The HOOPSCOOP Online
Published by The HOOP SCOOP, Inc., P.O. Box 37122, Louisville, KY 40233 Editor & Publisher Clark Francis Email Address: clark@hoopscooponline.com Phone (502) 493-0043 Fax (502) 493-0440 All rights reserved - Copyright 2000

Forget the experience factor.  Nine players, including starters Charlie Bell and Andre Hutson, return from this defending NCAA Championship team.  Also, Zach Randolph was the best high school player in the nation last spring, Marcus Taylor is the perfect replacement for Mateen Cleaves at point guard, and 6'6 Soph Jason Richardson is expected to emerge into one of the premier college players in the nation this season.  Looks like a  likely repeat!  Plus, a potential dynasty could be in the works for Tom Izzo, whose Spartans advanced to the NCAA Final Four in both '99 and 2000.

Our sleeper #1 pre-season pick a year ago, the Wildcats appear to have all the pieces necessary to become Lute Olson's best team ever.  Loren Woods is the best big man in the nation.  Michael Wright is the best rebounder in the league, as well as one of the best in the nation.  Jason Gardner is the best point guard in the Pac-10.   Richard Jefferson and Gilbert Arenas are both terrific at the wing spots, as well as sure-fire NBA players in another year or two.  They also have tremendous overall balance, great depth, and a coach who is second to none.  

Nobody in college basketball has more talent than the Blue Devils.  The versatile Shane Battier has stayed around long enough to become the best player in the league, as well as the nation.  Carlos Boozer has the potential to become a monster inside.  Jason Williams is the best point guard in the nation. Chris Duhon will likely be the Rookie-of-the-Year in the tough ACC.  Nate James and Mike Dunleavy provide even more options perimeter and Casey Sanders should get more minutes inside.   And of course there are Coach K, the tradition, and Cameron Indoor Arena.

Talk about walking into a gold mine.  New head coach Bill Self, who guided Tulsa to a NCAA Final Eight Finish last March, inherits all five starters from an Illini team that lost to Florida in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.  Corey Bradford, who is regarded by many as the best player in the Big-10, is one of the most consistent 3-point shooters in the nation.  Marcus Griffin provides the power and Brian Cook has the finesse inside.  Frank Williams is the most naturally gifted point guard in the conference and Sergio McClain is more than just  solid at the 3-spot.

Don't let the fact that only one starter (Nate Althoff)  returns for the Utes fool you.   This team has both the talent and potential to be Rick Majerus' best team yet.    Kevin Bradley and Travis Spivey were two of the top junior college players in the nation. Chris Burgess, who transferred from Duke a year ago, is looking to finally live up to his high school rep.  Britton Johnson and Trace Caton, both of whom played on Utah's NCAA Championship Runnerup team in 1997, are both back from two-year missions.

In the '70s Lefty Driesell talked about "Maryland becoming the UCLA of the East." Well, now it finally looks like the Terrapins have emerged as one of the perennial powers in college basketball under Gary Williams.  Lonnie Baxter (8.8 rpg) and Terrance Morris (8.6 rpg) provide the best one-two punch on the boards in the game today.  Steve Blake and Juan Dixon ar the  perfect complement in the backcourt.   Danny Miller and Bryon Mouton will battle for the wing forward spot and 6'10 Chris Wilcox is waiting in the wings.  And with the exception of Morris, they should all be back next year!

Kansas returns Nick Collison, Andrew Gooden, Eric Chenowith, inside, Kenny Gregory and Luke Axtell on the perimeter, and Jeff Boschee and Kirk Hinrich in the backcourt.   However, offensive inconsistency and a lack of speed and quickness plagued the Jayhawks a year ago.  But they did take Duke to the wire in the second round of the NCAA last March.  The addition of Bryant Nash makes them more athletic on the perimeter and Roy Williams is the winningest coach in the nation during the last 10 years.   All this, along with another year of maturity, makes this a very dangerous team.  

Remember where you heard it first.  The best freshman in the Big East will be Caron Butler! And that's just one of the many reasons why the Huskies are a legitimate top 10 team.   Johnny Selvie provides the presence they need on the boards and they're oozing with talent at the guard spots with Taliek Brown, Albert Mouring, Tony Robertson, and Marcus Cox.  Center is still a question mark, but Jim Calhoun has plenty of options with Ajou Deng, Wane Souleymane, and Edmund Sanders all vying for the position.

Florida won't be as strong at the forward spots without Donnell Harvey and Mike Miller, but LaDarius Halton, who missed last year with a knee injury, and Orien Green, who was a top 30 high school senior last season, make the Gators even  deeper at guard.   Udonis Haslem, Teddy Dupay,  Brently Wright, Justin Hamilton, and Matt Bonner were all battle tested in last year's NCAA Championship game, but the big key will be the continuing emergence of Brett Nelson, who took his game to another level last March.  

Eddie Griffin gets all the hype, but the key to Seton Hall should  be Andre Barrett.  He's the best player under 5'10 we've ever seen at the high school level.   He'll either keep you honest from outside with his outside shooting or use his speed and quickness to penetrate and dish.  Darius Lane, Marcus Toney-El, and Desmond Herod will get  plenty of open looks on the perimeter and Samuel Dalembert and Eddie Griffin both should have a field day inside.  Ty Shine adds even more experience at point guard and 6'7 Greg Morton is versatile enough to play both inside and out. 

Few teams in college basketball have had more talent in recent years than Tennessee, but injuries and poor outside shooting have been their Achilles' heel.   However, this is the last hurrah for seniors Tony Harris, Isaih Victor, and Charles Hathaway.   Junior Vincent Yarborough also has All-SEC credentials and there is a plethora of good young talent in the program, including Jon Higgins, Ronald Slay, Jenis Grindstaff, Harris Walker, Terrance Woods, Andy Ikeakor, and Marcus Haislip.  

Nobody in college basketball reloads better or quicker than Cincinnati and this might be the Bearcats finest effort yet!  The backcourt is especially strong, because Kenny Satterfield has NBA written all over him and Steve Logan has been worth his weight in gold as a starter off-and-on over the last two years.  Donald Little should be ready to step in at center and junior college All-American's Antwan Jones, Jamaal Davis, and Immanuel McElroy will fight for the forward spots. 

Xavier might be the most underrated team in college basketball by most of the pre-season scribes.   Maurice McAfee and Lionel Chalmers provide the Musketeers with the best point guard duo  in the league.  Lloyd Price, David Young, and Romain Sota are all lethal on the perimeter.  6'8 Soph David West is the best inside player in the Atlantic-10 and Kevin Frey is more than adequate at the power forward spot.

The Sooners lost one of the top players in the Big-12 Conference in 6'8 Eduardo Najera (18.4 ppg and 9.2 rpg), but they more than made up for it when they landed the #2 ranked recruiting class in the nation.  Hollis Price, J.R. Raymond, and Nolan Johnson will once again get most of the playing time at the guard spots, while Aaron McGhee, Johnnie Gilbert, Ronnie Griffin, Daryan Selvy, and Jozsef Szendrel will all battle for time inside. 

Stanford is loaded inside with the Collins twins, Justin Davis, and Curtis Borchardt.  The Cardinal is also lethal on the perimeter with Casey Jacobsen and Ryan Mendez, who are two of the most potent offensive players in the league.  Frosh Matt Lotich provides even more firepower off the bench.  So really the only question mark is the point guard spot?  6'1 Chris Hernandez from Fresno (Clovis West) CA, who committed to Stanford during the summer,  will do nicely a year from now.  However,  our question is whether Mike McDonald, Kyle Logan, and/or Julius Barnes are good enough at point guard and whether they'll be able to replace the leadership lost by the graduation of Mark Madsen and David Moseley.

Point guard also is the big question mark for Kentucky, as Saul Smith, Cliff Hawkins, and J.P. Blevins all will get a shot.  If any of the three is the answer, the Wildcats will quickly become a NCAA Final Four contender.  Remember, Keith Bogans, Tayshaun Prince, Marvin Stone, Jason Parker, and Marquis Estill are all future NBA players.  Tubby Smith also has more depth and better outside shooting than he did a year ago, which means the Wildcats are likely to play a more up tempo style. 

A healthy Ron Curry, who is exclusively playing basketball, would once again make North Carolina a legitimate NCAA Final Four team.  However, if the new regime has to go with Adam Boone and/or Brian Morrison at the point, a 5th or 6th place ACC finish isn't out of the question.   Realistically, the Tar Heels will probably finish someplace in-between, because it doesn't get much better than Joe Forte and Jason Capel at the wing spots.  Kris Lang is an excellent role player at power forward and Brenden Haywood can be as good as he wants to be at center.

Arkansas, which lost only one player (Chris Walker) from a year ago, is still extremely young, as is evident by the fact that there still is only one senior (Brandon Davis) on the entire roster.  But they showed signs of growing up fast last year when they won four straight en route to the SEC Tournament Championship.  Joe Johnson, who was the SEC Rookie-of-the-Year, should be the best player in the league.  However, it's their depth (Nolan Richardson can go 12 deep) that makes the Razorbacks especially dangerous.  

DePaul has been loaded in recent years, but finding the right chemistry has been a major problem for Pat Kennedy.  And it may be again this year, unless Kennedy can figure out how to best utilize Imari Sawyer, who has Allen Iverson-like athleticism and talent,  but also has a tendency to be wild and out-of-control at times.  Kennedy can  go with Sawyer at point and Bobby Simmons at the 2-spot or Rashon Burno at the one, Sawyer at the two, Simmons at the three, Andre Brown at the four, and Steve Hunter at the five.  

With Troy Murphy and Ryan Humphrey providing the best one-two punch inside the Big East and Matt Carroll and David Graves lighting it up on the perimeter, and one of the best young coaches in the game today in Mike Brey, only one question remains.  Will either 6'0 Sr Martin Inglesby, who started two years ago, but who fell into the doghouse last season, or 6'4 Frosh Torrian Jones be able to fill the void at point guard.  Or will the Irish have to wait another year for 6'1 Chris Thomas from Indianapolis (Pike) IN, who verbally committed to Notre Dame late last spring, to step in and run the show. 

Last year was an up-and-down season for the Bruins and head coach Steve Lavin may have to pull a few more rabbits out of his hat, if Ray Young and Matt Barnes and/or T.J. Cumnings don't come through at the 2-guard and power forward spots.  One thing Lavin can count is another big year from Jason Kapono, who averaged 16.0 ppg, 4.4 rpg, and 1.9 apg as a freshman a year ago.  Earl Watson will be good again at point guard and Dan Gadzuric should be improved at center, if he can stay injury free and learned anything at Pete Newell's big man camp during the summer. 

Everybody but Willie Dersch, who was a token starter, will be back, but realistically Pete Gillen's rebuilding project will take another year.  The problem is lack of size, as inside chores once again will belong to 6'7 Chris Williams and 6'7 Travis Watson.  Watson was one the top rebounders in the ACC (8.3 rpg),  but defensively the Cavaliers were ranked last in the league.   However, they've loaded out of the perimeter with Adam Hall, Roger Mason, and Maurice Young and at point guard with Donald Hand and Majestic Mapp.  

Several of the pre-season basketball magazines pick Rodney White as the Newcomer-of-the-Year in Conference USA and, if they're even close, UNC-Charlotte will be one of the biggest surprises in college basketball.  White is a man-child inside, but he also has a soft touch and excellent offensive skills.  Pencil him in at center.  Diego Guevara will run the show and Jobey Thomas will kept opponents honest from 3-point range.   Cam Stephens and Tory Reed will likely beat out James Zimmerman and KenKay Jones, both of whom were starters a year ago.

It wasn't pretty, but Wisconsin's NCAA Final Four appearance was one of the great cinderella stories of all time.   But can they do it again?  Probably not, because the Badgers lost their two best outside shooters - Jon Bryant and Duany Duany.  However, that Final Four experience, Dick Bennett's coaching, and strong inside play from Andy Kowske and Mark Vershaw should be enough to get them ranked as high as #3 in the league.   Remember, teams like Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio State, and Purdue are all rebuilding and, as a result, are at least a year away.

Keeping the same players together for three or four years isn't easy in this day and age, but that appears to be Henry Bibby's secret at USC.  Seniors Brian Scalabrine and Sam Clancy are the warriors inside.  Juniors Jeff Trepegnier and David Bluthenthal take care of the athleticism on the perimeter and  junior point guard Brandon Granville, who is one of the most underrated point guards in the nation, once again will run the show.   Another senior Jarvis Turner provides depth up front, while Desmon Farmer and Robert Hutchinson should also see plenty of time at the guard spots. 

It looks like Bill Bayno has finally put all the pieces together.  Kaspars Kambala should be the best player in the Mountain West, as well as one of the best big men in college basketball.  Delron Johnson was the co-Freshman-of-the-Year in the league.   Trevor Diggs, Danny Brotherson, Donavan Stewart, Lou Kelly, and Chris Richardson area all good enough to help at the two and the three spots.   So is Jermaine Lewis, who was one of the best outside shooters in the junior college ranks a year ago.   However, the key will be how well LaFonte Johnson steps in and runs the show at point.   

7-9

The good news is that everybody is back from a 22-14 Wake Forest team that won the NIT a year ago.  However, that might also be the bad news,  because they didn't add anybody who is good enough to move them past Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, and Virginia in the league standings, which is exactly where they finished a year ago.  As a result,  the Demon Deacons will only go as far as NIT MVP Robert O'Kelley, who is one of the most underrated players in college basketball today, can take them. 

Quin Synder is one of the bright young coaches in college basketball, but realistically this team is still a year away, as three freshmen - Arthur Johnson, Rickey Paulding, and Wesley Stokes - will all push for plenty of playing time.  Clarence Gilbert and Kareem Rush provide the talent and outside shooting on the perimeter and Tajudeen Soyoye will once again anchor things ins the middle.  But where's the depth?  Obviously getting 6'8 Travon Bryant eligible second semester would really help. 

South Florida features the best forward duo in the league with Altron Jackson (18.2 ppg) and B.B. Walden (17.3 ppg and 7.9 rpg).  Chonsey Asbury is the heart and sole of the team.  Reggie Kohn is solid at point.  Cedric Smith provides outside shooting and rebounding the wing, but he'll be challenged by Jimmy Baxter, who promises to be the best athlete on the team.   So the big question is who will emerge at center?   6'10 junior college transfer Mike Bernard has the early advantage, but Seth Greenberg thinks the sky is the limit for 6'9 Frosh Terrance Leather.

Like so many teams this year, point guard is a major question mark for the Owls.  So is quickness inside when John Chaney goes with Kevin Lyde and Ron Rollerson at the same time.   But the fact that this could be Chaney's best shooting team ever, as Lynn Greer and Ronald Blackshear can both flat out fill it up, may solve a lot of problems.  Also, Quincy Wadley  promises to be one of the best players in the league and getting David Hawkins, a transfer from Tulane who is eligible immediately, is just an added bonus.  

The MAC has a history of producing overachievers that must be reckoned with in March and this year it looks like it's Marshall's turn.  Cornelius Jackson and Travis Young will team together to form the best court backcourt in the conference.  Tamar Slay (20.1 ppg) should once again be the leading scorer in the league and J.R. Van Hoose (17.6 ppg and 8.6 rpg) will be the best player in the league.

If Anthony Grundy, Clifford Crawford, and/or Archie Miller can step up and come through at point guard, we'll be talking about what a great coach Herb Sendek is next March, because all the other pieces to the puzzle are in place.  Damien Wilkins is expected to become N.C. State's next superstar.  Damon Thornton (7.6 rpg) is one of the best rebounders in the ACC.  Kenny Inge and Ron Kelley provide added experience inside.   Grundy can score in bunches and Scooter Sherrill and Marcus Melvin provide even more depth.

One of the most improved teams in college basketball a year ago was Long Beach State and our guess is they will simply pick up where they left off, despite the fact they lost Mate Milisa, who averaged 18.5 ppg and 7.1 rpg en route Big West Conference Player-of-the-Year honors.  Ramel Lloyd is one of the best players in the league, James Williams is the best defensive player in the league, and Travis Reed will likely be the Newcomer-of-the-Year in the league. 

If you will recall, Butler almost knocked off Florida in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last March.  Well, four starters return from that team, including Scott Robisch, Thomas Jackson, LaVall Jordan, and Rylan Hainje, all of whom are ranked among the top players in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference.  Darnell Archey will provide the outside shooting, while Thad Matta, an assistant last year who took over when Barry Collier left for Nebraska, ensures the continuity of the program. 

Georgetown will be powerful inside with Ruben Boumtje Boumtje, Lee Scruggs, Wesley Wilson, Courtland Freeman, and Michael Sweetney, but the catalyst who makes this team go is Kevin Braswell, who was ranked among the top five in the Big East in both scoring (14.8 ppg) and assists (5.3 apg) a year ago.  However, the key is still Anthony Perry, who will either have a big year or lose his position to Demetrius Hunter. 

Monte Mack is widely regarded as the best player in the Atlantic-10, but it's all the new faces that James "Bruiser" Flint has that get you excited.  Jackie Rogers, who was one of the best junior college players in the nation a year ago, should have an immediate impact at power forward.  6'9 Transfer Eric Williams adds size inside.   Raheim Lamb provides toughness at both forward spots.  Anthony Anderson and Jameel Pugh will battle for quality minutes at the one and the two spots.

Mississippi State only won five games in the SEC a year ago, but this could be one of the most improved teams in college basketball if Rick Stansbury finds the right chemisty.   Mario Austin, who was a top 10 high school player nationally a year ago, steps in at center.  A pair of all-league performers - Robert Jackson and Tang Hamilton - return at the forward spots and Antonio Jackson will again provide the leadership in the backcourt.  That leaves Ontario Harper, Timmy Bowers, and Derrick Zimmerman to fight of the other starting spot. 

College of Charleston must have fallen under the radar screen when they lost in last year's conference championship game, but five starters returning from a 24-6 team is more than enough to get our attention.  And it becomes a no-brainer when you find out that Jody Lumpkin (15.1 ppg and 9.0 rpg) is by far and away the best player in the league, Jeff Bolton and Leighton Bowie are both all-conference performers, and head coach John Kresse is second none at any level.

Scott Pohlman is Auburn's only returning starter, but Abdou Diame, Lincoln Glass, and Adam Harrington all should both be in the running for Newcomer-of-the-Year honors in the SEC.   Mack McGadney also appears to be ready to step at the power forward spot and Jamison Brewer is vastly improved at point guard.  Marin Bota and Kyle Daniels add even more depth inside.