of Richmond, Wendell McKines. They were poised to have a very good team, now they will be just okay.

San Diego: Seven freshmen means they are a year or two away.

Pepperdine: Weren’t they good just a couple of years ago? I like their recruiting class, I think they could be a surprise this year.

Loyola-Marymount: Young team. And not good.

Portland: The Professor’s little brother, Nik Raivio, choose Portland. Not gonna matter, they are horrible.