2010 College Basketball Preview

Believe or not but the college basketball season begins tonight. I have to admit that the season kind of snuck up on me. Usually I prepare the season by diving head first into preview magazines, previews on various websites, and previews on ESPN. With the Giants playing in the world series and winning though, completely took my attention away from the college basketball season. That shouldn't be an excuse though not to give you an quick Spark Notes preview of the college basketball season.

Will Enes Kanter or Josh Shelby Play This Season?: The NCAA has really gone after schools this past year who are either breaking the rules or bending them. We've seen in football where schools like USC has been punished while the NCAA looks at schools such as Auburn. College basketball also has a target on it's back. The NCAA has made super Freshman Enes Kanter (Kentucky) and Josh Shelby (Kansas) ineligible. As of right now Kanter and Shelby are still ineligible to play this season while their cases are being heard. How slow the NCAA works, their cases might not be settled until next year and by then both men will be eligible to play in the NBA. I would especially be surprised if Kanter plays this season because of his alleged status as an amateur player or pro player. (He allegedly played pro hoops in Turkey.)

Is Duke Really That Good?: The defending national champions were voted the preseason number one team in the nation and it wasn't even close. They lost Jon Scheyer and Brian Zoubek from that team, but return Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith along with transfer Seth Curry and Freshman Kyle Irving. Now normally you would think a team that lost three starters from a national championship squad wouldn't be better, and you'd be wrong. This Duke team is loaded with talent, NBA talent. And I haven't even talked about the Plumlee brothers. The expectations are high for this team. Nothing short of an final four appearance will be considered an huge disappointment.

Will The Pac-10 Have Another Down Year?: There's no other way to put this, but the Pac-10 stunk last season. If it wasn't for a late rally by Washington, the Pac-10 would have had only one team in the NCAA tournament. So will the Pac-10 have another down year? I have to settle right in the middle. The Pac-10 won't have another down year, but won't be one of the better conferences. Every team returns quality starters (except California), but those players are very young. I think the Pac-10 sends three or four teams to the tournament.


Can't Miss Games:
- Michigan State at Duke, December 1st (ESPN): The annual ACC-Big Ten challenge got it right by paring these two schools up for an game. Right now both schools are number one and number two in the country and that shouldn't change until this game. The matchup between Kalin Lucas and Kyle Irving alone will be enough to get me to watch this game.

- Villanova at Pittsburgh, March 5th (CBS): The schedule makers got it right by scheduling this game as the last game of the season. Both teams are loaded with talent and both teams are expected to be the top two teams in the Big East.

- Georgetown at Temple, December 9th (ESPN2): This game has me excited thinking about the backcourt matchups. Chris Wright (Georgetown) vs. Juan Fernandez (Temple). It's too bad the old John Thompson and John Chaney won't be coaching this game.

- Gonzaga vs. Baylor in Dallas, December 18th (ESPN2)- I've always loved how Gonzaga loads up their non-conference schedule with quality opponents and is not afraid to play them at their place or a neutral court. This game is no different and should be exciting like all Gonzaga non-conference games.

- Duke at Maryland, February 2nd (ESPN)- I only picked this game to make Kris happy. Okay that's not the only reason. I don't expect Duke to lose a lot of games, but this is one of those games. Duke will be playing in a hostile environment (Remember they lost to Maryland last season in College Park) and will have to match up someone with the 6-11 Jordan Williams.

Conference Champions:
ACC- Duke
Big Ten- Michigan State
Big East- Pittsburgh
Pac-10- Washington
Big XII- Baylor
SEC- Florida

Final Four Picks:
Duke
Michigan State
Pittsburgh
Kansas State

National Champion: Pittsburgh