College basketball action was light this week– so was my posting.

The blame rests at the margins of exams.

But it’s over, so all is good.

In an attempt to catch up, I have found these links to share. It’s a bit Big Ten heavy.

But it’s about time the Big Ten got some love.

*The Hooker theory, brought to you by Off The Tracks.

It would behoove you to read this fine post from a Purdue fan with clearly too much time on his hands, because, like everything in life, there will be a quiz later.

*Before the season even started, I even said that the Northwestern Wildcats would be a NIT team at the very worst. So far they are looking pretty good. But you won’t find much positivity here. Somewhat understandable however, considering Northwestern has never made the NCAA tournament.

*Best player playing for a historically black college? Elizabeth City State’s Anthony Hilliard.

*Derrick Brown, star Xavier forward who I compared to Trenton Hassell some time ago, was hurt for the very first time when he injured his ankle earlier this season. Head Coach Sean Miller says Derrick is healthier than ever,

“He’s healthier now than he ever has been; I’d almost declare the injury a non-issue at this point.

We’ve all seen him in that light and I think he’s capable of it.”

*In case you didn’t hear about it, Michigan beat yet another “top 5″ ranked team this season. The victim this time was Duke.

City Hoops: Everything Detroit Basketball, in celebration of the Michigan victory, looked back a bit on some memories and pics of Michigan guard Manny Harris’ days at Detroit Redford high school.

*Kentucky walk-on Landon Slone did against Mississippi Valley State what so many players have no difficulty in doing. He made them look silly.

“Slone’s tenacity didn’t lead to an immediate team-wide spark, but he acquitted himself quite well against the Delta Devils. The 6-foot-3 guard had an inauspicious start when a baseline jumper he took less than 30 seconds after entering the game slammed off the side of the backboard and into Perry Stevenson’s hands, resulting in a dunk.

The afternoon got much better from there. With Mississippi Valley State settled into a 2-3 zone to neutralize Patrick Patterson in the middle, Slone was able to do what he does best - bury two 3-pointers by finding the gaps in that defense.”

*Minnesota’s athletic department moved Minnesota’s Big Ten basketball opener against Michigan State to 11am, all in favor of the Minnesota football team who plays in Arizona (bowl game) at 5pm that same day. From The Barn is far from pleased.

“Those flying to Arizona obviously won’t be at The Barn on the 31st. With the now deceased 5:00 pm start, the rest of the season ticket holders, the majority of whom work, still would be able to go to the basketball game. Sneaking out an hour or two early on a quasi-holiday is not that big of a deal and the people who had planned to attend the game either made accommodations to their schedule if playing hooky was not an option. Now many of them won’t be able to go to the game.”

*If I was a projected 3rd, 4th or 5th seeded team in this season’s NCAA tourney, I would be very afraid of getting stuck playing against the Keydets.

The “Shoot the ball before you turn it over” philosophy is working.

*And finally, a player I think has gone under the radar for too long.

Burnt Orange Nation provides the insight on A.J.

“Abrams is a mediocre-to-bad shooter off of the dribble but among the best catch-and-shoot kids I’ve ever seen. It’s seriously sick how quickly and in one smooth motion he can catch the ball, make the requisite pivot, and manage to release the ball perfectly squared to the basket. If you haven’t been to the gym in a while, have someone feed you passes and try to catch-pivot-release in one motion without fading off to the side. It’s incredibly difficult.”

In July I reckoned that because of the Augustin departure, the Longhorns would be invariably forced to spread the offensive touches around a bit, at least more so than they had to last season, possibly making this group a well rounded offensive juggernaut.

They won’t be so jump shot laden and an important reason why will be the added role of Damion James. Damion will take and make his share of 3’s, but he can pile up the buckets in a variety of ways. He hits the offensive glass with a vengeance and his athleticism allows him to finish at the basket quicker than his usually slower opponents. His mid-range game is very polished, yet was often forgotten because of the volume of shots D.J. and A.J. heaved. If Damion can be that special inside force, then the perimeter will be free for the likes of Abrams and Atchley to do their thing. More touches for Mason will mean more quality opportunities for the gunners.

Dogus Balbay, a Turkish point guard, will have a heavy say in how fast this team gels. He’s feisty, and that’s a positive trait, but the knock on him is his less than desirable shooting stroke. However as far as the 08/09 Longhorn team is concerned, all Balbay needs to do is facilitate the offense, and if he can do that, the offensive weapons on this roster should be strong enough to give any team a run for their money.

ESPN college basketball guru Andy Katz

Texas
Despite losing point guard D.J. Augustin to the NBA draft, the remaining Longhorns make Texas a solid threat to advance to the NCAA tournament for the 11th straight season. A.J. Abrams returns after backing out of the draft and could play either guard position, depending on the development of Turkish point guard Dogus Balbay, who missed last season with a knee injury. Underrated guard Justin Mason is back, along with starting interior players Damion James and Connor Atchley from last season’s 31-7 team that advanced to the Elite Eight. With such a deep returning backcourt, incoming freshman guards Varez Ward and J’Covan Brown won’t get much initial playing time.

source

Many folks would rather see about a dozen or so different teams ranked higher than the Longhorns, but for the sake of the experience factor in college basketball, the Longhorns deserve to be ranked pretty high. They return 4 starters from an Elite 8 squad.

The national media might fall asleep on Texas just because Augustin is gone, but reason tells me Texas will benefit from the expanded roles many of the players will be forced into.

Let’s backtrack a little and look back on the picks, predictions, prognostications—ah whatever—that I have laid out here so eloquently in the collegefastbreak domain somewhat recently.

In no particular order and in no particular feeling of confidence either:

**** Scoff at it, just get mad at it UofA fans. Your team will lay an egg this year but totally get hot and win the NIT.

^ Addition by subtraction in Texas—ludicrous to say maybe, but D.J. and A.J. were beguiling wonders on the court that irrevocably held back the Longhorns from placing more impactful punches against stronger fighters.

$ The Spartans will further cement themselves as the college version of the 21st century Detroit Pistons. Each has won one championship, yet both fan bases are becoming impatient with the standstill success. So much talent yet so little to show for it.

#!#@ Calling Conference USA a power conference was a little wishful. That statement, although made while sober, still feels dirty, but it could end up alright. Just hoping Vaden or some other power conference guy can make a run at the scoring title.

? Calling Northwestern a NIT team was an undemonstrative springboard to tomfoolery, as this season I will probably be glued to all news NW basketball, akin to the energy I gave them during the Jitim Young and Tavaras Hardy days.

(Preview of Big Ten season)—Probably the most accurate prediction of the Big Ten season as you will find, minus the Michigan placement. No Big Ten quality pg will be available to suit up for the Wolvies until the second semester.—-

% Hasheem Thabeet is ready for a monster year and a long run into the tourney. It would not be surprising to see the Huskies stay in the top 5 for the entire season, especially if Thabeet can average 14.5ppg, 9 reb and more than 4 blk. Just think about the terror an offensively skilled Thabeet would be.

高人 Speaking of impact big men, one should keep an eye out for UNC-Asheville’s Kenny George. When fresh, he’s really not much different than your rudimentary 7 foot center, except for the fact George can regularly hit free throws and, while this might not seem feasible, still surprises many guards with his length. After awhile you’d think they would find new ways to attack a 7’7 dude, but often they make the same mistake over and over. However the time to attack George is when he’s sucking major air. Not exactly an original idea, yet, for huge guy, the opportunities present themselves much more frequently.

It’s almost as of George has decent enough foot speed to move laterally and react, but it’s the body that often takes awhile to catch up. If the coach can really substitute him frequently and wisely, UNC-Asheville will be the best in the Big South.

The next two are direct matchup predictions.

$$$ The Big Ten will once again fall to the superior ACC and it will, as it has always been, be because of the significant back of the conference weakness’s of the Big Ten. Need I go further?

\&/ The Fighting Irish will beat the Tar Heels in the finals of the Maui Invitational.

So with that out of the way,

#1

My pick to win the whole enchilada.

Discuss.

photo credit: Newscom

Quite a few Big 12 teams have been crippled by the exodus of underclassmen recently, so look for the conference to be severely overlooked this upcoming season.

One team that should have the talent to benefit from the expected hard times in the Midwest is the Texas Longhorns, yep, the Damion James and A.J. Abrams led Longhorns.

Abrams is the most lethal scorer on this team without a doubt, however Damion James, whose name has appeared on multiple 09 draft boards, should be the team’s most dominant player from an all around standpoint.

Abrams has NBA aspirations too, but I clearly believe James’s impact has to be more profound than A.J.’s if the team plans on sticking around for the second weekend of the NCAA’s.

A.J. will get his shots and whether they are good looks or not, he will make a fair share of them.

James will not shoot as much, but boost a much higher field goal percentage while rebounding and blocking shots like many players two to three inches taller do.

While this duo is not exactly ying and yang, they both let the long balls fly, so the threat to feast on defenses will always be available.

Center Connor Atchley should be able to climb into double figures with more shooting opportunities freed up with Augustin gone, but don’t count on the rebounds or blocks to increase, because bigger roles will be cast to big men Dexter Pittman and Matt Hill.

Dexter came on strong in last year’s tourney—had a couple of good games—but aside from that he didn’t impress the coaching staff enough to warrant him more PT earlier in the season.

26 games played, only 6.8 min/gm, not exactly Sasha Kaun type minutes.

Guard Justin Mason is the prototypical role player on D and O, but his role needs to expand. His “glue guy” label is all fine and everything, but he needs to supply scoring at the guard position to somehow make up for D.J.

Expanded minutes at the point could be awarded to Mason because of his experience at playing the position last year.

Unless Turkish point guard Dogus Balbay can supplant him.

Back in June Mark Rosner from statesman.com wrote about Balbay’s chances of taking over point guard duties after suffering a tough knee injury that kept him out all of last season.

All indications, and they seem consistent, point to Dogus as a gritty and confident guard, eager to penetrate the lane, but an unflattering side note mentions his lack of an outside shot, usually an oxymoron label for a foreign player.

Though Texas had playing time in store for Dogus in 07, so I don’t see why he couldn’t become the facilitator the team could afford, provided the above players live up to or better their resumes.

He will be very different from Augustin, obviously, so it’s up to the others to rise up and know when to be the aggressors on offense.

The D.J.-less transition could mean some early defeats, but the squad has the depth and the added scoring punch to beat teams in March.

After all this Texas forecasting, I will put my hand down and state that anything less than an Elite 8 appearance will be a travesty, because in light of the opening paragraph, the assertion is not straying far from the truth, the Big 12 will not exude “power conference” fear in people next year.

Texas and Oklahoma– that’s it.

If Blake Griffin had left for the Association we might be talking about Conference USA receiving more bids in March.

Think about it.

Anyways, I pick the Longhorns to advance to the Elite 8.

Photo credit: Newscom

And the list keeps growing and growing and growing…

Three more underclassmen declared late Wednesday: Memphis juniors Antonio Anderson, Robert Dozier and Texas junior guard A.J. Abrams.

Anderson and Dozier were role players on Memphis’ team this year, and their early entries come as a big surprise to me. Neither player signed with an agent, so I would expect both to return to school next season.

If Dozier and Anderson were to stay in the draft, that would mean that the entire starting 5 for the Tigers would be in the draft. Let the rebuilding in Memphis begin…

Abrams joined fellow Longhorn guard D.J. Augustin in declaring for the draft on Wednesday. Abrams averaged 16.5 points per game last season, but at 5′11″ is a little short to play shooting guard in the NBA.