One of the best parts of the college basketball season gets underway this week, kicking off with the Champions Classic in Madison Square Garden tonight. The early season tournaments give us the opportunity to see many of the nation’s best teams play each other with championships on the line, and while the Champions Classic is just a showcase of 4 storied programs and not an actual tournament, we’ll give it some attention since it marks the start of some potentially juicy matchups.
While this showcase has lost a little of its luster with the announcement that Kansas star freshman Darryn Peterson will miss tonight’s game against Duke, pretty much assuring that Duke will beat Kansas handily, Kentucky and Michigan State should provide enough entertainment to make up for it. Kentucky is the far more talented team, but Michigan State’s toughness and rebounding dominance gives them a chance to compete.
Wednesday will provide us with an even better opportunity to see some of the top teams square off, with Arizona playing at UCONN and Alabama traveling to Illinois. UCONN appears to be back in championship form on both ends of the floor, and while I think Arizona has a chance to throw their name into the championship conversation as well, they probably won’t be as consistent from game to game. UCONN simply has more weapons and a much better defense, and I expect them to handle their business at home. If you like free money, put some down at +115 odds for the Huskies to win the Big East conference this year.
Alabama is coming off a troubling loss at home to Purdue, where they were dominated physically and exposed defensively, and their schedule isn’t doing them any favors by following that up with a trip to Illinois. While Purdue is currently ranked #1 in the AP poll, I see Illinois as a better team than Purdue, especially when they’re at full strength. While Illinois may still be without star center Tomislav Ivisic, they should still have enough to do exactly what Purdue did and hand Alabama their 2nd loss in a row.
Tournament season truly kicks off on Thursday with the Baha Mar Championship in the Bahamas, featuring the aforementioned Purdue Boilermakers along with Memphis, Texas Tech, and Wake Forest. This tournament should be extremely interesting, with 3 of the 4 teams having a reasonable chance to win the title. Memphis looks to be the odd team out, and Purdue should have no trouble reaching the championship game against the winner of Texas Tech and Wake Forest.
Purdue will once again have a size and strength advantage inside, but Texas Tech has the best post player in JT Toppin, while Wake Forest is coming off a narrow one-point overtime loss at Michigan and has the talent and athleticism to hang with anyone. Whichever team gets the most fans to make the trip might have the edge, but all 3 have already played extremely well in hostile environments so anything could happen in this tournament.
Gonzaga moves into the top spot
After several extremely impressive performances early this season, Gonzaga has now moved into the top spot in my poll. The Bulldogs are overdue to win a National Championship, and despite currently being ranked #13 in the AP poll, this Gonzaga team has the depth, talent, and versatility to deliver Coach Mark Few the title he deserves. At +2500 this is likely to be the best price we’ll be able to get on Gonzaga cutting down the nets in Indianapolis, because after their demolition of a pretty good Creighton team last week, this team might flirt with an undefeated regular season if they get to conference play without a loss. A wager on the Bulldogs to make the Final 4 at +500 seems like a great bet as well.
While going undefeated is extremely rare and always unlikely, there’s another much more under-the-radar team I think has a legitimate chance to do it as well. The Saint Louis Billikens are unranked and relatively unknown, but they’re extremely quick, athletic, and skilled, and they’re led by a coach who is soon to be one of the biggest names in college basketball.
Josh Schertz is a name that not many people probably recognize, but I have a feeling this will be the last season where that’ll be the case. I first noticed him while living in Charlotte, North Carolina and attending a few games at Queens University, where Schertz brought his Lincoln Memorial team to town every year and developed an incredible rivalry with Queens. His teams were always extremely tough and prepared, and he carried that success to Indiana State before taking the job at Saint Louis. While I currently have Saint Louis ranked #6 in my poll, they have an extremely weak schedule and should be favored in every game they play. Betting them at +400 to win the A10 conference seems like an absolute lock.
No comments:
Post a Comment