Midnight to March will be evaluating conferences from the top all the way to the bottom as we get fans ready for the tip off to the regular season on Nov. 9th. We begin our season sneak preview with a look at the major conferences, first the ACC, Big East and Big Ten.
ACC
The ACC last season was a dominant conference last season, sending seven teams to the NCAA Tournament. Once they competed on a national stage, hwoever, the ACC sent only two teams to the second weekend, proving they just beat up themselves during the conference season. North Carolina was your 2009 national champions and they will reload once again but will miss that senior leadership of Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson which guided them to their title. Instead they will be led by sophomore Ed Davis who has some tremendous growing to do and shoes to fill after coming off the bench a year ago. Davis and Deon Thompson will look to lead the Heels back to the top. Averaging seven and six last year as the UNC sixth man, Davis will look to fulfill his potential and be a top ACC performer…Duke returns the dynamic duo of Kyle Singler and Jon Scheyer and they look to have the most versatile team in the conference. For the first time this decade, Coach K will run his offense predominantly through two big men, and Jon Scheyer will be running the point, a far cry from the major scoring role he took on the past two seasons…Georgia Tech looks to make the biggest improvement in the conference; the Yellow Jackets return impressive big man Ganai Lawal. The 6-9, 230 forward averaged 15 and 10 last season and flirted with the NBA Draft before deciding to return to play another year under Paul Hewitt. A great decision because Tech went ahead and surrounded Lawal with some real ballers. Freshman Derrick Favors is the top ACC incoming freshman and will play alongside Lawal in Tech’s frontline. Tech will be able to match Carolina inside as well as Duke as the ACC begins to take shape of a physical, size-oriented league this season.. Maryland also added some bulk inside to go with the trend of recruiting bigs for ACC squads this season, but that really isn’t the main concern. We know Greivis Vasquez will play hard and be a renaissance man of the hardwood, coming close to triple-doubles in every game, but the Terps need to find another scorer, somewhere. Whether its inside or outside Maryland will not be the top tier ACC squad if they can’t find that; the most likely candidate is sophomore guard Sean Mosley. Mosley needs to step in the role left by Eric Hayes and increase his production and with that the success in College Park. The rest of the ACC all faces rebuilding challenges; Miami must replace scorer Jack McClinton…Boston College must replace Tyrese Rice…Florida State must replace Toney Douglas...Wake Forest must replace Jeff Teague. A team that could sneak around the chicken coop is Virginia Tech. With Malcolm Delaney and Jeff Allen returning the Hokies are big and talented inside and should be able to score at ease. The problem will be the Hokies perimeter defense and willingness to go on the road and win big games, something they were unable to do last season.
Fearless Predictions
1. UNC
2. Duke
3. Georgia Tech
4. Maryland
5. Wake Forest
6. Virginia Tech
7. Florida State
8. Miami (FL)
9. Clemson
10. Boston College
11. NC State
12. Virginia
Big East
Last year the Big East sent eight teams to the Big Dance and THREE number one seeds. Connecticut, Louisville and Pittsburgh all snagged top seeds and Villanova won 30 games, reaching the Final Four. The Big East loses a whole heck of a lot this season however and does not have the stranglehold on the top conference in America this year by a landslide. Gone are the top players from those three number one seeds and they were good (Hasheem Thabeet, DeJuan Blair, Sam Young, Terrence Williams, LeVance Fields, Earl Clark, etc) and here come the guys you heard of last season. Scottie Reynolds and Villanova are the preseason Big East favorites, but they are favored because the Wildcats are so much more than just Reynolds now. Corey Fisher and Corey Stokes are a force in the backcourt along Reynolds and bring fans back to the days just a few years ago when Villanova was lethal with Mike Nardi, Randy Foye and Allan Ray. That team reached the elite 8 and this Villanova team has already gotten to a Final Four. They lose Dante Cunningham but a cream of the crop recruiting class leads everyone to believe the Wildcats should return to the Final Four if the freshmen mature…West Virginia and Georgetown are both teams that will exponentially improve this season. Georgetown big man Greg Monroe stole the scene early in the season last year before the Hoyas went on a treacherous losing skid, but the 6-11 frosh averaged 13 and 7 in a subservient scoring role to swingman DaJuan Summers. Summers abdicated to the NBA which leaves Monroe with all the control; a preseason all-American, expectations are high again for JT3 in the nation’s capital and G’Town will be back. Huggy Bear returns with Devin Ebanks and Da’Sean Butler; two guys that can flat out play with anyone in the country. I believed that the preseason ranking for the Mountaineers was a little low, but two suspensions, one of point guard Joe Mazzulla and one of post force Darryl Bryant leave the jury out in Morgantown…Syracuse must replace Paul Harris, Jonny Flynn and Eric Devendorf. But Syracuse reloa….d….s….oh no. A collective groan was released from the Carrier Dome last Tuesday night when cross-town division II school LeMoyne trucked in and beat Syracuse. Although just an exhibition, it revealed some holes in the Orange squad…they can’t shoot, they can’t score, they don’t really have much size and they don’t know how to defend yet. That spells trouble for the upstate New Yorkies; at least Jim Boeheim knows how to schedule cupcakes, they leave the state of New York one time until a January 16th showdown at West Virginia, that’s 16 games for those of you counting at home…Yes, Connecticut will still be great; Stanley Robinson will become eligible once again in December and Kemba Walker began to show flashes of brilliance late in the season for the Huskies, so there is no reason to fret in Storrs. The only trouble could be replacing point guard AJ Price, but Jerome Dyson returns from his injury that crippled Conn last season…Pittsburgh and Marquette both lost a lot to graduation and NBA defections, but they will reload as will Louisville…A surprising team could be Cincinnati. The Bearcats are headed in the right direction and Deonta Vaughn is an all-Big East kind of performer who has averaged over 15 points in all three of his seasons while doubling as a point guard. Yancy Gates, a 6-9 homegrown talent from Cincy, should be able to compliment Vaughn better this season and make Cincinnati take great strides and bounce back into the bracket. A team destined for disappointment once again may have to be Notre Dame…The Fighting Irish return all-american Luke Harangody, but Mike Brey still does not have this team defend and that is why they will remain in the mediocrity of the Big East. Every Big East team can score, but not every team can defend. That is exactly why you saw the pressing abilities of Villanova and Louisville and the physicality of UCONN and Pittsburgh be so successful last season.
FEARLESS PREDICTIONS
1. Villanova
2. Georgetown
3. West Virginia
4. Connecticut
5. Cincinnati
6. Pitt
7. Louisville
8. Syracuse
9. Notre Dame
10. Seton Hall
11. Marquette
12. Providence
13. Rutgers
14. Depaul
15. St. John’s
16. South Florida
Big Ten
Remember that time the Big Ten may have a legitimate gripe to get seven teams into the NCAA Tournament in back to back years? Me neither, because it has not happened in my lifetime. The Big Ten may be as strong as it has ever been this season, returning nearly everyone back for preseason number two Michigan State, preseason number seven Purdue, preseason number 15 Michigan and 16 Ohio State. The Big Ten sent seven teams last season, and all with the exception of Wisconsin should return this season. Michigan State should be a top seed and Final Four threat to go to Indianapolis this season with Kalin Lucas and Raymar Morgan returning. To find faults in the Spartans is like trying to decipher Morse Code, difficult and painstaking…Matt Painter’s Purdue team was a slight letdown in March, barely winning their first two games and not even showing up against Connecticut in the Sweet 16. JaJuan Johnson looks for a big season inside to play with Robbie Hummel. Hummel was an all-Big Ten performer last season, but was injured in February, missed three games, returned, but not with the same tenacity and swagger he gave the Boilers two seasons ago or early in the ’08-’09 campaign. Ohio State returns its entire core with the exception of BJ Mullens who defected to the NBA., and that should keep Columbus happy as the Bucks are clearly third best in the league. Evan Turner is a great talent and could win POY in the Big Ten, and Ohio State has four guards who can all run, score and defend, which is something not many Big Ten teams have, even Michigan State. However, they got inexperience and size issues inside, which will cripple their running abilities if they can’t defend or rebound on the defensive side…Michigan is going to be really good. Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims are great, and a lethal dynamic duo that can play with anyone in the country. The Wolverines will defend and will shoot, a lot. They are ready to take the next step into the national spotlight where they have not been in ten years. The only issue is in the backcourt and running the offense. Freshman Darius Morris will probably be playing the point, and that is a worry for Ann Arbor. But John Beiliein knows what he is doing, and if Morris is ready, he will get the nod...Wisconsin is the worrisome team in the Big Ten; Trevon Hughes is back which means Wisconsin will still be a tough out because he will be a first or second team all conference player. But missing Marcus Landry and Joe Krabbenhoft inside is huge for Bo Ryan’s team this season; they lack a post presence and will have a severe drop-off after a second round appearance last season...Penn State probably should have made the NCAA Tournament last season; instead, they won the NIT, to claim number 66 in the field. The Nittany Lions will have to replace a lot this season however, losing their top three scorers; 6-10 forward Andrew Jones will shoulder the brunt of the shoes to fill as he steps into a starting role to keep Happy Valley improving. The improved team of the season this year will be Northwestern…The Wildcats have Kevin Coble who is as versatile a player that Northwestern as ever had. Coble averaged 16, 5 and 3 assists from the forward spot last season and can defend in the Wildcats zone…The Big Ten will either sink or swim this season; a possibility of six or seven bids can happen. But if the wrong things happen in the non-con, and teams don’t mature as expected, it could dwindle to three.
FEARLESS PREDICTIONS
1. Michigan State
2. Purdue
3. Michigan
4. Ohio State
5. Minnesota
6. Northwestern
7. Penn State
8. Indiana
9. Wisconsin
10. Illinois
11. Iowa
Next…Big 12, Pac10, SEC
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