College Basketball 2018-2019 SZN This college basketball season has the potential to be one of the most entertaining in years. I will tell you about a few of my favorite storylines. ZION WILLIAMSON https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZSBK2yKeME First off if you have been living under a rock and don’t know who Zion is, watch the linked video and you will understand why this is my first story. Zion Williamson is an uberly talented freshman from Spartanburg, South Carolina. Zion is the second ranked player in the 2018 graduating class by ESPN. Zion is well known from his ferocious and god-like athleticism. As a senior in High School he averaged 36.4 points, 11.4 rebounds, and 3.5 assists. Now why I am so intrigued to see him play this season for Duke. Zion’s insane athleticism and skill makes him incredibly versatile, in an era of basketball where versatility is much needed. Zion’s has the ability to literally play and defend all five positions with his all world athleticism. Zion may be the only person in the world other than Giannis Antetokounmpo to do this. From his highlights for his High School and AAU team it looked at times that Zion was a man playing against children. I am curious if Zion will have the same success against much tougher opponents in the ACC for Duke. Zion has often been compared to the GOAT LeBron James, although I do think that Zion has the chance to be a great basketball player but his lack of a knockdown jumpshot, poor ball handling, and a lack of elite vision to be a great facilitator like LeBron are some of the reasons why he will not be in the same class as LeBron. Even though I did just state all of Zion’s negative characteristics, he still does have a great chance to improve in all of those aspects, and that is what makes Zion so intriguing. Zion has been the most talked about High School basketball player since the great LeBron and I am curious if he can live up to the hype and carry this on for the rest of his basketball career. THE NEVADA WOLFPACK The Nevada Wolfpack are the most intriguing basketball team in the country for the upcoming 2018-2019 season. The Wolf Pack finished the 2017-18 season 29–8, winning the mountain west regular season championship. Nevada entered the NCAA tournament as a 7 seed and ended up making a run to the sweet sixteen before losing to Loyola-Chicago. The Wolf Pack come into the season ranked 7th in the preseason AP poll. The reason that I am so intrigued by Nevada this season is because after such a successful season they only lost one player from there team last season, Elijah Foster who only averaged 6.5 minutes and 1.7 point per game last season. So that says they are returning a lot of talent. The highlights of their current roster starts with 6’7” Redshirt Senior forward Caleb Martin. Martin averaged 18.9 points and 5.4 rebounds per game last season. Caleb comes into the season with many different preseason accolades including being a preseason AP all-american, preseason Mountain West player of the year, and also being on the Julius Erving award watch list (awarded to the best small forward) just to name a few. Caleb Martin will be a big part in Nevada’s success this season. Caleb also has a twin brother Cody Martin that had averaged 14 points per game last season will play a vital role on Nevada this season. Nevada’s second biggest weapon for this upcoming season is senior forward Jordan Caroline. Caroline averaged 17.7 points and 8.6 assists a game last season. Lastly Nevada has a talented four star freshman Jordan Brown coming in. Brown is a 6’10” center ranked 33rd on the ESPN top 100 and he looks to play a big role for the Wolfpack this upcoming season. I think that Eric Musselman’s style of modern positionless basketball will help this wolfpack squad which has the ability to compete for a Final Four run, if not a National Championship. Will someone other than Kansas win the BIG 12? No. I don’t think that anyone other than the Kansas Jayhawks will win the Big 12. If you did not know the Kansas Jayhawks have won 14 straight Big 12 regular season titles, Yes 14. For this season, Kansas will not have the tough competition in the Big 12 that they have had in the recent years. Their toughest competition that they will have are the Kansas State Wildcats. Although the Wildcats are an intriguing sleeper pick this season after coming of an Elite 8 run and not losing any players to the NBA draft. Not a single one. I do not think that they are anywhere near as talented as the Jayhawks, and Kansas State will not be deep enough to compete with Kansas for a title throughout the long Big 12 season. The Jayhawks only other tough competition will be West Virginia. Every year we seem to have the same conversation. Will this be the year West Virginia breaks through? No it will not after graduating Jevon Carter, West Virginia is not as talented or deep as the Jayhawks, Although I am intrigued by incoming ESPN top 100 freshman Jordan McCabe who I will tell you more about later, I do not think that the Jayhawks have to worry of their streak ending this season. The Jayhawks again are very talented returning talented players Udoka Azubuike and LaGerald Vick that played big roles on their team last season. They also picked up talented transfer from Memphis Dedric Lawson Jr who has the chance to compete at an All American level this season. Lastly they have a whopping 3 of the top 27 recruits in the incoming freshman class ranked in the ESPN top 100. The most intriguing of the group is the 8th ranked player Quentin Grimes. Grimes is a 6’4” guard with terrific athleticism and a smooth jump shot, who has the potential to be a lottery pick in the upcoming NBA draft, but he will look to win a Big 12 title first. Kansas is far more talented than any team in the Big 12 for the upcoming season, and I do not see them struggling to extend their streak to 15 consecutive Big 12 regular season titles. JELLY FAM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imHRLA96l3k Jelly Fam is a popular youth movement that has been created by Minnesota sophomore guard Isaiah Washington, for a great summary of the group you can watch the linked video. Jelly Fam has other members that involve Sid Wilson UConn Forward, Jahvon Quinerly Villanova freshman, Jordan Walker Seton Hall Guard, Milicia Reid Ole Miss women’s guard, Leondre Washington Robert Morris Guard, and Nazreon Reid LSU freshman. Jelly Fam is a group that has popularized the finger roll once again. The group calls their finger rolls “Jelly”, and this has created a social media storm. This movement is widely popular among basketball players of all levels across the country, and many have tried to imitate it. The group’s main leader is Isaiah Washington who sits at nearly 700,000 instagram followers. Washington struggled in his first season for the Gophers, but still had tremendous potential, and looks to have a bounce back season upcoming. Jahvon Quinerly is the second most popular player in the group that has nearly 500,000 followers, which shows you that this group is widely popular among basketball players across the country. Quinerly is the 26th ranked player in the ESPN top 100 rankings and comes in looking fill in the starting point guard role for Villanova that was left by Jalen Brunson who left for the NBA. Quinerly comes in as a McDonald’s All-American, and he has great potential that will be fun to see what he does with. I am very intrigued to see the future of “Jelly Fam”, and how successful these players will be on and off the court in the future. The Incoming 2018 freshman class Even though it seems that every season we say, “this class has the chance to be best class of all time.” This year I believe that it is the best. I will go through some of the most intriguing players R.J. Barrett R.J. Barrett is the number one overall ranked player in this years ESPN top 100 and is attending Duke. R.J. has often been referred to as the “left handed Kobe”, and I truly believe this comparison is an understatement. I think that Barrett is possibly the most complete player to ever come out of high school. I think if you put R.J. in the NBA right now he averages 20 points. There is no weakness in his game and he is the perfect modern wing player standing at 6’7” and having athleticism and ball handling skills of a point guard. I am looking forward to what R.J. brings to the talented Duke squad this season. Bol Bol Bol Bol is the son of former NBA player Manute Bol. Bol Bol is standing at a whopping 7’3” with a wingspan of 7’8”. Bol is ranked as the fourth best player in the ESPN top 100 and is attending Oregon. If R.J. Barrett is the most complete player, I think that Bol has the most potential. Bol is freaking 7 feet 3 inches tall. He shoots the three point shot well, handles the ball well, and is relatively athletic for his monstrous size. Bol has the chance to be something truly special this season at Oregon, and for the rest of his basketball career. Tyler Herro There are obviously players that are more talented Tyler Herro in this class but he is one of the most underrated. Tyler is the 30th ranked player in the top 100 and has committed to playing at Kentucky this season. Tyler is a talented 6’4” guard from Wisconsin that put up huge numbers in his senior season. He averaged 32.9 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 3.6 assists last season. The reason that I am such a fan of Tyler Herro is his combination of deceptive athleticism and NBA level shooting, he is much more talented than his ranking shows. In any other year I think that Tyler would be ranked much higher. This shows you how deep this year’s class is. #whiteBballsucess Jordan McCabe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ9LAZRikWc Although Jordan does not have as many stars or as high of a ranking as some players, he is a terrific basketball player. Jordan is 86th ranked player in the top 100 and will be attending West Virginia. McCabe is most famous for his incredibly ball handling skills as a 12 year old. McCabe is currently standing at 6’0” playing point guard. McCabe tremendous ball handling is what makes him so fun to watch. I think that McCabe’s tremendous ball handling and great finishing ability should help him be quite successful at West Virginia in Bob Huggins’ system this season. Other Interesting Players 3. Cam Reddish- 6’7” from Pennsylvania- Duke 6. Nassir Little- 6’7” from Florida- UNC 12. Nazreon Reid- 6’10” from New Jersey- LSU 17. Tre Jones- 6’2” from Minnesota- Duke 32. Shareef O’Neal- 6’10” from California- UCLA 40. Kevin Porter- 6’5” from Washington- USC 57. Daniel Oturu- 6’10” from Minnesota- Minnesota UNDRANKED. Mac McClung- 6’2”- from Virginia- Georgetown (definitely watch these dunk highlights) ****https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2NIZXzCviM**** My Predictions Lastly I will give you my predictions on how the the upcoming season will play out. Big Ten I think that the Big Ten is up for grabs this season. The Michigan State Spartans will be the popular pick, but there loss of most of their talent from last season will hurt. My pick would probably be John Beilein’s Michigan Wolverines led by veteran guard Charles Matthews. My dark horse pick would be the Minnesota Gophers led by Jordan Murphy are as talented as any team in this conference and if they stay healthy they will have some noise to make this season. SEC Kentucky will win the SEC this season. This maybe John Calipari's most complete basketball team he has had at Kentucky there is not the usually top end talent, but this team’s biggest strength is their depth even though the talent isn’t top heavy there is plenty of NBA level talent on this team. Kentucky’s biggest challenger will be a very experienced Tennessee team led by veteran forward Admiral Schofield. Big East I think that Villanova will again win the Big East this season. Even though they’re not as deep this season as they have been in the past. They still have enough talent to keep their dominant run in the Big East led by senior big man Eric Paschall, and incoming talented freshman Jahvon Quinerly. A dark horse team that I do like this season is Marquette led by veteran guard Markus Howard, I think that the Golden Eagles have a chance to make some noise so don’t be surprised if they shock some people. Big 12 I have previously said I expect a very talented Kansas team to be very successful this season. So my next favorite team in the conference is Kansas State. The wildcats return a very talented team coming off an Elite Eight run headlined by local product Dean Wade who will have the chance to play at an All-American level this season. The also have NBA level guard Barry Brown Jr that will look to play a large roll this season for the wildcats. ACC I think that the ACC will be just as deep as it is every year. I expect North Carolina’s road to be a little bumpy to a regular season title, but I think that their talent will be way to much for the rest of the league to overcome with experienced forward Luke Maye and incoming superstar freshman Nassir Little, there talent is too much to deny. There will also be the well oiled machine Virginia that will have something to say about that led by sharpshooter Kyle Guy. Along with the ultra talented Duke Blue Devils will make a lot of noise this season Pac 12 I think the Dana Altman’s Oregon team will win the Pac 12 this season. I think their talented recruiting class headlined by Bol Bol, and Louis King combined with their experienced veterans headlined by Payton Pritchard will be very intriguing to watch this season. Another team that will be interesting to watch this season is UCLA with many talented first and second year players but not much experience to help. Final Four My picks to make it to the Final Four this season are Nevada, Kentucky, Duke, and Gonzaga. Nevada’s wildly talented team returning from last season’s sweet sixteen run led by Caleb Martin is too good to ignore. Kentucky’s great recruiting that includes Keldon Johnson, EJ Montgomery, Immanuel Quickley, and Tyler Herro, paired with their great veterans that include Reid Travis, Nick Richards, and PJ Washington shows that the wildcats have the best depth in the country. Gonzaga has returned with a very talented roster once again this season. Their roster includes talented veterans Josh Perkins, Rui Hachimura, Zach Norvell, and Killian Tillie, also paired with incoming transfer Geno Crandall along with ESPN top 100 big man Filip Petrusev shows that if Kentucky is the most deep team in the country Gonzaga is a close second. Lastly the Duke blue devils top end talent that includes for five star recruits Zion Williamson, Cam Reddish, RJ Barrett, and Tre Jones along with four star recruit Joey Baker shows that the blue devils have the most top end talent in the country that no other team can compete with. I think all four of these teams have a great combination of experiences, good recruiting classes, and great coaching. I think that Gonzaga will break through and win their first championship and defeat Kentucky in Minneapolis this season. Player of the Year I think that the senior forward from North Carolina Luke Maye will win player of the year this season. I think Maye will put up great numbers on a very good North Carolina team. Maye’s biggest competition will be Purdue guard Carsen Edward. And my dark horse pick will be St. John’s guard Shamorie Ponds who has the chance to put up huge numbers on a wildly underrated Saint John’s team. All-Americans 1st Team
Overall I think that this college basketball season will be one of the most entertaining seasons in recent memory, and there will be plenty of great storylines to follow throughout the season.
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May 2020
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