not sure if you were being sarcastic or not, but to be safe, shumpert graduated last year. Florida is my dark horse to win it this year. the have the inside-outsided senior leadership of nelson and bonner. Plus a more experienced lee and white (if he doesn't transfer out) at the forwards. They will also be very athletic and deep. And if the foreign guard they got is the real deal they will be tough
While depth is a concern, I think Kansas has easily the best starting 5 in the nation...so do many others, including the Sporting News, one of CNN or ESPN (?) and others...
Kansas is overrated. You don't lose a college player like Drew Gooden and not suffer at all. Not even at Kansas. My teams would be UA, OU, Texas with Duke possibly. I think UT has the balance, depth, chemistry and maturity to go a long way. And we prob have the best PG-big man combo in the land in Ford and Thomas.
Better than Gardner and Walton? No way. But you might get away with saying Walton isn't a big man (probably a natural college power forward and pro small forward), and then you can compare the Texas two to Gardner and Frye. For now I would give the Texas's duo the edge, but Frye could change that quickley. You could also talk about Ridnour and Jackson--but Jackson falls in a similar boat as Walton or even less because he posts up less than Walton does. I'd probably take the UT pair anyway--but not by a lot. How about Collison and Miles? I would probably take the UT pair but this could be close also. Okafor and either Gordon or Brown? Hard to say here also. Okafor is better than Thomas, but I give the edge to Ford over either Uconn guard you want to call their point. Overall, edge UT. So I guess if you don't call Walton a big man I could buy calling the Texas duo the best Pg/big man pair in the land. But that is till very debatable, further, they are not the best guard/front court duo (make the categories broader).
How about Collison and Miles? I would probably take the UT pair but this could be close also. I would take that duo over any in the country. Ford's better than Hinrich, but not by much, and Collison is a good deal better than Thomas....
Duke, you are seriously underrating james thomas. Nick collison is solid, but him and miles is not better than ford and thomas-no way. Ford beats miles, and Thomas at worst is a wash with Collison. If anything hinrich-collison or miles-collison is a draw. Scar, I wasn't qualifying walton as a big man. That was the tandem that i thought might compare btw. And if you want me to be more specific, I think UT has the 2nd best starting lineup in the country behind Arizona, with TJ, Royal, Brandon, Thomas, and either Erskin or Buckman. We need to work on free throw shooting, but Barnes teams bring the D and TJ fixed his shot over the summer and Thomas added post moves. Watch out. Kansas has a pretty good lineup now that I think about it, but I really see them missing Gooden in the tourney and big games.
Duke, you are seriously underrating james thomas. Nick collison is solid, but him and miles is not better than ford and thomas-no way. Ford beats miles, and Thomas at worst is a wash with Collison. If anything hinrich-collison or miles-collison is a draw. Oh, Ford and Thomas is much better than Miles and Collison....I said Hinrich and Collison And I know Thomas is good, he's better than anyone OU has up front at the moment, but I'd take Collison over him any day.....and so would everyone who has Collison 1st or 2nd team All-America and not Thomas.... I think UT has the 2nd best starting lineup in the country behind Arizona I know both teams will be good....but I think people are seriously overrating Arizona without even seeing half of their team play. Walton, Gardner is a great tandem, Anderson is nice, but really the rest of the team is unproven.....
I just have never been overally impressed by Collison. Granted, JT for awhile had little offensive game himself, but not anymore. In fact I wouldnt be shocked to see 3 big 12 final four teams. And it was Scar who said miles-collison, sorry
Wha? Where did Texas come from? Last I heard, Tom Penders was sweating out victories over Rice. Who have they sent to the NBA in the last 10 yrs? Honest question....
Stoudemire was freshman of the year in the Pac 10 and may have the best pure jump shot in the land. Channing Frye was the best freshman frontcourt player in the the Pac-10 last year. I would call neither "unproven". Arizona entire starting 5 and 3 primary backups return from last year (8 of the top 8 returning, including 5 who were freshman last year). Also, here is the best news. Anderson may not even be on the court when Arizona decides to put their best line-up out there. Hassan Adams and Andre Igudala--two wickedly athletic 6'5ish small forwards have been killing people in practice. This is not remotely the same team that OU beat last year. They are far deeper (10 solid--the second 5 guys would start for most Pac-10 teams), more experienced (even with Adams or Igudala on the floor), and most importantly, far more athletic. Back on topic, isn't Hinrich listed as a 2 guard and Miles the 1--that is why I paired Miles and Collison. I will say this I think Ford/Thomas have as much talent as any big man/point guard duo--I just don't know if they are there yet. DV I also agree Gooden is a much bigger loss than realized. However the 3 fresh from Kansas's team last year potentially could make that team as good if not better. I don't think Kansas can ride Hinrich or Collison to the championship--I think neither is as good as say Dixon or Jason Williams or Gooden where those guys do damage even with schemes designed to stop them, but maybe the pups from last year fill in all they need.
I would agree on Kansas. I just don't think Simien is ready to pick up the slack. I just think UT has a really good team this year, now if we only make our free throws.
