Finally...

      Unless you’ve got a big time Basketball Jones, you may not have even realized that college basketball season officially kicked off last night. Seth Davis has a great article on why the start of college basketball season tends to fly under the radar here. My own take is much less complex. Basically, as long as top 25 programs play “gimme” games at the beginning of the season against inferior opponents, nobody’s going to pay attention. Until teams get into the meat and potatoes of their schedules, early season basketball can be tedious for fans who are watching only for entertainment value.

    That being said, a few things were established last night that will set the tone for certain teams early this season:

1. North Carolina is not good enough to repeat… this year. Last night, they played NBA Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas’ Florida International University team and mopped the floor with them 88-72. Senior forward Deon Thompson had 20 points and 10 rebounds for the Tar Heels to lead all scorers. UNC placed three others in double figures including Player of the Year candidate Ed Davis, who had 13 and 11. Obviously, it’s very early, but North Carolina is not a National Championship team this year. Although the Heels are a strong defensive team, they don’t have an offensive weapon like they have in the past. They have no three point threats which will allow teams to play zone defense and pack the lane, making it tough for their big men to score. Also, a mediocre-at-best FIU forced them to turn the ball over 25 times. They’re long and athletic, but in the ACC they’ll need to bring more to the table.

2. Evan Turner is one of the most underrated players in the country. His Ohio State team blasted a not-so-good Alcorn State 100-60 last night behind Turner’s triple-double. Turner had 14 points, 10 assists, and most impressively 17 rebounds. A rebounding point guard gives the Buckeyes a gigantic advantage when it comes to scoring on the break. Normally a team utilizes their big men to rebound and throw an outlet pass to their guard who will then start the break. A guard who can rebound eliminates the middleman and allows for quicker breaks and easier transition scoring. The technical stuff aside, Turner is really good. At halftime, he was two assists away from the triple-double he finished with and provided some excitement to what would otherwise have been a snooze-fest. To put his feat in perspective, in the over 100 years Ohio State has been playing basketball, there’s only been one other player in the program’s history to record a triple double.

3. Ohio State will beat North Carolina next Thursday. The Tar Heels face the Buckeyes in the Syracuse region of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic. With Turner running the show and his teammate David Lighty back in the lineup after an injury that kept him sidelined most of last season, Ohio State will be a team to be reckoned with in the Big 10. At 6’5, Lighty is a guard/forward combo who will likely play power forward this season. At the forward position, he’ll be two inches shorter than the team’s point guard, which will create major mismatches on defense for OSU’s opponents all season. Although he missed most of his junior season with a broken foot, he had a promising sophomore campaign. North Carolina has bigger bodies, but Ohio State has more speed. North Carolina is favored, but an Ohio State victory would hardly be an upset.

4. California is overrated. They enter this season ranked #13 after an outing last year that ended with a trip to the NCAA tournament. They have a great coach in second year man Mike Montgomery, and some pretty good players in Patrick Christopher and Jerome Randle, but their depth ends there. Last year, those guys were able to produce because they were under the radar, but this year, with a top 15 ranking, opposing teams know who they are and will work on containing them. Last night, they barely pulled off a victory against Murray State in a contest that saw both guys struggle. Christopher showed some promise, scoring six points during a vital stretch which helped the Bears hold on to the lead, but neither player stood out. More telling is that as a team, California was outrebounded by the smaller Murray State squad – a troubling sign for a team looking to make an impact on the national scene this season.

5. Jim Boeheim is a pretty good coach with a pretty good team. Unless you live under a rock, you know by now that Coach Boeheim and his Syracuse Orange beat Albany handily last night. In most cases, this wouldn’t be big news, but it is for two reasons. First, last week at this time, the #25 ranked Orange had just given up 50 points in the second half in a losing effort to Division II Le Moyne, causing people to question their high ranking before the season even started. Secondly and more importantly, Coach Boeheim joined an impressive list and became a member of the 800 win club. If that sounds impressive, there’s a good reason. The only other members on the Division 1 level are Bobby Knight, Dean Smith, Adolph Rupp, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Phelan (right down the road at Mount St. Mary’s), Jim Calhoun and Eddie Sutton. Legendary coach aside, the Orange are just plain good this year. Their best shooter, Andy Rautins, didn’t even score and Syracuse still won by 30. With the help of Iowa State transfer Wesley Johnson and local product Arinze Onuaku, Syracuse will make some noise in the Big East.