everything that's on my mind
(as if there's not already enough people doing this)Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Number one
Well, it's only a few more weeks now until the college basketball season starts, and it's about time. I like watching college football, but enough already. After last Saturday, it doesn't seem anyone will beat USC again, so I'm finding less and less reasons to watch anymore (except to hopefully see Tennessee lose every week). At the risk of offending everyone in the southeast United States, let me just say this: I'm ready for the real college sports season to begin.
As the start of the season rapidly approaches, the good news is that every poll I've seen so far (ESPN, CNNSI, MSNBC, Dick Vitale) is correct - Duke is #1.
Duke managed to win the ACC tournament and grab a #1 seed in the tournament last year, despite having only eight scholarship players and no true point guard. Many said it was Coach K's finest coaching job ever, and they may be right. Duke lost only one senior of consequence, guard Daniel Ewing. They also lost the easily replaceable junior Shavlik Randolph (who has been less than outstanding in 3 years and, despite this, decided to leave for the NBA). However, they've added a great freshman class, which includes Josh McRoberts and Greg Paulus, who are both expected to make immediate impact and should more than make up for the loss of Ewing and Randolph. Not to mention the fact that they will have two of the best players in the country last year returning in seniors Shelden Williams and J.J. Redick. Oh, yeah, and the best coach in the country is returning, too.
Dick Vitale proclaims Duke will "cut down the nets" in Indianapolis. Dick is not always right, but he's been pretty good in recent years at predicting who will win it all before the season starts. He picked MSU in 2000, Duke in 2001, Maryland in 2002, Connecticut in 2004, and UNC in 2005. (I don't think he picked Syracuse in 2003). I'm sure a lot of people picked some of those teams as well, as they were all certainly expected to be there to the end, but probably not as many picked them all. So, hopefully, Dick will be right again and the basketball world will return to normal, with Duke accepting the trophy once again on April 3, 2006.
As the start of the season rapidly approaches, the good news is that every poll I've seen so far (ESPN, CNNSI, MSNBC, Dick Vitale) is correct - Duke is #1.
Duke managed to win the ACC tournament and grab a #1 seed in the tournament last year, despite having only eight scholarship players and no true point guard. Many said it was Coach K's finest coaching job ever, and they may be right. Duke lost only one senior of consequence, guard Daniel Ewing. They also lost the easily replaceable junior Shavlik Randolph (who has been less than outstanding in 3 years and, despite this, decided to leave for the NBA). However, they've added a great freshman class, which includes Josh McRoberts and Greg Paulus, who are both expected to make immediate impact and should more than make up for the loss of Ewing and Randolph. Not to mention the fact that they will have two of the best players in the country last year returning in seniors Shelden Williams and J.J. Redick. Oh, yeah, and the best coach in the country is returning, too.
Dick Vitale proclaims Duke will "cut down the nets" in Indianapolis. Dick is not always right, but he's been pretty good in recent years at predicting who will win it all before the season starts. He picked MSU in 2000, Duke in 2001, Maryland in 2002, Connecticut in 2004, and UNC in 2005. (I don't think he picked Syracuse in 2003). I'm sure a lot of people picked some of those teams as well, as they were all certainly expected to be there to the end, but probably not as many picked them all. So, hopefully, Dick will be right again and the basketball world will return to normal, with Duke accepting the trophy once again on April 3, 2006.
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