The best is back, and we’re not talking about the Bears or baseball’s postseason or any of those other pretenders that litter the sports landscape.
Sometime Friday night, on countless campuses across the country, that quaint ritual called Midnight Madness will be resurrected and, come Saturday, the first practices for a new season in college basketball will be held.
It’s the best game sports has to offer, and it returns with an abundance of plots and subplots, of intrigue and story lines and luscious possibilities. Some revolve around youth, which will scream to be served this season. Others involve the usual suspects, who demand our attention at any season’s start.
In this mix, too, is a long-forgotten bully who is suddenly set to flex once again, and even under the “L” tracks, there is renewed hope and promise and ambitious aspirations.
There are, quite simply, no boundaries to the prospects to be mined in the months ahead, such as:
– Ohio State’s freshmen, with 7-foot-1-inch Greg Oden as their centerpiece, already are so well known they have picked up a nickname, “The Thad Five.” They’re the reason Thad Matta’s Buckeyes are favored to win the Big Ten title and to go deep into the NCAA tournament.
Oden, however, had wrist surgery in June, and it’s not certain when he will be healthy enough to play and when the Buckeyes can start developing the chemistry any great team needs.
– Youth is also all the rage at North Carolina, where Roy Williams has collected another freshman class filled with precocious talent. It doesn’t have a nickname yet, but in late November it will have a chance to prove itself when the Tar Heels play host to the Buckeyes as part of that early-season exercise known as the Big Ten-ACC Challenge. This is one game that can be safely called Don’t-Miss TV.
– The Challenge also finds Indiana at Duke, another matchup rife with intrigue. It speaks to the Blue Devils’ youth that their captains this year are a junior, DeMarcus Nelson, who spent much of last season injured, and two sophomores, point guard Greg Paulus and forward Josh McRoberts. They’re the first sophomores to be named captains in the 102-year history of Duke basketball, which suggests these unproven Devils are as young as our nascent winter.
The Hoosiers, in turn, are coached by Kelvin Sampson, who bolted Oklahoma to succeed Mike Davis in Bloomington. He is a far different character than his predecessor and promises to infuse Indiana with the grit and toughness it has been missing in the recent past. That also means Sampson’s players must adjust to his more demanding methods, which is sure to be a plot line in the months ahead.
– Bob Huggins, best remembered in these parts as the don of the Cincinnati outfit, is the new coach at Kansas State. You want to talk about a team that will be going through some adjustments?
– Speaking of familiar faces, we also give you former Illinois coach Bill Self. His Kansas team is expected to be among the best in the country.
– Florida returns all five starters from the team that won last season’s national championship. No team has repeated as national champion since Duke in 1991-92. No need to explain why the Gators will be watched closely as the season unfolds.
– Another to watch closely is Georgetown, that old bully who once reveled in being called the Beast of the East. The Hoyas are not only beasts once again, they have in Jerry Green a 6-9 forward who might be the best unknown player in the country.
– Wisconsin forward Alando Tucker is not unknown, not in the Big Ten, anyway, and he’s the reason the Badgers are considered the conference’s major threat to Ohio State’s outsized aspirations. He leads a team that is deep, experienced and expertly coached, which are the qualities that can topple youth.
– DePaul, which did not even make the Big East tournament last season, is expected to be the most improved team in the league. Marquette, its conference brethren, is expected to emulate Villanova of a year ago and try to thrive with a lineup that often features four guards. Loyola, which has not been to the NCAA tournament since 1985, is expected to win the Horizon League behind 6-7 guard Blake Schilb, the conference preseason player of the year.
– Finally, out there somewhere, is the successor to George Mason, which caused such havoc in last spring’s tournament. Can you wait to find out who it might be?
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smyslenski@tribune.com
