College Basketball 2005 -2006

[Captain Hate]

The exhibition games have begun so let the trash talking begin. Jmj will be more insufferable than usual since his Tarholes are defending national champs (helped in large part by my rooting for them in the finals; I'm *not* so much an ACC shillboy as I thought Zona got jobbed by Illinois) so just ignore his first dozen posts. Or until they lose to Santa Clara.

Hopefully our boy Tanager will migrate here for the season.

[MRS]

I got a press pass to see the boys practice at Allen this weekend, so fired up, can't wait to see the light pour on to the James Naismith Court (I actually hate it when schools conveniently 'name' courts). We're way past big speech time.

Billikens move to the A-10 so I can't exactly roll on down to Carbondale or Memphis for a packed house regional battle, so fucking brutal.

[MRS]

And we got the mighty Gorillas of Pittsburgh St. on Sunday. Gas mileage for Louisville last weekend, Lawrence this weekend and Chicago the following weekend has been and will be an issue, yes.

[Captain Hate]

Was in College Park a couple weekends ago and went to the Comcastle for the first time. Great digs but I still think it was great that the 2002 Championship banner was initially hung during the last days of Cole Field House, site of Texas Western rocking Adolph Rupp's world and Sidney Wicks, Curtis Rowe and Steve Patterson beating Artis Gilmore and Penbrook Burroughs III.

[moneyp]

For the first and probably only time on this thread: Go Cal!

[crawjo]

GW opens the season ranked 21st in the country in the AP, which is actually lower than most of the college preseason guides I've seen, which had them about 15th. They bring back everybody from last year's team except for T.J. Thompson, and they have a nice transfer from LSU to play power forward. The A-10 is going to be much stronger this year than last. If GW doesn't make the Sweet 16, the season will have been a failure. Expectations at Foggy Bottom are that high this year.

[Lenny D.Guitarist]

Who are the players to watch in NCAA Division I? I'll start out with Reddick and McNamara. You dudes can add your selections post haste.

[Jon Abbey]

Fixed.

Originally Posted by Lenny D.Guitarist

Who are the short white guys to watch in NCAA Division I? I'll start out with Reddick and McNamara. You dudes can add your selections post haste.

[jesus marion joseph]

I'm picking a dark horse to take it all this year: UNC.


TAR HEELS ALL THE WAY, BABY!!!!

[walto]

I'm sticking with my Nova prediction. Just have to avoid injuries...

[Surfer]

Checkin in to be counted.

We're ranked 10th. Looks like it'll come down to Stanford and us again.

[cookie]

Syracuse has been fun so far what with Boeheim getting thrown out of his first game ever in their last exhibition game.

Now they've managed to win their first two regular season games, most recently gaining victory over that great bastion of college basketball (snort snort) Cornell.

Orange over Big Red is a good bet in pretty much any sport, but it concerns me that Cornell led for much of the game.

Looking forward to the season, though.

(ps: happy belated birthday, Cap'n!)

Cap'n,
will Nick and the boys bring us back to the dance after the year off?

[Captain Hate]

Originally Posted by achilles

Cap'n,
will Nick and the boys bring us back to the dance after the year off?

I think so; they barely missed it last year (and don't think this is sour grapes; they didn't deserve to go) with John Gilchrist being a very troubled soul. You can make a reasonable argument that last year's team had as much overall talent as the championship team, but they had no chemistry. I'm looking for seniors Caner-Medley and Travis Garrison to up their game to get us back. Garrison has *got* to hit the boards more; when Nik started pounding the glass instead of trying to beat people off the dribble, good things happened.

Originally Posted by Captain Hate

I think so; they barely missed it last year (and don't think this is sour grapes; they didn't deserve to go) with John Gilchrist being a very troubled soul. You can make a reasonable argument that last year's team had as much overall talent as the championship team, but they had no chemistry. I'm looking for seniors Caner-Medley and Travis Garrison to up their game to get us back. Garrison has *got* to hit the boards more; when Nik started pounding the glass instead of trying to beat people off the dribble, good things happened.

Yeah, Gilchrist turned into a team killing distraction. I'm sure he's having fun in Israel.

I read in the Post where Gary had them running hard in off-season, upping their conditioning for the press. So at least they'll be fun to watch, and maybe even pretty good (top 30?).

[walto]

FWIW, Mark Blaudschun of The Boston Globe predicts them for a finish of 5th in the ACC, behind Duke, BC, Wake, and NC State. Even if that's right, the ACC will certainly send 5 teams to the Dance next year.

[jesus marion joseph]

Originally Posted by walto

FWIW, Mark Blaudschun of The Boston Globe predicts them for a finish of 5th in the ACC, behind Duke, BC, Wake, and NC State. Even if that's right, the ACC will certainly send 5 teams to the Dance next year.

Hard to believe that Carolina won't be one of them. They're the college hoops equivalent of the 2003 Florida Marlins (after they won the WS).

[walto]

I don't know if you saw the pre-season Globe coverage, JMJ, but it's odd. Blaudschun actually has six ACC teams going, with Miami being the 6th team. But in the ACC outlook section, he places NC one slot ahead of Miami in the conference. Not sure what the thinking was there--maybe he's also predicting selection weirdness?

[Captain Hate]

Originally Posted by walto

I'm sticking with my Nova prediction. Just have to avoid injuries...

I hope Nova kicks C-Note's crooked ass up one side and down the other.

Originally Posted by jesus marion joseph

Hard to believe that Carolina won't be one of them. They're the college hoops equivalent of the 2003 Florida Marlins (after they won the WS).

Losing all your best players and having your coach distracted by the flames of his former school might be a problem.

[Captain Hate]

Originally Posted by jesus marion joseph

Hard to believe that Carolina won't be one of them. They're the college hoops equivalent of the 2003 Florida Marlins (after they won the WS).

What a lot of Hole shills (and I don't include jmj in this) fail to realize is that with the exception of Marvin Williams the major contributors on the championship team were D'oh's recruits. That isn't to say that ol' Roy can't recruit or that his system was significantly different from D'oh's (hell, D'oh was his assistant before leaving for Notre Dame). I've already run off one poster by pointing out the dysfunctionality in the Dean Smith Chumple Hole inbred family as illustrated by how shabbily D'oh was treated.

The comparison the the Marlins (98 too) is pretty apt on the surface but I'm sure ol' Roy has some blue chippers coming in; they won't fall too far.

[walto]

Originally Posted by Captain Hate

I hope Nova kicks C-Note's crooked ass up one side and down the other.

The guy who missed the tournament last year for them did blow his knee out again, apparently.

Just curious: how many of you think there is still pay-off money involved in the big-time (and even some small-time) programs?

As I mentioned before, in my day, it seemed somewhat obvious that Lenny Bias was materially persuaded to return for his senior year. No one was surprised, no one even thought it bad, actually. We were happy to keep seeing him play, and thought he deserved the new duds and the sports car.


Still going on? Rampantly? Exceptions?

[Jason Bivins]

Caner-Medley is still around? Seems like he's been there forEVER.

Wolfpack, baby.

[Jon Abbey]

Originally Posted by achilles

Just curious: how many of you think there is still pay-off money involved in the big-time (and even some small-time) programs?

As I mentioned before, in my day, it seemed somewhat obvious that Lenny Bias was materially persuaded to return for his senior year. No one was surprised, no one even thought it bad, actually. We were happy to keep seeing him play, and thought he deserved the new duds and the sports car.


Still going on? Rampantly? Exceptions?

I'm sure there is, and I think there should be. I don't see why the colleges should be the only ones profiting from all that TV money, it's not like almost any of these kids are getting real educations or will be able to turn pro.

[crawjo]

Originally Posted by achilles

Yeah, Gilchrist turned into a team killing distraction. I'm sure he's having fun in Israel.

I read in the Post where Gary had them running hard in off-season, upping their conditioning for the press. So at least they'll be fun to watch, and maybe even pretty good (top 30?).

There will be a lot of fireworks in that GW-Maryland game in December. The two teams combined will probably score around 200 points.

Originally Posted by crawjo

There will be a lot of fireworks in that GW-Maryland game in December. The two teams combined will probably score around 200 points.

Wish I could be there for that one.
Always fun when the Terps play GW and Georgetown.
In my day, it was rare (GW wasn't yet as good, and Lefty and John Thompson didn't like each other).

[Captain Hate]

Originally Posted by Jason Bivins

Caner-Medley is still around? Seems like he's been there forEVER.

I used to think the same thing about Hodge.

Originally Posted by achilles

Just curious: how many of you think there is still pay-off money involved in the big-time (and even some small-time) programs?

Gary does; he'll quote you chapter and verse about Baltimore recruits that he thought he had locked until C-Note started dropping major bills in AAU exhibition games and mysteriously these players ended up at UConn. Gregg Doyell for ESPN has written about C-Note's shady practices and how the NCAA turns a blind eye to it; well not entirely, they've subsequently banned payoffs for AAU games without really looking at Jim "stealing pc's is no big deal" Calhoun. Of course if it were somebody like Huggins or the Tark they'd have been all over it.

Originally Posted by achilles

In my day, it was rare (GW wasn't yet as good, and Lefty and John Thompson didn't like each other).

You fail to point out how John Thompson was indirectly responsible for us getting nuked by the NCAA. Morgan Wooten, the legendary coach at DeMatha, had made it known that the only job he aspired to was the Terp head coach (he didn't want to relocate from the area). Thompson and Wooten didn't like each other, stemming from the days when Thompson was coaching at St. Anthony's and DeMatha ruled the roost. When it became obvious that Lefty had to go, Thompson had the ear of Chancellor Slaughter and put the nix on any chance Wooten had and they hired Bob Wade from Dunbar. Wade had several things going for him: Open up recruitment opportunities in Baltimore (perpetually a problem even today) and Dunbar had been the best team in the nation. Unfortunately Wade was an absolute disaster at the job and we ended up with the NCAA kiss of death. It could be that Wooten would've fallen on his face also but I don't think so. He ended up setting high school records that may live forever. That Thompson had any input to a Maryland decision was a torpedo job of the highest magnitude. A lot of fans remembered that during the Joe Smith coming out party against the Hoyas.

Originally Posted by Captain Hate

You fail to point out how John Thompson was indirectly responsible for us getting nuked by the NCAA. Morgan Wooten, the legendary coach at DeMatha, had made it known that the only job he aspired to was the Terp head coach (he didn't want to relocate from the area). Thompson and Wooten didn't like each other, stemming from the days when Thompson was coaching at St. Anthony's and DeMatha ruled the roost. When it became obvious that Lefty had to go, Thompson had the ear of Chancellor Slaughter and put the nix on any chance Wooten had and they hired Bob Wade from Dunbar. Wade had several things going for him: Open up recruitment opportunities in Baltimore (perpetually a problem even today) and Dunbar had been the best team in the nation. Unfortunately Wade was an absolute disaster at the job and we ended up with the NCAA kiss of death. It could be that Wooten would've fallen on his face also but I don't think so. He ended up setting high school records that may live forever. That Thompson had any input to a Maryland decision was a torpedo job of the highest magnitude. A lot of fans remembered that during the Joe Smith coming out party against the Hoyas.

I forgot about all that. I was there for two years of Bob Wade, and Slaughter was gone at the end of Wade's first year; Bobby Ross also left before they began looking at the football program, and the AD also vacated the premises. It was a fucking whirlwind after Lenny's death.

To be fair to Wade, it was an impossible situation. But they shouldn't have hired ANY high school coach.

[MRS]

Congrats Chris!