I can't be the only college basketball fan here, can I?? The season is startin soon, so I'll kick off a thread with Blue Ribbon's preseason top 25.

 

1. Kentucky

2. Arizona 

3. Wisconsin

4. North Carolina

5. Duke

6. Kansas

7. Wichita State

8. Virginia

9. Gonzaga

10. Florida

11. Louisville

12. Texas

13. Villanova

14. VCU

15. Ohio State

16. Connecticut

17. San Diego State

18. Iowa State

19. SMU

20. Michigan State

21. Syracuse

22. Stanford

23. Michigan

24. Nebraska

25. Oklahoma

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I Love It! Can't wait to get going (NBA too).

 

Go Gators!

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TravC59, aka JacksJags. @TravC59 on Twitter
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; "This is really good, you want a bite, Honey?"

I Love It! Can't wait to get going (NBA too).

 

Go Gators!

 

Florida should be really good, again, this year. Would not be surprised to see Billy Donovan make it 4 straight Elite 8s.  

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On a related note, has anybody heard about this Azubuike kid that plays at Potter's House. From Nigeria. Nearly 7 feet, 265 and supposedly is 16 years old.

 

A top 10 national recruit for 2016.

 

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/basket...a-azubuike

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He's already got offers from Duke, Kentucky, and Kansas. Those are the three top recruiting schools in the country. Pretty impressive.

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On a related note, has anybody heard about this Azubuike kid that plays at Potter's House. From Nigeria. Nearly 7 feet, 265 and supposedly is 16 years old.

 

A top 10 national recruit for 2016.

 

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/basket...a-azubuike

Calipari was at the school last week to see him, and I think catch a workout.

 

On a way off related note....In HS we had a stud center. Bob Knight came down to visit him and watch a workout. They cleared the gym of all but a couple basketball and football players. It was cool to watch, and Knight was extremely personable.

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TravC59, aka JacksJags. @TravC59 on Twitter
;
; "This is really good, you want a bite, Honey?"

Was that at Orange Park?

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Go Gators!

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The 1 and dones did me in.   I turned to the NBA. 

 

Hard to get excited about players you have never heard of.  I think it was early March 2014 when I realized that I only knew 1 player on NC during the Duke vs NC game.

 

I'll root for Pitt but can't even sit through an entire game anymore until the Tourney.

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The 1 and dones did me in.   I turned to the NBA. 

 

Hard to get excited about players you have never heard of.  I think it was early March 2014 when I realized that I only knew 1 player on NC during the Duke vs NC game.

 

I'll root for Pitt but can't even sit through an entire game anymore until the Tourney.

 

It is really hard for me to get into it before the tournament as well.

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The 1 and dones did me in.   I turned to the NBA. 

 

Hard to get excited about players you have never heard of.  I think it was early March 2014 when I realized that I only knew 1 player on NC during the Duke vs NC game.

 

I'll root for Pitt but can't even sit through an entire game anymore until the Tourney.

 

There aren't many teams that thrive on 1 and done players. Fans of schools that do just have to follow recruiting more, which is pretty fun in itself.

 

Fair enough, though. I can't stand hockey until the playoffs, so I get that NCAAB is not everyone's cup of tea. It's pretty far down sports-market wise.

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Was that at Orange Park?

Si

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TravC59, aka JacksJags. @TravC59 on Twitter
;
; "This is really good, you want a bite, Honey?"

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GATORSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS


WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

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60% of the time, It works Everytime...



 

VCU is cranking up HAVOC again. Shaka Smart is getting more and more recruits to come his way, but he's very selective as to the types that he wants. That's an obvious statement, but he has actually been on record stating that he's not sure if he can get a five-star recruit to come to his program and sacrifice the minutes that he would get at another school.

 

Regardless, his teams play a very viewer-friendly style that is an Oregon Offense level of pace. It's a lot of fun to watch.

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I'm trying to make myself more informed and less opinionated.

Stop saying whatever stupid thing you're talking about and pay attention to all the interesting things I have to say!

VCU is cranking up HAVOC again. Shaka Smart is getting more and more recruits to come his way, but he's very selective as to the types that he wants. That's an obvious statement, but he has actually been on record stating that he's not sure if he can get a five-star recruit to come to his program and sacrifice the minutes that he would get at another school.

 

Regardless, his teams play a very viewer-friendly style that is an Oregon Offense level of pace. It's a lot of fun to watch.

 

Michigan destroyed that "havoc" defense a couple years ago in the NCAAT. Can't stand that style of play. Handcheck - handcheck - handcheck. I'm very glad the NCAA addressed those rules for the 2013/2014 season.

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I'm just glad that I have the Gators basketball team to fall back on, because my football teams are complete jokes.

 

Billy Donovan is one of the best coaches in the game, hopefully we can finally push through this season and get back to the title game.

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60% of the time, It works Everytime...



 

Michigan destroyed that "havoc" defense a couple years ago in the NCAAT. Can't stand that style of play. Handcheck - handcheck - handcheck. I'm very glad the NCAA addressed those rules for the 2013/2014 season.

 

Me responding to this makes me feel dirty, but there are a few points I'd like to make...

 

Yes, Michigan did tear VCU apart in the Tournament and it was due to the obvious weakness that plagues a lot of the mid-major teams; the athletic big man. McGarrity pretty much had his way inside and VCU simply had no answer for him.

 

As for the hand check comment, despite the NCAA rules and so forth that they imposed, VCU still rolled out the Nation's leader in steals, steals per game, and steals per 40 minutes. He did this all while maintaining a top ten rank of steals to Personal Fouls ratio.

 

VCU also lead the nation as a team in steals per game and was fourth overall in turnovers forced. While hand checking is a component of their game, it didn't really affect them as much as might have been expected since they also utilize a full court press for the majority of their defense and rely on depth and athleticism to keep them competitive.

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I'm trying to make myself more informed and less opinionated.

Stop saying whatever stupid thing you're talking about and pay attention to all the interesting things I have to say!

Right, I get Shaka Smart's system and why it works. I'm just not a fan of it and think that fouling every possession, because you know the refs aren't going to call everything, is lame. Whatever works, though.

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I need to start digging into the Pitt Roster to see what we have this year.  They have a young roster but then again, most other teams do too.

 

Yep, just checked .... predicted to finish 8th out of 15 teams. 

 

Now, if the ACC can just get Notre Dame to commit in football  !!

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I need to start digging into the Pitt Roster to see what we have this year.  They have a young roster but then again, most other teams do too.
 
Yep, just checked .... predicted to finish 8th out of 15 teams. 
 
Now, if the ACC can just get Notre Dame to commit in football  !!

 
This site has been doing previews for their top 144 teams all summer long. They just did Pitt the other day. Check it out, their previews are very good.

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/9889

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