NCAA 2009-10 Hoops: Yo, mah Jordans, nigga

[CountDeMoney]

Because it ain't too early, dammit.*






*Apparently it is too early, as I posted last year's preseason rankings. 

[katmai]

You are teh fail

[CountDeMoney]

I know.  I'm like the Big XII of basketball.

[katmai]

Washington is ranked starting this year, but not sure if they deserve it.

The backcourt is gonna be amazing, and Senior Pondexter should be good leader, but team has to figure out how to cover the loss of Jon Brockman who was one of top rebounder in country.

[CountDeMoney]

Posted because in basketball, the ACC is the only conference that matters.

Duke, UNC share ACC preseason favorite honors

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP)—Defending national champion North Carolina and Duke each have Hall of Fame coaches, deep front lines and questions in the backcourt this season.

They also share the honor of being co-favorites to win the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The Tar Heels and Blue Devils represented the first tie in the 41-year history of the ACC Operation Basketball preseason event. Duke earned 25 of 48 first-place votes Sunday from media members, while North Carolina earned 20 first-place votes and also had 545 points.

It was the fourth straight year and 19th time that North Carolina has been picked to win the ACC title. For Duke, it was the 12th overall and first since the 2005-06 season.

Clemson was picked third, followed by Georgia Tech, Maryland, Wake Forest, Florida State, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Miami, Virginia and North Carolina State.

In addition, Duke's Kyle Singler was voted preseason player of the year over Maryland's Greivis Vasquez, while Georgia Tech's Derrick Favors was voted rookie of the year. Clemson's Trevor Booker and Virginia Tech's Malcolm Delaney joined Singler, Vasquez and North Carolina's Ed Davis on the all-conference team.

North Carolina and Duke, rivals separated by a short drive along U.S. 15-501 between Chapel Hill and Durham, enter the season with similar questions. The Tar Heels (34-4) won the program's fifth NCAA championship last year, but lost four-year star Tyler Hansbrough, Danny Green, Bobby Frasor, and underclassmen Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington.

The Tar Heels still boast plenty of experience with 6-foot-9 senior Deon Thompson (10.6 points) leading a front line that includes the 6-10 Davis, 7-foot sophomore Tyler Zeller and 6-10 freshman John Henson—who is expected to play small forward.

The question is how well sophomore Larry Drew II will fill Lawson's shoes at the point, and whether junior Will Graves or freshmen Dexter Strickland and Leslie McDonald can give North Carolina reliable minutes on the perimeter.

"We're just trying to get better at each and every thing we do," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. "If you take the time to step back, we do have a chance to be a good team. We have a couple of major question marks that have to be answered and they're not going to be answered in practice. We have to wait and see how that happens during games."

Duke (30-7) won the ACC tournament for the eighth time in 11 years and reached the NCAA tournament's round of 16. But after losing Greg Paulus (graduation), Gerald Henderson (NBA draft) and Elliot Williams (transfer), coach Mike Krzyzewski is left with Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith as the only returning guards from last year's rotation.

Like North Carolina, the Blue Devils have strength up front with Singler, senior Lance Thomas, 6-10 brothers Miles and Mason Plumlee and 7-1 reserve Brian Zoubek. Krzyzewski has said this could be his biggest team in three decades at Duke.

"I'm as confident as I've been since I've been here," Scheyer said. "We have a lot of work to do, but I've seen what this team is able to do and what its potential is, and it's as good as any team since I've been here."

[katmai]

Yet Pac-10 leads all conferences in Championships

[CountDeMoney]

Yet Pac-10 leads all conferences in Championships

Subtract John Wooden from that number, and then talk.

[Eddie Teach]

Well, actually:

UCLA- 11
Rest of Pac 10- 4

NC & Duke- 8
Rest of ACC- 3

[Valmy]

I know.  I'm like the Big XII of basketball.

Man...I like the ACC and SEC but now I have to talk shit about them all the time just because of you.

Anyway yeah I am looking foward to basketball season, coach Barnes has a really good team coming in.  Fear teh Steer.

[derspiess]

Posted because in basketball, the ACC is the only conference that matters.

That's what you & your best pal Dukie Vitale think, anyway.

[Berkut]

Will Arizona keep the streak alive?

[katmai]

Nein!

[citizen k]

Men's Basketball Makes Debut At Kraziness In The Kennel
Posted: Oct 24, 2009

SPOKANE, Wash. - Gonzaga University head coach Mark Few unveiled the 2010 version of the Bulldog men's basketball team in public for the first time Saturday evening in front of a standing-room only crowd at Kraziness in the Kennel at the McCarthey Athletic Center, and for the most part the goals going into the event were accomplished.

For the record the Blue team posted a 56-50 victory over the Red team, but the cumulative statistics weren't the most important thing to Few. The Bulldogs played three periods, the score was re-set to zero for each period and some players played for both teams as the coaching staff experimented with combinations and match-ups.

"In regard to getting our guys out in front of a crowd, getting that kind of nervousness of playing in front of people and getting used to the pump of adrenalin in a game-like setting, we had a successful outing," Few said. "The crowd was incredible. The fact it was packed to the rafters for a scrimmage on a Saturday says a lot about our fans and the community. That was easily the most impressive part of the day."

Senior guard Matt Bouldin played for both sides and had a combined 14 points, as did freshman Elias Harris to lead all scorers. They were followed by sophomore guard Demetri Goodson with 13 and freshman forward Mangisto Arop with 11.

Few likes the potential of the newcomers.  "They youngsters are going to be good. I don't know when. They'll show flashes of it here and there.  Getting them to be consistent will be the biggest challenge, but that happens with youth," Few said of the seven newcomers who combine with three redshirts from a year ago to give the Bulldogs 10 players who have never played a minute of NCAA Division I basketball.

"The big guys are coming along very, very well. I thought Elias had a good afternoon, and Sam (Dower) and Kelly (Olynyk) have been strong all fall. Manny (Arop) has had a good couple of weeks although he didn't play real well tonight," Few said.

The only player who didn't see action was freshman Bol Kong who is nursing a sore foot.

Few said there's a lot of work remaining to be done prior to the Bulldogs lone exhibition contest Nov. 2 against the University of Alberta.

"Probably role identification is the biggest thing," Few said of one of the challenges facing his staff and team. "We have to start playing to our strengths and know what we are supposed to bring. We need to communicate that to them and they need to accept it and play with it. That's probably the best thing we can do right now offensively and defensively."

Rebounding and turnovers were also on Few's check list.  "We need to keep shoring up our rebounding because that's going to be a big key for us this year, and we need to cut down on some of those silly turnovers. That happens early, though," he said.

The 11th-year head coach also said teaching continues to be critical with such a young squad.  "They've (coaches) been breaking things down step-by-step and going much slower than we've gone in the past. Last year's group at this time was way further ahead, but that's the way it is with so many new guys," Few noted.

Of the veterans, Few said "Matt did a nice job tonight. Meech (Demetri) played well and we're trying to squeeze more leadership out of Steven (Gray."

The Bulldogs, who open the regular season at home Nov. 14 against Mississippi Valley State, are picked to win the West Coast Conference regular-season title, something the Bulldogs have done the last nine years. But the pressure of being No. 1 doesn't bother Few.

"We're used to it. We've pretty much been picked every year for the last 11 or 12. It's something we need to live up to and we need to teach the younger guys how we live up to it. The old guys have a responsibility there to teach them the tradition of this program and how we handle it," Few said of the favorite role.

Oliver Pierce, SID, Gonzaga University

[Barrister]

Men's Basketball Makes Debut At Kraziness In The Kennel
Posted: Oct 24, 2009

SPOKANE, Wash. - Gonzaga University head coach Mark Few unveiled the 2010 version of the Bulldog men's basketball team in public for the first time Saturday evening in front of a standing-room only crowd at Kraziness in the Kennel at the McCarthey Athletic Center, and for the most part the goals going into the event were accomplished.

For the record the Blue team posted a 56-50 victory over the Red team, but the cumulative statistics weren't the most important thing to Few. The Bulldogs played three periods, the score was re-set to zero for each period and some players played for both teams as the coaching staff experimented with combinations and match-ups.

"In regard to getting our guys out in front of a crowd, getting that kind of nervousness of playing in front of people and getting used to the pump of adrenalin in a game-like setting, we had a successful outing," Few said. "The crowd was incredible. The fact it was packed to the rafters for a scrimmage on a Saturday says a lot about our fans and the community. That was easily the most impressive part of the day."

Senior guard Matt Bouldin played for both sides and had a combined 14 points, as did freshman Elias Harris to lead all scorers. They were followed by sophomore guard Demetri Goodson with 13 and freshman forward Mangisto Arop with 11.

Few likes the potential of the newcomers.  "They youngsters are going to be good. I don't know when. They'll show flashes of it here and there.  Getting them to be consistent will be the biggest challenge, but that happens with youth," Few said of the seven newcomers who combine with three redshirts from a year ago to give the Bulldogs 10 players who have never played a minute of NCAA Division I basketball.

"The big guys are coming along very, very well. I thought Elias had a good afternoon, and Sam (Dower) and Kelly (Olynyk) have been strong all fall. Manny (Arop) has had a good couple of weeks although he didn't play real well tonight," Few said.

The only player who didn't see action was freshman Bol Kong who is nursing a sore foot.

Few said there's a lot of work remaining to be done prior to the Bulldogs lone exhibition contest Nov. 2 against the University of Alberta.

"Probably role identification is the biggest thing," Few said of one of the challenges facing his staff and team. "We have to start playing to our strengths and know what we are supposed to bring. We need to communicate that to them and they need to accept it and play with it. That's probably the best thing we can do right now offensively and defensively."

Rebounding and turnovers were also on Few's check list.  "We need to keep shoring up our rebounding because that's going to be a big key for us this year, and we need to cut down on some of those silly turnovers. That happens early, though," he said.

The 11th-year head coach also said teaching continues to be critical with such a young squad.  "They've (coaches) been breaking things down step-by-step and going much slower than we've gone in the past. Last year's group at this time was way further ahead, but that's the way it is with so many new guys," Few noted.

Of the veterans, Few said "Matt did a nice job tonight. Meech (Demetri) played well and we're trying to squeeze more leadership out of Steven (Gray."

The Bulldogs, who open the regular season at home Nov. 14 against Mississippi Valley State, are picked to win the West Coast Conference regular-season title, something the Bulldogs have done the last nine years. But the pressure of being No. 1 doesn't bother Few.

"We're used to it. We've pretty much been picked every year for the last 11 or 12. It's something we need to live up to and we need to teach the younger guys how we live up to it. The old guys have a responsibility there to teach them the tradition of this program and how we handle it," Few said of the favorite role.

Oliver Pierce, SID, Gonzaga University

U of A?

Kill those goddamn Golden Bears

[Valmy]

Will Arizona keep the streak alive?

From what I am hearing they had a really good off-season and will compete in the PAC-10 this year so I think: yes.