I would like to start what I hope can be a season-long mega-thread for discussion, speculation, wagering, and good-natured trash talk regarding college basketball.
To start off–I am a Kentucky fan, as one is required by law to be once inside the state line. (Unless you’re a Louisville fan, in which case we just ignore you.) All around folks are uttering those dreaded words “rebuilding year”, but this is in a state where we only made it to the final 8 last year and people started talking about firing the coach.
The team looks good, if mostly inexperienced. If we can manage to synchronize the moments of brilliance, it might be a good year after all. Even if not, we got the traditional trouncing of Utah (followed by the traditional frying of an egg on the head of Rick Majierus) out of the way early.
I am from ACC country - where conference tournament championships first started! All other roundball conferences owe their trophies to Everette Case. And to add insult, I am a Duke fan!
But I have not seen any predictions/polls nor any games this year so I don’t know who is going to what. I do know that Phil Ford of UNC is awaiting his trial for drunk-driving and two UNC players were arrested for “trying to break-up” a fight. NC State has a new arena to play in this year though it would be a dig against 'Canes hockey if I said “share”. Share implies 50/50 but when you sell less than 10k tix to a game . . .
Duke will be Duke and as long as Coach K is at the helm, the Devils will be competitive and at the Big Dance next March.
Oh, yeah, I had lunch at Two Keys last weekend! So, when are you coming to Durham?
Not a Duke fan! See, this could get ugly early on.
Actually, we in KY might get over it if CBS will ever stop showing that damn Laettner shot from 1992 in the opening sequence to their NCAA coverage. That still elicits a sharp abdominal pain in the UK faithful.
We students are mostly just jealous of Cameron Indoor Stadium, especially since the tenative design for our new arena (which isn’t being built after all) had the students in the UPPER CORNERS. That way, they don’t disturb the rich alumni who are napping in the good seats.
Dear, you sad pathetic people. As always the Big Ten is the cream of the crop. To be lead to the promised land by none other than the Flying Illini! ACC, talk about a 2 team conference. Wait until 11/30, and 12/18 when the Illini will be blowing out Duke, and Kansas respectively in the United Center with me in the front row. “It showtime baby, look at the PTPer, the Flying Illini are back, baby! The diaper dandy is gonna light up the lamp on the Dukies!”
Well, you should be able to figure out who I root for from my handle. (And it’s not N.C. State.)
DoctorJ wrote:
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Actually, we in KY might get over it if CBS will ever stop showing that damn Laettner shot from 1992 in the opening sequence to their NCAA coverage. That still elicits a sharp abdominal pain in the UK faithful.
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Actually, Duke and UK fans have a lot in common. Either can claim to be the team of the 1990s equally well; each has kept the other out of a Final Four this decade in games the other thought they had locked up (that '98 game was worse than losing to UCon last year); each loathes that team from Chapel Hill. My conversations with UK fans indicate they are as knowledgable and rabid as we are. Contrast that with insecure, moronic UNC fans. I say we combine our efforts and gang up on the real evil.
So are UNC fans, though they’ll never admit it.
Satan wrote:
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If anyone knows how I can get a ticket to see them when they play Duke in February, I’m all ears…
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Plan A would be to borrow a Duke student’s ID (undergrad) or ticket (grad school).
Plan B – this worked for me last year – is to arrive at Cameron about an hour before tipoff. Stand near the main entrance (not the student entrance) and be as patient as possible, waiting for the right price to come to you. Don’t deal with scalpers, and don’t do anything to make it look like you’re a scalper. If you’re by yourself (as I was), you should have no problem finding a ticket. If you’re with a little kid, someone might give you tickets for free. Most season ticket holders have held their tickets for decades, and don’t care about making a profit as much as keeping scalpers away from the market.
About the Big1T1en: How am I supposed to have respect for an athletic conference whose members don’t know how to count? Who am I supposed to leave out? Northwestern?
All us Golden Gopher fans here in Minnesota are really excited about this season! The Gophers are all set to lead the NCAA in academic fraud, falsified term papers, lying ex-coaches who took a $1.5 million golden parachute and aren’t even man enough to admit that they did something wrong, disillusioned spirits and crushed morale. Go Gophers!
Duke is just downright EVIL!!!. They are the Blue DEVILS after all. How much more evidence of Satanic influence do you need. And that noted homosexual (not that there’s anything wrong with that) Christian Laettner will be the first to burn in HELL! Ahh Hahahahahahahaha!
And Omniscient, you say the Big Ten is the dominant basketball conference. Not been following basketball this decade? Or does the word “dominant” mean “Our teams can’t make it past the second round of the NCAA tourney,” in your language…
Satan: “Not as good as the St John’s team that made it to the Final Eight” (or words to that effect). Around here, we have a term for a trip to the Final Eight. We call it a “Rebuilding Year”.
Doctor J – 100% with you on the poor performance of the older, richer fans in Rupp. This is one area where C.M. has fallen down on the job. The remodel on Commonwealth looks good, tho… And what about that Marvin Stone.
I must throw myself squarely behind Omni and proudly declare my undying devotion to the Fighting Illini. I had the pleasure of watching them trounce Western Illinois Friday over the warm glow of 4 or 5 Killian’s Reds. Yumm, yum. Any Mizzou fans wanna start on Braggin’ Rights? More importantly, anyone wanna sell tickets to Braggin’ Rights?
Please?
In all seriousness, though, I’m more than thrilled to see the Manual Three playing together again. Hopefully, Assembly Hall will be the destination of a road trip or three for Flypsyde this season.
And the problem with small furry animals
in corners is that, just occasionally,
one of them’s a mongoose.
Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad
Frank: You know why Kentucky fans sit quietly at basketball games like they’re in church? Because they are. And yes, Marvin is a monster–I can’t wait for the window between his freshman inexperience and his NBA draft declaration. (Maybe Tubby can keep his ego in check.)
Have you noticed–the best thing about Tubby vs. Pitino is that we actually play good teams in the regular season! Under Rick, we might not have seen a ranked non-SEC team until March, while we blasted away at teams like SW Idaho State Tech Barber College for the Blind. Utah! Maryland! MI State! They’re even trying to revive an annual UK-UNC matchup! Unheard of!
647: Cats vs. Terps at MSG, this Wednesday night. I’m looking forward to it–I’ve seen Maryland play some great ball in past years. (I’ll also be recovering from a rather hellish pharmacology test, and as such will be the loudest fan in BW-3’s.)
You can all root for whichever teams you see fit, but I will feel free to stomp on your sorrow when the Kansas Jayhawks and Roy Williams drive through March Madness and put up another title in Lawrence.
Granted, they always seem to disappoint, but in years when expectations are low, they seem to pull a few rabbits out of their hats.
Rock Chalk Jayhawk!!
Well, shut my mouth. It’s also illegal to put squirrels down your pants for the purposes of gambling.
I bleed Hoosier red, but I’m praying this is the year that Bobby Knight finally pulls a Woody Hayes and gets his big red belly fired. I was hoping for last year, so Steve Alford could take over. But no, Knight just keeps on ticking, like a Timex or a time bomb. Luke Recker’s transfer should have been the last straw. What will it take to get him out of there?
Kansas! Who do they play? Talk about a cupcake conference schedule! My lowly Terps kicked their ass two years ago at the MCI center. The look on the Kansas fans’ faces was priceless. How could one of the non-two teams in the over-rated ACC stomp mighty Kansas? Go figure.
I remember the Illini’s season being ended by the Twerps that same year.
Duke, those bastards, Coach K. gets every call in the league now that Smith is gone. How did they do when he was out for the season? The same talent was there; those guys couldn’t win without K browbeating the refs.
Kentucky is hard to take on, but we made them nervous in Lexington last year; but, really, how many teams take Kentucky at home? Let’s see what happens at Cole.
I know I’m setting myself up for some flames, and the Terps are weak this year; but let’s have some “good-natured trash talking”
Kansas is irrelevant. In three years Roy Williams will be in Chapel Hill leading the Tar Heels to his copyrighted second-round choke acts, and Quin Snyder will be beating up on the Big XII. Not that beating up on the Big XII is that impressive an accomplishment.
647, your frustration at not being able to beat Duke is showing. Pretty soon when the Terps go to other gyms, opposing fans will just hold up big pictures of Coach K.
Actually, Duke did not have the “same talent” in '95 that it had in previous years, or even has now. Wasn’t close.
Of course when you’re Maryland losing to Duke by 18 every time out, it doesn’t matter which way the refs go. Truth is, I like seeing Marylend do well, as long as team keeps playing in Cole.
The intriguing thing about college hoops this year is how most of the good teams this year aren’t the traditional powerhouses. For the last few years it’s been Duke this and Kentucky that and Carolina whatever. Now we have Illinois and Auburn and MichState and OhioState and maybe even DePaul.
Hoya fan here–I think we define “rebuilding year” but nothing ever seems to get built.
However, I grew up and still live in Connecticut. You all remember UConn, right? Especially you Duke fans? Yes, that’s right, the Huskies are the defending national champions although you wouldn’t know it after our pitiful performance against Iowa last week. But then, the very next night we spanked Duke, AGAIN, although that victory didn’t come close to the win on March 29, 1999. In any event, the ACC sucks this year, just like it did last year. The Big Ten and the Big East are where the action is.
I, unlike Scarred, am a fan of both the Hoosiers and the jolly guy in the Red Sweater. And I look forward to going to the HoosierDome December 4 (I refuse to say “RCADome”), when we’re gonna take the Wildcats out behind the woodshed!
This looks to be a bit of a rebuilding season, although we will be much better on defense without Recker. And, with UNC, Temple & UK on our pre-Big 10 schedule, we’ve got one of the toughest - if not the toughest - schedules in the country.
We just secured one of the top 5 recruiting classes in the country for next year, and should be loaded for the next few years (as this class should lead to more high quality recruits).
