I am going to be closely following 4 teams this season. My brief thoughts about them, including why I am following them, are as follows: 1. Binghamton - I played ball for them and got my bachelors degree from there. Torvik has them at 255 out of 362 colleges. I really like their coaching staff, led by Levell Sanders. That's saying a lot considering that I usually hate their coaches. I also really like their transfer class led by former consensus top-50 high school recruit, Symir Torrence, who comes to Binghamton after 2 years at Marquette and 2 years at Syracuse. They have a good chance to finish in the top half of the America East conference. However, it's tough to beat Vermont in the conference tournament to earn an NCAA bid. Binghamton opens on the road tonight against Northwestern and then plays Pittsburgh on the road on Friday. I usually give up on the Bearcats after about 10 games. I am hoping that it will be different this year. 2. Kansas State - I started following K. State last season when Keyontae transferred there. I am continuing to follow them now that Ques Glover is there. They are a more talented team and a deeper team this year than they were last year, but, already, Glover is out for a couple of months, and their best big man is suspended for an indeterminate amount of time. Tylor Perry should be really good and Arthur Kalumas from Creighton might be an NBA prospect. They are in a brutal conference, but they have the talent and coaching to beat anyone. 3. St. John's - My dad was a St. John's alum, and I have been rooting for this team since kindergarten. IMO, they have the best coach in the country and the best incoming group of players in the country. They have 14 players who can all play. Their center, Joel Soriano, had 25 double/doubles last season, which was 2nd to Zach Edey's 27 double/doubles. Soriano should be better this season as Pitino has pushed Soriano to the limit in the pre-season. The St. John's backcourt of Dannis Jenkins and Jordan Dingle backed up by Simeon Wilcher, Nahiem Alleyne and a few other solid players should be one of the best in the country. Chris Ledlum promises to be a monster at power forward, and the combo of RJ Luis, Jr. and Glenn Taylor, Jr. should be formidable at the small forward spot. It might take a while for Pitino to get his defense playing like it did at UK and Louisville, but by season's end, I expect this team to be a Final Four contender. 4. Florida - This is the team that I have been rooting for for the last 50 years. The loss of EJ Jarvis is painful as he looked like the stretch 4 that we have been missing for quite a few years. It is now imperative that at least 2 of our 3 unknown big men (Shimmy, Condon and Haugh) turn out to be good players in the immediate future. I am comfortable that Handlogten and Samuels will be solid from day one, but I don't view Samuel as a legit stretch 4. We could be great at the 1-3. Kugel, Richard, Pullin and Clayton all look like big-timers, and there has been a ton of noise about the improvement of Aberdeen. I am guessing that the Gators will be a surprise team in the rugged SEC and could finish in the top-5 in the conference with a top-half seed in the NCAA tournament. That's it for now.
What's strange about Samuel is he took far fewer threes as his minutes actually increased (his 3pt rate plummeted from 56-36-17-06 in four years), but was still a serviceable 32% from the arc as a freshman and sophomore. I didn't watch Seton Hall enough to know how they played him or what they ran on offense to keep him in the paint. Golden has spoken positively about his range, so we'll see if he can bring anything from the arc. In any event, Golden seemed to be trending more toward two bigs in the paint offensively his last year at SF. I wonder how much he values a stretch four in his offense.
Four teams I follow. 1: Florida 2: UK. I cheer for whoever is playing them. 3: Duke. I cheer for whoever is playing them. 4: UNC/Kansas in a tie. I cheer for whoever is playing them.
Okay, I can see that. But I would amend it as follows: 1: Florida 2: UK. I cheer for whoever is playing them. 3: Duke. I cheer for whoever is playing them. Except when it is FSU. 4: UNC/Kansas in a tie. I cheer for whoever is playing them. Except when it is FSU. My two favorite teams are: 1. Florida 2. Whoever is playing FSU.
1) Florida - duh 2) FAU - season ticket holder. Big fan of the coaches and players. 3) Iona - Was Gael before anything else. 4) Radford - Darris is a great dude 5) JU - rooting for Jordan 6) St Johns- F you, Pitino.
Fla of course. JU followed them since artis Gilmore and was hurt when they lost to UCLA for the championship. JU vs FSU was must see back then. JU had 2 7footers Burrows was the other went on to be a highway patrol man at 7 foot. Imagine him walking up to your window.
The Jarvis thing still annoys me. Quit the team to go get a regular job at Yale that could have waited a year. We lost some skill, bulk, and depth.
For me, it's: UF - Obviously NC State - Local team, daughter went there, can't stand unc & dook Ga Tech - Buddy went there, want to follow how Kowacie does, mutual hatred of uga FAU - Great story last year and coaching connections to UF
GT for me. I was in graduate school and had NO fun there. Still, I have an odd attraction and plenty of memories. KY due to my Father-in-law having a great hunting, fishing and camping buddy that played there and with the Hawks in St Louis.
For those folks who have no interest in this thread, please skip it or block me. Both choices work for me. Binghamton lost by 12 points on the road at Northwestern, but they led for the first 29 minutes of the game before being overtaken. That’s a pretty good outing. They now move on to play Pittsburgh on the road. They have a tough schedule for a low-major team. Kansas State lost to USC in Vegas. The USC backcourt is for real. Enfield has a good team. KState plays at what likely is the fastest tempo in the country. However, they were out of control a good part of the time. They play at Home against Bellarmine this Friday. St. John’s beat Stony Brook in their opener. Dannis Jenkins, Chris Ledlum and Joel Soriano were all tremendous. Jordan Dingle came off the bench for the Johnnies, but I would expect him to move into the starting lineup as soon as he is filly recovered from his pre-season injury. They play Michigan on Monday. We saw the Gators beat Loyola of Maryland. They play Virginia on Friday. We will find out a lot more about St. John’s and the Gators after their next games.
