YSU brings a talented group of kids to Georgia, they are vicious on the offensive glass, they steal well and they have the nation's best shot blocker. This team plays with a deep bench a balanced attack and solid team play, Georgia will have a scary opponent in their gym Monday the kind of team that can exploit their weaknesses in the backcourt. Hard to ignore the defensive presence seen in the last game and also hard to ignore the solid performance of this team under the current coaching scheme last season.
Georgia brings tons of potential to the table but suffers from a lack of experience and health. The Bulldogs return 9 players four of them starters from last year's team however the force is primarily on the inside. For everything Georgia has in the frontcourt they lack in the backcourt, there's no clear PG meaning essentially, no good ball handlers on the team and that just makes the shooters and frontcourt much easier to defend for YSU. I think Georgia has to bring some major keys together to pull off this victory let alone the cover.
This is the only game I have so far but I'm leaning towards Cleveland State; I really like the direction of the team and the coach but they are just so young and hard to predict. Facing a Bowling Green team that can certainly take the bull by the horns if given the opportunity....I'm going to wait on it and see if any information or line moves can change my opinion.
CSU lost four starters over last year and starts sophomores in their place around lone returning starter; Tim Kamczyc. The new lineup looks promising deceiving because there are young players who look to provide immediate impact. Anton Grady (6'8", F) is predicted to have a breakout year and lead in scoring, Sebastien Douglas is finally back after knee surgery a year ago and a list of about 3-4 very promising recruits. One of which Charlie Lee might contend for the starting PG spot has tons of athletic talent and heart. After last year's season mired with some of college's biggest personalities/drama and barrage of injuries, this year promises to be a lot more chill...a learning year if you will but with some huge potential and immediate impact.
Bowling Green is in a similar situation but return leaders Jordan Crawford and Auston Calhoon combine for 25+ pts/gm and ~20 reb/gm they will need to be the glue the entire contest between front and back court. BG is really hurting in the perimeter they do not have an answer for losing Dee Brown and Scott Thomas, this backcourt weakness in a neutral site game can really give you problems on offense and even worse if your guards don't defend well. It remains to be seen how the Falcon's new faces in the backcourt can contribute, they added a new host of frontcourt players I consider them to be deep in that respect but I don't really think they have enough of an edge over cleveland state's front men to offset their guard deficiencies. Both teams are coming in with many new faces in starting roles but I see that CSU has a much more complete team game despite all that. Look for breakdowns and turnovers to favor Cleveland State and win by 6+.
New Mexico is certainly going to miss Gordon this year but that said, they return possibly the strongest group of 5 guards in the country. I think even though they can play big or small they will need to play smaller against teams like Davidson, they will be tougher on defense as a result. They will still play uptempo but don't be surprised if you see some press, lol I know I said it, probably not but it will be interesting to see what adjustments they make. They just can't rely on their front court to be able to replace Gordon's output immediately because if they do they will run into foul trouble and they are not deep up front. Coach Alford got off to a weird start last year losing early to NMst. at home I know he's got this team focused to start good tonight, he knows he is facing an almost 'vet' team in Davidson tonight and has less talent up front; I'm sure he'll adjust accordingly.
Davidson returns all starters and most of the team from last years great success and the future is certainly bright again this year. It's hard to find holes in this team they will guard well, and likely out rebound New Mexico, I doubt they can outrun the lobos but they can certainly run, and maybe keep up. All that said lets be realistic, this game starts @ 2am eastern time (Davidson time) and is being played in the pit against an excellent ball handling team in the Lobos. I don't really see Davidson getting owned but I can definitely see them off to a slow start having to adjust to three main factors; the altitude, the game's start time and the Lobos at home. This number for the 1st half was surprisingly small when the side got steamed down to -5 and so I like it quite a bit.
Pennsylvania Quakers are well coached and I have no doubt they can cover this number later in the year on a neutral court but today I'm not so sure. They have to replace two legends and are really lacking a ball handler and some more perimeter game. They bring in some new freshmen with talent but again I'm just not so sure they are going to be able to run with Delaware today against a much more experienced team.
Delaware sports a very experienced team, returning starters in front and back court after a dissapointing finish to a grudge match vs. LaSalle I expect them to come out fighting.
Huggins teams have a long history of playing a hardcore, smash mouth, take it and dish it out kind of style and there aren't alot of teams that can effectively deal with it. This year is going to be no exception and I think we're all going to know who Aaric Murray is after tonight, he will be tough for the zags to deal with especially with the Kelly Olnyk suspension (http://tiny.cc/g30onw). Mountaineers also boast the deepest back court Huggins says he's ever had...maybe they can deal with zags killer duo in Pangos and Bell. I know the entire team is heated after last year's embarrassing loss in the tournament, I'm quite sure the motivation is going to be there and if WVU can continuously pound the inside they could win this game.
Mark Few at least knows how dangerous this West Virginia team is and he will no doubt have an excellent game plan and ready players. They'll try to control the tempo, get turnovers and run as much as possible, not impossible with their guards and decent front court. However it's these matchups against the tough grinding teams that they're going to miss Sacre the most. They simply won't be able to replace his defensive contributions even with two forwards, he was honestly that dominating inside, so they will need to match in scoring with solid offence and perimeter game. All this said I just don't see the zags winning by their typical 10+ margin at home; WVU is bringing arguably more talent to this game this time around and on the flip side, zags are definitely going to be weaker inside then last time they faced the Mountaineers.
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