SB Nation - Dominic James

Previewing Marquette

Akula Wolf — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 22:31:06 -0000

More photos » by Phelan M. Ebenhack - AP

26 days ago: Michigan's Eso Akunne, left, fouls Marquette's Lazar Hayward, center, as teammate Anthony Wright helps during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in the Old Spice Classic tournament in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., Friday, Nov. 27, 2009. Marquette won 79-65. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

Browse more photos »

2009 Scouting Report / 2009 Game Plan
2009 Stats
2010 Roster
2010 Schedule

Marquette Offense '08-'09

Four Factors	Percent	Nat'l Rank
eFG%	51.2	85
Turnover Rate	16.5	11
Off Reb Rate	34.8	97
FTA/FGA	45.4	12

NC State bested Marquette in three of the four factors in their meeting last season but lost a close game thanks to a -8 turnover margin. This year's Golden Eagles profile about the same--their offense takes good care of the ball, while their defense steals the ball with great frequency--so the first step in avoiding the same outcome is keeping that margin closer to zero.

The second step is finding some way to slow the versatile Lazar Hayward. Marquette figured to take a performance hit after the departures of Jerel McNeal, Dominic James, and Wesley Matthews, three experienced, effiicient, and heavily-involved contributors a year ago. Instead they've hardly missed a beat in the early going, thanks largely (very largely) to Hayward's efforts, who has essentially told Buzz Williams, hey no sweat, I'll still do my thing and I'll replace one of those other guys on top of it.

	ORtg	eFG%	%Poss	%Shots
Hayward '09	114.1	53.0	24.0	27.2
Hayward '10	111.7	48.6	35.7	44.7

Remember, the average player uses 20% of his team's possessions and takes 20% of the shots. Hayward is pulling double duty, averaging 26 field goal attempts per 40 minutes, and has somehow managed to handle that efficiently, which is fucking insane. I suspect he is a robot. If he keeps this up in conference play, there's no way he is of this earth.

Anyway, my team of scientists here at BTP world headquarters has concluded that you will want to keep an eye on this dude.

Starters

David Cubillan (6-0, 175) -- After a dreadful year as a reserve in 2009, Cubillan's handling the move into the starting lineup about as well as could be hoped. But he hardly got a shot in edge-wise last season (13% of the shots) and that hasn't changed, so he probably won't be a significant factor.

Darius Johnson-Odom (6-2, 200) -- A juco transfer who played his high school ball at Wakefield in Raleigh. He's the only starter aside from Hayward taking more than 20% of the shots and he's been outstanding from three (15-30).

Dwight Buycks (6-3, 190) -- His value extends well beyond the court, as his last name, pronounced "bikes," allows for such headlines as Marquette Rides Buycks To 76-58 Win Over NC State.

Jimmy Butler (6-6, 215) -- Absurdly efficient with a really light workload a year ago, Butler's upped his involvement in the offense considerably this season and remains absurdly efficient. He does the majority of his shooting inside the arc and does it well, he's an excellent offensive rebounder, and he earns frequent trips to the free throw line.

Lazar Hayward (6-6, 225) -- In addition to all that fancypants scoring, which he likes to do from all over the floor, Hayward rebounds well at both ends of the floor, never turns the ball over, and oh yeah, has doubled his assist rate in '10.

Bench

Maurice Acker (5-8, 165), Jeronne Maymon (6-6, 250), Joseph Fulce (6-7, 205). Acker got heavy minutes as a freshman at Ball State in 2006 but found himself buried behind McNeal and James once he got to Marquette. Shot poorly as a freshman, well as a sophomore, poorly as a junior, and well again to this point in his senior year. Who knows with this guy. You're up, you're down, Maurice! Makes me want to pull my hair out, so I shaved my head.

Maymon and Fulce aren't likely to be too involved with the scoring.

Marquette Defense '08-'09

Four Factors	Percent	Nat'l Rank
eFG%	50.9	252
Turnover Rate	21.1	122
Off Reb Rate	30.7	85
FTA/FGA	30.1	38

The Golden Eagles lost several tall guys after the 2008 season and did not start a player taller than 6-6 in 2009, and not surprisingly their interior D went right out the window. Marquette opponents hit 50.3% of their twos. The Eagles defense held it together by forcing turnovers and limiting both offensive boards and free throw attempts.

Marquette reportedly to get Dominic James back

SFBE.NF — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 13:52:37 -0000

A crazy turn of events. Marquette, all but written off a few weeks ago after losing their last four Big East regular season games, will reportedly get point guard Dominic James back for today's second round matchup against Missouri.

James hasn't played since February 25 after breaking his foot against UCONN. Broken feet are usually long-term injuries, but the Marquette medical staff apparently is filled with wiz kids who can mend broken feet quicker than normal.

Surely James' minutes will be limited, but if he can somehow be effective this could serve as the ultimate bracket buster -- and story of the 2009 NCAA Tournament.

Marquette: Know Your Boise Travel Companion

Bill C. — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:00:10 -0000

I'm not going to go down the "I expect Mizzou to win the first round game, so let's look at who they may play in the second round" route. I'm not going to unleash the presumption jinx. But I do think it's safe to preview the other game in Mizzou's Boise pod: 6 Marquette vs 11 Utah State. First up, the 6 seed.

Marquette: 24-9

	Marquette	Opp
Points Per Minute	1.97	1.75
Points Per Possession (PPP)	1.13	1.01
Points Per Shot (PPS)	1.36	1.23
2-PT FG%	51.1%	50.3%
3-PT FG%	35.2%	35.2%
FT%	71.8%	67.6%
True Shooting %	56.6%	54.2%

	Marquette	Opp
Assists/Gm	15.1	13.9
Steals/Gm	7.9	5.8
Turnovers/Gm	11.3	15.0
Ball Control Index (Assists + Steals) / TO	2.03	1.31

	Marquette	Opp
Expected Offensive Rebounds/Gm	12.0	12.8
Offensive Rebounds/Gm	11.6	10.2
Difference	-0.4	-2.6

Where Marquette's good: Passing, Free Throws, Rebounding, forcing turnovers. And for a guard-oriented offense that only shoots okay from 3-point range, they maintain pretty high FG% levels.
Where Marquette's not as good: FG% defense. If they don't force a turnover, they're probably giving up a pretty good shot.
This is a team that recently lost its senior point guard, Dominic James, to a broken foot. Since James got hurt and junior Maurice Acker took his place in the starting lineup, Marquette has lost five of six games. Bad, right? Well...maybe. Here are the teams to whom they've lost since James' injury: Connecticut, @Louisville (by 4), @Pittsburgh, Syracuse (in OT), and vs Villanova (buzzer beater). With James, they probably beat 'Cuse and maybe 'Nova or Louisville as well, but they still came close and are a streaky, dangerous team.

NCAA Basketball Stats

Player	AdjGS*	GmSc/Min	Line
Jerel McNeal (6'3, 200, Sr.)	17.43	0.51	19.3 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 3.8 APG
Wesley Matthews (6'5, 220, Sr.)	17.42	0.53	17.8 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 2.5 APG
Lazar Hayward (6'6, 225, Jr.)	14.91	0.48	15.6 PPG, 8.3 RPG, 1.2 APG
Jimmy Butler (6'6, 215, So.)	7.06	0.37	5.5 PPG, 3.8 RPG
Dwight Burke (6'8, 250, Sr.)	2.75	0.15	2.7 PPG, 3.4 RPG
Maurice Acker (5'8, 165, Jr.)	2.69	0.18	2.7 PPG, 1.3 RPG, 1.8 APG
Patrick Hazel (6'7, 220, So.)	2.63	0.22	2.3 PPG, 2.1 RPG
Joseph Fulce (6'7, 205, So.)	1.75	0.36	1.5 PPG, 1.1 RPG
David Cubillan (6'0, 175, Jr.)	0.93	0.10	1.5 PPG
Chris Otule (6'10, 250, Fr.)	0.37	0.05	1.5 PPG, 1.3 RPG
Robert Frozena (6'1, 190, So.)	0.04	0.02	18 minutes

* AdjGS = a take-off of the Game Score metric (definition here) accepted by a lot of basketball stat nerds. It does the same thing my previous measure of choice did (it takes points, assists, rebounds (offensive & defensive), steals, blocks, turnovers and fouls into account to determine an individual's "score" for a given game), only the formula is more used and accepted. The "adjustment" in Adjusted Game Score is simply matching the total game scores to the total points scored in the game, thereby redistributing the game's points scored to those who had the biggest impact on the game itself, instead of just how many balls a player put through a basket.

Naturally this list doesn't include James, who averaged 12.42 AdjGS/Gm and 0.39 AdjGS/Min. Statistically, the drop from James to Maurice Acker was relatively significant, but Acker showed a lot of potential in Marquette's last game, scoring 12 points in 30 minutes (3-for-4 from 3-point range), dishing 2 assists and grabbing 2 rebounds. He isn't James, but he might not be too bad.
With James, this team revolved around four guys; without him, it's down to three. McNeal, Matthews and Hayward will take seemingly every shot for this team, and the small bench specializes mostly in crashing the boards and briefly spelling the starters. But beyond just shots and points, McNeal, Matthews and Hayward dominate just about every non-rebound category. They are three very good player surrounded by non-statistical role players.
KenPom's ratings paint the picture of a Marquette team that is extremely efficient offensively (maybe just above average without James) and a defense that is solid but not amazing. They are short but very experienced (Butler and Hazel are the only underclassmen in the rotation) and rebound well for their size.

We'll see what Utah State has to offer tomorrow, but comparing Marquette to Mizzou, one of the biggest factors could be the bench. Marquette was #292 in the country in depth (measured by bench minutes), and that doesn't not really account for the fact that they are now that much thinner without James. If Mizzou and Marquette play, depth could play a major role in the outcome.

Tomorrow, we'll look at Utah State's roster, the keys to the Eagles-Aggies game, and a prediction.

Lucky Bracket 13 - 7 March 2009

Chris Dobbertean — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 14:08:41 -0000

As I mentioned in the comments yesterday evening, we're at the point of the season where things are going to move very quickly.

Here's a rundown of last night's action and how it impacts today's bracket. (All game info from the always valuable Basketball State.)

Tennessee-Martin, the top seed in the Ohio Valley, lost to Morehead State, 63-55. That means the Skyhawks, featuring Lester "Done Ruthless" Hudson, are bound for the NIT. The Eagles meet up with #2 seed (and the auto bid holder for this bracket) Austin Peay in tonight's final.
The top two seeds in the Atlantic Sun, Jacksonville and East Tennessee State, will meet tonight to determine that league's auto bid.
Creighton very nearly found themselves out, as it appeared that Wichita State had beaten them. However, the refs added 1.9 seconds to the clock. That was just enough time for Valley POY Booker Woodfox to hit a jumper to give the Jays the win, 63-62. The Shockers won the rebounding battle by 20!
And the Cornell Big Red are the first team in, after they beat Penn 83-59 and Princeton lost to Columbia by 14. Like all teams who win their conference's auto bid, they'll appear in bold in the bracket from here on out.

In terms of the bracket as a whole (seed list, trends), there's been a little bit of shuffling among the protected seeds since my last update on Monday. Connecticut, Pittsburgh, and North Carolina are still hanging around on the top line. Oklahoma falls down to the two line, however, after dropping three of their last four. Memphis, nearing another perfect Conference USA run, replaces the Sooners.

Joining OU on the two line are three teams who are regulars: Duke, Louisville, and Michigan State. Of these four, the Sooners and Cardinals probably have the best shot at stealing a #1 seed, but the Blue Devils can't be counted out, especially with a game in Chapel Hill Sunday and the ACC tournament to come.

Kansas, Missouri, and Wake Forest stay on the three line, but Clemson drops down to the 4 line. Villanova replaces them, as the Wildcats recovered from a disappointing loss to Georgetown last Saturday by closing out their Big East slate with two 17-point wins over former contender Notre Dame and current bubble team Providence.

Joining the Tigers on the 4 line are Marquette, Washington, and Xavier. The Golden Eagles may not stay here for long, as they've yet to show they can win without Dominic James. The Musketeers, meanwhile, replace Purdue. The Boilermakers fall down to the 5 line after their home loss to suddenly alive Northwestern on Wednesday night.

For lines 5 on down, here are your jumps and declines for the week, presented in their seed line order:

Jumps: Florida State, UCLA, Syracuse, West Virginia, UNLV, Texas A&M, Minnesota, Binghamton, Morgan State

Declines: Purdue, LSU, Illinois, Utah, Wisconsin, Boston College, South Carolina, Creighton, Dayton, Cornell, Jacksonville

At the bottom of the at-large pool, there are quite a few changes. Arizona is out after they lost their fourth in a row Thursday night. Kentucky is also gone after they lost to hapless Georgia at Rupp Wednesday night. Maryland and Virginia Tech both drop out after they lost key midweek games.

Replacing them are four teams who are actually attempting to play, not back, their way in. Penn State is in after their thrilling victory over Illinois on Thursday night, a far different one than their infamous 38-33 win in Champaign a few weeks ago. Oklahoma State has won six straight and is 8-4 in their last 12. The four losses include three on the road and three to probable tournament teams (and the fourth is to Texas A&M, who is also on the bubble.) The Cowboys own a win over Rhode Island, another newcomer. The Rams have also won six straight, but they're 10-2 in their last 12. New Mexico is the last team in. The Lobos are 9-3 in their last 12 and have split with all of their competition in the Mountain West. That's a big reason why they're 4-5 against the RPI Top 50. Depending on what happens today, they can still claim a regular season conference title, which would definitely boost their case.

I'm headed off to Richmond for the CAA quarterfinals. I'll be tweeting during my time there, so be sure to follow along. My next bracket will be out on Tuesday instead of the normal Monday, as real life permitting, I'll be at the CAA championship game.

Happy Hoops Viewing!

Note: To keep with the theme I've developed over the past couple of years, I use Roadgeek fonts extensively in my files. You can download them for free from Mike the Actuary's Musings.

Pitt all but clinches No.1 seed, Marquette all but says goodbye

SFBE.NF — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 03:22:03 -0000

It's going to be a sad ending for the Marquette Golden Eagles, although we could probably make that past tense. Their quartet of seniors + Lazar Hayward were a formidable bunch worthy of being part of the "deep tournament run" conversation. They (me) say you need guards to make noise in March-- well Buzz WIlliams had a bunch of them with Dominic James serving as the glue that held it all together.

But James is gone and the void is becoming more and more glaring, eveidence in tonight's loss to Pitt.

In just seven days, Marquette has lost three in a row and an important cog in their offense. Needless to say, it was hard to say goodbye.

Badger Bits: Is Hughes UW's most indispensable player?

Adam Hoge — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:54:38 -0000

If you missed it, Marquette was dealt a crushing blow last night that hurt more than their loss to UConn. Senior point guard Dominic James fractured his left foot and will miss the rest of his season, effectively ending his collegiate career.

It's a tough break for the Golden Eagles' top defensive player, who was just starting to click offensively. James considered entering the NBA Draft after each of the last two seasons, and now you have to wonder how badly this injury will affect his pro career.

Mike Lucas, UW's radio analyst, s ays James' injury is devastating for Marquette and he ponders the question: Who could the Badgers least afford to lose at this critical juncture in the season?

His answer: Trevon Hughes.

My first reaction was, "Oh, come on." But when you think about it, Hughes is almost the same player as James, except with a little less potential. Both play great defense and have excellent instincts to force turnovers, but both are streaky shooters who make questionable decisions with the ball at times.

Still, remember when Hughes didn't play against Davidson? They missed his ball handling and could have used better defensive pressure on Jason Richards.

Now, Wisconsin also beat Texas last year without Hughes, but I would argue that it was earlier in the season and the Badgers didn't rely on him as much. Plus, there's no question the rest of the team stepped up their play in that game better than they did against Davidson.

So while Hughes is arguably the most frustrating player on the team, could you imagine the defense with him? The coaching staff obviously has 100 percent faith in Jordan Taylor to handle the offense, but defensively, especially with Michael Flowers gone, Wisconsin would be a mess if they lost Hughes.

More links:

Now, if we're talking players the Badgers could bring back, no question No. 1 on that list would be Devin Harris. What a week the Nets' All-Star point guard is having. After knocking down this incredible half-court shot at the buzzer to beat the 76ers on Monday, he scored 42 points last night, including 19 in the fourth quarter, to beat the Bulls. Of course the worst coach in NBA history helped Harris out, electing to play a 2-3 zone when his team was down 14 points with four minutes to go. What?!? Vinny, you are supposed to do the exact opposite. And oh yeah, his best player (Derek Rose) was on the bench again for no reason.
If you're keeping tabs on UW's next opponent, Michigan hosts Purdue tonight in a must-win game. Check out Maize N Brew and Hammer and Rails for more.
The bizarre Leonard Taylor case rolls on. The former UW football player who threatened to kill Barry Alvarez was ruled mentally competent enough to stand trial. Meanwhile, fans everywhere are more concerned about why he also threatened to kill Maria Sharapova. Are you nuts? Oh wait... my bad.
Meanwhile, Mark Stewart of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel caught up with Diamond Taylor's and Mike Bruesewitz's head coaches yesterday.
Finally, the UW men's hockey team is in Mankato, Minn. this weekend where it will try to rebound from a crushing series sweep at the hands of Denver last week. Our hockey guy will be in the building for both games and will have coverage starting tomorrow.

Over-rated. Over-rated (c'mon everyone!)

SHammonds — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 02:52:06 -0000

I wanted to take a quick minute to point out ~~one of~~ my least favorite players and the slim impact he's had on the college basketball landscape.

Take a look. The number one rated PG in his class.

via vmedia.rivals.com

He's putting up 5.6 ppg and has seen his minutes dip from 32.3 and 32.4 his first two years to 27.7 last year and 18.3 this year. His supporters cite "leadership," but if thats the case where are his minutes? Career high in assists: 5.2 his freshman year...dropped to 1.7 this year...1.76 A/T is poor as well. Three guards on his team are getting more minutes...whats the deal?

Senior PG's I'd rather have:
Darren Collison
Tyrese Rice
Levance Fields (my personal favorite)
Dominic James
Jack McClinton

To name a few...please submit more. If you disagree, I'd love to hear why!

Danny Green posterizes Dook's Paulus (via carolinagirl69642)

Two more fun Paulus videos after the jump!

dook's (duke's) Greg Paulus flops (better quality) (via TerpBE)

DERON WASHINGTON JUMPS OVER GREG PAULUS TWICE!!! (via kennethspence92)

Tennessee Volunteers vs. Marquette Golden Eagles: game preview

Joel — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:31:22 -0000

Expect Tennessee’s game against Marquette tonight in Nashville to be a battle of the boards and benches. If Tennessee can win those two games-within-the-games, the Vols should be okay. If not, well, think Temple.

Keys to the game

Rebounding. Both teams are very good on the boards. Whichever team has the better night cleaning up the shooting failures of others will have an advantage. The Vols rank 5th in the nation in rebound margin, averaging 11 more boards than their opponents. But the Golden Eagles have out-rebounded their opponents in eight of nine games. In its last game against Indiana-Purdue-Fort-Wayne (the most awkwardly-named team in college sports!), Marquette tallied 48 total rebounds behind 18 from Lazar Hayward, who’s ranked 17th in the nation in rebounds with 10.6.

Marquette’s starting five vs. Tennessee’s bench. The Golden Eagles’ starting lineup is stocked with guys ranking nationally in many key statistical categories, but their bench production is sorely lacking. The starting five currently accounts 81.3 percent of the team’s offensive production, and the bench has contributed a grand total of 12 points over the last two games. Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl is fond of saying that although his opponent’s starting five might be better than his own starting five, his ten are better than his opponent’s. Look for Tennessee to push the tempo and to force the game into a contest of depth.

Marquette players to watch

The aforementioned Hayward. Hayward was not only one board shy of the Bradley Center record of 19 in his last outing, he also managed a game-high 19 points on 9 of 17 shooting from the field. Dude’s got three double-doubles on the season already.

Senior guard Dominic James, who is perhaps Marquette’s best player. James currently ranks 17th in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.2), 37th in the nation in steals (2.4 per game), and 51st in the nation in assists (5.3 per game). He’s also averaging 11.3 points and 3.7 rebounds per game. He was one of 50 guys named to the preseason candidate list for this year’s Wooden Award.

Jerel McNeal and Wesley Matthews. Notice I said that James is “perhaps” Marquette’s best player. If not, McNeal is. Perhaps. McNeal is ranked 75th in the nation in steals and 82nd in the nation in points per game. He, too, is on the preseason Wooden Award watch list. Or maybe Wesley Matthews is the Golden Eagles’ best player. Matthews scores more points per game than either McNeal or James, thanks in part to his free throw shooting. Only two guys in the nation are making more free throws per game than Matthews, who’s hitting 7.7 per game on 8.8 attempts. Don’t foul Matthews!

KEY STATS COMPARISON
Category	Rank	Actual	Rank	Actual
Scoring Offense	8	85.3	12	82.8
Scoring Defense	273	73.4	174	67.3
Scoring Margin	62	11.9	29	15.4
Field-Goal Percentage	61	47.1	95	45.7
Field-Goal Percentage Defense	212	43.8	130	41.4
Three-Point Field Goals Per Game	126	6.6	174	6.1
Three-Point Field-Goal Percentage	154	34.0	222	31.4
Three Pt FG Defense	117	0.32	51	0.292
Free-Throw Percentage	100	70.9	109	70.5
Rebound Margin	5	11.0	24	8.2
Assists Per Game	10	18.9	32	16.6
Assist Turnover Ratio	44	1.18	40	1.21
Blocked Shots Per Game	138	3.5	188	3.0
Steals Per Game	139	7.3	48	8.9
Turnovers Per Game	246	16.0	106	13.7
Turnover Margin	190	-0.5	81	2.4
Personal Fouls Per Game	273	20.9	258	20.4

PLAYERS TO WATCH
Category	Player	Rank	Actual	Player	Rank	Actual
Points PG				W. Matthews J. McNeal	48 82	19.6 18.2
FG%
3-Point FG PG
3-Point FG%
FT %				W. Matthews	44	87.3
Rebounds PG	B. Williams	93	8.1	L. Hayward	17	10.6
Assists PG	B. Maze T. Smith	76 94	4.9 4.6	D. James	51	5.3
Blocks PG
Steals PG				D. James J. McNeal	37 75	2.4 2.1
Assist-TO Ratio	B. Maze	6	3.9	D. James	17	3.2

Projecting the Hoops Season: Top 25

Zach B — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:35:15 -0000

swBefore putting this up I should link my original top 25 which, after a few games, has already changed. UCLA looked bad last night against a pretty darn good Miami of Ohio team. The West is down in basketball this year, well except of course for my beloved Zags. The Big East is once again the dominant conference from top to bottom...but as usual, the ACC has some of the top teams, including the odds on favorite to win it all.

1. North Carolina...Hansbrough is hurt but should be back for the bulk of the season. They are absolutely loaded this year.

2. Louisville...Rick Pitino may finally have his championship year at Louisville. Blue-chip recruit Samardo Samuels joins an already talented Cardinals roster.

3. Connecticut...Barely behind Louisville. Thabeet is sure talking a lot, hopefully he can back it up on the court. I hope Harangody beats him up though.

4. Michigan State...This is my sleeper team. I love Kalin Lucas, there are not many point guards better than him this season. Delvon Roe is another freshman to watch.

5. Pittsburgh...DeJuan Blair is going to be a manchild in the middle and Sam Young has developed into one of the best forwards in the nation.

6. Oklahoma...This one is for Woodrow. Willie Warren is going to be the most productive freshman this season. Blake Griffin will also be the number 1 selection in the upcoming NBA draft.

7. Notre Dame...Still not completely sure about this one. I'm not sure if they have enough talent to put together another great season in such a tough Big East.

8. Gonzaga...This is with as little bias as possible. The Zags are the best team on the West Coast. Austin Daye and Josh Heytvelt are the one's to watch along with Jeremy Pargo.

9. Texas...Damion James does everything for the Longhorns and is one of the most complete players in the nation. Can they replace DJ Augustin?

10. Duke...I usually think the Blue Devils are overrated but I like this team. They have an excellent back court. Kyle Singler is Mr. Fundamental.

See the rest of the Top 25 after the jump...

11. UCLA...I'm just not impressed by their interior play. They have talent but not having Kevin Love is going to hurt. If they had him, they could be challenging Carolina for the top spot.

12. Memphis...The Tigers lost a lot with the departures of Dorsey, Rose, and CDR but they reloading quite nicely. Taggart and Dozier will have to lead this team that will rely on plenty of youngsters.

13. Tennessee...JP Prince's injury worries me but he should be back healthy for the bulk of the season. Bruce Pearl signed one of the best players in the country in Scotty Hopson and he'll be expected to contribute immediately.

14. Purdue...Robbie Hummel is a top player in college basketball this season. Only a sophomore, Hummel will be counted on to make this team go. If they can stay more consistent this year, they could be great.

15. Georgetown...I'm hoping and praying that the Hoyas and Zags match up this season. Dajuan Summers is bound to break out this year. He's got all the tools to be a top tier player this year.

16. Arizona State...James Harden could wind up being the player of the year in college basketball. The Sun Devils should challenge UCLA in the PAC-10.

17. Florida...Florida should be vastly improved from last year. Jai Lucas has transferred but Nick Calathes could make an All-American team by season's end. The Gators are on their way back to the top of the college basketball world.

18. Villanova...This team is nowhere near the Foye, Lowry, and Allen Ray team but they have the potential to be a very good team by the end of the year.

19. Wake Forest...Three five-star freshman will be taking the floor for Wake and they are all taller than 6'9'', I wish Gonzaga could borrow one. Get to know Al-Faroug Aminu.

20. Marquette...The Eagles have been a consistently solid squad for many years and this year will be no different. Jerel McNeal is one of the best guards in the nation and Dominic James is always reliable.

21. USC...If Davon Jefferson was still in the fold, this would be an elite team but now they are forced to rely on freshman DeMar Derozan.

22. Miami...It feels odd to me to put Miami in a top 25 for basketball but they should be a force this season in the ACC.

23. UNLV...I think this is going to be a very special season for Lon Kruger's team. Wink Adams is one of the top guards in the nation and redshirt freshman Beas Hamga should be a man in the middle.

24. Xavier...There will be plenty of new faces in the max for the Musketeers but they have some solid returning players like B.J. Raymond.

25. Saint Mary's...The Gaels deserve a spot in the Top 25 as they have one of the best combos in the nation with Diamon Simpson and Patty Mills. Mills should become a household name by seasons end.

Who Just Missed: I'm not ready to put Kansas in the Top 25 yet. They lost so much from last year's championship team that they'll have to prove it first. The fact that San Diego only got one vote combined in the two major polls is stunning. I have them pegged as a top 30-35 team to start the year. The loss of Jason Richards is going to hurt Davidson a lot more than people like to think. Stephen Curry is a much better player when he can move without the ball. As the point man, he's not going to have that luxury very much. I struggled leaving Baylor out of the top 25. Curtis Jerrells is about as good as it gets in the Big 12. Syracuse has a whole ton of talent but I'm not convinced that Jim Boeheim is going to be able to harness it all.

Big East coaches tab Cards second, Samuels co-preseason rookie of the year

Mike Rutherford — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:14:19 -0000

Here's the full basket of goodies from Big East Media Day inside Madison Square Garden.

Preseason Coaches' Poll

1. Connecticut (9)- 214
2. Louisville (3) - 205
3. Pittsburgh (3) - 200
4. Notre Dame (1) - 195
5. Villanova - 153
6. Marquette - 146
7. Georgetown - 141
8. Syracuse - 139
9. West Virginia - 121
10. Providence - 99
11. Cincinnati - 91
12. Rutgers - 53
13. Seton Hall - 50
14. St. John's - 44
15. Depaul - 43
16. South Florida - 26

Preseason Big East Player of the Year: Luke Harangody, Notre Dame

Preseason All-Big East Team

*Luke Harangody, Notre Dame
*Sam Young, Pittsburgh
Deonta Vaughn, Cincinnati
A.J. Price, Connecticut
Hasheem Thabeet, Connecticut
DaJuan Summers, Georgetown
Terrence Williams, Louisville
Jerel McNeal, Marquette
Kyle McAlarney, Notre Dame
Jonny Flynn, Syracuse
Scottie Reynolds, Villanova

* = unanimous selection

Preseason All-Big East Honorable Mention

Jeff Adrien, Connecticut
Earl Clark, Louisville
Dominic James, Marquette

Preseason Big East Co-Rookies of the Year

Samardo Samuels, Louisville
Greg Monroe, Georgetown