Monday, November 10, 2008

TKR's Guide to the 2008/2009 Season

With the 2008/2009 regular season officially starting today, TKR thought that we would bring everyone a quick guide to the upcoming season of college basketball. Here are my picks for a variety of topics regarding this season.

All-American 1st team

PG- Johnny Flynn (Syracuse)
SG- DeMar DeRozan (USC)
SF- James Harden (Arizona St.)
PF- Blake Griffin (Oklahoma)
C- Tyler Hansbrough (North Carolina)

All-American 2nd team

PG- Darren Collison (UCLA)
SG- Stephen Curry (Davidson)
SF- Damion James (Texas)
PF- Sam Young (Pitt)
C- Luke Harangody (Notre Dame)

All-American 3rd team

PG- Jeremy Pargo (Gonzaga)
SG- Nick Calathes (Florida)
SF- Tyler Smith (Tennessee)
PF- Jon Brockman (Washington)
C- Hasheem Thabeet (UConn)

I wanted to take the time to clarify some of my decisions. I don't have Stephen Curry as a 1st team All-American because I believe that he will have a dip in production because of the loss of Jason Richards. I also think that his stats should be put under the microscope because of the competition in the SoCon (Southern Conference). Also, I don't consider Curry to be an All-American caliber PG. He has never played the position at the college level, and I am not ready to anoint him as an elite PG.

The hardest part of my decision was choosing the PG spot on each team. I think all three of the PG's included, as well as Ty Lawson, are going to make a push for the spot on the 1st team. They are all very good, but the question is which one will put together a truly great season.

Top 5 Freshman to watch:
1) DeMar DeRozan (USC): The next great freshman at USC. He is very good without the ball, and will be the best athlete in college basketball.

2) Tyreke Evans (Memphis): Evans should thrive in the Memphis offense. Needs to prove himself as a defender.

3) Scotty Hopson (Tennessee): With his length and athleticism, he should start and excel from day one under Bruce Pearl.

4) Kebma Walker (UConn): A backcourt featuring Walker and A.J Price should be scary good for the Huskies. I love the toughness and leadership he brings to the table.

5) B.J. Mullens (Ohio St.): Mullens follows the path of highly-skilled big men at Ohio St. He will play great this year, and then head to the NBA.

Top 5 games to watch this year (Not Including Gonzaga games):

1) UNC vs. Michigan St. (December 3 at Ford Field)
2) Memphis @ Tennessee (January 24)
3) Pitt @ Louisville (January 17)
4) Oklahoma vs. Texas (January 12 and February 21)
5) UCLA vs. Arizona St. (January 17 and February 12)

My Sweet 16 in no particular order:

Gonzaga, North Carolina, Louisville, Notre Dame, UCLA, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona St., Michigan St., Duke, UConn, Miami (FL), UNLV, Wake Forest, Marquette.

2 comments:

MchlJsphRffrty said...

any word on the practice with the longhorns?

ZagBell said...

We will have more on that tomorrow hopefully. We're still trying to pull in information and make sense of it but we should have something this week for sure.