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It's back!



tOSU plays tonight at 7 on the BTN, if you are curious. Not sure when Kentucky plays, but I cannot wait to watch Wall and all his glory.

Kentucky plays Friday at 6:30 on ESPNU.

Wall won't be playing. His first game will be next Monday at 7:00pm on Fox Sports South.

Wall is every bit as good as advertised.

I can't remember who wrote it, I think it might have been Doyle from CBS Sports, said "If you think John Wall is good, he's has good as you think he is. If you're skeptical, you won't be for long."

Lot's of rumblings regarding recruiting today, as well. CJ Leslie looks to be UK bound

OSU is going to have a very good class. However, UK is still in position for a #1 class. I'm 98% sure Leslie will commit to UK. And it will happen in the fall, he won't wait until the spring.

We're in good position with Terrence Jones, who is deciding between us and Washington. I'd say that's about 50/50.

And with the way Cal recruits PG's, I'd say we get either Knight or Selby (I think it will be Selby, Knight will go to UCONN, IMO).

If everything falls right and our class looks like this...

#4 Selby
#13 Jones
#14 Leslie
#27 Poole

I think that's the #1 class.

Ohio State's is very good too with...

#3 Sullinger and #18 Thomas.

But after that it's a bit of a dropoff with...

#37 Sibert
#104 Craft
#124 Smith
#137 Weatherspoon

If those are the classes, I think it's UK #1, OSU #2.

You're forgeting Adrian Payne although he's being offered by Ohio State, North Carolina, Xavier, Louisville and UCLA. If we land him it's no contest whose #1.

OSU is also in a battle with you guys to get the #3 PG Trae Golden.

Payne already committed to Michigan State.

And Golden is committed to Tennessee.

Damn, I didn't even know tennessee had offered golden

OSU didn't even make his final 3. And UK quit recruting him when we hired Cal. Cal set his sights Selby and Knight, instead.

Golden's final 3 were Tennessee, Georgia, and South Florida.

Have you heard any news on Brandon Knight? Last year he was commited to OSU but decided to go elsewhere.

It's going to be UK or UCONN for Knight.

Cal likes the #2 PG (#4 overall) Josh Selby more. I think we end up with Selby, and UCONN ends up with Knight.

Rivals has Knight also still listing Kansas as "high interest", but everyone would be shocked if he ended up there. Pretty much everyone I talk to is in agreement that it will be UCONN for Knight.

Wasn't Knight also targeting Michigan?

He still has UCONN, Kansas, Kentucky listed as "high" interest.

He has Florida, Miami, FL, and Syracuse as "medium" interest.

I'd be willing to bet a lot of money that he ends up at UCONN, though.

Well that and the fact that he was never going to go to Michigan

I have a question for non-big ten fans.

Is the big ten the best basketball conference this year or are they tied with the big east and ACC? It's very deep this year and they made some noise in the tournament last year.

My rankings are:

1. Michigan State
2. Purdue
3. OSU
4. Michigan
5. Minnesota
6. Illinois
7. Wisconsin
8. Indiana
9. Penn State
10. Northwestern
11. Iowa

as a big10 fan, I can't even say that yet.....we need to win a big10 v. ACC challenge....and win it decisively before we can lay that claim.

this could be the year though as we have a number of talented teams.

here's this years matchups:

http://www.bigten.org/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/042209aac.html

2009 Big Ten/ACC Challenge Schedule (times and networks are to be determined):

Date Game
Monday, Nov. 30
Penn State at Virginia
Tuesday, Dec. 1
Maryland at Indiana
Michigan State at North Carolina
Northwestern at N.C. State
Virginia Tech at Iowa
Wake Forest at Purdue
Wednesday, Dec. 2
Boston College at Michigan
Duke at Wisconsin
Florida State at Ohio State
Illinois at Clemson
Minnesota at Miami

Their are a lot of favorable matchups in there for the big 10.

I can see OSU, MSU, Purdue, Minnesota and Michigan winning

I can see Wisky, PSU, Northwestern, Iowa and Illinois losing

I believe it will come down to the Maryland vs Indiana to decide it

As no_logo said, starts with the ACC / Big 10 challenge. I personally think they are the best conference this year but it remains to be seen. Even so, here's their pre-season ranks:

#2 Michigan State
#7 Purdue
#15 Michigan
#16 OSU
#23 Illinois
#25 Minnesota

I believe that's the most of any conference. Big East looked to have 5, ACC 4, SEC 3 and Big 12 3.

I sure hope you're right about Knight. I'm a big UConn fan, and while we never seem to get the 5 star guys at the rate that a team like UNC and Kentucky does, we always get at least one, and we are good every single year. May be it's because our players who are stars don't leave as early..........may be we just have a good program.

I mean, look at the NBA, there are many successful players who came out of UConn. Calhoun is a great coach.........

The scandal has made me nervous with next year though, so if Knight comes it would be a pleasant suprise.

Anyway, UConn should continue to be a good team. Similar to OSU in football, our team manages to be good pretty much every year. May be go .500 every fourth/fifth year? If we get it together at the end of the year, we could make a run. Depends on our big guys and Dyson coming off that injury. Dyson's injury killed our team lastyear, and I think we certainly had the best group until losing him. Not only does he remind me of Rip Hamilton with his mid-range jumpshots, but he plays VERY good defense. Dyson is a guy who won't be much in the NBA, but he has improved every year and is good defensively and offensively.

If Kemba Walker plays well, he'll be great with Dyson and Robinson. We just need Oriaki? and Majok to come in and play well. And reports are freshman Alex Oriaki? looks similar to Jeff Adrien, just more skilled and with longer arms. Sounds great to me!

Thank god OSU only has to play MSU once. The away games at Michigan and Purdue are brutal. Plus we have Butler, FSU, and North Carolina.

The ONLY thing you have to worry about with Knight is if Josh Selby goes to Indiana.

If he does that, expect Cal to be giving Knight a very large duffle bag

I've been told that Selby is ours to lose though, but that our main competition is IU.

Cal likes Selby over Knight. Knight is a good player who is very basketball smart... However, I don't think he's athletic enough to play in the DDMO.

Knight is yours. Bank on it.

Good news for OSU is that they can play man to man which has made Thad Matta coached teams successful!

Holy crap.... I understand it's Alcorn State so I don't really care that OSU is smoking them right now. However Evan Turner was 3 assists away from a tripple double IN THE FIRST HALF!!!!

Hard to believe Turner is only the 2nd player in OSU history to have a tripple double

Jim Jackson?

I would have thatought Havlicek, Kellog and possibly Redd....but JJ would be my first guess if he is the only (unless Lucas had the steals to get it done)

Dennis Hopson

Dennis Hopper? He was a coach in Hoosiers....not a player.

*YAWN*

Ignore the obvious? Seems to be what the Kentucky haters do.

Cal at UMASS never got in trouble. He was cleared of any wrongdoing. Sure he probably turned his head the other way while the boosters gave that money to Marcus Camby, just like EVERY coach does. And anyone who thinks there's a single clean coach out there, doesn't know how things really work at the college level. UMASS just got caught.

And speaking of ignoring the obvious. How about the obvious fact that D. Rose took his ACT at his high school! How is anyone at Memphis in the wrong? Answer: They aren't. He was cleared by the NCAA, so he played. Anyone who thinks Cal had anything to do with that either...

A. Doesn't know the details of the story, or B. Just wants a reason to hate Cal.

In conclusion lol, we're back! It's so nice to be hated again

cmon now...it's not Kentucky hate, it's Calipari hate.

He's the only coach to have Final Four appearances vacated at 2 different schools.....

the logical conclusion is that his best teams come a bit on the dirty side and that while you cheer when they happen, you might have to revisit them later.

that said, you will get to cheer when they happen.

yeah, but Cal will at least be smart enough to get caught AFTER the player gets you to a Final Four and not ruin a team's current run

(no player was caught or accused of any wrong-doing....it was O'Brien's payment to the Serbian player he was recruiting)