Ten things I think

Two weeks since I posted and a lot has happened in an entertaining start to the college hoops season. Here’s 10 things I think. I’d say things I think I know but let’s not kid ourselves.

10. I do know yesterday’s ending to Minnesota-Alabama was wild. A brawl erupted that saw Alabama’s entire bench get ejected. Shortly after, Alabama lost a player to five fouls and injury leaving them with 3 players. Easy win for the Gophers, right? Bama outscored them the rest of the way playing 5-on-3. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything of the sort. Minnesota got the win but Alabama gets the kudos.

9. Alabama’s game segues to my next thought. I stand by my pre-season thoughts this is the best the SEC has been in years. Tennessee had a nice trip to Atlantis and most see them in the bottom half of the league. Bet it’s a top 3 league based on the metrics this year.

8. Atlantis also provides the wildest outcomes. Western Kentucky and Northern Iowa got quality wins for themselves and their leagues. Villanova won but loses because they didn’t really get a chance to play the best perceived opponents. And they’ll be penalized in March for something out of their hands.

7. In other Atlantis happenings, Purdue gets a w over Arizona that most would have thought a huge scalp but  lost two other games to Tennessee and Western Kentucky. They were sloppy on offense and reverted to bad Purdue. 

6. Arizona is a mess. Brian mentioned it earlier and they will be the first team ever to be number one in the nation and completely out of the polls a week later. There’s a good team there but it might take Sean Miller a lot of dress shirts to sweat through trying to get it to work.

5. This year’s crop of freshmen are the most talented and NBA ready we’ve seen. 

4. Arizona State’s decimation of Xavier got lost in the shuffle of games this past week but shouldn’t be overlooked. Bobby Hurley has something special cooking there.

3. Michael Porters injury news is devastating. Good thing he had to go to college. That’s sarcasm.

2. There’s been some weird results this year but Cal getting run off the court by Chaminade is the worst result thus far. Cal actually had a double digit lead in Wichita State in the opening round in Maui but ended up 0-3. Never competitive against Chaminade is bad and portends a long season in Berkeley.

1. Brian and I texted during and after the Duke-Texas game and while I’m not sure we’re on the same page, I think this is Coach K’s best team in a long time. The game against Texas is a game the last two teams lose, especially after Grayson Allen fouled out. Still, they managed to get the game to overtime where super frosh Marvin Bagley displayed his full game. Bagley is the best player to come through Duke in a long time. That includes Okafor, Parker and so on. He’s Carmelo/A Davis capable of leading a team to a title and I think he will. Duke will have bad defensive nights but I think this group will be much better come March.