| 20 October 2010
When I started this site a few years ago, one of the first articles I wrote was “50 Reasons To Be Excited For College Basketball Season.” Looking back, it wasn’t particularly funny, and doesn’t really read like anything I’d write now. But it was fun and different, and probably the first thing I ever wrote that got any acclaim outside my friends and family. More importantly, after struggling for awhile, that article was the first time in a long time that I enjoyed writing again.And every season since, the 50 Reasons article has been one of my favorite to write. Not so much because I live and breathe college basketball, but more because it’s a cool measuring stick of where I am, and how far I’ve come in the prior year, and subsequent years before that.
With that said, I almost decided not to write the article this year. Because truthfully up until a few days ago, I really wasn’t all that excited about college basketball season.
You see, I grew up in a Connecticut, in one of the few places where the sport was king, and in a time whn the game really meant something. Kevin Ollie, Ray Allen, Doron Sheffer and Kevin Freeman weren’t just basketball players to me, but almost like extended family members. That tends to happen when you watch the same guys 35-40 times a year, for three or four straight years. You get to know their strengths and weaknesses, when they’re having good days and bad. Just like you would with a brother or sister.
The problem is though, that as time has gone on, college basketball has started to turn me off more and more. Some of that just has to do with age; I simply don’t have the time to invest (Ok, maybe that’s a slight lie) and the games don’t mean as much (That’s definitely a lie). Really though, my attitude has a lot more to do with the dynamics of the game.
While the one-and-done rule has a lot of perks, it has also to a large degree turned college basketball into a niche sport. Casual fans start following sometime in late February, stick around until the end of March, and then ignore the sport again for another 10 ½ months. And really, who can blame them? With the best players coming and going faster than Jay Leno trades in cars, why bother following the sport if you’re not a Carolina, Kansas or Kentucky fan? Why invest yourself, when as soon as you get to know guys, they leave campus for the pros?
Anyway, I spent most of the fall trudging around with that downer attitude. For the first time in my life, I spent September and October wondering if I'd actually enjoy the upcoming NBA season more than the college one.
Luckily though last Friday came around, and I remembered why I enjoy college basketball so much. The energy and excitement. The cheerleaders. Coach K’s jet-black hair (which clearly costs thousands of dollars to upkeep every year). Much like Lindsay Lohan waking up on a groggy Sunday morning, I looked around, rubbed my eyes and realized...wait a second, I love college basketball!
As a matter of fact I love it so much, that I’m here to once again give you 50 Reasons To Be Excited. Because even though the names on the jersey’s may change too fast for my taste, the excitement never does.
And I’m ready to go. Enjoy the list, and be sure to come back Thursday, as I welcome in a special guest for the first college basketball podcast of the season!
1. The New And “Improved,” NCAA Tournament: Ehh, whatever. I guess we should just be thankful that the NCAA stopped at 68 teams rather than going to 96, right?
2. Year Two of the John Calipari Era At Kentucky: Love the guy or hate him, there’s no denying that college basketball is a lot more entertaining with the game’s best coach on the sport’s biggest stage.
3. Year Two of the Josh Pastner Era At Memphis: Calipari’s old school will bounce back in a big way, thanks to his former top assistant. As far as I’m concerned, Pastner is the best young coach in the game.
4. Syracuse Freshman Fab Melo: Who is quickly turning into the only tolerable “Melo,” from Syracuse. Especially with all this obnoxious Carmelo Anthony trade talk clogging ESPN’s airwaves. Carmelo, just shut up and play basketball. Would ya?
5. There’s Plenty of Reason To Be Excited At North Carolina: For the Harrison Barnes era. Anytime a high school kid is said to have the skills of a “Young Kobe Bryant,” I’m in. At the same time…
6. I’m Hardly Excited For: The continuation of the John Henson era at Carolina. I'm just not sold on him as a legitimate NBA prospect. Also, can somebody get that poor kid a cheeseburger? He looks like he’s straight out of a UNICEF commercial or something.
7. Kansas State Guard Jacob Pullen: Easily my favorite bearded sharp-shooter in college basketball, at least since James Harden was at Arizona State a few years ago. Ok, who am I kidding? I like Pullen way more than I ever did Harden.
8. Suspended Baylor Guard LaceDarius Dunn: Well, he’s a reason to be excited once he gets on the court anyway. Speaking of courts, I hope that when he does go to court, the charges of assault against him are taken seriously. What he’s accused of is no laughing matter…
9. What Is A Laughing Matter Is Seeing Rick Pitino Return To The Sidelines: After his extortion trial last summer. Coach, I know that the girl who sued you was more loony than the entire cast of The Hills combined. I get it. But please, next time just settle out of court, for everyone's sake. I haven’t been able to eat in an Italian restaurant in six months because of you.
10. Gus Johnson: You love him. I love him. We all love him. But I swear, if I have to see that stupid Buffalo Wild Wings commercial one more time, I will hurt someone.
11. The “Big Two,” At Purdue: I can’t say that I ever remember an outpouring for one player quite like what we’ve seen the last few days for Purdue’s Robbie Hummel, who went down again with another season-ending knee injury. But with JaJuan Johnson and E’Twaun Morre still in town, my hunch is that the Boilermakers will be pretty good.
12. Staying In The Big Ten, There’s The Michigan State Spartans: Honestly, do we need to follow protocol and wait until March before handing Tom Izzo’s team a Final Four berth? Or can we just cut through all the B.S. and give them one now?
13. Georgetown’s Austin Freeman: After being diagnosed with diabetes, there’s nothing to joke about here. Just glad to see the kid back on the court.
14. Same With Seton Hall’s Herb Pope: Who not only almost lost his career, but his life this offseason, after collapsing because of a rare heart condition. Glad to see him playing again too.
15. Speaking of Seton Hall: It’s an exciting time in the New York City area, with Pirates, St. Johns and Rutgers all getting new coaches this off-season. It’s also an exciting time for guys like me, who get to make jokes about Steve Lavin’s hair for the next five months.
16. Changing Coasts, It Looks Like Another Tough Year For UCLA: I’ve got to ask, did this team really make three straight Final Fours a few years ago? Or did I take too much Nyquil before bed last night and dream that happened?
17. Ole Miss Coach Andy Kennedy: I got the chance to meet Coach Kennedy when I was visiting Mississippi this past September, and he couldn’t have been a nicer guy. Here’s to him getting the Rebels into the NCAA Tournament this year!
18. Staying With Coaches In The SEC: Auburn has a new one in Tony Barbee. If you don’t know the name, get to know it. Guy is gonna be a star.
19. And Then There’s Bruce Pearl: Usually, I’d just go ahead and crack a joke about Coach Pearl’s orange suit coat and move on, but I’ll go ahead and leave him alone after what was an especially tough summer. Apparently, he and the Tennessee coaching staff signed up for Verizon’s new “Kelvin Sampson,” Calling Plan. And it’s not working out well.
20. There’s Also A New Coach And Arena At Oregon: Now if poor Phil Knight could only buy a few wins up there in Eugene, the Ducks might be in business.
21. West Virginia Coach Bob Huggins: Amongst the many reasons he makes this list, is because every time his name is mentioned, my buddy Mark inexplicably sends me some variation of this text: “Dude, I just fell down the stairs and hurt my ankle. Thankfully Bob Huggins was there to rub my face and make it all better.”
And it makes me laugh every time (If you have no idea what I’m talking about, just watch this video.)
22. Ed DeChellis: If I gave you 20 guesses, would have any idea who Ed DeChellis is? A deli owner in Queens? The guy from Man vs. Food? Nope, he’s the head coach at Penn State. And entering his seventh year, and still without an NCAA Tournament appearance, I’m guessing it might be his last year at Penn State too.
23. The Boise State Broncos: Wait, how’d they get on this list? I don’t know. But that Kellen Moore sure is fun to watch, huh?
24. A Busy Summer For The NCAA Infractions Committee: Which spent the last several months making the rounds to UConn, Tennessee, Kentucky (More on Enes Kanter coming) and now Baylor amongst many stops. Of course, this once again proves my theory that if you’re looking for a job in this tight economic time, send in your resume to the NCAA. They seem to have plenty of work to hand out.
25.Butler Guard Ronald Nored: Nored was easily the revelation of last year’s NCAA Tournament to me. Kid is a baller. I also suspect that at some point during the 2011-2012 season, you’re going to be watching a Butler game and think to yourself, “Wait that kid is still in college? How old is he?”
26. The Seth Curry Era At Duke: Speaking of “How old is he,” I feel like Curry has been redshirting for 14 years now. Either way, I haven’t been this excited
about a debut by a less-famous brother since Johnny Chase got a leading role in Five Towns. 27. Staying At Duke: You know it’s a down year in college basketball when Kyle Singler is being talked about as a National Player of the Year candidate. At the same time, whose odds do you like better?
28. New DePaul Coach Oliver Purnell: Easily the worst hire of the off-season. He’s also one more reason to be thankful that no matter how bad things get in my life, at least you’re not a DePaul fan. Unless you are a DePaul fan, then my apologies to you. At least you'll be getting a new coach sometime around 2015!
29. BYU’s Jimmer Fredette: I kept telling you last year to get past his goofy name and just watch the kid play. That 37 points he scored in Round 1 of the NCAA Tournament sure shut a lot of people up.
30. No Evan Turner, No Problem At Ohio State: Ok, it’s not quite that easy, but I do think a lot of people are sleeping on the Buckeyes, who still have Jon Diebler, William Buford and David Lighty in the mix. Oh, and don’t forget about freshman superstar Jared Sullinger either.
31. Speaking of Freshmen: The one I’m most looking forward to seeing is Baylor’s Perry Jones. No. 2 is…
32. Kentucky’s Brandon Knight: Although, I’ve got to admit, I think he would’ve looked better in the uniform of his second college choice, my UConn Huskies.
33. Staying At Kentucky: You’ve got to love the way the NCAA is handling this Enes Kanter case. I mean, if they were going to find something on the kid, don’t you think it would’ve happened after six months of snooping around? Let him play!
34. Jeff Capel’s Reduced Blood Pressure: Sure Oklahoma lost a whole lot of talent with Tommy Mason-Griffin, Willie Warren and Tiny Gallon leaving campus early after last season. But coach Jeff Capel lost a lot of headaches too.
35. Pac-10 Favorites, The Washington Huskies: Although, after watching last year, isn’t trying to pick out a “favorite,” in the Pac-10, like trying to pick out the prettiest girl amongst a group of desperate bridesmaids? I mean why even bother sometimes, right?
36. Hearing Virginia Tech Coach Seth Greenberg Continue To Whine: Honestly, has the guy stopped complaining yet about his team being left out of last year’s NCAA Tournament? Coach, come on. Your team fell apart down the stretch, and beat no one of consequence out of conference. What do you want from us?
Also, get a hairpiece. Your shiny head is hurting my eyes.
37. Wake Forest’s New Head Coach: I can totally see why after making an NCAA Tournament run last year, Wake Forest decided to fire Dino Gaudio, to bring in Jeff Bzdelik. After all, Bzdelik was 15-16 last year, 9-22 the year before, and… you know what? The move made no sense. Let’s just move on.
38. UConn’s Kemba Walker: Nothing stirs up a fun debate in my home state like the mention of Walker’s name. Some love him, others hate him, but there’s no doubt the success of this year’s UConn Huskies depends on his play. For my money, no player in college basketball has more on his shoulders than Walker this year.
39. New Wagner Head Coach Danny Hurley: Ok, I know that Danny Hurley being named head coach here would be kind of like going to see a “Stallone movie,” only to find out its Frank that’s the star. Still, look at his track record. The guy can coach.
40. The Gonzaga Bulldogs: I’ve been trying to come up with some clever punch-line on the Bulldogs for about 20 minutes now, but really, there’s nothing funny about them. They’re just a solid, talented team. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if they made their first Final Four this year.
41. Villanova’s Depth: Look, I watched the Wildcats last year, and as much as I love Jay Wright, they fell apart in March because they could never seem to settle on a rotation of players. I’m a firm believer that this team might actually have too much talent. As crazy as that sounds.
42. North Carolina’s Guard Play: Honestly, if it doesn’t get any better this year, poor Roy Williams might have to call in the National Guard.
I’m being serious.
43. The SEC Favorite Florida Gators: I know they return five starters, but aren’t we getting a little ahead of ourselves here? Especially considering that two of their conference rivals (Tennessee and Kentucky) made the Elite Eight last year, and the Gators haven’t won a single NCAA Tournament game since Al Horford, Joakim Noah and Corey Brewer were on campus? Just thinking out loud here.
44. Stability At Arizona: Yes the Wildcats missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1985 last year. But at the same time, they’ve got the same head coach two years in a row for the first time since 2007. That my friends, is what I call progress.
45. Speaking Of Missed NCAA Tournament’s: Anyone starting to wonder if Tom Crean regrets leaving Marquette for the Indiana job a few years ago?
46. Quinnipiac University’s First Ever Run To The NCAA Tournament: I know what you’re thinking, “Aaron, why should I care?” and honestly, you probably shouldn’t. But I knew Quinnipiac coach Tom Moore when he was at UConn, and the guy was about as nice as they come. So, at least let me root for them, ok?
47. As We Begin To Wrap Up, It Wouldn’t Be A College Basketball Preview If I Didn’t Mention Kansas: Or ask the same question I do every year: How the hell does Brady Morningstar still have eligibility? How old is this guy? Like 47?
48. Staying In The Big XII: I’m just gonna throw it out there: Missouri is getting a LOT of love from people in the know. That’s all.
49. A Butler Redux?: Can the Bulldogs make another Final Four run? Probably not. But at least coach Brad Stevens is now famous enough where he doesn’t get carded for buying beer anymore.
50. A Duke Redux?: I’m afraid so. I’m going to go with everyone else and label the Blue Devils as my preseason National Champion…
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