College Basketball: Pre-season Break Down
With the NBA draft around the corner, let us take a look at some of the big names in College basketball and see how they will fare next season with their incoming freshmen class and returning players. This post will focus on three big name schools who all have key players returning and especially one school losing key players to the draft. I will focus on UNC, Kansas and Kentucky and see how they rate going into next season.
First up is UNC, a school that after winning the National Championship in 2009 went into a nose dive for the 09-10 season and was sent to the NIT where they lost in the title game to coming back in the 10-11 season to win the Regular Season title for the ACC and make it to the Elite 8 only to lose to Kentucky. But it looks like Roy Williams did something right when recruiting his players because they have all decided to come back next season. Henson and Zeller announced they were returning about two weeks ago and thus everyone was waiting to hear about Harrison Barnes, a pre-season all ACC pick, a freshmen who struggled early one but who by the end of the season tied Zeller in points per game. UNC is a lock to be the number 1 pick over all next season when the first pre-season poll comes out. All of these players understand how to play together and what to do in tough situations. Finally this team started to listen to their coach and realized that he does understand what he is talking about. Not only does Roy Williams bring back Henson, Zeller, and Barnes, but Strickland and Marshall are coming back so he has his starting 5. With these 5 players you may think, how could UNC get any better, well they can. Leading a top 10 recruiting class is James McAdoo a power forward who shined at the Jordan Classic. McAdoo will see valuable minutes coming off the bench and will be an impact player. I hope he doesn't resent being a bench player his freshmen year because come sophomore year he will be a starter.
One school this year was dealt a crushing blow in terms of players leaving. I feel really bad for Kansas and I am just hoping that they will be able to come back from the loss of 4 of their starters to be able to contend. I know that Bill Self is an amazing coach who understands how to best use his players but with schools all over the country picking up amazing recruiting classes, Self has his work cut out for him. The loss of the Morris twins was expected yet sad for me, I really feel that they would have contended with UNC had those two players stayed but they will go very high in the draft and they do have all of the skill sets required for the NBA so I'm not to upset. But Selby declaring for the draft after a forgettable season is a bit scary though with this draft being weak he might move up. Kansas needs to reload on all positions, the loss of the front court presence of the twins is going to be hard to replace, teams all season were unable to stop both players at the same time. With Tyrel Reed and Brady Morningstar graduating, Self will need to replace his biggest 3-point shooters. I don't see Kansas making it as far as they did this past season and I see them potentially not winning the Big 12 though I really hope they prove me wrong and their incoming class exceeds all expectations.
Kentucky is the third team that this post is focusing on. They only lost one player to graduation, Josh Harrellson and may lose a couple more players to the draft. Yet Calipari has brought in a stellar recruiting class to UK. He has four players committed who will all be major threats and who will all have sudden impacts when the season starts on October 15th Marquis Teague, Mike Gilchrist, Anthony Davis, and Kyle Wiltjer. These four freshman all play different positions which is going to be good for Kentucky as they will have a more balanced team going into the 2011-2012 season and try to make it back to the Final 4 and potentially to the game on Monday night. The bigger question for Kentucky is what are Brendon Knight and Darius Miller going to do, are they going to declare for the draft or come back for one more year. Knight has the potential to go high in this years draft especially as it is so weak and he is a gifted point guard. If Knight declares that opens up the starting spot for either Lamb or Teague and Calipari in the pre-season will be holding competitions to see who will start. Does Miller leave after his Junior year or does he return for his senior season and try for the championship ring, either way he goes it is a tough decision. The signing of Kyle Wiltjer fills the loss of Harrellson and Kentucky gets its tall awkward white guy who can play the post and be a shooting threat in the front court. I do see Kentucky being the number 2 team in the pre-season rankings after UNC.
I hope you all enjoyed this post and keep reading my love affair with sports.
First up is UNC, a school that after winning the National Championship in 2009 went into a nose dive for the 09-10 season and was sent to the NIT where they lost in the title game to coming back in the 10-11 season to win the Regular Season title for the ACC and make it to the Elite 8 only to lose to Kentucky. But it looks like Roy Williams did something right when recruiting his players because they have all decided to come back next season. Henson and Zeller announced they were returning about two weeks ago and thus everyone was waiting to hear about Harrison Barnes, a pre-season all ACC pick, a freshmen who struggled early one but who by the end of the season tied Zeller in points per game. UNC is a lock to be the number 1 pick over all next season when the first pre-season poll comes out. All of these players understand how to play together and what to do in tough situations. Finally this team started to listen to their coach and realized that he does understand what he is talking about. Not only does Roy Williams bring back Henson, Zeller, and Barnes, but Strickland and Marshall are coming back so he has his starting 5. With these 5 players you may think, how could UNC get any better, well they can. Leading a top 10 recruiting class is James McAdoo a power forward who shined at the Jordan Classic. McAdoo will see valuable minutes coming off the bench and will be an impact player. I hope he doesn't resent being a bench player his freshmen year because come sophomore year he will be a starter.
One school this year was dealt a crushing blow in terms of players leaving. I feel really bad for Kansas and I am just hoping that they will be able to come back from the loss of 4 of their starters to be able to contend. I know that Bill Self is an amazing coach who understands how to best use his players but with schools all over the country picking up amazing recruiting classes, Self has his work cut out for him. The loss of the Morris twins was expected yet sad for me, I really feel that they would have contended with UNC had those two players stayed but they will go very high in the draft and they do have all of the skill sets required for the NBA so I'm not to upset. But Selby declaring for the draft after a forgettable season is a bit scary though with this draft being weak he might move up. Kansas needs to reload on all positions, the loss of the front court presence of the twins is going to be hard to replace, teams all season were unable to stop both players at the same time. With Tyrel Reed and Brady Morningstar graduating, Self will need to replace his biggest 3-point shooters. I don't see Kansas making it as far as they did this past season and I see them potentially not winning the Big 12 though I really hope they prove me wrong and their incoming class exceeds all expectations.
Kentucky is the third team that this post is focusing on. They only lost one player to graduation, Josh Harrellson and may lose a couple more players to the draft. Yet Calipari has brought in a stellar recruiting class to UK. He has four players committed who will all be major threats and who will all have sudden impacts when the season starts on October 15th Marquis Teague, Mike Gilchrist, Anthony Davis, and Kyle Wiltjer. These four freshman all play different positions which is going to be good for Kentucky as they will have a more balanced team going into the 2011-2012 season and try to make it back to the Final 4 and potentially to the game on Monday night. The bigger question for Kentucky is what are Brendon Knight and Darius Miller going to do, are they going to declare for the draft or come back for one more year. Knight has the potential to go high in this years draft especially as it is so weak and he is a gifted point guard. If Knight declares that opens up the starting spot for either Lamb or Teague and Calipari in the pre-season will be holding competitions to see who will start. Does Miller leave after his Junior year or does he return for his senior season and try for the championship ring, either way he goes it is a tough decision. The signing of Kyle Wiltjer fills the loss of Harrellson and Kentucky gets its tall awkward white guy who can play the post and be a shooting threat in the front court. I do see Kentucky being the number 2 team in the pre-season rankings after UNC.
I hope you all enjoyed this post and keep reading my love affair with sports.
Update for on the players declaring for the draft from Kentucky, Knight, Liggins, and Jones have all declared. The incoming freshmen will now definitely be impact players and now there is going to be competition for the starting point guard position.
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