This week, FanHouse is taking an early look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
Today, we have enlisted, well, me, The Sportz Assassin, of FanHouse and SportzAssassin.com to break down the North Carolina Tar Heels.
Really, what can be said about these Tar Heels that hasn't already been said? They return nearly everyone from a 36-3 team that reached the Final Four this past April. Player Of The Year Tyler Hansbrough heads the list of returnees. Hansbrough is the first player of the year winner to return to school since Shaquille O'Neal in 1991. "Psycho T" will also attempt to become the first player to be an All-American for four seasons.
This week, FanHouse is taking a look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
We could have gone for one of the pretentious UCLA blogs out there, but instead we went to a real fan, Insomniac, of the appropriately named Insomniac's Lounge. Hey, anybody who took the time to make this post must be a great fan.
UCLA coach Ben Howland has found the road map to the Final Four, having now guided his Bruins basketball team to play games in football stadiums (RCA Dome, Georgia Dome, Alamodome) in three consecutive years. While this is certainly a remarkable achievement in its own right, at UCLA success is ultimately only measured by national championships, and that is where Howland has been hitting a dead end. With a restocked lineup, Bruins fans have reason to hope that this is the season their team finally breaks through with a title. But this year, the journey will be missing the contributions of three players (Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love, and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute) who left early for the NBA.
This week, FanHouse is taking a look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
For the UConn Huskies, Andrew Porter of TheUConnBlog has provided us with the vital insights into the Huskies. A relatively new blog, TheUConnBlog promises to be one of the best sources of Huskies basketball this year.
No word defines this Husky team better than "if." If the Huskies can get consistent production from their starters, they can beat anyone in the country. If everyone stays healthy and out of trouble, they have a ridiculously deep lineup. And if everything comes together, UConn could win it all this spring. Make no mistake, UConn has the talent to be a Final Four team, but after failing to win a single postseason game in the last two years, Husky fans have learned all the talent in the world won't matter if the team can't put it all together when it counts.
This week, FanHouse is taking a look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
For the Louisville Cardinals, Mike of Card Chronicle gives us the details on a Cardinal team with high expectations, but a few glossed over questions.
When forwards Earl Clark and Terrence Williams elected to spurn the NBA in favor of returning to school for another shot at a national championship, the Louisville Cardinals immediately jumped from middle-of-the-pack top 25 squad to one of the five or six teams with a legitimate case to enter the 2008-2009 season ranked No. 2.
This week, FanHouse is taking a look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a preseason BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
For the Michigan State Spartans, Opie from SpartyMSU provides the details on a Spartan squad that enters the season once more with high expectations and a difficult non-conference schedule to test the squad early.
The Spartans are picked second in the Big Ten and ranked fifth or sixth (AP / Coaches) nationally. They surely will be in the March Madness tourney again, and hope to do better than last year when they made it to the Sweet 16 in NCAA tourney, but were beaten by a very physical Memphis squad.
They did graduate key players last year (Drew Naymick and Drew Neitzel), but they have the pieces to fill in behind them. Tom Izzo returns most of his guys, and is just reloading with talent and more depth. This team will add to Michigan State and Coach Izzo's resume of 11 straight years of NCAA Tourney play, seven years of Sweet 16 or better, and four Final Four appearances.
This week, FanHouse is taking an early look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
Today, we have enlisted Zach Bell and Max Mandel of the The Kennel Report to break down the Gonzaga Bulldogs.
Gonzaga has become one of the most recognizable college basketball programs in the nation. During his tenure, Mark Few has elevated the small, Jesuit institution to the forefront of college basketball. He's had guys like Adam Morrison, Ronny Turiaf, and Dan Dickau but the talent he has for the 2008 season is the best he has ever had at Gonzaga.
This week, FanHouse is taking a look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
Another school that did nothing to remove their reputation as a football school, no Oklahoma blogger contacted, even responded to our inquiries about the 2008-09 Sooner basketball team. So be it, that means the preview will be from a less interested party.
The biggest shock after the 2007-08 season ended was that freshman forward Blake Griffin was not even considering the NBA. This despite, everyone projecting him as a lottery pick. That decision immediately put the Sooners into every preseason top-25.
Oklahoma also pulled in an excellent recruiting class, and Coach Jeff Capel's name started popping up on the wish list for the annual coaching carousel. So, it was no surprise that Oklahoma moved quickly to give Capel another raise and extension after only two seasons in Norman.
This week, FanHouse is taking a look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
For the Pitt Panthers, Josh Verlin of the Oakland Zoo blog. Not only is this blog about Pitt basketball, it is also the blog of the Pitt student section for which the blog is named -- The Oakland Zoo.
In Coach Jamie Dixon's fifth year as the Pittsburgh Panthers head coach, a team hurt by injuries and inexperience all year broke through when it counted and won the Big East Tournament Championship. They became only the second team in the history of the tournament to win four games in four straight days. They did it by beating ranked teams in Louisville, Marquette, and Georgetown in in the run. Unfortunately, the Panthers season came to an abrupt end in Denver in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
aThis week, FanHouse is taking a look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
The Boilermakers haven't been hyped this much in basketball since Gene Keady's early-90s teams. The point where it was fun to joke about Keady doubling as the mascot, and not tinged with sadness at the way things were ending. T-Mill of Off the Tracks provides the insight and knowledge on Matt Painter's group.
When I was a senior at Purdue during the 2001-2002 basketball season, my roommate and I had student section tickets three rows from the floor. By the end of the year, we were nearly alone in the Gene Pool as the Boilermakers suffered their first losing season under coach Gene Keady. Little did we know that it was only the beginning of a descent that brought about a poor end to Keady's tenure, and also a rough beginning to current coach Matt Painter's time on the sidelines.
Last season, I watched in envy as the students stormed the floor in a spontaneous celebration rarely seen in Mackey Arena's history, when the "Baby Boilers" upset Wisconsin. After that game, I wrote that we had finally arrived back at the mountain. It wasn't the peak of the program; rather, it was an announcement that we were again finally ready to compete nationally after a long, long slumber.
This week, FanHouse is taking an early look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
The way the season ended for the Memphis Tigers last year was totally devastating. Memphis ended the season 38-2 and many in Memphis still have a hard time thinking about the 38 wins. Rarely has there been such an amazing season that brought upon such intense disappointment.
Now that Derrick Rose, Chris Douglas Roberts, and Joey Dorsey have NBA contracts and Memphis looks to who will replace much of what made the team such a success in the previous few seasons. While Rose was only in Memphis for one year, CDR and Dorsey were key components of a team that went to the Elite 8 twice, and the Final Four (and championship game) once. With Dorsey in the middle, and Douglas Roberts on the wing, Memphis went 104-10 over the last three seasons.
This week, FanHouse is taking an early look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
This week, FanHouse is taking a look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
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This week, FanHouse is taking a look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a 
This week, FanHouse is taking a look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a preseason 
This week, FanHouse is taking an early look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
This week, FanHouse is taking a look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a 
This week, FanHouse is taking a look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a 
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This week, FanHouse is taking an early look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
