Azubuike24;1301003 wrote:Chane Behanan possibly suspended for the first semester for Louisville. It's only going to be maybe 8-10 games, but still, not a good start chemistry-wise for a team expecting a national title and it being one of their biggest impact players.

Per ESPN: Coach Rick Pitino said Sunday that Behanan was involved in some unspecified "incidents" this summer and was warned that another would lead to him missing games ... Louisville sophomore forward Chane Behanan must sit out the Cardinals' exhibition opener against Pikeville on Nov. 1.

I think we can all agree that Rick got to the bottom of that one. Lol.

Anyone get any preview magazines yet? I have two but neither will ever be as good as Sporting News. Too bad they no longer put a yearbook preview like they used to and instead use it for their monthly magazine.

Yeah, Sporting News was always one of my favorites as well. And before it merged with Sporting News, the annual magazine I most looked forward to each fall was Street & Smith's. In its early days, Street & Smith's had such a different layout than all of the others and some really interesting stuff. Others that I used to get that I am not sure are still in existence are Basketball News and CBS Sportsline.com. Those used to have heaps of team stats.

This year I have already picked up an Athlon (about as flamboyant as the Bible in terms of production value) and plan to grab a Blue Ribbon at some point. Blue Ribbon Yearbook is the most comprehensive college basketball mag out there today.

What out-of-conference games are you most looking forward to this year?

For me: Duke-Kentucky on Nov. 13 and Vegas at North Carolina on Dec. 29

I also really hope that Duke, which will be participating in arguably this year's toughest early season tournament, the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas, meets up with preseason No. 2 Louisville, who will also be at the event along with other notables such as Memphis, Virginia Commonwealth, Missouri and Stanford.

reclegend22;1301973 wrote:Yeah, Sporting News was always one of my favorites as well. And before it merged with Sporting News, the annual magazine I most looked forward to each fall was Street & Smith's. In its early days, Street & Smith's had such a different layout than all of the others and some really interesting stuff. Others that I used to get that I am not sure are still in existence are Basketball News and CBS Sportsline.com. Those used to have heaps of team stats.

This year I have already picked up an Athlon (about as flamboyant as the Bible in terms of production value) and plan to grab a Blue Ribbon at some point. Blue Ribbon Yearbook is the most comprehensive college basketball mag out there today.

I have Athlon and Lindy's this year. I saw a few pages of the Blue Ribbon on their site and their team pages didn't impress me that much. No roster and no stats. They did give a few lines to each of the players that were supposed to contribute. It's only available by mail correct?

reclegend22;1302006 wrote:What out-of-conference games are you most looking forward to this year?

1. Indiana vs North Carolina
2. Indiana vs UCLA (Barclays Center)...possible. Both teams have to win. UCLA vs Georgetown and Indiana vs Georgia.

After that, it will depend on how the season plays out. Not many people were focused on UNLV vs UNC last year, but I couldnt wait. I knew UNLV would be awesome. Games like that typically end up being my favorite. Games that arent hyped, but as a basketball fan you know it will be awesome despite the lack of national attention.

A lot of the top games of "big" names end up flopping as one team or both end up underachieving either in that game, or throughout the season in general.

I will UK and LVille almost always has something for me though. Same with UK - Duke/UNC.

I guess Im also curious to watch the Big Ten teams in their "high-profile" games. It will be the first time in years I actually watch and actively scout the IU opponents. Those teams games take on a new meaning when IU is actually good and competing for titles lol

sportswizuhrd;1302096 wrote:I have Athlon and Lindy's this year. I saw a few pages of the Blue Ribbon on their site and their team pages didn't impress me that much. No roster and no stats. They did give a few lines to each of the players that were supposed to contribute. It's only available by mail correct?

I have purchased the Blue Ribbon Yearbook before at Books-A-Million, so I think you can get it at least select in-store locations.

As for the yearbook's content and layout, within the forecast for each team in the country is an elaborate description for each player on the roster, including traditional stuff such as height, year in school and geographic origins as well as in-depth characteristics of that player's game, strengths, weaknesses and other such details. It also provides the full schedule for each team in addition to a quick "snapshot" of each program (such as location, previous season's record, number of starters lost and returning, homecourt, coach and his record at school and career, assistants, the teams wins in each of the last five years, RPI each of the last five years, etc.

The preseason Top 25 teams are given almost four pages each full of information that meticulously covers areas such as coach and program, starters not returning (giving stats, highlights, attributes that will need to be replaced, and other useful information), others not returning (same detailed info), projected starters (with more comprehensive details for each ... four paragraphs each in some cases), key reserves (same), other returning players (same), newcomers (same), questions and answers surrounding the team's outlook, a compete schedule and results section covering the team's prior campaign, and a thorough Blue Ribbon analysis.

Sorry if all of that just reads as a jumbled mess. Would have been easier to send you a scan of some of the pages of a previous yearbook, but I am all caught up watching Fox News lol.

Laley23;1302118 wrote:1. Indiana vs North Carolina
2. Indiana vs UCLA (Barclays Center)...possible. Both teams have to win. UCLA vs Georgetown and Indiana vs Georgia.

After that, it will depend on how the season plays out. Not many people were focused on UNLV vs UNC last year, but I couldnt wait. I knew UNLV would be awesome. Games like that typically end up being my favorite. Games that arent hyped, but as a basketball fan you know it will be awesome despite the lack of national attention.

A lot of the top games of "big" names end up flopping as one team or both end up underachieving either in that game, or throughout the season in general.

Totally agree. I had that UNLV-UNC game marked in my mind for a long time. I couldn't wait for it. And as soon as it was over, I had enjoyed it so much that I pressed the rewind button on my remote and watched it all over again. Lol. That was one of the best games of the year, not only because of the "upset" of Carolina -- although, we all know that it wasn't actually an upset being that it was played in Vegas and the fact that the Rebels were a solid team with outstanding talent -- but because of the uproarious, almost title-fight like environment in the building. It was electric and it was great. One of the best I have seen in a long time.

Sportswizurd, I want to note that I collected the information for the Blue Ribbon overview above from the 2009-10 version of the yearbook. So the yearbook might be a little different in layout/information this year. Your best bet is to check out a Books-A-Million or another large book chain store that might be more apt to carry Blue Ribbon, such as Borders or Barnes & Noble, and see if you like it enough to pay $10. (I think that's what it usually costs.)

Check out these testimonials of the yearbook from many of college basketball's biggest names.

I do not work for Blue Ribbon lol.

reclegend22;1302424 wrote:Sportswizurd, I want to note that I collected the information for the Blue Ribbon overview above from the 2009-10 version of the yearbook. So the yearbook might be a little different in layout/information this year. Your best bet is to check out a Books-A-Million or another large book chain store that might be more apt to carry Blue Ribbon, such as Borders or Barnes & Noble, and see if you like it enough to pay $10. (I think that's what it usually costs.)

Check out these testimonials of the yearbook from many of college basketball's biggest names.

I do not work for Blue Ribbon lol.

I will check Books-A-Million. The site says its 23 bucks and 17 for the download.

sportswizuhrd;1302478 wrote:I will check Books-A-Million. The site says its 23 bucks and 17 for the download.

Yeah, I know I didn't pay $23 at BAM. I believe the price on my 2009-10 editions reads $10.99 or so. The price might have changed since then, but by double would seem ridiculous. They better be providing a complete medical history of each player at that price.

Stopped by Books-A-Million to pick up the Blue Ribbon yearbook today at lunch and the store does carry it, for $20. So, the price has increased dramatically since 2010. But with the amount of sheer information at your disposal, it is worth it. The BAM I was at didn't have any out on the shelves yet, but the clerk said they should start seeing them in the next couple of weeks.

Adidas freshman phenom Shabazz Muhammad out with a shoulder injury. The UCLA staff says an MRI will be performed and they will then evaluate the extent of the injury from there. Muhammad remains under investigation by the NCAA for possible involvement with an agent and has yet to be cleared to play. Fellow freshman Kyle Anderson is also yet to be declared eligible due to a similar NCAA probe.

It's pretty wild to consider that, depending on the outcome of the above investigations, entering the first week of the season UCLA could either be a prohibitive NCAA title favorite or Ben Howland could be on the cusp of another disastrous season in Westwood and in serious jeopardy of losing his job.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/uclas-muhammad-injures-shoulder-practice-024752054--ncaab.html

Missouri's Michael Dixon suspended indefinitely.

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/10/26/3886922/mizzous-mike-dixon-dominique-bull.html

This is a huge loss as Dixon is one of the few experienced players for Mizzou. Despite their talent, they still have a lot of parts needing to come together early. Not a good start...

Azubuike24;1305159 wrote:This is a huge loss as Dixon is one of the few experienced players for Mizzou.

*people

Frank Haith is just there enjoying the best season tickets in the house. It's the only rationale I can come up with for this man being hired at one of the better basketball programs in the country, that he bought the seat on ebay.

Coach A Resume:

Overall Record: 121-101 (.556)
Conference Record: 43-69 (.388)
Years: 7
NCAA Appearances: 1
NIT Appearances: 4
Nothing: 2

Would you hire Coach A? Hint: Coach A is Frank Haith.

Jordan Burgess ineligible at VCU. He was basically a replacement for his brother. Same position, same type of player. The 7 others for VCU do return, but this hurts their depth.

Azubuike24;1305159 wrote:Missouri's Michael Dixon suspended indefinitely.

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/10/26/3886922/mizzous-mike-dixon-dominique-bull.html

This is a huge loss as Dixon is one of the few experienced players for Mizzou. Despite their talent, they still have a lot of parts needing to come together early. Not a good start...

They should be ok after picking up a player from every conference as transfers.

Basketball Prospectus Rankings - http://basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=2426

Kyle Anderson cleared by the NCAA.
Shabazz Muhammad yet to be cleared.

Eh Michigan is too low in those predictions. IMO they've got a lot of talent, just not very deep. That hasn't hurt OSU in the past though so I can't say 8-8. The B1G is loaded either way

KenPom Rankings - http://kenpom.com/

While they are based on many factors, college "projections" like this are very difficult to predict as a lot of the data is based on projections itself. Unlike the pros, college sports differ a lot from year to year.

I've always found it a great time early in college football and basketball season to make money against Vegas because their lines are almost 100% guesswork.

Classyposter58;1310286 wrote:Eh Michigan is too low in those predictions. IMO they've got a lot of talent, just not very deep. That hasn't hurt OSU in the past though so I can't say 8-8. The B1G is loaded either way

9-9 is probably too low, but I have them at about 10-8 or 11-7 in the B1G this year. Then again, I think they are primed to disappoint (as far a as top 5 ranking goes).

Does anyone know the story behind Rotnei Clarke's transfer to Butler? The kid dropped 50 in a game for Arkansas. Was it just a case that he was upset by the firing of the coach who recruited him? I would have thought that he would have been a perfect fit for Mike Anderson's uptempo brand of basketball as one of the nation's premier gunners, as opposed to Butler's molasses offense.

Whatever the case, Butler is going to have a very dangerous pair of shooters in the backcourt in Clarke and newcomer Kellen Dunham. Just love Clarke's game. Reminds me of a young Brent Price.

More media hypocrisy.

UCLA recruit Shabazz Muhammad still under investigation, and rumors swiriling that he may never play a college game.

Indiana Freshman Hanner Perea and Peter Jurkin suspended 9 games each.

The only news blurb of the offseason you ever saw regarding eligibility? Kentucky Freshman Nerlens Noel being investigated. Articles in CBS, Sports Illustrated and Yahoo. Updates on the ESPN Ticker. Noel cleared, no wrongdoing found, no eligibility issues, yet the media accomplished it's goal. Attract readers and create a story out of nothing.

Sad.