Official 2011-12 College Basketball Thread
 

With schedules finally taking full shape, I thought I'd start this thread.

William and Mary is coming off of a tough year, but has strong young player returning and a freshman that may be the best they've ever recruited - the Maryland Gatorade Player of the Year Marcus Thornton.

As I looked at the schedule, one game jumped out at me of interest to this board:

12/18 @ Missouri

Do I finally have a chance to trash talk with MBBF?!

Better yet, grab a flight and I'll put you in some very good seats for that game if you're interested. :)

That would be so amazing, but I'm not sure that I could make it happen.

I'll look around though. If I could find a good deal, the wife and I might make the trip.

What's the best airport to fly into?

STL and KC would both work. I'd guess that STL would be a bit cheaper depending on the airline. Bit shorter drive from STL as well.

Good to get this thread going. I think we have stretched the other one as far as it should go.

Looking forward to the Maui Classic this year. Duke, UCLA, Memphis, Kansas, Tennessee, Georgetown and Michigan. Assuming they win their first round games against cupcake opponents (for the most part).

Early non-qualifier for Kansas.

Highly-touted prospect Braeden Anderson won't play for Kansas Jayhawks - ESPN

UCLA lands the #4 player in the nation, Kyle Anderson, out of New Jersey

Wow, I can't wait to read the Seton Hall Rivals board. Congrats.

Landing Anderson is huge for UCLA. It now looks good for Shabazz Muhammad to come out to Westwood as well, although he's going to wait until spring to decide. And the coaches are trying with Tony Parker (the Georgia center), too.

Could be a big time class for UCLA.

Rodney Purvis committed to NC State today. Really good pickup for them.

HiFi - Our schools again cross paths. Strangely, we play Liberty TWICE this year, once home and once away.

Yup agreed. A bit awkward, but nothing they could do about it at that point.

A lot of smoke coming out of Ann Arbor that Mitch McGary could drop for the Wolverines any time now. I still won't believe it until it happens, and I don't care that the kid is a one and done; this would be the biggest recruiting coup for UM Hoops since Webber.

Devon Roe retired from MSU due to on going knee problems.

Lawrence Bowers blows his ACL out in a pick-up game. Out for the season.

Ugh.

Keith Wright on the 50 person Wooden Award Watch List. That says a lot about what is going on in Cambridge.

Yeah that could cost us 5-10 games. Damn. Damn. :mad:

Nice article in newspaper today. Always love to see the players do good things.

Bad news can't keep Missouri's Bowers away from read-to-children program - Columbia Missourian

Colorado has a nice class built up

There are some stronger players available out west this year, and Colorado is doing a good job of taking advantage of the limitation of scholarships at bigger schools, and the fact UCLA is looking at almost all national level guys instad of staying in their home region.

Sad to hear. It sounds like he was just an animal in high school back before the knee issues arose. And from what I've seen reported, he seems like a good kid and one that you would root for when not playing against your own team.

I'll be interested to see how he does in college. Sounds like a really unique and special offensive player, but also someone who you'll have to help out a lot on defense.

The thought (not from staff, but from scouting circles) is that Anderson will defend the 4 against smaller 4's, and the 3 against bigger teams (where the 3 is more like a smaller 4 than a bigger guard).

But that has been a concern voiced a number of times on UCLA fan boards. It's also thought that while his athleticism leaves something to be desired, Anderson on the actual court of play is no zero defense, that he is as exceptionally skilled and knowledgeable on defense as he is on offense, and counters his deficiencies with positioning and anticipation. He's also fairly long, so that helps.

But there is no question he could use being in a zone defense, and Howland just doesn't run those, except in truly desperate times (like the 2009-10 season, with "Ole" Dragovic in the lineup).

Rutgers will go to the NIT at least.

UTEP landed a top 5 JUCO player in Kenny Williams, and got a verbal from Rivals #69 player Twymond Howard a couple of weeks ago. Tim Floyd is bringing in some top-notch talent to El Paso...

UCLA loses their PG recruit, Dominic Artis, to a decommit. I would say that Oregon or possibly Cal is the likely destination. Fallout of the Kyle Anderson verbal

Duke insiders are saying that Michigan is the heavy favorite to land McGary now. Coupled with the fact the kid canceled all remaining visits and it is looking almost too good for UM right now.

Tom Crean in some hot water........

What in the world was Tom Crean thinking? - College Basketball Nation Blog - ESPN

Nice article on UNLV head coach Dave Rice on the recruiting trail. I'm really, really looking forward to this season, both in recruiting and on the court, especially after the football team disappointed again.

A Day in the Life: On the recruiting trail with UNLV coach Dave Rice - Las Vegas Sun

Preseason poll is out for the Big 12. KU and A&M tie for first.

Kansas, A&M Picked To Win Men's Basketball Title - Big 12 Conference - Official Athletic Site

Dola

Kansas loses two players for the season to eligibility issues, including 5-star freshman Ben McLemore.

http://www2.kusports.com/news/2011/o...or-ineligible/

Belated Mountain West preseason posting:

UNLV picked second in MWC preseason media poll - Las Vegas Sun

I feel like we can and should win the conference this year - BYU no longer has Jimmer and SDSU lost most of their scoring. Don't really see New Mexico as all that much to worry about TBH.

Wade,

Single game tickets are now on sale. December 18th still has some available. :D

Heh. Airline tickets are just too expensive.

Unfortunately we've found out that 3 of our guys (2 starters, one key backup), one of which is CAA 1st team, have various injuries that may make them miss the first month or two of the season :(. Even worse, ALL in the front-court.

BYU isn't in UNLV's conference.

Ummm..

Rick Pitino uses relationship analogy to describe Big East defectors Syracuse and Pittsburgh

I've made my thoughts on Scott Drew pretty clear, but was sad to see that his parents are both fighting cancer. Have met Homer Drew on a couple of occasions and have heard nothing but good things about him.

Baylor coach Scott Drew comments on parents fighting cancer - ESPN Dallas

Read that FSU is picked third in the ACC this year - only the second time they've been picked that high. Guess the conference sucks. They are also #26 (first team outside the top 25) in one of the polls. Apparently some people are optimistic that bringing in a real point guard will allow us to win more games rather than hold teams to 30% shooting and 45 points, but lose because we commit 25 TOs.

Yup :( UNC+Duke + dear god please someone anyone win some games... again... maybe FSU will be good.

Ah right. I keep forgetting about that WCC arrangement. Thanks.

I'd say lukewarm at worst. These things happen everywhere. No big deal. He made a simple mistake.

First coach's poll is out:

NCAA College Basketball Polls, College Basketball Rankings, NCAA Basketball Polls - ESPN

Pretty surprised to see Syracuse at #5...there really wasn't a lot of off-season hype about the team being loaded this year. I guess people expect Jardine/Joseph/Triche to move up to superstar status.

The analogy would have been clearer to me if he worked in a restaurant table somehow.

Surprised to see Mizzou in the top 25. Great guards, but really hard to say what happens down low with Bowers out.

Is that how that works?

Based on vote totals, yes. I'm not sure what the reason or purpose for stopping at 25 is, but it's nothing more than a list of vote totals from 1 to X. Same in football.

UCLA is #20. They have guard depth issues, but they may have the biggest front line in basketball with 6'10" uber-sized Josh Smith, 6'11" Anthony Stover backing him up, and the two 6'10" Wear twins and Brendan Lane backing up Reeves Nelson, a "tiny" 6'7 power plug who plays bigger than he is.

Arizona is #16, whcih surprises me a little. Certainly a team with a lot of talent, but very young. I don't think the voters are properly considering just how much of an impact Derrick Williams had on that team, or that they also lost second leading scorer Momo Jones.