Michigan Wins, Barely

November 27th, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

It was a surprise. The Michigan Wolverines were supposed to win without any kind of difficulty. They were playing Creighton, a small school which might not even be Division I. Their Thanksgiving game might well have been a complete blowout. But instead, it took all of regulation and an overtime period to finally win the game by 7 points. Only 7 points. Michigan is ranked 15 in the nation, but it will be interesting to see if a close game against Creighton will make any difference on that basis. There are lots of possibilities on that level. It also doesn’t mean that Michigan is playing badly in general; maybe they just had an off day because of the holiday. Maybe less practice or less focus.

It’s Unanimous

November 23rd, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

While we don’t talk about Women’s basketball too much here on the blog, from time to time, it’s important to bring it up. This way, we don’t forget that there are other important games going on. And have we got news for you. The UConn Huskies have been voted number one with all 40 first place votes. It’s unanimous. And it’s well-earned, even though the season is still so young. They were immensely successful last year and have started out this year fully undefeated. There is, of course, a long way to go, but we are expecting that the team will bring out some good plays and keep developing as time moves on. For the moment, it doesn’t look like much of anything can stand in their way!

NC

November 20th, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

The team that everyone’s watching is North Carolina. After they won last year, we saw that they were still a good team even still. They have been about to put great teams on the court over and over again, and this year will be no different. They’re off to a good start, having a record of 4-0 so far. They beat Ohio State most recently, 77-73. Their ability to win games is hard to ignore and they are almost certainly headed back into the tournament this year.  Have you already got them picked? It migth be too early, because teams like Kansas are going to be really tough this year too, trying to unseat the dominant team.

Polls

November 16th, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

It’s only a few days into the NCAA Basketball season, but I thought it might be fun to look at the various polls to see where the teams are at right now and then compare with where they end up at the end of the season. Both the AP and ESPN have Kansas, Michigan State and Texas at the top of the leaderboard. It’s going to be very fun to see them get all the way to the tournament, which seems very likely. It’s hard to get a team to drop too much unless something really goes awry. North Carolina is #6 and #4 respectively, which isn’t surprising, although they are the defending champions and excited to try to win it all again. Other teams, like Villanova, Kentucky, Duke and others sit in the top 10 for both polls. Depending on which team you root for, you can hope that these rankings stay the same or that they change. It will be a lot of fun to watch a few new teams competing at the top level however!

The Start!

November 13th, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

NCAA Basketball is back! It’s starting up this weekend with some smaller games. We will get to see UConn back in action, as well as teams like North Carolina and Pittsburgh. It’s going to be a lot of fun though, because we haven’t had much chance to gauge these teams in quite awhile. The talent that many of these teams possess is immense. It’s exciting and hard to believe what the next few months will offer, but we do know that several of these teams have been able to bring in the best action that you’ve seen in a long time. We know this from seeing them in some friendly games as well as strong practice sessions. Who are you rooting for this season to hit the Final Four? Who do you think will underperform?

Jordan Jr.

November 9th, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Michael Jordan’s son just can’t seem to stay out of the news this year. I suppose this is partly because he’s got the kind of breeding he does and because he’s just starting out in the major basketball world. He’s a player with decent ability, so it will be fun to see if he can’t make it work out. This last week he got in trouble for wearing Air Jordans when he played. He says that it’s because of his family connection. Unfortunately, his school, Central Florida, has a deal with Adidas. The company has cancelled the deal because of the row and that was it. But the team might end up suffering a little bit because of the situation. Maybe they will be able to get everything back in order or make a deal with another group.

Villanova

November 5th, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Last year was a banner year for Villanova. We had watched this team mature from their challenging years to the current high rolling crew. They made it all the way to the Final Four, but they are not stopping there. This year, they have been predicted to make it all the way to the championship, potentially. This team didn’t lose much in the offseason to the draft or graduation. In fact, they have developed the talent that they had last season into a full blown college team. While it will still be awhile before we have any idea what trajectory they’re on, it’s going to be amazing to see how they have been able to mature and create depth on their team that only a few years ago could have only been dreamed of! Keep an eye on this team because, even though there isn’t quite as much discussion about them, their chances are very good to get deep into the tournament!

Duke Rushing Forwards?

November 2nd, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

With a team that always has high expectations, Duke has been one of those teams that is up and down in recent years. One of the biggest issues recently has been Duke’s loss of players to the NBA and the draft. Just like Kansas that I mentioned the other day, Duke has been practically decimated by player losses in the last couple years. They only have a couple of scholarship players on the roster and this makes things harder for them against such local rivals as North Carolina. Hopefully they can make do with what they have this year and get back into the tournament and maybe even winning it.

Kansas

October 30th, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

If you’ve been wondering who’s at the top of the polls at this time of the season, it would be interesting to find out why. I mean, it’s almost never a surprise that Kansas is at the top of the rankings. Hopefully Kansas will be able to hit the level that people are expecting from them this year, since they’ve struggled to live up to the expectations of their team recently. They will be one of the teams at the top echelon this year and might be a possible national championship contender. They’ve been working hard all fall to fix some of the mistakes that they were making in last year’s tournament and to make up for the loss of some of their players to graduation and the NBA draft. But the experts still like their chances and we can expect a dominant team to take the court.

Running up the Score?

October 26th, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Duke is obviously one of the best teams in the entire nation. We are hoping to watch them do some real competing this spring when the tournament rolls around. As a result, it’s always a little bit unfair when they play exhibition games against division 2 teams. This weekend, they played against Pfeiffer and won. By a lot. Won by so much, in fact, that they could have beaten two teams with that score. They won by over 50 points. But remember, Division 2 doesn’t have the funding that division 1 does. There are a lot of players in Division 1 who are primarily players and then go to class on the side. Division 2 is completely different, with fewer practices, no TV contracts, all this stuff. Recruitment isn’t as tough. So 50 points isn’t all that terrible for a team that’s so much further down the pecking order. Duke moves on to the real season, so we’ll get to see how good they actually are.

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