Sports InsideOut

Top 10 10. Jack Gibbs, Davidson How many guys can say they play on a 7-1 team who's only loss is on the road against North Carolina, while averaging over 25 PPG, almost 5 RPG, and over 4 APG, and shooting 54 percent from the field, 37.5 percent from three and 83 percent from the line?  If you guessed Jack Gibbs, you are correct.  Gibbs may not be the most well known college basketball player in the world, but he is one of the best players in the country. 9. Kyle Wiltjer, Gonzaga Wiltjer has had a down year so far percentage wise, as his three point and field goal percentages are down by a good bit.  This may be due to the loss of his three talented guards, or due to taking more shots, but I think he is just going through a slump and will turn it around quickly.  Wiltjer is taking a lot of shots this year, as the least he has taken in a game all year is 12, but I think he should be a little more selective, especially when Prezemek Karnowski comes back. 8. Georg...

There have been many storylines in the past week, including the #1 team in the country going down.  Here is my take: Unranked (and 3 loss!) UCLA upsets #1 Kentucky This is a real shocker, and in no way did I (or anyone) see this coming.  One thing I learned is that this year's UK team is nowhere near last year's UK team.  Last year's team blew out a better UCLA team, giving up single digit points in the first half.  I'm not sure what the problem was for the Wildcats, as it didn't look like the same team that beat Duke easily.  Star guards Jamal Murray and Tyler Ulis were a combined 7-28 from the field.  Ulis played injured, and Kentucky sorely missed Marcus Lee, who played just 4 minutes due to an injury early in the game.  UCLA showed massive potential with this win, although we all knew they had the talent to be a really good team.  For the Bruins, it's just a matter of putting up consistent results.  Overall, this is a big wakeup call f...

Three of the four Final Four teams from last year played in a two game showcase in Chicago last night. AP Top 5 teams Duke and Kentucky (#6 and #2 in my preseason ranking, respectively) faced off and a defending Final Four team in Michigan State faced AP top 5 Kansas (#13 and #5 in my poll, respectively) faced off in Chicago in the Champions Classic.  Kentucky beat Duke fairly handily, winning 74-63, and Michigan State surprisingly pulled it out against Kansas 79-73. On the UK-Duke Game This was supposed to be a matchup between star players #2 recruit Skal Labissiere from Kentucky, star recruit Brandon Ingram from Duke, and Grayson Allen, who came in averaging 27 PPG for Duke.  Instead, all three players played pretty terrible, as Ingram and Labissiere barely played due to foul trouble, poor defense and rebounding, and lack of effectiveness on offense.  Grayson Allen played major minutes, but had an off night, missing his first 9 shots.  Despite these things, it w...

25. Purdue The Boilermakers just slide in to the top 25.  Many people have them ranked higher, but I think their guards are too weak, especially at point guard.  Caleb Swanigan was a big recruit for them, but doesn't fill a need at all, as AJ Hammons is fantastic, Isaac Haas is very good behind him, Vince Edwards is a stud and will only improve, and Basil Smotherman is solid behind them.  The big need was a point guard, with Jon Octeus gone.  However, Purdue did almost nothing to fill this need, adding only Texas-Arlington guard Johnny Hill.  Dakota Mathias, and P.J. Thompson and Kendall Stephens are three decent returning guards at first glance, but none of them shot better than 35.1 percent from the field. 24. LSU Meet Ben Simmons, a combination of elite rebounding, elite passing, elite shooting, elite defending, elite scoring, etc.  He has drawn comparisons to LeBron, though taller, arguably more polished and a better rebounder and passer than LeBron...

Honorable Mention: Mississippi St (Malik Newman!!), Davidson and BYU 50. South Carolina The Gamecocks take the final spot in the top 50, led by Sindarius Thornwell, a former top recruit, and highly rated Perry Dozier, South Carolina could be a sleeper this year. 49. Boise State One high scoring guard gone (Derrick Marks), and another one back from injury.  The Broncos return Anthony Drmic, one of the best shooters in the country and a fifth year senior, from injury, and also return big men James Webb and Nick Duncan.  They should improve on their First Four appearance from last year. 48. Ohio State This is the worst Buckeyes team in years.  They lose their top three players as well as their two biggest guys from only a decent team.  However, they may be underrated, as they return shooter Cam Williams, 6-4 big man Jae'Sean Tate, as well as Marc Loving, who shot 46.1 % from three last year.  Sophomore Keita Bates-Diop has to take the next step, but they d...

ACC My Projected Final: Virginia vs. Duke Winner: Duke MVP: Jahlil Okafor, Duke This isn't much of an upset final, but the ACC is not deep at all behind their top 5, and even their top 5 is largely overrated at the moment.  Duke has looked great recently, and although Okafor has had three down games in a row, I think he plays very well in this tournament to win tournament MVP.  Despite the fact that I think Duke will win this conference tourney, personally I don't see them advancing much past the Sweet 16, if past the Sweet 16 at all (It shows how good Duke has been that I say it like it is a down year!).  I think they have gotten a little lucky with close games this year, and are a little inexperienced. Big 12 My Projected Final: Oklahoma vs. Kansas Winner: Oklahoma MVP: Buddy Hield, Oklahoma Kansas goes for their revenge...  Oklahoma beat them on a buzzer beater on Saturday, but Kansas was missing Perry Ellis (not that he even matters that much) and the...

A little explanation on blind resumes:  Basically blind resumes are ways of evaluating teams without looking at the team name.  Usually, they use record, strength of schedule and different rankings, usually computer based ones. Things I will use: - Record - Strength of Schedule: a ranking of the difficulty of schedules - BPI: an ESPN computer ranking of the college basketball teams that includes on the score of the game, the venue, the opponent, the pace of play and the injuries of important players. - Kenpom.com ranking: one of the most respected rankings in college basketball, a computer ranking by Ken Pomeroy (and personally by far my favorite ranking). #1: Team 1 Record: 22-5 SOS: 79 BPI: 22 Kenpom ranking: 29 Team 2 Record: 20-7 SOS: 8 BPI: 19 Kenpom ranking: 12 Team 1 is 18th ranked Arkansas (AP poll), and Team 2 is 20th ranked Baylor.  Baylor has a strength of schedule that is enormously higher, which more than makes up for their two more lo...

The conference races are just beginning to heat up right now, with tight races in many of the power conferences. ACC The ACC is the best conference in the country, which shows in their tight conference race.  Virginia leads the conference, with two losses less than any team (they have lost just 1), but 4 teams have three losses.  Duke has looked great recently (HUGE win over Notre Dame), Notre Dame is a top 5 or 10 team at their best, Louisville is another top 10 team who beat UNC a week ago, and North Carolina won 6 straight before losing to UVA and Louisville, but have wins over Ohio State (D'Angelo Russell!!!)  and Louisville, among others.  The rest of the conference is a step behind (and a LARGE step), but these 5 can hang with anyone in the country. My pick: 1. Virginia 2. Duke 3. Notre Dame Big 12 Kansas suffered a major setback this weekend with a loss against Oklahoma State (disappointing to say the least), but still hold a solid lead on the confer...

Because of the long break between posts, I want to acknowledge some recent happenings in the college basketball world before I start my post. 1. Coach K Reaches One K The best college basketball coach ever gets his 1000th win, but I was not overly impressed with how they played, nor how they played in upset losses vs NC State and Miami. 2. The Big 12 continues to beat up on each other Oklahoma, a top 20 team, has lost 4 Big 12 games.  TCU, who went undefeated in non-conference, is 1-5 in conference play.  Texas Tech, who was previously 0-6 in conference, beat top 10 ranked Iowa State.  Kansas State, who was 7-6 out of conference, is 5-2 in conference play.  It is looking like Kansas will most likely win their 11th straight Big 12 title. 3. The Indiana Hoosiers announce themselves to the national scene Indiana joined the rankings this week, and proceeded to beat #13 Maryland 89-70.  I have heard both Clark Kellogg and an NBC sports writer say that IU is ...