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2008-09 college basketball thread...

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by steveu, Oct 22, 2008.

  1. Oz

    Oz Well-Known Member

    Three posts above yours! :D ;D ;)
     
  2. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    I mean, yeah, how 'bout that Hansbrough being out indefinitely! ;D
     
  3. Blitz

    Blitz Active Member

    Tyler's brother Ben Hansbrough transferred, on another note, from Mississippi State at the close of last season.
    He'd played inspired ball there and we (fans) hated that he left.
     
  4. HejiraHenry

    HejiraHenry Well-Known Member

    I can't decide if I'm happy that I went with the crowd in making North Carolina the AP's unanimous No. 1 or if, like Slate's panel of presidential predictors, I'd like to have hung myself out there with some alternative selection.

    At least nobody took the approach that Kansas is No.1 until somebody beats them.
     
  5. Sam Mills 51

    Sam Mills 51 Well-Known Member

    Good. Let Chapel Hill deal with the expectations. And where are those same people that claim Duke is handed everything? Same applies with Chapel Hill - some things never change - and it did a generation before Mike Krzyzewski made Duke a consistent winner again.

    Chapel Hill obviously has talent. Anyone can see that. But the thing that hurt the Heels last year could bust them in the chops again. Tyler Hansbrough has the grit of a dozen men in him, and it shows when he plays. Too many of his teammates exhibit the characteristics pretty boys who think they're above doing the dirty work. See: Wayne Ellington, Ty Lawson and most of the others ... Bobby Frasor might be an exception.

    Chapel Hill cures that problem and they'll make last year's Kansas team look very average. If they don't, any game that is loosely officiated will be a physical battle that the opponent will make the Heels earn.
     
  6. Oz

    Oz Well-Known Member

    I know what you're getting at but ... last year's Kansas team won't ever look very average. And when you consider the Tar Heels trailed KU 40-12 during last year's Final Four semis, anything short of a perfect season means this North Carolina team will not "make last year's Kansas team look very average."
     
  7. Sam Mills 51

    Sam Mills 51 Well-Known Member

    I KNEW you were going to counter as soon as I posted that one.

    I know how good Kansas was last year ... I defended them throughout the season, and I was kinda smiling when they dropped the sledgehammer on Chapel Hill in the Final Four - in part because so many people were trying to hand the Heels the title before the weekend's games started.

    But in this era of one-and-done and teenagers looking to quickly cash in, the fact that all these guys were willing to come back was astounding. Hansbrough I can understand, not only because his NBA ceiling might be limited, but also because his father is an orthopaedic surgeon ... he's got a source for a little rent, meal and laundry money. Lawson perhaps because his ankle injury probably left enough for him to prove to the scouts. But the others, too?

    Perhaps I could have used a different phrase, Oz. I wasn't going after your guys, but just looking at this Chapel Hill team, if they don't win the national title given both the talent and hype (deserved or no), it will probably be a bigger disappointment than anyone in Lawrence might have felt last season. And I think I have some idea of those levels of expectation in those basketball-mad parts of the world.

    At the risk of fanning more needless hyperbole, the last team I saw this stacked (yes ... ON PAPER ... no one has played a game, gotten hurt, etc.) was the '92 Duke team. They did pretty well.
     
  8. Oz

    Oz Well-Known Member

    Now that's more like it. I was about to say, with five NBA draft picks, the Tar Heels beatdown and winning a national championship when four No. 1 seeds made the Final Four for the first time, it would be tough to call last year's KU team average.

    I knew what you were going for in the original post, it just didn't come across right.

    And yes, you knew I counter as soon as you posted ... clockwork. ;D
     
  9. Angola!

    Angola! Guest

    i'm still bitter wazzu isn't ranked. that said, my avatar says: go davidson!
     
  10. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    Move over Big Ten-ACC Challenge, the Mountain West-Missouri Valley Challenge is on the way.
     
  11. Flying Headbutt

    Flying Headbutt Moderator Staff Member

    Maryland is playing a Thanksgiving tournament in Orlando. They'll play Michigan State, and could also play a loaded field that includes Georgetown, but only if both teams make it to the title game.

    JT3 continuing his father's tradition of being a douche and not coming to College Park (or playing MD at all unless it's the NCAA Tournament) after Maryland went to the ole Cap Centre and let Joe Smith and Duane "man, fuck these campus parking tickets" Simpkins and won on Georgetown's home floor back in 1993.

    That said, Maryland is lined up for an awful year by their standards.
     
  12. Bullrog

    Bullrog Member

    That sux...I know a lot of people were hoping the MVC and Colonial would start something like this (especially after the George Mason/Wichita State matchups in '06).
    Usually there are at least 2 or 3 CAA-MVC games in the BracketBuster each year.
     
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