College Basketball – What to Watch for

The NCAA basketball season started this weekend and Tuesday is the annual 24 hours of college basketball. So I figured why the hell shouldn’t I talk about some story lines going on during the season. If college basketball isn’t really your thing here are some things you should keep an eye on ’til March.

• Freshmen, this is the best freshmen basketball class in a LONG ass time and has been hyped for the past two years.
  • Andrew Wiggins (Kansas) made the All – Big 12 team before he stepped on the court for Kansas, he also has a great running mate in #6 Joel Embiid
  • Jabari Parker (Duke), this guy was considered the best pro prospect since Lebron, until Wiggins re-classified and he injured his leg a couple of summers ago
  • This is Kentucky’s recruiting class: #3 Julius Randle (PF), #5 Andrew Harrison (PG), #7 Dakari Johnson (C),#8 James Young (SF),  #9 Aaron Harrison (SG) … not to mention #25 Marcus Lee. I am not making this shit up the SEC has to be on notice.
  • Arizona will fuck some shit up in the PAC-12 thanks to McDonald’s MVP Aaron Gordon
  • Marshall Henderson – love him or hate him, the cross between Eminem and Kyle Korver is easily one of the most entertaining personalities in college sports in a while. Even though he’s missing the first 3 games this season due to suspension, once he hits the court don’t count Ole Miss out of any game. Henderson isn’t the greatest shooter, but can easily have a heat check game like he did against Tennessee dropping 32. But his impact goes way beyond that as the emotional leader of the Rebels, setting crowds into a fever pitch with the jersey pop. Who know’s if the NBA will come calling for a 23 year old senior with a checkered past and a streaky shot, but I’m watchin Ole Miss whenever I can.
  • The ACC – So conference re-alignment seems to have calmed down for a minute, but the ACC for basketball is the winner and we could be seeing the single greatest college basketball season. Here are the teams that are in the top 25 in the ACC
    • #4 Duke
    • #8 Syracuse
    • # 12 North Carolina
    • #21 Notre Dame
    • #24 Virginia
    • Then you also have to remember they’ve got Pittsburgh who is almost a lock for making March Madness, Miami  and NC State who made the tourney last year and Maryland who made the NIT of the Final Four and beat Duke twice last year. I think its fair to say that top – down the ACC is the conference to beat.
    • Louisville Title Defense – Louisville won the championship after the heart-breaking injury Kevin Ware suffered during the Elite Eight. He’s back and they still have Rick Patino who’s one of the greatest college coaches along with starters Russ Smith and Luke Hancock, they probably won’t repeat but they will be a great team to watch this season.
    • The new Big East – the latest causality of conference realignment is the original Big East, even though that league is dead it’s name lives on in a non – Football conference. Georgetown, Butler, Villanova, UConn, Cincinnati and Marquette headline this new conference. They won’t be the greatest conference; they will be a solid one that will send at least 3 or 4 teams to the Big Dance.
    • The Big Ten – They got 2 teams in the top 10 (#2 Michigan State and #7 Michigan) and 4 in the top 20 (#11 Ohio State and #20 Wisconsin) they also have Indiana who spent most of last year in the top 10.
    • In the Pac-12 , the BIG 12, and the SEC, teams full of upperclassmen like #10Florida, #19 Oregon, #22 UCLA, will be looking to prove that this freshman class isn’t as good as we think we are.

So for those of you who don’t really care about college basketball, take a peek at what’s on both of the ESPNs on Tuesday.

11 Nov This entry was written by Josh Ilori and published on November 11, 2013 at 5:16 am. It’s filed under Season Previews. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.