Halfway through the college basketball season...

Can you believe it? We are in fact halfway through the college basketball season and Sportsbyfletch, in lieu of a preview (oops, we missed out on that one, didn't we?) we'll just do a first half look back and a second half look ahead.

Kentucky and Syracuse have really impressed me thus far this season. UK is doing it with mostly freshmen and a new coach with a new system, so that really impresses me. Coach Cal has John Wall (the best player in the county, hands down!) has Eric Bledsoe and DeMarcus Cousins and Pat Patterson. If Derrick Rose was tailor-made for Calipari's Dribble-Drive-Motion offense, then John Wall is just Rose on steroids. HE is perfect for the offense and after next season, Wall will give Cal three straight rookies-of-the-year in the NBA with Rose, Evans and then Wall. Kentucky REALLY has it cooking and, YES they will lose one or two before the tourney starts (Georgia took them to the wire IN Lexington. Go Mark Fox!) but expect another Final Four run for the Cats and for Calipari. I wonder if it gets taken away...
Syracuse might just make this a 1996 flashback as they seem loaded for bear as well. Da Cuse lost a bunch after last season but transfer Wes Johnson is tearing it up and people are forgetting about the two mistakes that left early. (Though Johnny Flynn could certainly help Da Cuse right now. He is so good, he'd help out Scoop and Rautins, no question). If these two keep it up, look out final four.

Who else is a top seed for me? (I don't like to say Final Four teams becaue only ONCE have all four No.1s made it to the Final Four.) Kansas. Bill Self has Cole Aldrich and Sherron Collins leading a talented troup. Collins hit 5 three-pointers last night against Baylor. Dude can score. KU is so deep that Self may just worry about finding the right mix but talent talent talent always wins.

My final top seed. You could say Texas. You could go with West Va (but Huggins always seems to falter in the tourney and Syracuse laid it to them in their own building last Saturday.) you could go with Nova. I'll go with Michigan State. I know UNC beat them early in the season (then UNC fell off the map. More on them later) but Izzo has tons of weapons in Lucas, Morgan, Green, Summers and Roe that you have to think that Tommy and Sparty can make another run at the final four after making the title game last season. Plus, I think Michigan State gets battle tested in the top-heavy Big11 with Purdue (Hummel and Kramer and the other dude) and Wisco.

The ACC, yesh. Duke lost last night to NC State and the Devils will likely fall from No.7. Duke is ONLY ranked that highly because of the name on the chest and not the players. Scheyer is really good but he lost the job at the end of last season and though he was ACC tourney MVP, he only won the job back because the one guy transfered. Let's be honest. Duke is the same team that underachieved the last two seasons and that likely won't change come March.
UNC lost three straight for the first time in the Roy Williams era. It had to happen sooner or later. Davis and Drew weren't healthy last night and they got down by 20 agaisnt Tech, yet came back and should have won. By the time this crew makes March, they'll be ready. It is REALLY similar to when Roy won the title with UNC back in 2005 and struggled early in 06. How'd that team finish in the ACC tourney? Yeah, expect that to happen here too. Just saying. This team MUST get better point guard play. I don't know if Drew2 is the answer. Not sure if the answer is on the roster right now. They could have used John Wall. Actually, everyone could have used John Wall....But I think Ole Roy will get this turned around; it would be hard NOT to with Ed Davis and the rest of that lineup.
Otherwise in the ACC, GT beat Clemson as the Tigers begin to fall from the rankings. When are people going to realize that Clemson plays a collection of crap to start the season EVERY year before falling off the map as the ACC slate starts. Yet for WHATEVER reason, voters in Colorado and Iowa only look at the record and think "wow Clemson has 21 wins, they must be good!" They aren't! GT beat them and if Paul Hewitt is going to try and hang his hat on this game, he also has a tract of land to sell in Alaska. Actually, Tech beat one of its own. But good for Tech, I guess. The better you guys do, the better Georgia looks after beating you.
Also Wake Forest has Al-Faroq back and he's playing well. I'm just glad he isn't shooting any women in the stomach with BB guns.

UConn loses Jim Calhoun due to medical reasons but his Huskies win last night. UConn will be hard pressed though to continue a run through the Big East without its leader out there. Not that he can really do that much for this team. No wonder a bunch of people thought he would retire after last season. Hmmmmm.
He has to play teams like Louisville (not impressing me like I thought they might) and Nova (looking REALLY good to me right now. If Sparty stumbles, these guys might take their spot as top seed. Certainly Final Four potential here.

Georgetown and Pitt played with GTown winning but I think Pitt is still better. Sorry. I Do. Allen Iverson bias, maybe? And West Va....they'll do well until March. That's Bobby H's MO. He always seems snake-bitten or something come tourney time.

Finally, K-State's coach is still over his head. He got his job because he delivered Billy Walker and Michael Beasley, let's be serious here. He got a big win over Texas. Good job. But Bobby Knight, though it was a dick-move "if you need help on offense, call me!" was right. The coach should probably take him up on it. I'll just say OVER his head.

And one last thing (you know I couldn't go a whole basketball blog without discussing Georgia hoops!), I must say that I've been VERY impressed with Mark Fox at Georgia. He is playing with very little talent (some pieces but ultimately not what he SHOULD have and CERTAINLY not what Felton had his first season in Athens) and yet he is just a few bounces away from being 3-0 in SEC play. Fox has taken the pieces left in the cupboard and polished up Thompkins and Leslie and Ware and managed to put a VERY competitive team out there that gives me hope for an exciting finish to the year (maybe he can win 5 or 6 SEC games?), maybe win a game in the SEC tourney before hopefully raiding the local high schools for talent for next season. Fox's offense looks like it will work and I just plain like his attitude when I hear him interviewed. He ISN'T happy that Georgia nearly beat Kentucky. He ISN'T happy that his team played well on the road at Miss State or had a lead against ranked Ole Miss. Nope. He seemed pissed his team couldn't finish things out. If Fox's team starts finishing off games (and you KNOW it will happen before the end of the year) this team will certainly have a little MO heading into next year. Just keep Trey around for one more year and year two of the Fox Era in Athens will end up with a tourney bid. Yep. I said it.
Felton had Rashad Wright, Damien Wilkins, Chris Daniels, Steve Thomas, Wayne Arnold, Jonas Hayes and three recruits, not to mention the potential of Ezra Williams coming back. He kicked Arnold and Thomas off, send two of the recruits packing, was such a douche that Williams LEFT THE Hemisphere to get away from him and managed to f-up an NCAA berth that was LOCKED UP if he had just rolled a ball to midcourt. Year two for Felton was 8-20 or something like that.
Fox won't let that happen and he won't use previous coaches as an excuse for shortcomings. I don't think Fox is that sort of man. Yes Felton took the Dawgs to two NITs as well as an SEC championship and NCAA appearance, but his best teams always seemed to end up in the NIT. (he lucked into that SEC title. I'll admit it. It WAS fun though, that crazy weekend!)
Fox won't let his best teams end up in the NIT. He doesn't seem like that type of coach that will just settle.

And the best part...I don't think Fox will ever give me a nosebleed from yelling at the TV.