Monday

Pretty decent weekend for college basketball in general, UCONN held on against Miami to prove more Big East supremacy as the best conference in the country. Iona almost upset Wisconsin proving that after Purdue and possibly Michigan St. the Big 10 is very very down this year. Duke won the coaches vs. cancer but not before Michigan could add a statement game to their resume in beating a much worse UCLA team than the prior four years. Mercer proved that they are for real yet again vs. a major conference team this time taking Georgia Tech to overtime. USC proved that the PAC 10 is not strong this season by losing not only to Big East bottomfeeder Seton Hall and Bobby Gonzalez but to Big 12 bottomfeeder Missouri (Keyon Dooling aint walking through that door). Rutgers proved that they couldn't make it to UNC undefeated by flopping big time in losing at home to perennial bottom of the A10 (really A14) St. Boneventure (WNY stand up). Samardo Samuels beasted it up (what else is new) in Lousiville's route of South Alabama and Seton Hall added to the Big Easts great weekend with wins over USC and Virginia Tech. Xavier topped Memphis and overrated Tyreke Evans for the Puerto Rico title. Xavier still has a good core back from a team that should have made the final four last year.

Today/tonight we have some interesting games (aka thank you Maui for starting)

St. Joes v Texas
Decent first round matchup, Ahmad Nivens and Damion James are both in contention for their conferences POY (Although if Blake Griffen doesn't die he has Big 12's locked up already). A.J. Abrams is still a stud from 3 but I think Texas's toughness goes down with Conner Atchley down low although he can shoot. Look for Tasheed Carr and Nivens to put up a fight but Texas to win.

Indiana v Notre Dame
They have to travel all the way to Hawaii to play this battle for Indiana supremecy. Indiana has nothing but Tom Crean's wizardry while Notre Dame is a final four team. Gody, Tory, and Kyle will cruise to victory.

NJIT at Towson
Will NJIT get their first win in nearly two years here: NO

Syracuse v Florida
Syracuse is overrated, Florida is led in all three categories by Nick Calethas. Calethas would be a CDTN favorite but one charactersitic makes him a CDTN hated. He is a gimmick and won't dunk because he belives "2 points are 2 points". Well Nick, take a look at a Vince Carter commercial and realize that your old coach couldn't dunk. Werner and Calethas take down the Cuse.

UConn v Wisconsin
UConn proves yet again that the Big East is the best conference in the country. Kemba shuts down Trevon Hughes and lets his name be known to the non-junkies. Kemba will have to be the spark for this team to make a run come March. Also without Butch or Stiemsma Wisco has no match for Thabeet down low.

UNC v Chaminade
Chaminade can only hope for a Ralph Sampson like UVA choke from UNC. Not going to happen. Why couldn't they match up with Indiana here, at least that would've been entertaining. UNC cruises.

Kansas v Washington
Brockman is the best player in this game but Kansas has more depth and the Morris twins up fron have 10 fouls to use. Also the Pac10 is down as seen this past weekend. Look for Kansas to win but Brockman to beat as usual.

Thursday Night Preview

We only see four real games of note tonight and two of them are in NY.

Predictions:

Southern Illinois v. Duke
Contrasting styles meet. Chris Lowery is one of our favorite coaches and his squad is ready to forget last season's disastrous 18-15 record. Lowery's squads are known for lockdown defense and being feisty. Duke led by Coach K and the familiar cast of America's most hated team. Happy thought is that Paulus isn't even starting this year. Duke gets up and down and loves to put up points. We like Duke in this matchup but it will be closer than the 13 point spread.
Pick: Duke 77 So Ill 66

USC v. Seton Hall
Demar Derozan is one of the top freshman in the country this year. Tim Floyd one of the "how did I get here" slimeballs. Seton Hall is missing Brian Liang one of the most underrated players in the country last year. Seton Hall doesn't have an answer for Taj Gibson (right) downlow and Derozan and Daniel Hackett outside. Look for USC to move on.
Pick: USC 83 Seton Hall 71

Michigan v. UCLA
The Beilein era at Michigan is underway and has started 2-0. Manny Harris is a stud, one of the better players in the country but doesn't have too much help. If Michigan wants to make a tourney run this year this would be the necessary major resume win. Unfortunately for Michigan, they don't have the interior play to compete with the Bruins. The matchup at the 3 Josh Shipp v. Manny Harris is good but aside from that they will have trouble with the many weapons UCLA has. Darren Collison is the best point guard in the country and will be hard to stop.
Pick: UCLA 68 Michigan 58


Illinois v Vandy
Illinois was the unluckiest team in the country last season according to Ken Pom. Vandy seemed like the luckiest and has the biggest homecourt advantage in the country. Luckily for Illinois they are playing in Puerto Rico. Vandy has 3 stud freshman to go along with A.J. Ogilvy who is now the second most talked about Aussie in college basketball (thanks to Jay Bilas and ESPN calling Patty Mills the next Stephen Curry, despite the fact they are different players and anyone that saw the Olympics would know that Mills was already a stud). The Illini still have a young team and are athletic but may take a year more until they are poised for any type of run.
Pick: Vandy 76 Illinois 68

All Aboard the Mercer Bandwagon

We are jumping on the Mercer bandwagon right now, should have done it after the Alabama win. They just did a SEC Alabama two step in beating on the Alabama and Auburn both on the road. New coach Bob Hoffman's uptempo offense has worked so far. Give Hoffman a lot of credit schedule wise they are playing a lot of nonconference giants to make up for their ultra weak Atlantic Sun conference. Along with these two big road wins they get Georgia Tech at home on Saturday and then still have to travel to Dayton, Oklahoma St. and UCLA. Talk about a nonconference.

James Florence is so far the CDTN player of the year. Last year you may remember him matching OJ Mayo in Mercer's upset win and highlight of the year. Florence the stud junior who averaged 19 a game his freshman and sophomore years has been the go to scorer leading this team. and Western Kentucky transfer Daniel Emerson has been a beast on the boards outrebounding Jaymichael Green for Bama. In the Auburn game the most staggering statistic was that the Atlantic Sun outrebounded the SEC squad 36-18, they doubled the rebounds with a frontline of 6'6 6'6 and 6'8.

Next stop Saturday back at home, hopefully they don't let down and can get a few more marquee wins nonconference wise. If they do they could make a case for them being a At large if they run the A Sun like they should.

Tuesday Picks

Ok, so far our upset picks haven't worked out, but that will change-its early.

Games we find interesting tonight and our picks for them:

St. John's at BC-Interesting game here, a former big east rivalry renewed. A trip to the Garden on the line and making the semis of the preseason NIT. Both teams have started well and are 2-0. We like BC here because although Malik Boothe is a good pg, its a tough matchup for anyone going up against stud Tyreese Rice. Look for Rice to make sure that BC doesn't lose on their homecourt in a close game.
Pick: BC 84 St. Johns 79 and Tyreese Rice with 33

Tennesee Martin at Tennessee- While Tennesee has lost Romar Smith and Chris Lofton they still have Tyler Smith, J.P. Prince, Bobby Maze and Wayne Chism back plus superb freshman Cameron Tatum and Scotty Hopson. Tennessee Martin on the other hand has only one player you need to know Lester Hudson (right). Flat out Hudson is a beast, the 6'1 24 year old senior returned this year after putting up a good showing in the draft combine (under 6' without shoes on yet nearly a 6'9 wingspan and a 3.4 bodyfat you kidding me) He also has that will to score. Don't look for this one to be too close but look for Hudson to go off.
Pick: Tennessee 93 Tennessee Martin 77 and Lester Hudson with 38

Buffalo at Canisius- Buffalo is 1-0 Canisius 0-1 I'll take it. This rivalry will likely be close but I got the Bulls being road warriors agian and advancing to 2-0
Pick: Buffalo 72 Canisius 68

Kentucky at UNC- No Tyler no problem in this one for UNC. Don't buy into Kentucky's loss to VMI though aside from their horrible defense. It was a poor gameplan where Coach Gillispie shouldn't have tried to play VMI's style. This one will be a closer game than expected and I can assure you know one in Lexington wants to go 0-2 to start the year. Interesting matchup down low with Patrick Patterson up against Dion "Morpheus" Thompson.
Pick: UNC 85 Kentucky 77

Nevada at San Diego
A great mid-major matchup that is going under the radar. San Diego were the tourney darlings last year if it werent for Davidson. For Nevada it is the start of the Luke Babbit era. Babbit a McDonalds All American had 20 and 12 in his first game-nice start. After the Jayvale McGee travesty look for Nevada to get back to the promise land under Babbit and pick up a nice road win here.
Pick: Nevada 69-63

UAB at Arizona
In another NIT semifinal we have a good wing matchup here with Robert Vaden up against Chase Budinger. Both teams are looking for big years after last years dissapointment. For either team a win over the other would be nice for their already bubble bound resumes.
Pick: Arizona 77 UAB 68

Best Game of the Night
Davidson at Oklahoma- This is two of the best three teams in the preseason NIT (Purdue is the third) facing each other in the second round-Go Figure. Two candidates for the Wooden award in Steph Curry and Blake Griffen. Steph blew up nationally in the tournament last year but we have been a fan of his since the beginning of his freshman year. Blake is an NBA player in college, he can dominate when he wants to so is a matter if he tries or not. Either way this will be a fun game to watch no matter who wins and will set up a nice matchup v. Purdue in the NIT championship game.
Pick: Oklahoma defends home court. Oklahoma 76 Davidson 73

Tonight's Predictions

Look for Umass to put up a very good game behind a solid effort from Section 1 PTP’er Chris Lowe and play Memphis very tight. I gotta take Memphis by no more than five or six.

Purdue rolls past Eastern Michigan and advances to 2-0.

Cornell beats St Johns in one of the few games you’ll ever see an Ivy league team beat a Big East team.

NJIT loses convincingly at Penn St, proving once again they are not a division 1 team.

Kenny Horton, a former Section 1 great, scores 25 and dunks on Colgate several times en route to a convincing Central Connecticut St win.

Uconn starts the season 2- 0 after handling in state archrival University of Hartford a thirty point loss (Tha beet goes on).

In closing, not too much of an exciting CBB night, but then again November 17 rarely is. We should find out a little bit about Jim Calhoun’s rotation and how good Memphis is in the Post-CDR phase. Umass should give them a game. And big ups to Umass coach Derek Kellogg, a Calipari disciple pictured right, for scheduling both finalists last year, Memphis and Kansas. Tomorrow night should be interesting to see how much UNC beats up on Kentucky and BU against Bucknell for personal reasons.

Rutgers Nonconference

Here at CDTN we like Fred Hill and Rutgers, we think they are on the verge of becoming a big time program within the next few years but this year Coach Hill is pulling a Jim Boeheim to the extreme. Syracuse is always known for not leaving their home and playing jobbers for the first two months of the season before big east play to pad their record. Well, Rutgers is doing the exact same this year.

That is why we are predicting Rutgers to be 12-0 going into Chapel Hill on December 28th. They have a young core which could be a good reason to schedule 3 MAAC teams, 2 independents, and an assortment of low major Northeast schools but they will be overwhelmed when they take on UNC.

Look at this nonconference schedule it puts Boeheim to shame even with the game @UNC
Marist
@Delaware
Robert Morris
St. Boneventure
Lehigh
St. Peters
@Rider
Binghamton
@Princeton
Delaware St.
Bryant
NJIT
@UNC (Something doesnt look right here)

They are 2-0 so far with a nice 8 man rotation of all capable Big East starters which is nice. They have an abundance of great guards with Anthony Farmer, Mike Rosario, Mike Coburn and Corey Chandler. And downlow Hamaday N'Diaye (in the picture) a former project is Hibberting into a very nice big east player and impact downlow (he scored his career high 26 points yesterday vs. Delaware)

I think this soft schedule may help them gain confidence heading into conference play and with 12 wins early on they will only need to stay at around 500 in the dominant big east to be on the bubble.

Next year with a more experienced team hopefully Coach Hill broadens the difficulty of the schedule early on because too many cupcakes can hurt your RPI while waiting it out on Selection Sunday.

Notes From Saturday

UNC cruised to beat Penn for their first win of the season. Tyler "No im Not Hansbrough" Zeller led them in scoring with 18

Florida St. barely held on to beat Jacksonville by a mere 2. Chris Singleton had 17 boards for the Noles

After losing to Michigan in the Coaches V. Cancer, Northeastern added a big road win to their resume beating Providence in the Dunk. This is not good for Providence who wanted to be the tenth tourney team for the Big East. Also not the way Geoff McDermott wants to start his sr year I am sure.

Buffalo beat Youngstown St. on the road in all but assuredly Coach Spoons last year. After last year where they couldn't buy a road win at least its a start. 1-0

Bad News for CDTN sleeper #2 Washington. Despite 30 and 14 from Jon Brockman (the Pac 10s answer to Harangody and Hansbrough) they were upset by Portland. At least they can regroup and put this game behind them because its early.

Washington St. started out up 28-0 to against Miss Valley St. Nice way to start the season.

Night Watch

Update 1:
UPSET ALERT
VMI up 35-15 on Kentucky no this is not a typo.

Update 2 8:02 pm
2:01 left in the first half VMI still up now only up 13 but have put up 56 in 18 minutes. Their gimmick offense is working very well tonight. 56-43 Kentucky looks flustered. They need to get within 10 by halftime.
Going to cut to the American Oklahoma game at half

Update 3 8:33 pm
VMI came out strong in the second half. Kentucky cant play defense. They can score at will but can't get one stop. I wouldnt be surprised if VMI gets to 120 this game that is how bad Kentucky's defense is right now...In the other game Blake Griffen and Oklahoma are showing their big athleticism is a lot for small American to handle early on.

Update 4 9:33 pm

VMI wins 111-103 FIRST MAJOR UPSET OF THE YEAR. Gillispie walking off the court was comical. The gimmick offense beat the giant. How great it would be to watch a Kentucky practice tomorrow. VMI has the ability to be the first 16 seed to beat a one. They certianly aren't very good but can put up tons of points.

Update 5 10:28pm

Well American blew tonight. Oklahoma showed why they are ranked so highly and are extremely athletic. American has a lot to work on but its a long season and I am not leaving the bandwagon this early. As for VMI it was very impressive but I don't see them being a real factor this year, much like Gardner Webb last year I see this as a laughable game more than something to take stock into. Still tonight the Keydets can celebrate they deserved it putting up 111 in Rupp.

First real night of the season

After a few days of some Coaches v. Cancer opening rounds where not much happened outside of
-Michigan running away in their region
-Charlie Coles getting his 300th career win for Miami Oh on a 4 pt play then the next night going the distance vs. UCLA losing only by 5
-Southern Illinois adding a big non conference win to their resume over UMASS
-Nolan Smith overtaking Greg Paulus for the starting job at Duke then having jobber games against the Blue Hose and Georgia Southern to advance to NY

Tonight we begin non tournament non conference games

Starting with the upset pick
American over #8 Oklahoma

March 15th this year I wrote in the team capsule for American

"The Verdict: Wait ‘til next year. This team will be back again next year, with 9 juniors this trip will be very valuable to give them confidence but don’t expect them to come in and upset anyone. Next year, that’s another story but right now in the 2009 NCAA tournament I’m picking American to the sweet 16 hop on the bandwagon now while there is plenty of room."

Despite future lottery pick Blake Griffen leading this hyped Oklahoma team into the season look for American to shock the Sooners. This is where American will start their sweet sixteen run led by great backcourt play from Garrison Carr and Derrick Mercer two of the most electrifying guards in the country. They return 3 starters and 9 players from a team that almost shocked Tennessee last year in the tourney. Thus look for the upset here. And hop on with me cause come March there won't be much room.

Other Games of note:

Stanford at Yale in a battle for the best school in the country not named Harvard. Look for a easy Stanford win but still a battle of brains (especially without airheads Brook and Robin there).

Look for Maryland to beat Bucknell in the beginning of the post Flannery days for the Bison.

Look for Illinois Chicago to beat Bradley especially after Bradley lost to a D3 team in an exhibition game.

Nova over Will Brown's Albany making coach Brown realize even more how much he misses Jamar Wilson days.

Clemson over Hofstra making coach Pecora await Chaz Williams even more.

Then big east giants Pitt and Uconn should have easy wins

Tonight Prediction

Predicting our first upset of the season tonight. Our pick at CDTN is UMass led by CDTN favorite pg Chris "C-Low Low" Lowe over the home team and 4.5 point favorites Southern Illinois. Last night our prediction didn't go too well with So Ill being rather unimpressive and giving up a staggering 52 points to Cal (no not the real Cal this one is located in of all places PA).

UMass has a pretty formidable team this year Chris Lowe(right) is very very solid at point guard and is faster than any guard in the country. Up front Tony Gaffney is looking for a breakout senior season starting off with a double double in his first game this year. Also look for freshman Tyrell Lynch to crack the rotation and make an influence later this year. We could be talking about this team late in the season I for one wouldnt be suprised so our first upset pick of the year. UMASS over So Ill.

Other Picks for tonight
UCLA killing Prairie View A&M by at least 30 point margin with Jrue scoring at least 20 in his debut and the first game in the post Lorenzo era

Miami OH over Weber St. in the second best game of the night gettting the MAC off to a good start.

Michigan over Northeastern advancing to NY. NE has no one to cover Manny "Fresh" Harris (right)

Random Pick: Manny Harris to have most points on the night
(Random Pick Record 0-1 damn Salukis)

Jack's Final Four Picks

UCLA- Collison is the best pg in the country, Jrue is the best freshman in the country, Howland gets the Bruins to the final 4 every year.

Purdue- Surprise team from last year builds on it this season with everyone but Scott Martin returning. Plus, the Big Ten is weak this year. Chris Kramer is a CDTN favorite for his sheer toughness and one of the best stances around.

UNC- Just because if they don't make it, the CBB world wll be shocked. I could hear Tyler yelling in the weight room all offseason. This is Ty Lawson's year to establish himself as a lottery pick.

Louisville- Out goes Padgett, in comes Samardo. That's an upgrade at center. Earl Clark is also a CDTN favorite. Best NBA prospect in the country in my opinion not named Blake Griffin. Basically everyone else returns. Derrick "No Character" Caracter is gone, but who can honestly say they didn't expect that?

Random Prediction of the Night

Tonight's random prediction is that Southern Illinois doesn't allow over 25 points vs. Cal (PA). After a very disappointing year last year CDTN favorite Chris Lowery and his Salukis known for their defense will look to get off to a good start. And although we respect what Coach Lowery's squad does, I think he would be on our list of least favorite coaches to play for solely based on the difficulty of his practices.

So lets go Saluki's play that D. and get our random prediction record to 1-0.

Sleeper #2

Sleeper #2
Washington
“U-Dub” hasn’t been quite the same since the departure of Brandon Roy in 2006. In the last two seasons the Huskies are 15-21 in the Pac 10 and 0-5 against in state rival Washington St. But Lorenzo (no, not that Lorenzo) Romar is one of the best coaches in the conference and behind the leadership and dominant inside play of Jon Brockman this team has all the makings of a sleeper.

Washington’s problems last year manly centered around inconsistent perimeter play. Ryan Appleby is gone, which may not be the worst thing for the team. Much of the success of this team falls on guards Justin Dentmon (good slasher, not great shooter 28% 3s) and fresman pg Isiah Thomas. There’s a joke there about Isiah and the Knicks but I won’t go there. My guess is Thomas starts 6-8 games in once Lorenzo realizes how talented he is. He lead South Kent Prep last year and is definitely a Pac 10 caliber Pg. This will enable Dentmon to move to the 2 where he’s more comfortable and Quincy Pondexter (6-6 buck 0 5) to play the 3. Brockman will play the 4/5, but the team is in a better spot with him at the 5. He is more than a good enough rebounder (11.6 rpg) and will cause mismatches for the bigger centers in the conference. For 3 point shooting, senior Joel Smith (42%) and freshman Scott Suggs will be called on. Joe Wolfinger is a 7 footer who will eat up some minutes.

Overall this is a very talented team with more experience. They only won 16 games last year and will surprise people this year. I have them at a 6 seed. Lorenzo is due this year and in a much weaker Pac 10, this team should capitalize. Isiah Thomas could make a serious run at Pac 10 Freshman of the year if it weren’t for Jrue.

Sleeper Pick #1

Over the next few weeks we here at CDTN will be picking some sleepers this year. These are teams that have not started ranked or receiving votes in the coaches poll but will be in there at some point and will cause a ruckus come March.

Our first team profiled are the:

UTAH Utes
Last year the Utes were 18-15 overall and mere 7-9 in the MWC. But this year they have the experience to cause damage. They return all 5 starters including major senior big man Luke Nevill. Nevill averaged 15 and 7 last season but was plagued by foul trouble. Another season under his belt with depth behind him (Kim Tillie and freshman top 100 recruit Jason Washburn) as well will make Nevill fiery to stay on the floor.

The key thing that they have that will make them a threat is the fact that they are heavy senior laden. With Senior PF Shaun Green who averaged nearly 8ppg they have a guy that will guard the bigger defender but can also stretch the defense out with his ability to shoot the three ball. At guards they have Seniors Tyler Kepkay at the point, a JUCO transfer who transitioned roughly last year but is poised for a big senior year. He spent the summer playing for the Canadian National Team. Lawrence Borha another senior and runner up Mr. Basketball in Kansas Jordan Cyphers will make impacts at wing positions.

Playing in the not so mid-major MWC will provide valuable experience against strong teams but coach Jim Boylen (a Tom Izzo disciple) scheduled a rigorous non-conference schedule. Getting LSU, Oregon, Cal and Gonzaga at home and traveling to Oklahoma and a neutral site game against Ole Miss gives them many chances at the wins that will help their tourney resume. If they can pull off a few upsets and get hot in MWC play they can go into the tourney on a hot streak and are a tough matchup for any team with their senior leadership and depth up front.