Early Coaches v. Cancer Impressions

I haven't actually gotten a chance to see a game yet... stupid ESPNU... but we can still draw some conclusions from the early round Coaches v. Cancer games. Remember... the semifinals are set and will take place in Madison Square Garden on Thursday. It's Duke vs. SIU in the first game (7 PM, ESPN2) and UCLA vs. Michigan in the second game (9 PM, ESPN2).



Duke - They had 21 turnovers against Presbetyrian but cleaned it up vs. Georgia Southern and turned in a much more efficient offensive performance. Kyle Singler is going to be a beast this year. He appears to be taking control of this offense, he's getting to the line a lot, creating his own offense, and finishing at the glass. I think Nolan Smith and Jon Scheyer will have an expanded role in this offense as well. Overall, Duke has a lot of options offensively, and there's 4 or 5 guys that can go off and burn you on any given night. The jury's still out on whether or not these young forwards - Plumlee and Czyz - can compete with the top frontcourt players in the country. The freshman all saw limited minutes in the first two games and were somewhat sloppy, particularly in the Georgia Southern game. Plumlee had a nice block in the Presbetyrian game though. 7-1 center Greg Zoubek started for Duke against Georgia Southern and appeared to give them some good minutes and should give them some size and toughness but he isn't going to be a scorer in the post. It's also worth noting this team shot 51% from the foul line against Georgia Southern. We'll find out more in the coming weeks about that

Houston - Not quite ready for the big time yet. There's plenty of new faces for this Cougars team and it showed, losing to Georgia Southern in their first game. I will monitor this team's progress over the season and by the end they should be somewhat competitive in the C-USA, but I think a tourney bid is too much to ask right now

SIU - The Salukis have traditionally been an extremely slow paced team and at first this year appeared to be no exception as they grinded out a 66-52 win over California (Pa). Then they lit up UMass for 52 in the 2nd half, including 9 threes, en route to a 80-73 victory. They were helped by 26 points off of 20 UMass turnovers. They lost 3 of their top 4 scorers from last year but it appears they have guys who can fill the needed scoring load, like 6-8 forward Carlton Fey. Supporting Fey will be a variety of guys who could all score 10-15 on any given night, giving the Salukis a variety of options offensively. The Salukis struggled to find their groove early in the California (Pa) and it was tied at half, and 19 turnovers against a non Div 1 team has to be a concern, especially for a team that has such few possessions as SIU. They cleaned it up vs. UMass and I think if this team can control the ball, limit turnovers, hit some shots like they did in the 2nd half vs. UMass, they might be able to give Duke a run for their money.

UMass - The Minutemen had a solid performance vs. Ark-Monticello but turnovers and a few hot hands did them in vs. SIU. The team's leading scorer will likely be G Ricky Harris, who averaged over 18 a game last year and over 23 in UMass's first two games this season. His 3 pt % improved by 13% last year and he appears to have a shot at breaking 40% this year (he's 9 for 18 so far). Harris, Chris Lowe, and Anthony Gurley give the Minutemen a very capable backcourt, but the frontcourt appears to be lacking in talent. It will also be interesting to see if depth becomes a problem, as UMass played 4 guys for over 30 minutes against SIU.

UCLA - So much for the youth movement. When it seemed like Ben Howland was ready to hand the reins to a new class of Bruin freshman (played 5 freshman against Prairie View A&M), Thursday's game was handled mostly by seniors Josh Shipp and Darren Collison, who each scored 16 en route to a 64-59 win over a scrappy Miami (OH) team. I thought Miami (OH) would give UCLA a decent game but I didn't expect it to be this close. Then again, with UCLA's slow-paced, halfcourt offense and grind it out mentality they're going to have plenty of ugly wins this season. Jrue Holiday started again vs. Miami (OH) but his playing time was limited as was the rest of the freshman class. These freshman are in a great situation, as there's plenty of senior leadership on this UCLA team, but guys will have to fill in roles, especially holes left by Kevin Love and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute in the post. Free throw shooting could also be a concern for UCLA this season

Michigan - As I expected, Manny Harris appears to be coming into his own this year. After averaging 16 points a game last year and emerging as one of the bright young freshman in the Big 10, Harris put up 30 and 26 in Michigan's two wins. He's shooting over 65% from the floor and got to the line consistently the past two games. After him, DeShawn Sims is solid, but the rest of the team is lacking offensive firepower. This showed last year when Michigan would go on long offensive droughts, especially during the Big Ten season. If Michigan is going to want to compete for a postseason spot, somebody other than Harris and Sims and preferably an outside shooter needs to step up and take away some of the scoring load.