Sports InsideOut

College basketball is underway yet again, and there have been quite a few good games thus far.  There have also been several great performances, and a lot of changes in the rankings.  Sorry for the long post, just wanted to detail the first couple weeks of the season.  Here are some of my early season headlines: 1. Great Opening Night Opening night this year in college basketball included a number of freshman debuts, and a few surprising games, but the highlight was the Armed Forces Classic, which had two match-ups of top 12 teams at the time.  #10 Arizona and #12 Michigan State (AP rankings at the time) faced off in the first thriller.  The game wasn't one of great shooting by either team, probably due to some rust and both teams playing great defense.  This didn't stop a highlight show of dunks and great plays by MSU freshman Miles Bridges who showed his powerful strength around the rim.  However, MSU couldn't find another scorer and Arizona'...

1. Oregon is upset early. The Ducks are a good team, but in my opinion, more of a 3 seed than a one seed, although their blowout win over Utah in the PAC-12 title game was nice. The real problem for me regarding their NCAA tourney hopes is how many bad losses they have.  They have 3 losses against teams outside the top 100, and two more against teams outside the top 50.  This doesn't bode well for the NCAA tournament, as teams will only be coming after them even harder, as they are a 1 seed.  I don't think the Ducks make the Elite 8, and although they certainly are not likely to lose in the first round, and I think they almost definitely won't, but of all the 1 seeds in recent years, I think they are most likely to lose of any of them. 2.  The Big Ten has a strong showing. The Big Ten was under seeded this year, with only one team seeded 4 or higher, and teams like Indiana, Michigan St, and Iowa seeded lower than what they were projected to be seeded.  I t...

ACC Championship Game: North Carolina vs. Virginia My Projected Champ: Virginia 65-61 MVP: Malcom Brogdon I'm going with the favorites to make the final in this one.  Virginia will get the win in my opinion, as I really don't like UNC's team this year.  Yeah, they are really good, but how can you expect to contend for a national title with almost no outside shooting.  I think Virginia will cruise through their side of the bracket, and win a close one over the Heels.  The Cavaliers should be able to play a very slow pace, which is definitely the pace they want to play.  According to kenpom.com, they are the slowest paced team in the country, and are also the number one team on the site.  I may be wrong, but I don't sense a good end to the season for the Tar Heels, although their one seed in this bracket should allow them to make the final. Big 12 Championship Game: Kansas vs. Texas Tech My Projected Champ: Kansas 77-74 MVP: Devonte' Graham I did ...

1.  Vandy makes an Elite 8 run. My thinking:  Vandy is a lot better than people think.  Although they were on the outside looking in for the NCAA tournament a week ago, I held faith in them and said that they could be a candidate to make the Sweet 16, despite being 16-11 and in the First Four out in Joe Lunardi's tourney bracket.  The Commodores now have a much better chance to get in, with wins this week on the road against Florida (watch this  crazy shot ), and then over Kentucky on Saturday.  These wins should put them in the tournament, barring any collapse.  Additionally, Vanderbilt is #22 on kenpom.com, which is a lot better than their projected tournament seed right now.  They have a lot of shooting talent, a top level big guy, and enough veteran leadership to get the job done. 2. Xavier doesn't make the Sweet 16. My thinking:  The Musketeers are very overrated and inconsistent. According to kenpom.com, they have been one of the ...

The SEC may be the tightest race right now, with no dominant team, and 4 teams within a game of first place.  Kentucky has a one game lead over Texas A&M, South Carolina and LSU, but anything could happen from here on out.  Kentucky still has to go on the road against Florida and Vandy, and also has a visit from LSU, while Texas A&M gets to play Mizzou, Auburn and Mississippi State before playing a slightly tougher game against Vandy at home.  South Carolina also has an easy schedule the rest of the way, while LSU has to go on the road against UK.  Here is a little paragraph on each of the top 4 plus #'s 5 and 6 Florida and Vanderbilt. 1. Texas A&M I see the Aggies winning the conference, simply due to the fact that UK will probably lose one more game, and the Aggies really shouldn't.  Texas A&M is behind one game, but will move ahead of UK in the conference tournament seeding if UK were to lose, because they hold the tiebreaker due to th...

The PAC-12 is full of overrated and underrated teams, so I'm going to break the conference down that way. Let's start with the overrateds: Overrated Teams: Oregon Oregon is being treated like a top team right now, ranked number 16 in the AP poll, but the most incredible thing to me is that they are a 3 seed by top bracketologists Jerry Palm (CBS) and Joe Lunardi (ESPN).  This is absolutely ridiculous.  Oregon lost twice this week, once in an absolute blowout from the start, to an unranked team in California.  To be blown out by a team that isn't top 30 in either the AP poll or kenpom.com is not a good sign.  Not to mention, they followed up that loss with another loss, this one to Stanford, who was 11-11 and had lost 4 in a row, all to unranked teams.  Oregon has some decent wins. The one on the road against Arizona is particularly nice, but bad losses litter the schedule.  They have lost to an astonishing 5 non-top 60 kenpom.com teams and an even mor...

The Big 10 has a lot of talent at the top, and also a lot bad teams at the bottom.  You have ranked teams like Iowa, Michigan State, Maryland, Purdue and Indiana, as well as good teams like Michigan and Ohio State.  However, at the bottom, Rutgers, Minnesota, Illinois, Penn State and Nebraska are as bad as the bottom feeders of any conference. I think Maryland is the best team in the conference when they are on, but can be inconsistent, and Iowa has been better as of late, so I'm going to give them the nod at #1.  Iowa's first win over Michigan State was impressive, but MSU had no Valentine, and it was at Iowa.  I definitely didn't expect the second victory though, as Michigan St had Valentine back and played on their home court, yet still got handled by the Hawkeyes.  Iowa has also beaten Purdue on the road, which is a very nice win.  It's very curious to me that the Hawkeyes started off the year so poorly, as they lost a preseason game to a ...

The Big East is an underrated conference this year, led by a really good team in Villanova.  They have two top 6 teams in both the AP and coaches poll (Oklahoma and Xavier).  Right now on kenpom.com, Villanova is the number one team in the country (they are #4 in the AP poll).  I think I agree with AP poll ranking more than the kenpom.com ranking, as the kenpom ranking may favor early season cupcakes too much.  Oklahoma beat Villanova by 23 points, so in my opinion there is no way they are behind the Wildcats.  I do think Villanova is really good though, just like they were last year before they fell in the NCAA tournament to NC State.  Villanova beat Xavier by an astonishing 31 points, which is Xavier's only loss on the year.  Xavier is pretty good as well, with plenty of good wins.  The Musketeers have beaten Alabama, USC (who should be ranked this week), Michigan, Cincinnati, Dayton, Wake Forest, Butler and Ma...

I was originally going to move to the Big East, but I had to give a Big 12 preview, just because of how incredible of a game the Oklahoma-Kansas game was.  It was the ultimate matchup, number 1 KU vs. number 2 Oklahoma ( in the AP poll), and the opposite in the coaches poll!  Both teams played very well all the way up to the end, with Kansas coming through in the end on a controversial steal by Frank Mason.  Mason stood way too close to Buddy Hield inbounding the ball and ended up getting the steal to seal the game.  Although in my opinion the refs clearly missed the call, good coaching by Bill Self to tell his guys to move close to the inbounder with so little space between the out of bounds line and the stands in Allen Fieldhouse.  Buddy Hield played an absolutely incredible game, scoring 46 points.  Oklahoma doesn't have much depth as they have a weak bench, but Buddy Hield is playing like the best player in the country, Jordan Woodard ha...

The college basketball season has been going on for a while, but in my opinion, that was all just preseason, and the real season starts when almost every game is a test, when good teams actually have to play on the road (crazy I know!), and when the marquee rivalries begin.  I am going to do a little preview on each of the conferences in separate posts. ACC The ACC was supposed to be the dominant league this season, and while they are still a really good league, led by a few top tier teams, overall they have been a disappointment.  Right now, Virginia looks like the team to beat.  Their only loss comes against a pretty good George Washington team on the road, and they have big wins over West Virginia and Villanova, as well as wins over California, and Ohio State (on the road).  Malcom Brogdon gets much more publicity for the Cavaliers, but in my opinion, Anthony Gill is their best player.  Gill has a huge motor, plays great defense, and is a bi...