Daily Preview: November 22nd, 2010

I didn't get to watch as many games this weekend as I would've liked, but I did catch up on the important matchups on Tuesday, as well as the Coaches v. Cancer games and the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. Here's some impressions on the teams I saw this week (not in any particular order):

Miami: When I saw this team against Memphis, I thought they were raw, unpolished, and somewhat limited offensively, but were definitely athletic and could be a solid team in the ACC. Then they lost to Rutgers. Anyway... Durand Scott is a talented offensive player, able to create his own shot and get to the line. Outside of him, there isn't a lot to offer offensively. Malcolm Grant has struggled shooting this year. Reggie Johnson has had a few solid games inside but nothing special. Otherwise, guys are either inconsistent or non-existent on offense. They held Memphis to 33% shooting, but that was probably more Memphis' inconsistencies on offense more than anything. The ACC is wide open this year, but Miami still may not finish in the top half of the conference.

Memphis: The Tigers brought in a highly touted freshman class this year, and so far the results have been good, if unspectacular. Josh Pastner has carried over elements of the dribble drive offense installed by Calipari a few years ago, and he gives his players a lot of freedom offensively. That's probably not the best thing for a team with so many young players playing key roles, but they've functioned fairly well offensively. They put up a lot of low percentage threes against Miami, but the ball movement was good and they got enough good looks to win. Wesley Witherspoon and Joe Jackson have been the most consistent offensive threats so far. Antonio Barton looked good on the break against Miami. Defensively, Memphis is active on the perimeter and forced Miami and LSU into low shooting percentages. This is a team that could mature into a top 10 team by the end of the year.

Kansas State: Last year's Elite 8 team relied on Pullen and Clemente, an athletic, physical frontline, and great defense to win games. They have all of that again, except Clemente is gone. That leaves Pullen at the point. I'm not sure that's the best decision in the world, as Pullen is more of a scorer than anything, but he creates offense for everyone else enough that it might work out. In the game against VT, Pullen was in foul trouble, so K-State had to go inside for much of their offense. Jamar Samuels had some nice moves inside and was able to get to the line consistently. The rest of the frontcourt is big and physical but they lack touch around the rim. K-State has struggled from the foul line as well. I think at some point this year, Pullen will be taken off the ball and Spradling will start at the point.

Virginia Tech: Expectations are high in Blacksburg this year, as VT returns their top 11 scorers from last year. Of course, this is a core that hasn't made the tournament the past 3 years, so sometimes returning all those players doesn't necessarily add up to significantly more success. The Hokies had a tremendous opportunity to make some national noise when they visited K-State on Tuesday, and they hung with the Wildcats for much of the game but were simply worn down by foul trouble in the frontcourt and physical play by K-State. Malcolm Delaney is their best player. He's not overly quick, but he is shifty and can get into the lane. He can also hit the outside shot. However, he's not a great ballhandler and not really a PG. VT's offense mainly consisted of him working to get into the lane and create offense for others. Dorenzo Hudson hit some outside shots, but otherwise VT needs to get scoring from somewhere else. They will win plenty of ACC games with just their defense and Delaney and Hudson scoring, but to get to the next level, their offense needs to get more dynamic.

Ohio State: Probably the best team I've seen so far this year. The big question for the Buckeyes this year was who would replace Turner's production. Ohio State hasn't seemed to have lost a step offensively. Sullinger adds a new dimension to the team. He's tall, big, and polished in the post. He opens up the perimeter for the rest of the team. That's a dangerous sign for opponents, because there's a lot of firepower on this Buckeyes squad. They have four guys that can all put up 25-30 points on any given night. They can score in both the halfcourt and in transition; that kind of versatility is rare in college basketball. They aren't particularly aggressive defensively, but they can be good when they want to be and they usually just run opponents off the floor anyway. They have two big weaknesses: lack of depth and lack of size. This is a team that is deserving of their top 5 ranking.

Florida: This is going to be an intriguing team. They return all 5 starters from last year's tournament team. Individually, these guys are pretty good. Vernon Macklin was a beast inside against Ohio State. Alex Tyus has been talked about in NBA camps. Chandler Parsons is a 4 with the skill set of a guard. Irving Walker and Kenny Boynton are streaky but can score in bunches at times. But for whatever reason, this team has had problems putting it all together over the past few years. They hung with and were probably better than Ohio State for the first half and parts of the 2nd, but couldn't put together an entire 40 minutes and fell apart once Ohio State started to apply some defensive pressure. They are still one of the two best teams in the SEC, but are they top 10 material? That still remains to be seen.

Butler: Well, losing Hayward made a big difference. They have no one offensively outside of Shelden Mack and Matt Howard. And when I mean no one, I mean not even a guy who can work off of that. They struggled to handle the UL pressure and did not shoot well from the field. Howard was battling foul trouble all night, which didn't help. They looked significantly better against Ball State, though. They are probably the favorites to win the Horizon League again this year, but this is not the Butler team we saw last year.

Louisville: One of the surprising teams of the week. They're long and athletic but very raw. They create a lot of their points off turnovers, and frustrated Butler into rushed, poor shots and turnovers all night long on Tuesday. They currently have 5 guys averaging double figures in points, so there's not one dominant scorer on the team. This could create problems when they face teams that can handle their pressure. Can they score consistently enough in the halfcourt to win that type of a game?

Illinois: The Illini were highly praised heading into the season, identified by many as a darkhorse in the Big Ten. The early verdict? Eh... probably not in the top tier of the conference, at least, not now. Sophs D. J. Richardson and Brandon Paul have improved offensively. The Mikes (Davis and Tisdale) form a good frontcourt, if not terribly physical. They're not a particularly aggressive defensive team, but they're not bad.

Texas: Raw, young team that likes to push the tempo, like against Illinois. Hamilton appeared to take the lead offensively, although he disappeared in the 2nd half against Pitt. Tristan Thompson is a handful in the paint. Cory Joseph was solid defensively but really a non-factor offensively. They can get secondary scoring from guys like Gary Johnson and J'Covan Brown. Outside of Balbay, this team is nothing special defensively. They're probably not as good as K-State, Baylor, or KU, but could be right around Missouri's level. They won't have the stars they did last year, so they are more likely to stick together and not fall apart like last year. At least, I don't think so.

Pittsburgh: This is a team full of under-recruited players with a chip on their shoulder, so don't expect a lot of their games to be pretty. Gibbs had a good tournament; Wanamaker was so-so. They got good contributions from the starting frontline and good minutes off the bench from Travon Woodall. This is a team that will slow the tempo, play physical defense, and attempt to score just enough points to win. Sounds a lot like K-State, except they don't have anyone as dynamic as Pullen on the outside (but similar type frontline).

Maryland: Didn't see a lot of them this weekend, but it can be difficult to get a read on a team that lost to the #4 team in the land (Pitt) and to a team that shot 52% from three (Illinois). All 5 starters played 26 or more minutes in both CvC games, so there's not a lot of depth here. Jordan Williams was strong offensively. They got good offensive contributions from a variety of guys but at the end, just couldn't get enough stops to win games. They got heavily outrebounded against Pitt but held their own against a smaller frontline in Illinois.

Minnesota: Not overly talented offensively, but they have enough weapons to get the job done. Al Nolen runs the point well and can get to the bucket and the line. The strength is inside, where Ralph Sampson III, Colton Iverson, and Trevor Mbakwe (who emerged this weekend) can control the paint. Granted, they played two undersized teams in UNC and WVU, but they still played well. On the downside, they don't really have a 3 pt threat other than Hoffarber, and WVU's 1-3-1 zone gave them fits in the 2nd half. This is probably a tournament team, but they'll be in a loaded division so they may not have as good a record as they actually are.

West Virginia: Think last year's team, except even rougher around the edges. Casey Mitchell is the most improved player I've seen so far. Who knew this guy would take over the offensive reins from DeSean Butler as definably as he has? Excellent shooter, created his own shot at times. Unfortunately, nobody else has emerged as a scoring threat. Kevin Jones doesn't look as comfortable without Butler and Ebanks drawing attention away from him. They held their own inside but are still undersized, as Iverson and Mbakwe for Minnesota showed. Otherwise, this is an experienced, versatile, if somewhat under talented team. Oh, and they still can't shoot free throws.

Vanderbilt: The Commodores played teams with two distinct styles this weekend. The first game was against a physical WVU team, and they struggled from the field. Against a quicker, more aggressive, but thinner frontline in UNC, Vandy succeeded. Jeffery Taylor and Festus Ezeli were much more effective inside and the team shot better overall, especially from 3 in the first half when they had the inside-outside game going very well. This team probably isn't as good as UF or UK but will be in that 2nd tier level in the SEC and should compete for a tournament spot.

North Carolina: Easily the disappointment of the week. North Carolina looks like a team that doesn't really have a style. They're not fast enough to run the break exceedingly well, but they have major problems executing in the halfcourt. Harrison Barnes, and Zeller, to a lesser extent, are the only ones that can really create their own shot on the offensive end. Everyone else looks lost for the most part. They didn't shoot well either against Minn or Vandy and they had a ton of turnovers against Vandy. The frontline lacks depth, and neither Drew nor Marshall look particularly comfortable at the point. What's more, I thought Barnes would step up and be an offensive leader, but he appears way too passive at this stage in his career to put a team on his back. Not a lot of good signs from UNC this week. The upside? Nobody else (other than Duke) in the ACC has looked particularly impressive, so conference wins will be up for grabs.

And now for Monday's games... Feast Week starts with quarterfinal action from the Maui Invitational and semifinals of the CBE Classic. We'll begin with a top 25 matchup from Kansas City:

Game of the Night

Kansas St. v. Gonzaga (Kansas St., CBE Classic semis)

I talked about K-State earlier in this blog post. I'm not really sure what to think of this Wildcats team right now. They're 3-0, with a good win over VT, but they did struggle against Presbyterian and are playing against a Bulldogs team that is probably the best offense they have faced to date this year. Gonzaga has had their own issues, falling at home to San Diego St. (although admittedly, SDSU will be one of the best teams in a good MWC this year). Neither team has really played to expectations so far this year. The key for the Zags will be for someone other than Gray to step up on offense. K-State wore down VT with size and physical defense, and the same will happen to Gonzaga unless Sacre or Elias Harris play a bigger role offensively. On the other end, Gonzaga will likely play a 2-3 zone, and that seemed to handle K-State's bigs pretty well when VT used it. Will that be enough to keep K-State out of the paint?

Other games:

CBE Classic Semis: Duke v. Marquette - The #1 team in the land cannot look past this game. Marquette doesn't have the talent they had a couple of years ago, but they'll be well coached and can pull off an upset if the Blue Devils aren't ready for it.

Maui Invitational Quarters: Wichita St. v. UConn could be a very entertaining game. Otherwise, unless one of the underdogs plays well, we could have three relatively uneventful other quarterfinal matchups.