College Basketball Recap - Nov 24th

A bunch of important games today. I got a chance to see a few of them, so here's what I thought:

Syracuse beat Florida 89-83.

Syracuse - I really liked what I saw from the Orange offensively. They have a lot of weapons and a lot of guys that can score big on any given night. Having Devendorf back is huge, as it gives this team another offensive weapon (although he didn't do that well tonight) but Flynn is a stud, Onuaku is extremely strong and is an absolute beast in the post, Harris can score in bunches, and other guys like Andy Rautins and Kris Joseph can provide offensive support. Their biggest issue tonight was defensively. Tyus absolutely killed them in the post and they were getting beat a lot on the dribble from what I saw. I know Boeheim is trying to mix in some man to man, but if they're giving up so many drives and easy baskets in the post they're probably better sticking to the zone, especially against a relatively poor shooting team like Florida.

Florida - As far as the Gators are concerned, Calathes is going to be good, I saw some good things out of the freshman Erving Walker, and Tyus tore it up, but overall I thought they were very inconsistent offensively. They haven't shot well this year, especially from three, and that could become a huge problem vs. teams that primarily run a zone (like Syracuse). As of this point I'm feeling confident about my pick of Tennessee winning the SEC.

Kansas beat Washington 73-54

Kansas - I don't think anyone expected this Kansas team to be as good as last year's, and they're not. But that doesn't mean they won't turn some heads in the Big 12 this year. They have some very good players back, including Sharon Collins, who has taken over the scoring load nicely, Cole Aldrich, who I liked last year and looks to mature into a very, very good center, and a variety of freshman who gave them good minutes yesterday, like the Morris brothers and Tyshawn Taylor. This team shot horribly from three but they find other ways to score (like Aldrich in the post or Collins driving the lane) and they're disciplined on both offense and defense. They won't win the conference but they'll give Texas and OU some good games.

Washington - I think Bob Knight said it best when he said this is a game other teams will use as film tape to beat the Huskies. Kansas sat back in a zone and basically gave Washington open shots and threes all game long and Washington was unable to take advantage of that, making only 29% of their shots. Now with the exception of Taj Gibson and USC, teams in the Pac-10 won't punish Washington for driving the lane nearly as bad as Cole Aldrich (6 blocks) and Kansas did, but the strategy remains the same: pack it in and force this team to make shots from long distance. They're shooting under 30% from beyond the arc and they will have to manufacture other ways to score if they're going to want to keep up with the big three in the Pac-10.

UConn beat Wisconsin 76-57

UConn - Yea, they're good. They basically wore the Badgers down with their fullcourt press, forcing 20 turnovers, including 10 steals and several 10 second violations. All of the four guards that saw significant playing time are quick and disciplined defensively, and they all create havoc for the other team (even a Wisconsin team that emphasizes ball control and limits turnovers). Offensively, I still feel like this team runs through Adrien and Thabeet to a lesser extent in the post but all of those guards can shoot when open. They shot well from three but it never felt like they were forcing threes, just making open ones, so I think this team's pretty good at shooting in general. They turned it over a lot and sometimes looked uncoordinated offensively but they're still young and that will only get better with time. They will probably beat most of the teams on their schedule based on athleticism alone and the rest will depend on how this team meshes, particularly offensively

Wisconsin - Put up a good fight. Like a usual Bo Ryan team, this Badgers team is disciplined and rarely is sped up or put out of their element. In the halfcourt set Wisconsin was able to execute their offense and get points. The best thing about this Wisconsin team is the variety of guys and ways they can hurt you. They operated well in the post (although they're pretty undersized), they shot very well, and they moved the ball well. My concerns are two-fold. First, athletically this team just didn't compare. They had major problems vs. UConn's press and against quicker, more athletic teams in the Big 10 (like Purdue and Michigan St) they will have all kinds of problems offensively. Second, this team doesn't appear to have a guy who can take over a game offensively. I understand Trevon Hughes and Marcus Landry are good offensive players but they're not neccessarily the kinds of talent you'd like to have with the game on the line. They'll have to win with defense and discipline, something they will do a fair amount of the time. They'll get an unexpected win sometime this year but I don't think they'll compete for the Big Ten title.

Other games: Four fairly unexciting games in the Maui Inivational, setting up a Texas-ND and UNC-Oregon semifinals. Texas v. ND will be one of the best games so far this year, and Oregon could make things interesting vs. UNC but that's probably not happening. Miami (Fl) annihilated San Diego in the Paradise Jam consolation game, taking the Toreros off the list of "underappreciated teams the Chi Town Balla will constantly and obsessively hype." Wake Forest doubled up Winston Salem 62-31 in another cupcake game for them, and Davidson won on the back of Stephen Curry's 39 points. Seriously, this guy's starting to put up Pete Maravich-like numbers. It's kind of getting out of hand. Today should be a very exciting set of games, so tune in to the ESPNs for lots of college b-ball fun