Great coaches, great teams, bad news for everybody else<\/p><\/div>\n
Back in April, following Duke’s national title win, I ranked the Top 20 teams for the 2010-11 season<\/a>.\u00a0 On that list, I had Michigan State at #1 and Duke at 2.\u00a0 On further reflection, I have to agree with just about everyone else and say that Duke belongs at #1, with the Spartans right behind them.\u00a0 The loss of Jon Scheyer shouldn’t be underestimated, but with plenty of experience returning, a handful of impact newcomers, and Coach K pulling the strings,\u00a0 the Blue Devils are a legit #1 team.\u00a0 Tom Izzo’s\u00a0team is in a similar position, with tons of experience returning from\u00a0a team that has been to back-to-back Final Fours.<\/p>\n The question coming into this new season is what teams, if any,\u00a0can challenge the supremacy of Duke and Michigan St.?\u00a0 The three teams that I had lined up behind them in April have all lost their best player since I\u00a0made the list.\u00a0 Gordon Heyward and Greg Monroe left Butler and Georgetown, respectively, for the NBA, and\u00a0Purdue lost Robbie Hummel for the year\u00a0when he re-tore his ACL a couple weeks ago.\u00a0\u00a0A few other teams that I had highly-ranked also lost key players that I thought might be back (West\u00a0Virginia’s Devin Ebanks, Xavier’s Jordan Crawford, and\u00a0Baylor’s Ekpe Udoh).<\/p>\n So, who is the third-best team in the country?\u00a0 I was certainly surprised when the rankings were released and\u00a0Kansas State was 3rd.\u00a0\u00a0I admit that I\u00a0probably\u00a0had them too low in my\u00a0April\u00a0rankings (14th), but K-State’s weakness last year was their scoring ability, and they’ve lost Denis Clemente, who averaged 17 points and led the team in assists.\u00a0 Jacob Pullen,\u00a0Clint Kelly, and Jamar Samuels is a nice trio, but that roster just doesn’t looke like a\u00a0Top 5 team to me.<\/p>\n The\u00a0above-mentioned Pitt Panthers are ranked 4th, but they also have an underwhelming team.\u00a0 Jamie Dixon\u00a0is a great coach that always has his team over-achieving,\u00a0but this\u00a0team would get run off the floor by the Pitt teams\u00a0of a couple years ago that featured Sam Young and DeJuan Blair, and I don’t remember those teams making any Final Four trips.\u00a0 The headliners for this Pitt team:\u00a0Ashton Gibbs and Brad Wanamaker.\u00a0 Nice college players, to be sure, but that doesn’t\u00a0sound like a title-contending team.<\/p>\n For me, a more impressive returning group than K-State’s or Pitt’s can be found on\u00a0the Main Line.\u00a0 Nova’s potential starting five of Corey Fisher, Corey Stokes, Maalik Wayns, Antonio Pena, and Dominic Cheek could definitely be Final Four-caliber by March if Wayns and Cheek continue to build on\u00a0their solid freshman seasons.\u00a0 The unexpected loss of\u00a0Taylor King hurts\u00a0them, but you know Jay Wright will have\u00a0some talent to\u00a0choose from on his bench, as well.<\/p>\n The other team that I would put in my potential Final Four as the season gets underway is Ohio State.\u00a0\u00a0William Buford,\u00a0David Lighty, and Jon Diebler is an under-rated trio, and they’re joined by arguably the top recruiting class in the nation.\u00a0 There seems\u00a0to be little doubt that PF Jared Sullinger is ready to be\u00a0a\u00a0star right away.\u00a0 The one big question for the Buckeyes is who will handle the point guard duties that were mostly handled by Evan Turner last year.<\/p>\n The script for this season has Duke and Michigan State squaring off\u00a0for the title at the Final Four\u00a0in Houston.\u00a0 During the non-conference slate, I’ll be looking to see which teams have the goods to force a re-write in March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As Bry noted below, the end of the baseball season means more time to focus on the NFL.\u00a0 But it also means there’s a new sport coming back for our viewing pleasure: college basketball.\u00a0 The season gets underway tonight, and … Continue reading