Anyone want to make any predictions for the upcoming season? It will definitely be a great one. Teams that I keep seeing in the Top 10 include: Florida, UNC, Pittsburgh, Duke, Arizona, LSU, and Kansas.

Wisconsin -- bringing back 90-something percent of their scoring (and adding a couple young point guards) is in at least one top ten list I've seen.

Should vie with d'OSU for the Big Ten crown.

Right now, I think Wisc should get the nod. If the OSU wonderkids try to outtalent their way through the Big 10, they may get knocked off their perch.

Also will the mid-major rising continue?

Or will we continue to call the Missouri Valley mid-majors?

I don't know, do you think Wisconson can get past North Dakota State this year? HA!

I think the MVC is in it's own category, near-majors. If Creighton, SIU, Missouri St, Wichita, UNI, and Bradley continue to churn out teams that have legitimate NCAA hopes over the next few years, then maybe it can become an NCAA version of "BCS major".

They were smart enuf to leave them off the sked this year

Considering all 5 starters for the National Champions are returing... FLORIDA should be tough... but there is a lot of luck when it comes to making it through the 6 games of the tournament... We will be in the tournament, hopefully highly seeded...

I look for Florida and Ohio State to be in the Finals. Gonna be a soft year for Michigan State, I think. We are lining up some top recruits for the following year, tho....

You like Ohio State even though Oden might me some big non-conference games with an injury? I think Ohio State will be a late bloomer because with Oden gone they will only have one true center.

I believe North Carolina has all of their stars back as well and one reporter said their incoming #1 recruiting class is "GOOD".

Marquette and Georgetown will be top 10 teams this year.


Look out for sensational Sophomore James from Marquette to compete for national player of the year. The Big East rookie of the year last season should be even better this year.

Yes! UNC is going to be loaded. They have a great freshman class and then Hansbrough will only be a sophomore!!

UConn will be a team that others won't want to face in the tournament. They're practically all freshmen and sophomores, but reports are that they will have alot of athleticism and speed. It will be a fun year to watch! The Big East should be less formidable this year overall so a tournament worthy record is well within their reach.

As long as Mike Krzyzewski is coaching I wouldn't count Duke out. And it will be interesting to see if the 6'5" Lithuanian-American guard Martynas Pocius will blossom without the guidance or shadow of JJ Redick.

Don't forget about #26 Gonzaga. They will again be a factor nationally and in the WCC. Can't wait to see Duke vs Gonzaga in NY around Dec. 20th I believe.

I won't start a Horizon League thread (since this may be the sole post about it this season ) ...

But, note that Butler can probably soon lay claim to being the best team in the state of Indiana (no small feat).

They defeated the Hoosiers last night in the preseason NIT

Won against Notre Dame in South Bend this night before

Now have upcoming games against what might include all the other teams in the state:

Valpo
Ball State
Indiana State
Evanston
Purdue

I know this is ridiculous and meaningless at this point of the season but it's probably the only time I will see the Mountain West RPI at #1 any time during the season.

http://kenpom.com/confrank.php?y=2007

Through games of Tuesday, November 14
Average Avg Non-Conf Average Rankings of Members
Rnk Conference W-L Pct Overall RPI SOS (Rank) Non-Conf RPI Hi Lo Avg Median
1 Mountain West Conference 11-2 .846 .5804 .4881 ( 5) .5804 ( 1) 2 179 59 33
2 Pac 10 Conference 13-3 .813 .5752 .4694 ( 7) .5752 ( 2) 32 97 53 33
3 Horizon League 9-8 .529 .5624 .5262 ( 2) .5624 ( 3) 1 179 76 70
4 Sun Belt Conference 9-18 .333 .5114 .5501 ( 1) .5114 ( 4) 9 229 86 53
5 Big West Conference 8-9 .471 .5109 .5123 ( 4) .5109 ( 5) 53 103 78 74
6 Big East Conference 19-3 .864 .5070 .3812 (14) .5070 ( 6) 2 244 89 52
7 Big Ten Conference 18-2 .900 .4955 .3636 (18) .4955 ( 7) 6 179 94 116
8 Western Athletic Conference 5-6 .455 .4661 .4132 (10) .4661 ( 8) 25 179 99 96
9 Ivy League 7-10 .412 .4644 .4775 ( 6) .4644 ( 9) 2 230 112 103
10 Conference USA 10-6 .625 .4591 .4019 (12) .4591 (10) 53 179 97 69
11 Big Sky Conference 3-13 .188 .4539 .5238 ( 3) .4539 (11) 60 167 100 74
12 Atlantic Coast Conference 22-1 .957 .4532 .2904 (24) .4532 (12) 2 179 111 131
13 Big XII Conference 18-1 .947 .4489 .2803 (25) .4489 (13) 9 179 103 74
14 Missouri Valley Conference 8-4 .667 .4236 .2718 (28) .4236 (14) 27 179 115 133
15 Southeastern Conference 14-2 .875 .4223 .2742 (27) .4223 (15) 19 179 118 132
16 Atlantic 10 Conference 12-5 .706 .4120 .2778 (26) .4120 (16) 9 230 126 156
17 Atlantic Sun Conference 3-13 .188 .4070 .4676 ( 8) .4070 (17) 33 179 121 117
18 Big South Conference 3-10 .231 .3970 .3750 (15) .3970 (18) 96 179 127 118
19 Mid American Conference 8-10 .444 .3965 .3264 (20) .3965 (19) 9 179 128 163
20 West Coast Conference 6-8 .429 .3920 .3710 (17) .3920 (20) 74 237 130 118

hmmm....let's see the Big Sky is 3-13 and ranked ahead of the ACC which is 22-1...???? I'm not even going to try and deciper that one.

Bucky it's Evansville, not Evanston

and I guess it cn't be a true state championship, no IUPUI


in other news, Rock Choke Jayhawk is in full swing, as KU lost a homer tonight to Oral Roberts.

These scores caught my attention tonight... as a pair of Pac-10 teams were blown out on their home courts by teams from the WAC and Mountain West:

At Corvallis, Ore.: Nevada 75, Oregon St. 47
At Palo Alto: Air Force 79, Stanford 45

And then this score just for its absurdity: Cal State Northridge 159, Redlands 97

D'oh -- as I was typing that list, I was thinking "Evansville or Evanston??" ... I always get it wrong

Love that name IUPUI

Knowing how good Nevada's been the last 4-5 years, not a shock one bit to see them do that in Corvallis.




Evanston = Big 10
Evansville, Indiana

The fact that Nevada beat Oregon State in Corvallis wasn't the shocker. It was the margin, and the fact Nevada handed the Beavers their worst non-conference home loss in school history that was the shocker. It was also OSU's second-worst home loss to anyone in the last 10 years. When you think of all the times a top-ranked Arizona or top-ranked Stanford (or even strong Cal, Washington, UCLA teams) went into Corvallis over the last decade and couldn't win that decisively, it's surprising that Nevada was able to accomplish it. With Nick Fazekas back for his senior season, the Wolf Pack should be a very good team.

I'm hoping Jay John (Oregon State Head Coach) or I believe that is his name, gets OSU back to the winning ways. Getting smacked by Nevada like that at home is unacceptable.

This is basically a meaningless thread at this point but interesting to see how conference starts translate to bids come tourney time. Obviously this doesn't factor in SOS, location, etc. that the tourney committee uses. The following are the conferences that have begun with a 500 record or better.

As of 11/18/06

1. ACC 34-2 (.944)

2. SEC 26-4 (.867)

3. Big XII 31-5 (.861)

4. Big Ten 29-5 (.853)

5. Big East 34-8 (.810)

6. Mountain West 23-6 (.793)

7. Atlantic 10 25-8 (.758)

8. Conference USA 24-9 (.727)

9. Pac-10 21-8 (.724)

10. Big West 18-10 (.643)

11. Missouri Valley 14-8 (.636)

12. West Coast 16-11 (.593)

13. WAC 13-10 (.565)

14. Patriot 13-12 (.520)

15. MAC 16-15 (.516)

16. Horizon 14-14 (.500)

I'm liking this Oregon State vs. the WAC thing. After Nevada won at Oregon State by 28 last week, Hawaii turned the trick tonight. The Rainbows beat the Beavers by 44, winning 85-41. A week from Saturday, OSU hosts its third WAC opponent, Fresno State.

Poor Oregon State! This gives me faith that my Cougars can beat them but funny things happy in conference play.

I'm loving these early season tourneys -- Maui, Coaches v. Cancer, Padre Island, etc. Provides some nice match-ups to watch as opposed to the usual big conference vs. mid-major vs. minor conferences.

For me tonight it's exciting to see Marquette take on Duke. MU dispatched Bobby Knight's TX Tech last night --Knight, while at IU, had a 2-0 record vs. McGuire -- here's a chance to even it up. Marquette's a bit weak in the paint - -while see if Coach K takes advantage of that. Would be nice to hand Duke their first loss -- and I think Dukie V is calling the game too -- that would be lagniappe.



Dunno -- only thing I do know for certain is you can't spell Minnesota without an "NIT"

Some interesting scores jumped out at me tonight:

Wofford 91, Cincinnati 90 (shocker on the Bearcats' home floor)
Florida 94, Prairie View 33 (ouch!... Prairie View led early but was outscored 81-18 to end the game)

I just bought my ESPN Full Court TV package today so I'm happy.

I want ESPN Fullcourt Package as well!!