Seven Keys to a Better Basketball Season
by Matt Jones
Recently I came to a realization. I have decided (after much deep thought) that the beginning of October may be the best time of the entire year to be a sports fan. No matter what your favorite sport is, it is filling the air with excitement. Baseball playoffs are beginning, which means that sports fans everywhere can get a measure of fun out of watching Boston fans once again convince themselves that E does not equal MC-squared and that their beloved ‘Sawx will have a chance at a World Series.
The NFL season is in full bloom, as shown by the comforting site of a certain rotund Monday Night Football announcer beginning his annual pilgrimage to worship at the altar of Brett Favre. College football has begun its continued BCS quest towards illegitimacy, pausing only long enough for Lee Corso and the folks at ESPN to do something else to make the Tennessee fans on Rocky Top complain that the network “is always out to get us!”
NASCAR has entered its controversial “Chase for the Championship”, adding dozens of fans in the process and causing many in the Bible Belt to insinuate that this heresy is what happens when you “let liberals like John Kerry run our fair sport!”
NBA training camps are opening, with the only true suspense being what other NBA Players (Greg Ostertag perhaps?) Kobe Bryant told the Colorado police had committed felonies. And (my personal favorite), the world of English Premiership Soccer is going strong, with the mighty Arsenal still unbeaten, and Americans still wondering which team Pele is now playing for.
It is onto this crowded sports landscape that the new season of college basketball is slowly approaching. As a long-time fan, it is easy to become jaded and to think that the glory days of college basketball are behind us. Thinking back to my days as just a meager SEC columnist (last year), instead of a Hoopville Senior Writer (chicks dig the title), it is hard not to think that college basketball is heading towards it nadir, with early exits to the pros, continual coaching scandals and the refusal of Gene Keady to do anything about his hair.
However I refuse to succumb to such gloom and despair so easy. I truly believe that this has the potential to be the best college basketball season since 1998 (when the wonderful NCAA Tournament saved college basketball at a time it was most desperately needed….but that is another column). There are new look conferences on the horizon, the possibility of a loaded ACC and the potential for some true powerhouse teams….a rarity in this day and age. In the coming weeks, I am going to take on the Herculean task of attempting to preview every major conference. These previews will not be long, or even accurate, but I hope to distill for you, the reader, the essence of college basketball in 2004-2005. For now I will just leave you with seven storylines for the upcoming season.
1.Crunch Time for North Carolina
As someone who has had the good/misfortune of having a number of friends who are huge Tar Heel fans, it has been my pleasure for years to hear that the Heels were “just around the corner.” With each new prized recruit/high profile coach, I was reminded that the Heels were on their way back and that the glory days were about to be revived. No more coaches with hair like Cruella Deville, no more losses to inferior squads, no more smackdowns by the Kentucky Wildcats. Yes the Heels were coming back. Well now it is time. This team must showcase its potential and become a national power again this year. Jawad Williams (on the Dante Calabria 12 year college plan), Ray Felton, Rashad McCants, etc. have had their learning years and it is now time to do some big-time winning. Some of their losses over the past few seasons have been inexcusable and I still believe that last season ultimately must be regarded as a bit of a disappointment. Regardless, this is the year that Heels fans have been pointing to and I think it will be a real early test to evaluate the Roy Williams regime at UNC. I fully believe in them and predict that they will be a Top 5 program for most of the season. However if it doesn’t happen, one has to wonder if the glory days of ACC domination have forever left the Chapel Hill area.
2.UConn in the post Okafor era
I must say that I have an immense amount of respect for what Jim Calhoun has done for the UConn program during his stay. For him to be able to continually recruit top-tier talent to Storrs, Connecticut is truly amazing, especially considering the relative decline of the Big East (and no Big East fans, winning two national championships in a row does not excuse the sorry state of the rest of that conference). Last year I thought the Huskies were the only true powerhouse in college basketball (neither Duke, Kentucky nor St. Joseph’s qualified), and they took care of business in the Big Dance. However this is a new year and a bit of a drop could be upcoming. Charlie Villaneuva never completely reached his mammoth potential last year, but many would say it was unnecessary with two lottery picks on the team. However this will be his team this year, and it will be interesting to see what the result of that will be. Either way, Calhoun has officially entered the active coaching Hall of Fame (another future column), and Huskies fans should be ecstatic that he shows no signs of slowing down.
3.Seeds of Change at Georgetown
For my money, the most interesting “below the radar” story in college basketball is the new era of Hoya basketball led by John Thompson III. Love him or hate him, the original John Thompson was great for the sport, combining love and knowledge of the game with a broader worldview that sought to make college sports relevant in the greater cultural scheme. He pressed the NCAA and revealed much of the hypocrisy that is inherent in the institution, and for that (not to mention his 1984 National Championship), he will always be remembered. What now will be interesting is to see how much of the elder Thompson’s legacy will be embraced by the newly minted son. Thompson III comes from a great deal of success at Princeton and early indications are that he is much more reserved than his famous father, but just as talented. Whatever the case, college basketball is better when Georgetown is a force, and we have not seen that since the days of Allen Iverson. Here’s hoping that the new Thompson era reaches the level of success of the old.
4.Georgia Tech, National Power?
All college basketball fans should take a minute and truly appreciate just what a wonderful job Paul Hewitt has done at Georgia Tech. It is easy to dismiss the Jackets’ road to the National title game last year as a lucky tournament run – a la Indiana in 2001 – and to some extent the program did reach a bit beyond its potential. However one should not minimize what a change Hewitt has brought to the program and the potential it has to remain a national force. As Bobby Cremins showed many years ago, Tech is perfectly situated to become a Top 10 program. It is the only ACC school in a major city and has the potential to attract recruits that would shun more rural settings (see Kenny Anderson and Stephon Marbury). With this year’s team, Hewitt has the chance to establish Tech on the Kentucky, Duke, UConn level by building upon their impressive run and taking it to a new level. Most of last year’s group of upstarts are back, and Hewitt added two huge recruits in Zam Frederick and Ra’Sean Dickey. This team can be truly special this year, and it will be interesting to see if Hewitt can seize the opportunity to develop a monster in Atlanta.
5.The World Descends on Winston Salem
In case you have not gotten the memo, the best player in the country resides in the sleepy city that combines the best of two brands of cigarettes, Winston-Salem. Chris Paul is the real deal and it is about time that the nation takes full notice. If you have seen him in action, you know that he is a player who has a deep knowledge of the game, such that a lesser announcer would determine him to be “cerebral”, but combines that with a smooth flow that evokes memories of Jason Kidd in his prime. Most NBA scouts will tell you that this kid has Top 5 pick written all over him whenever he decides to test the draft waters. In the meantime, college fans are in for a treat as he leads the best Demon Deacon team in the past thirty years, a team with a legitimate shot at a national title. Folks should line up for the two Paul-Raymond Felton battles, and I hope to be in attendance for both.
6.Kentucky Kids
For the first time since the 1992 Michigan juggernaut, a top program will be relying on a group of freshman to provide them with the talent to make a move towards the Final Four. Tubby Smith, who has often been unjustly criticized by the overly prickly Wildcat fan base for his supposedly lackluster recruiting, has brought in his best class of his time in Lexington and will rely on them heavily in the coming season. Big man Randolph Morris flirted with the NBA Draft (and a possible first round selection) before deciding to join fellow McDonald’s All Americans Joe Crawford and Rajon Rondo in the beautiful bluegrass state. The timing could not have been better for Smith as he lost four of his primary players to graduation, a group that led the Wildcats to the number 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, two years in a row. While Tubby most certainly is excited about the potential of this group, it remains to be seen how they will react to the defense-oriented coach. Smith tends to do better when his team is led by veterans, even those that are not considered to have the most talent. He has had well-publicized run-ins with some of his other high-profile recruits in the past (see Marvin Stone and Rashad Carruth), but these youngsters do not seem of the same character as these former problem children. Either way however, there is a talent level there that has not been seen in Lexington in a while, and Cats fans are salivating at the thought.
7.Fear the Moustache
For the past few years, I have made it my mission to make jokes at the expense of the Big Ten (and Auburn). To me, the conference has been vastly overrated and is continually lumped in as a powerhouse with the ACC, Big 12 and SEC, even though it is currently a notch below. That all may be changing this year, thanks in large part to the potential at Illinois this season. There are a lot of reasons that the fighting Illini have the look of a national title contender, but first and foremost among them is the artist formerly known as Nick Smith. For those of you that haven’t seen Smith and his pencil-thin moustache, you should run out to your nearest Illinois sports retailer and purchase a team photo. Smith is the most absurd looking major Division I basketball player since the days of Gimel Martinez, and has found a way to bring back a look (the 20 year old pale white guy with a moustache) that most of us thought was forever gone. I am not arguing that Smith has a great deal of talent (he doesn’t), but I am suggesting that the key to my happiness this year is whether he and his moustache get the level of national publicity that they deserve. I will do my part and one thing that my readers can be rest assured of, is that this column will become a place dedicated to helping Nick Smith and his merry moustache become engrained in the minds of all sports fans across the country.
So those are the stories to watch at the beginning of this new season, and I will return soon with my marathon preview of all the nation’s team, culminating in the definitive Preseason Top 25. Until next time…..
