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Three storylines to really tip off the season with
Nov. 10, 2009
By Gary Parrish
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketba...the-season-with


People kept asking if I was going to the FIU-North Carolina opener.

I'd say no.

They'd ask why.

And that question was answered Monday night.


Sure, Isiah Thomas coaching at Florida International is a nice storyline, but I had no desire to watch UNC destroy his team on a random Monday in November. As I assured you in the blog late Sunday, it was "fun until tipoff" and then "we had a blowout." Still, that's the best we could do on Opening Day, thus the mismatch got a lot of attention. But now it's in the record books, a part of the past. So it's time to turn the page and focus on some meaningful storylines in this first week of college basketball.

Here are three of those storylines:

Storyline No. 1: Is Evan Turner really this awesome?

Turner isn't a natural point guard, and I wasn't sure playing him there would be the best thing for Ohio State. But now I'm as sure as I could be after watching Turner finish with 14 points, 17 rebounds and 10 assists in Monday's 100-60 season-opening victory over Alcorn State.

Yep, Turner got a triple-double.

It was just the second in school history.

And it would be easy to dismiss if not for the fact that Turner got 15 points, 14 rebounds and six assists in OSU's exhibition, meaning he's had back-to-back statistically incredible performances.

"That's an amazing stat line when you really look at it," Ohio State coach Thad Matta told reporters after Monday's triple-double. Added Turner: "I just try to do my job."

He'll be a serious Player of the Year candidate if he keeps doing it like that.

Turner takes the court again Thursday against James Madison.

Storyline No. 2: Does UNC have a point guard good enough to lead it to the Final Four?

It's obviously too early to answer that question, either way. But Monday offered a first glimpse of Larry Drew as the Tar Heels' starting point guard, and he was solid if not spectacular. The sophomore finished with seven points, six assists and two turnovers in 21 minutes. Ty Lawson, he is not. But Drew was solid, and solid might be good enough.

Meantime, Dexter Strickland, the other obvious candidate to play some point, had five turnovers in 11 minutes. Hopefully it was just first-game jitters. Or something. Because North Carolina needs Strickland to at least push Drew, and nothing that happened against Florida International indicated he's ready to push anybody ... except opposing players (Strickland also had four fouls).

Storyline No. 3: Will Renardo Sidney be cleared in time for Friday's opener?

"It is clear that the ultimate goal is to prolong this inquiry," Sidney's attorney, Don Jackson, texted me Friday after learning the NCAA is now requesting "records that identify the sources of each [bank] deposit, cellular phone records for every family member since Jan. 1, 2006, records to indicate where every payroll check was deposited, etc."

Translation: The NCAA isn't giving up or giving in.

The NCAA knows the Sidney family went from a modest home in Mississippi to living in California and paying between $4,000 and $5,000 a month in rent, and the NCAA is operating under the logical theory that such didn't happen legitimately. Can the NCAA prove a violation? Perhaps not. But it's clear something wild happened, and unless the Sidney family proves otherwise it seems the Mississippi State freshman might never be cleared, and it almost certainly won't happen in time for Friday's opener against Rider.

As Jackson suggested, there's no end in sight.

He's frustrated.

I get that.

But like I wrote months ago, the NCAA would lose all credibility if it cleared a high-profile guy from Mississippi who moved to Los Angeles and paid a rent that seems unaffordable without a compromised amateur status. That's why this is a huge case. And while it makes legal sense that Sidney should expect to be charged or cleared, this is not a court of law and the NCAA doesn't have the burden of proof. It can basically do whatever it wants, which is dangerous, I know. But in this case, I'm with the NCAA -- not because I wish ill on Mississippi State or Sidney, but because holding his family accountable could encourage the families of future prospects to be a little more careful about how they conduct themselves.

At the very least, it'll teach them to be more discreet with their rental properties.

Hey, we've got to start somewhere.

I don't hate Kentucky, I've just live through Cal. We all knew what Cal was doing, but chose to ignore it because we were winning. Cal was sending his players who were not getting the grades to some school up north to get rubber stamped grades. ESPN made a big stink over the school, so he started sending the kids to a local private school in Memphis (Lausanne).

Remember the name Worldwide Wesely. He's the agent that got Memphis all their big name players. He's now Kentucky's problem.

We chose to ignore the problem because we were winning. He's gone now, but I don't mind because at least we aren't selling our souls for wins.

People dont hate Kentucky that much, they hate fans like you. You act just like the Buckeye fans you rail on.

What cracks me up is he probabally thinks Kentucky is going to win a national championship

I can talk way more smack about Kentucky football than you can, so why go there?

hey, I think the Buckeyes have a shot at the Final Four this year if the team comes together....

so I'm way more delusional than Top

why are we talking college basketball?

college hoops don't start for another 4 months...

May be if you're an OSU fan. But us Connecticut folk, we worship the UConn Huskies. It's not just about the tournment, it's also about beating Syracuse twice, beating Pitt, WV, Nova, Louisville, Marquette, and all the other teams the Big East offers. There are also plenty of other exciting non-conference games. I know Conn is playing Kentucky, and I sure hope we win so I can talk smack.

Yeah, the tournment is great, and what you work toward, but I love the reg season and the Big East tournment as well, and they count toward something in my book........

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just from an outside perspective, the college basketball regular season is the most boring regular season in sports. it's terrible, i can't get into any of these games.

maybe it's because the tournament is so good that it makes the regular season look worse, but i just can't get into it. nba regular season? love it. exciting, love the huge matchups.

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Man I couldn't disagree with that more... You and I can both pick the final 4 in the NBA right now and odds are we'll have 3 of them right... in college, who the heck knows we could each pick a final 4 and get them ALL wrong. Especially as college teams get younger and younger relying on more freshmen every year, watching teams grow and mature through the season is great.

Plus, college teams play every game to win. Down by 7 with a minute to go.. you press, you foul, you call timeouts.. in the NBA if you are down by 7 with a minute to play in the regular season, you wait until your next possession (if you stop them) then you go down and throw up a 3 and if it goes in then you do it again. If you miss and are still down by 7 with 30 seconds to play you back off and let them run out the clock.... that doesn't happen in college ball....

And just so you know, NHL is the most boring regular season in all of sports...

I just can't get into the NBA regular season like I do NCAA. If it's not the Cavs, I don't watch, where in college I can watch any two teams playing.

At the start of the NBA season, you can predict all 16 playoff teams, and chances are you'll get at least 14 right. The regular season is boring to me if you already know who is going to get to the playoffs.

In college though, the way its set up, there's always teams that you don't expect to get there that does, and teams you expect to get there that don't. That's what makes the regular season exciting.

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that is why the tourney is so great....it says nothing to the regular season.

the tourney is great because the best teams don't always win. In a 1-and-done scenario, an underdog has a better chance at pulling out the upset.

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That is true but I would disagree that it has nothing to do with the regular season.... the upsets in the tournament are great but usually, USUALLY, the teams that are still standing in the final 4 are among the best teams. Having a George Mason style run makes for great theatre but typically the run ends before the final 4 and you are left with 4 of the best teams fighting it out...

The only regular season that's truly exciting and has you on the edge of your seat should be college football. Without a playoff, the regular season is the "playoff". They have the least amount of games and they mean the world to every school. Outside of that, every other sport is about the same. A ton of games that don't really mean life or death....just potential playoff positioning outcomes.

The NFL is second is regluar season importance. After that, flip a coin. The NHL has 82, the NBA has 82, college BB has 30, MLB has 162 and the MLS has....ha ha ha, like I care about them.

Of course, if you prefer hockey over basketball...you'll like the NHL season more. Same with the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA BB....what ever.

I enjoy both...but prefer the NBA especially in the regular season.

No, you cannot predict all 64 NCAA teams now...but I'd bet you can put out 10-12 teams in any given year and one of them will win it.

Sure, in the NBA you can pick 4-5, but that's 4-5 out of 30. In the NCAA it's 10-12 out of 334.

Woohoo.. Bucks get the top recruiting class

Linkage

OSU men's basketball: Recruits look to fill Oden-size sneakers
'Super Six' headed by Sullinger hailed as No. 1 class
Thursday, November 12, 2009 3:14 AM
By Bob Baptist

Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Four years ago, the "Thad Five" recruiting class changed the buzz about the Ohio State men's basketball program from probation to postseason.

The class that coach Thad Matta signed yesterday is judged to be good enough to get the Buckeyes back to where Greg Oden and friends took them: the Final Four and the national championship game.

What to call it is the question.

"Super Six," Deshaun Thomas said.

That's the moniker Thomas texted a future teammate recently. All six -- Thomas, a 6-foot-7 forward from Fort Wayne, Ind., 6-9 Jared Sullinger and 6-7 J.D. Weatherspoon of Northland, 6-4 Jordan Sibert of Cincinnati Princeton, 6-2 Aaron Craft of Findlay Liberty-Benton and 6-5 Lenzelle Smith Jr. of Zion, Ill. -- faxed copies of their signed letters to Ohio State yesterday.

They make up the No. 1 class in the country, according to ESPN.com, Rivals.com and Scout.com.

"I don't know if you can truly draw the parallel between" 2010 and 2006," Matta said. "That class, out of the five, there's four playing in the NBA right now (Oden, Mike Conley Jr., Daequan Cook and Othello Hunter), three of whom would be seniors."

But Matta added, "We got what we needed not only for next year but for the future."

Sullinger, the most-dominant post player in the 2010 class, is the highest-rated of the six -- No. 2 by ESPN Scouts Inc. -- and was the first to commit, in May 2007. He in turn helped persuade Thomas, Sibert, Craft and Weatherspoon to join him. Sullinger, Sibert, Craft and Weatherspoon played on an All-Ohio Red team that won AAU age-group national championships the past three summers.

"Everybody knows what we can do," said Sullinger, younger brother of former OSU player J.J. Sullinger. "Everybody is coming in with the same mind-set as AAU: play hard, win games and play defense. We have great chemistry, and I think with Deshaun and Lenzelle, we're going to do great things."

Doing them as quickly as the "Thad Five" did, though, is a tall order. Oden, Conley, Cook, Hunter and David Lighty went 35-4 and reached the NCAA championship game in their first season. Oden, Conley and Cook then bolted for the NBA draft and were taken in the first round.

"I think this class is capable of getting Ohio State back to the Final Four. Whether they'll do it in one year, I don't see that happening," said Reggie Rankin, a Linden graduate and former college assistant coach who works for Scouts Inc.

"Let these guys get into a college game first. Don't put the cart before the horse."

Of the six, only Thomas, who has been high on recruiters' radar since before he was a freshman, has talked publicly about being one-and-done. He is No. 13 in Scouts Inc.'s ranking.

"It depends on how hard I work and (what kind of) numbers I put up and stuff like that," he said. "If it comes down to two years or three years, that's what I've got to do."

For some in the class, their academic eligibility is yet to be resolved. All said their grade-point averages were 3.0 or better in the most-recent grading period. Sullinger, Sibert and Thomas said they hope for improved results on the ACT, which they recently took. All three are optimistic they will qualify, as is Matta.

"Everybody's doing great," he said.

bbaptist@dispatch.com

I just read some of the comments and could you imagine this line up?


Starters
C Sullinger
PF Thomas
SF Buford
SG Diebler
PG Turner

2nd stringers
C Lauderdale
PF Kecman
SF Weatherspoon
G Seibert
PG Craft

3rd Stringers
PG Smith
SG Offutt
C Sarikopoulos

Our damn backups could dominate most teams! Unfortunately I believe Turner will be gone.

problem with the nba is that a 7-game series in basketball will give you the better more complete team 95% of the time. there's almost no room for the underdog. which is why you can narrow the nba down to 4 or 5 teams that can realistically say they can win it all. i would love to see it shortened to 5 game series' but that will never happen because of all the money involved.

baseball can survive with 7 game series' because each game is different because you have a different guy on the mound, and guys in the nba don't really go hot/cold like hitters do....

hockey is also different because it's the one team sport where will to win really plays. guys are banged up, they've been playing every other night at a ridiculous physical pace for 2 months, and it really comes down to who wants it more... the pens didn't beat the wings because they had more talent (debatable) they won because they simply outdid detroit. they skated harder..

but yeah, i just can't get into regular season college hoops. maybe because im not die hard for anyone... i always root for osu, any other ohio team, and i always root for those cinderella underdog teams.

i can watch any college football regular season game, even if it's central michigan v toledo. i'll sit down and watch. maybe it's because i enjoy football more.

but like i said, once that tournament starts, i really don't think there's a whole lot better in sports.

i also think the fact that there's so many small tournaments, and conference winners, and conference tournament winners that it's just too much...

and dc, first half of the nhl season is the most boring, after the break when teams start to realize they need to record standings points, it gets really good.

and the best part about the nhl is that 1v8 in the cup playoffs is no given.

OSU is looking very sluggish right now. Lighty is not a scorer so I don't understand why he's taking so many shots right now. Lighty's job is to be a lock down defender and he's not even doing that very well right now!

About 7 hours to go!!!!

Just clicking TpDawg


I have never really been into college B ball too much but now I live 5 minutes from Kent State,and my daughter loves playing ball so we go to a lot of Girls games at KSU. We are going to go to the mens home opener tonight,I really love the atmosphere and you cant beat the price. Really it has grown on me and I enjoy it. I will probably pay a little closer attention this season.


KING

Our qwest for #8 begins in two hours!

It's been a long time since I've been so excited for basketball season to start!

Solid 16 point win tonight. We were up 25, and kinda slacked off the last 3 minutes or so. I'll take it considering we were without our best player, and one of the top 5 players in the country in John Wall. And, the fact that we were playing a decent team in Morehead State (tournament team returning all 5 starters.)

I saw a lot of good, and a lot of bad in UK tonight. Kind of what I expected. We're young. Hopefully by February, we'll figure it all out.

Kind of a funny stat about our game last night. Eric Bledsoe set the record for most points by a UK freshman in their debut. The old record had stood for 30 years.

Bledsoe is probably going to lose the record in 3 days when John Wall plays Monday night

Are you talking to yourself again??


KING

I'm talking to anyone what will listen!

Petey- Knights top 3 are now UK, UF, and Kansas.

Still considering UCONN, but apparently those are his top 3 schools.

Can't really say I saw that coming... Neither did anyone else lol.