Tweet
0-1 last nite
1-2 YTD
Well Marquette really opened my eyes yesterday. The Golden Eagles were lucky to win that game at all in my opinion. Western Carolina totally outplayed them in the 1st half, and appeared to want it more. Crean's boys got eaten up on the inside a bit, which was something I admitted I was concerned about a little in my writeup for the game. Here's what I like today...
Missouri -20
Brown was one of the better offensive teams in the Ivy league, but didn't experience tremendous success because they don't play defense plain and simple. They are rather soft on rebounding, and allow opponents to drive the lane all too frequently. Granted, Missouri has lost a lot of experience (I believe 4 departed seniors contributed about 44 points a game for the Tigers last season) but they've got a top notch recruiting class. Freshman G Jason Horton is pretty quick and good with the ball, and swingman Glen Dandridge is supposedly a dead-eye shooter. So you're probably asking, why am I willing to lay 20 with a team that is clearly rebuilding? Missouri still has bigman Linas Kleiza on the inside. He averaged 11ppg and 8rpg in just 16 games as a freshman (he missed the rest with a shoulder injury but is healed). I look for him to get the ball quite often inside against the Bears, who as I said are weak inside.
Wake Forest -14
George Washington is an experienced team, and could very well contend for the A-10 title now that a certain Mr. Nelson has gone on to bigger things. However, we are talking about Wake Forest. The Deacons are also loaded with experience, and in my view their experience has better talent. I think GW will hang with them for a bit, and maybe into the early 2nd half but Wake Forest just has too many weapons. The backcourt of Chris Paul and Justin Gray can flat out score points, and backup G Taron Downey is solid (don't forget he used to start for them 2 years ago). Up front Wake returns big men Jamaal Levy and Eric Williams, two guys that are definitely capable of being double-double performers. My question mark will be on senior F Vytas Danelius. He really struggled last season and it was obvious at times his confidence wasn't there. If he can return to his old form of being a double-digit scorer, that will be just one more weapon for the Demon Deacons. Like I said, George Washington may hang in this one for a while...perhaps by playing conservative slowball, but eventually I think the Deacons will break it open.
1-2 YTD
Well Marquette really opened my eyes yesterday. The Golden Eagles were lucky to win that game at all in my opinion. Western Carolina totally outplayed them in the 1st half, and appeared to want it more. Crean's boys got eaten up on the inside a bit, which was something I admitted I was concerned about a little in my writeup for the game. Here's what I like today...
Missouri -20
Brown was one of the better offensive teams in the Ivy league, but didn't experience tremendous success because they don't play defense plain and simple. They are rather soft on rebounding, and allow opponents to drive the lane all too frequently. Granted, Missouri has lost a lot of experience (I believe 4 departed seniors contributed about 44 points a game for the Tigers last season) but they've got a top notch recruiting class. Freshman G Jason Horton is pretty quick and good with the ball, and swingman Glen Dandridge is supposedly a dead-eye shooter. So you're probably asking, why am I willing to lay 20 with a team that is clearly rebuilding? Missouri still has bigman Linas Kleiza on the inside. He averaged 11ppg and 8rpg in just 16 games as a freshman (he missed the rest with a shoulder injury but is healed). I look for him to get the ball quite often inside against the Bears, who as I said are weak inside.
Wake Forest -14
George Washington is an experienced team, and could very well contend for the A-10 title now that a certain Mr. Nelson has gone on to bigger things. However, we are talking about Wake Forest. The Deacons are also loaded with experience, and in my view their experience has better talent. I think GW will hang with them for a bit, and maybe into the early 2nd half but Wake Forest just has too many weapons. The backcourt of Chris Paul and Justin Gray can flat out score points, and backup G Taron Downey is solid (don't forget he used to start for them 2 years ago). Up front Wake returns big men Jamaal Levy and Eric Williams, two guys that are definitely capable of being double-double performers. My question mark will be on senior F Vytas Danelius. He really struggled last season and it was obvious at times his confidence wasn't there. If he can return to his old form of being a double-digit scorer, that will be just one more weapon for the Demon Deacons. Like I said, George Washington may hang in this one for a while...perhaps by playing conservative slowball, but eventually I think the Deacons will break it open.