We are back with our world famous BGTD. However, this year we are changing things a bit. Instead of our traditional format that utilized stream-of-consciousness analysis we are doing most thorough and hopefully thoughtful analysis of the day’s action. We will be posting intermittently throughout the day so check back often. Also, let us know what you think about the new format. Like it? Love it? Hate it? Let us know in the comments along with your thoughts on our thoughts.

David Ely is an RTC Contributor

Introduction

As far as TWTW is concerned, December is one of the worst months of the sports calendar, just edging out July when all there is to watch is baseball and a couple of golf tournaments. In December, you have the end of the NFL regular season and the potential of teams tanking for draft picks or teams resting players for the playoffs. You have about a 30-day break until college football becomes interesting again. And a lot of the time you have uninteresting college basketball matchups. December’s the time of the year that coaches schedule easier opponents to make sure everything is in order before conference play begins.

Yet this week, there’s plenty to talk about. We had the Jimmy V Classic featuring Michigan State–Syracuse and Kansas–Memphis. There was a basketball experiment at Illinois. And oh yeah, Duke just might have lost Kyrie Irving for the rest of the season.

Off we go …

What We Learned

Boeheim Has a Lot to Be Pleased About

• Tom Izzo is not happy with his Spartans right now. Izzo had strong words for his team after MSU’s lackluster effort against Syracuse at Madison Square Garden, in which Michigan State looked soft and tentative against a physical and charged-up Orange squad and lost 72-58. Here are a few of Izzo’s money quotes from the postgame presser, courtesy of the Detroit Free Press. “I’m as disappointed in that performance as I’ve been in any since I’ve been at Michigan State. …We turned into a pretty-boy jump-shooting team instead of the blue-collar, fist-fighting team we should be. … I feel like the New York Jets.” On the bright side, Izzo at least was sensitive enough to compare his team to the Jets and not the local team — no child should ever be talked about in the same sentence as the Lions. Izzo’s concerns are justified, though. The Spartans have gone 1-3 in their four biggest tests to date with their one win being a five-point triumph over Washington in Maui. And against Syracuse, MSU got decimated in the paint as Rick Jackson exploded for 17 points and 16 rebounds. That’s not a good sign for a team that has to face Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger and Purdue’s JaJuan Johnson several times in Big Ten play.
• If Izzo is disgusted with his team’s play, then Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim has to be ecstatic with how quickly his team has adapted to life without Wesley Johnson. For anyone who thought the Orangemen were just getting by after close calls against Georgia Tech and N.C. State, their beatdown of Michigan State confirmed their legitimacy. Syracuse is 9-0, and its vaunted 2-3 zone is as effective as ever. Opponents are only hitting 37.6% of their shots for the floor (222-515) and are shooting a paltry 28.1% (68-242) from downtown. If freshman Fab Melo (2.3 PPG, 2.3 RPG in 13.4 MPG) ever gets going, then Syracuse should compete for a Big East title.
• Apparently Vanderbilt’s Kevin Stallings and Missouri’s Mike Anderson hate timeouts. They think they’re worthless exercises, and there’s no reason to talk to your team during the game — even to, say, draw up a final play of a tied game. That’s the only conclusion that could be made after watching the Tigers-Commodores rock-fight of a game Wednesday night. Both coaches left two timeouts on the board during regulation, and Anderson didn’t call a timeout once the Tigers crossed halfcourt down 72-71 with about 25 seconds left to draw up a possible game-winning play. Ricardo Ratliffe bailed out his coach when he hit one of two free throws after drawing a foul. In overtime. it was Vandy’s turn to neglect to talk things over on the sidelines. After Michael Dixon tied the game at 82 with 33 seconds left in the game, Vandy took the ball and decided to freelance a play. It didn’t work. Dixon stripped Brad Tinsley with about eight seconds to go, and his layup and free throw won the game for the Tigers. You know who didn’t win, though? Anyone who appreciates competent end-of-game coaching.
• Is Notre Dame a fraud? Time will tell as the Irish’s uneven performance against Kentucky did not validate their inclusion into RTC’s top 25 (The Irish checks in at #23) nor did it show that they will fade from the national scene once conference season starts. When the Irish are hitting their outside shots, they can light up just about any team in the nation. ND hung 40 points on Kentucky in the first half when Ben Hansbrough buried five 3-pointers. But in the second half, the outside shots stopped falling and the offense sputtered. Without a great inside presence, the Irish are too dependent on their perimeter game and vulnerable to shooting slumps. When Kentucky amped up the pressure, ND went 6-30 from the field. Checking in with our friends at KenPom, there are reasons to think that the Irish’s early success was a mirage. Notre Dame isn’t a great defensive team. The Irish rank 81st in adjusted defensive efficiency, and the defense isn’t forcing turnovers. According to KenPom, Mike Brey’s team forces TOs on only 15.6% of opponent’s possessions — good for 341st in the nation.
• Kansas is doing just fine without Josh Selby. Yeah, the Jayhawks just barely got past a frisky UCLA squad last Thursday, but they had no problem dismantling Memphis by 13 points at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night. Eight Jayhawks scored at least six points in the win, four scored at least ten and no one finished with more than 16. That’s balance, the kind of balance that makes you believe Kansas’s 57.1% night shooting wasn’t a fluke, in fact the Jayhawks are the #1 team in the nation in effective field goal percentage (62.7%) according to KenPom. The only area in which Kansas failed to impress Tuesday is turnovers. The Jayhawks committed 22 turnovers against Memphis, but we think that problem will fix itself with the addition of another capable ball handler in Selby.

Pour This Man A Gin

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1. The talk of Thursday was all Kyrie Irving, all the time.  The superstar freshman’s toe situation has the college basketball world buzzing about whether he’ll play again this season.  Even Irving himself fueled the fire with this tweet on Thursday morning suggesting bad (or at least, not good) news.  Jeff Goodman writes that Duke is still a national title contender, with or without the talented rookie, but obviously the Devils’ margin for error would now drop precipitously.  As Duke and Irving mull over the medical options available to him, our crack team of contributors at RTC debated the impact of Irving’s loss on the national landscape.
2. There was an amazing comeback on Wednesday night and almost nobody outside of 432 lonely souls on a cold night in Fairfield, Connecticut, knew about it.  In a classic intersectional battle between 2-6 Hartford and 1-7 Sacred Heart, the SH Pioneers found themselves down 51-31 and their prospects looking rather bleak for a second win with eight minutes to go.  An 8-1 run followed by a march to the free throw line — remember kids, scoring with the clock stopped is the best way to score! — where Sacred Heart hit 11 of 12 foul shots brought them back into the game.  A late steal, foul and subsequent free throw with 0.2 seconds remaining by Stan Dulaire sealed the unlikely victory for the Pioneers.  We hope that none of the few in attendance decided to beat the traffic early!
3. The SI boys’ columns came out on Thursday, and if you’re reading this, you know that Seth Davis and Luke Winn are always worth a look for some insights nobody else will have thought of yet.  Davis gives the Pitt Panthers some overdue dap (the quietest #3-ranked team in modern hoops history?) while correctly calling out NC State fans for their intellectual dishonesty, and Winn continues to make better use of interesting graphics and clip-art in his Power Rankings than any college basketball scribe has ever dared to attempt.
4. Have you ever seen an 11-year old dunk in a game?  No, we hadn’t either.  But we’d never seen a 6’2 pre-teen named Adrian Moore, and get this, according to a profile from BIAH, Baylor is already recruiting the young lad who can sky from the Class of 2016.  Michael Avery, anyone?  We don’t think Michael Avery was doing this kind of stuff in middle school, though…  and whatever happened to that Kentucky coach who was recruiting him?

5.  Oregon unveiled a new throwback jersey yesterday that the Ducks will wear in their upcoming Saturday game against local rival (and current D-III school) Willamette University.  The unis refer back to the first game ever played at venerable old Mac Court, a 38-10 victory for the Ducks over WU in 1927.  We’re pretty sure that Phil Knight wasn’t selling shoes from the back of a truck outside the Oval in the 20s, but he’s certainly found a way to make these throwback jerseys look pretty cool (with a conspicuous swoosh on the right shoulder, of course).  (ed. note: pay no attention to the eye hovering behind the jersey)

That’s Debatable is back for another year of expert opinions, ridiculous assertions and general know-it-all-itude.  Remember, kids, there are no stupid answers, just stupid people.  We’ll try to do one of these each week during the season.  We’re fairly discerning around here, but if you want to be included, send us an email with your take telling us why at rushthecourt@yahoo.com. 

This Week’s Topic: News was released yesterday that Duke superstar point guard Kyrie Irving could be out from a month to the rest of the season with a toe injury.  How will this impact the nation’s #1 team and its team chemistry?  Does this mean that the way-too-early undefeated season talk is now ludicrous?  Give us your thoughts.

Andrew Murawa, RTC contributor

An injury to the starting point guard of the best team in the nation? Yes. That matters. The argument could be made that Kyrie Irving had been the best player on the Duke team in the early going, and now without him for the near future, or potentially the whole season, the Blue Devils will have adjust their roles on the fly. Luckily for Mike Krzyzewski, Duke has a couple of excellent guards in reserve – look no further than sophomore Andre Dawkins’ excellent first performance in the absence of Irving – but while the loss of Irving in the short term could be dealt with, the potential loss of Irving for the season would be a blow to their national title hopes. Sure, Duke still has enough talent on that roster to remain the favorite for the national title, but anytime you lose one of the most dynamic players in the country, that’s an awful blow. Until more is known, the Devils will need to plan for the rest of their season as if Irving will be unavailable, with their backcourt taking on new roles and new minutes, but if there is anywhere around the country where the potential loss of such a player is manageable, it is in Durham.

Matt Patton, RTC contributor

The way-too-early undefeated talk was always ludicrous, but that’s why it’s fun.  The truth is: Duke is a very good, arguably great, team that’s won eight good games.  To go undefeated they’d have to win 32 more in a row.  That alone is ludicrous.  Talk shouldn’t get serious until February.  I don’t think Irving’s injury will hurt “undefeated” chances unless he’s out for longer than a month.  Right now Duke is looking at cupcake city until Miami (home) on January 2.  Miami is a pretty good, although inconsistent, team, but I don’t think they’re good enough to go into Cameron and win with or without Irving.  He seamlessly integrated into the offense to start the season, and I think he can do it again.  If anything this could help Duke’s team mature: especially guys like Andre Dawkins, Seth Curry and Miles Plumlee.  Curry especially could see a lot of extra time at the point spot, which should make the team run better without Irving (so far they’ve struggled at times without his presence).  Duke won’t be better without Irving, that’s ridiculous.  But the time without him could really help some of the role players improve with in-game experience.

Brian Otskey, RTC contributor

It doesn’t matter much if he’s out for a month or two. If Kyrie Irving is out for the entire season, the primary impact will be on Duke’s NCAA title chances. They’ll still win the ACC and probably get a top seed in the tournament but the loss of Irving will be felt in the later rounds when they run into similarly talented opponents. The schedule between now and the end of January isn’t tough at all, even without Irving. The toughest games are road trips to Florida State and NC State, two games in which the Blue Devils will still be strong favorites. As has been pointed out by many, Duke does not play a currently ranked team for the rest of the season though I have a feeling North Carolina and possibly Temple will find their way back into the rankings at some point. In all likelihood, Coach K will turn to Andre Dawkins as his fifth starter and shift Nolan Smith over to point guard. That shouldn’t be a problem for the experienced Smith, already averaging five assists per game. As for the undefeated talk, I’ve maintained it has been ludicrous from the beginning. Duke is not some otherworldly team. They are the best but they’re going to lose at some point during the regular season. I don’t know who will beat them but it’s going to happen. This is college basketball where anything can happen on any given night.

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Late on Wednesday, Andy Katz reported that Duke’s Kyrie Irving could miss the entire season as a result of a right toe injury he sustained in the Blue Devils’ win against Butler this past Saturday.

Would the Loss Of Irving Change Duke's Status As Unanimous Favorite?

Soon after that game, the injury was diagnosed as a sprain to the right first (or big) toe and it was later reported that Irving might miss as much as a month, but after Wednesday’s home victory over Bradley, Katz quoted Mike Krzyzewski as saying, “Kyrie’s injury is a serious one,” and added later that “he could be out a long time.” When it came to the possibility of Irving missing the entire season, Krzyzewski confirmed, “He could be.” Katz’s report also notes that while there is no fracture of any bone in Irving’s foot, the toe injury “involves ligaments.”

Obviously it would be a tremendous shame for any player to miss his entire freshman season to such an injury after playing only eight games, especially when the kid happens to be the leading freshman of the year candidate. But should Irving miss the entire season or even significant time — pardon us for thinking ahead for just a few moments, here — there is a good chance that he could share a backcourt next season with incoming star recruit Austin Rivers.

Let’s not even think about that at this early stage, though. To bring up that possibility seems to imply that one is rooting for Irving to miss such time, and that’s definitely not the case here. According to Katz’s report, Irving will be examined and treated by top-flight foot injury specialists and a final diagnosis and prognosis will be formulated within a week or so. There’s no mention of what ligament (recall, ligaments connect bones to each other) has been injured, but as you await reports on this in the coming days —  we advise you to check back here often, or our Twitter feed — listen for “grades” of sprains as a clue to how severe the injury is. Grade I sprains mean there are just extremely tiny tears (“microtears”) to the damaged ligament; Grade II sprains indicate a partial tear of a ligament and/or mild joint instability. Grade III sprains are obviously the worse and signify a near-complete or complete tearing of the ligament resulting in severe instability of the associated joint. As you can probably guess, the higher the grade, the more drastic the treatment and the longer the convalescence.

1. It might upset the majority of the college basketball world, but Cameron Indoor was the center of the college basketball universe for yet another night. The clear big news of the night was Coach K surpassing Adolph Rupp on the all-time Division I wins list (more on that in After the Buzzer), but the bigger issue for Duke and the rest of college basketball this season is Kyrie Irving‘s injured foot, which will reportedly keep him out for at least a month. The Blue Devils have the players to continue to win during Irving’s absence, but it raises the possibility that Irving might not be completely back later this season, which suddenly makes Duke seem much more vulnerable. Or maybe not…
2. The other big story of the night was Jimmer Fredette‘s homecoming against Vermont in a game that was moved to Glenn Falls, NY. It has been talked to death and was even covered in one of our RTC Lives last night, but we would be remiss if we didn’t provide you with this picture that sums up the atmosphere last night:
   

   The star of the night (Credit: T.J. Hooker / PostStar.com)

3. Earlier this year we mentioned the field in the 2011 Maui Invitational as the most loaded in the famed tournament’s history and yesterday we mentioned the coming 3-year series of games between Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, and Michigan State billed as “The Champions Classic“ that we can safely say is the best planned set of games we can remember seeing. All of this begs the question, after all the talk by college football/BCS defenders about how the BCS makes the college football regular season more important than the college basketball regular season: is it possible that college basketball might be developing the better regular season too?
4. We’re sort of confused about how everyone is talking about “must-win” games at the beginning of December. While Joe Lunardi doesn’t quite fall into that category yet, he is already questioning the potential NCAA Tournament credentials of Butler and Gonzaga, a pair of perennial NCAA Tournament teams. (Insider Access required, sorry.)
5. Finally, yesterday we brought you differing opinions from Jason King and Jeff Goodman about the impact that Josh Selby’s return would have on a Jayhawk team that was already playing well. Opinion was divided on whether the impact would be positive or destructive, so Mike DeCourcy decided to weigh in and you can count him in the camp that believes that Selby will make Kansas an even better team.

The Lede. A Leader Who Happens To Coach Basketball. If you can’t stand Duke and/or Coach K you might want to stay off the Internet for a while because you are going to be hearing about them a lot over the next few months. While the Blue Devils picked up their 19th straight win and 27th in 28 games, this game will be remembered (particularly by those in The Bluegrass State) as the game where Coach K surpassed Adolph Rupp on the all-time Division I wins list. In Duke’s first game without Kyrie Irving, who could be out indefinitely with a toe injury, the Blue Devils relied on their superior athleticism, depth, and execution to crush a respectable Bradley team, 83-48. The Braves’ four losses this season coming in were by a combined 22 points, but they weren’t that fortunate tonight as the Blue Devils blew them out by 35 points. Playing in place of Irving, Andre Dawkins was more than adequate as he scored 28 points including 8 of 14 from beyond the arc. Duke may not be the same dynamic team without Irving, but they are still really, really good. As for Coach K, now that he has passed Rupp for third he only has two more coaches ahead of him (Dean Smith at 879 and Bobby Knight at 902). We don’t think we need to tell you about the type of hysteria that you will see when he approaches those two living legends in the coming weeks and months.

Your Watercooler Moment. Playing with a women’s ball in Illinois. Coach K might have dominated the mainstream college basketball media’s attention tonight, but the Twitter-verse was dominated by the strange situation in Illinois where the Fighting Illini and Oakland Golden Grizzlies played the first seven minutes of their game with a women’s basketball before Mike Tisdale noticed that something felt wrong and pointed it out to the official who switched the ball. Having dealt with that the Fighting Illini rallied from down nine early to defeat a tough Golden Grizzlies team by a score of 74-63. Although we would like to be able to attribute the Golden Grizzlies early success to playing with a women’s ball (they outscored Illinois 15-6 while playing with the women’s ball and were outscored 68-48 with the men’s basketball) that would be selling their effort short as they led the #16 team in the country until there were 15 minutes left in the game.  Demetri McCamey scored nine points in 62 seconds to give Bruce Weber’s squad a quick seven-point lead, which they never relinquished after that point.

Tonight’s Quick Hits...

• Steve Fisher’s Quips.  His team is now 9-0 after defeating California tonight, but the longtime coach of the San Diego State Aztecs thinks that his home folks might be going a little overboard with their support and faith of the team.  As he put it, “they think we can play the Celtics… and if Kevin Garnett didn’t play, they think we’d have a chance.”  In this clip, he also talks about how big of a deal it is for his squad to defeat a Pac-10 opponent on their own floor, as it hasn’t happened for a very long time (the answer: SDSU last did it in 1982 vs. Oregon in Eugene, well before Fisher could even spell Fab Five).

• Glens Falls, New York.  Seemingly an entire town came out to watch its prodigal son, Jimmer Fredette, return to play basketball.  The star guard scored 26 points in variety of ways to thrill the beyond-capacity home crowd at the Glens Falls Civic Center tonight.  Take a read through Tae Andrews’ RTC Live at the arena tonight — people were sitting or standing in every available space in this building.  We love to see support like that — more teams should do this sort of thing for the local HS heroes that move on.

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We’re starting to get a little concerned in the focus and alacrity with which the powers-that-be seem to be listening to us.  And when we say us, we mean all of us — the traditional media who have been pushed, challenged and inspired by the alt-media, and the alt-media who in turn has raised its professionalism and quality to compete and bolster the establishment.  We pushed back in a historic way with NCAA Tournament expansion, and the result was a tolerable, if not ideal, one.  We’ve asked for greater scrutiny and accountability from the NCAA in how it polices its programs, and although we’re a long way from finished, the organization has gotten better.  And most recently, we’ve begged for a true tipoff event that will fire people up and remind them that college basketball has returned in the midst of a crowded fall sports landscape. 

The Champions Classic Will Have a F4 Feel To It

Today’s announcement of the creation of the Champions Classic, a new marquee season tipoff event that will feature, quite literally, four of the best programs in the sport playing each other over the next three seasons at different venues, is a great first step toward accomplishing that goal.  ESPN of course will carry the event (probably as the marquee event of the 24 Hours of Hoops Marathon), and we’re already salivating at the matchups between some of roundball’s most regal programs.  Here’s the schedule — try to contain yourself — we have to get through this season first:

Year 1 – Nov. 15, 2011 (Madison Square Garden, NYC)

• Duke vs. Michigan State
• Kentucky vs. Kansas

Year 2- Nov. 13, 2012 (Georgia Dome, Atlanta)

• Duke vs. Kentucky
• Michigan State vs. Kansas

Year 3 – Nov. 12, 2013 (United Center, Chicago)

• Kentucky vs. Michigan State
• Duke vs. Kansas

Um, wow.  It’s taking every ounce of willpower that we have around here to resist the urge to already start breaking down these games.  These are Final Four-caliber matchups at truly neutral sites, and there’s no reason to believe that as long as K, Calipari, Izzo and Self are around that any one of these programs will have much of a  “down” year.  We also love that the venue rotates between different host cities, which again gives it the feel of a major event.  There are enough top-drawer programs involved that will sell out no matter where it’s held in a given year.  Hopefully after this three-year rotation, the organizers will keep moving it around, careful to avoid any blatant home bias (i.e., holding it in Kansas City or Louisville). 

According to the release article, all four representative coaches were immediately on board with this idea, and it makes us wonder if the organizers were four-for-four in their solicitations for this event.  There’s one notable name missing, of course, and that’s North Carolina.  We wonder if the Heels ever got the call, or whether Duke was #1A and Carolina was #1B in terms of fielding an ACC team in the Classic.  Of course it wouldn’t make sense to have both because they wouldn’t play each other and it would mess up the rotation, but presumably the organizers could have considered slotting one or the other into the event in different years.  We like it better this way, though.  It provides consistency over the three years and we can already start slobbering on our keyboards about future matchups.  Furthermore, even though the NCAA needs to clean up the trickling-out problem of the start of the season, the Champions Classic will go a country mile in slapping America across the forehead that college hoops is back, baby, and you should pay attention.  Great decision. 

If you haven’t heard, this year’s Duke team is pretty darn good.  The defending national champions are loaded with talent on every area of the court and they’ve looked mighty impressive in the pre-conference slate against an impressive cast of characters — #5 Kansas State, #6 Michigan State, Marquette and defending runner-up, Butler.  As great teams are expected to do, they’ve  handled the contenders and destroyed the pretenders on their way to an 8-0 record. According to Ken Pomeroy’s latest figures, the Blue Devils have the most efficient offense in the nation and the fifth-most efficient defense — their efficiency margin of 36.8 points per 100 possessions is the best around, and they’ve been doing it against a schedule that rates in the top 25 through the first month of the season.  On most nights, the talented combination of playmakers featuring the versatile trio of Kyrie Irving, Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler will be enough to secure another win for Coach K’s team; on the rare night when the offense sputters, the Blue Devil defense will keep the game close until the last few possessions, and Duke will have arguably the best point guard in the game handling the rock in crunch time. What’s not to like?

One of the Few Things Coach K Hasn't Done is Go Unbeaten

With the usually-reliable ACC looking like a mangled mess of mediocrity outside of Durham this year, some of the early-season buzz has already noted that Duke has gotten through the toughest part of its 2010-11 regular season schedule.  Liberally allowing for many of those good-not-great teams (i.e., Virginia Tech, UNC, Maryland, BC, etc.) to put it together and make the NCAA Tournament this year, Duke will have at most between 6-10 remaining games against quality competition the rest of the way, making for an interesting barstool debate over whether the Devils can run the table this season.  The argument goes as such:

1. The remaining nonconference schedule is manageable.  Even considering the ACC as down (see #2), there are seven more non-conference games on the slate.  The next four — Bradley, St. Louis, Elon, UNC-Greensboro — are home or quasi-home games that Duke should have no trouble with.  Two others — UAB and Temple — are also home games that they typically win, although they’ll need to perform well against the Owls.  The last — a roadie to play St. John’s in another familiar environment, Madison Square Garden — is interesting on its face but will ultimately depend on how much Steve Lavin’s team progresses over the next two months.
2. The ACC is down, way down.  In a typical year the best team in the ACC can expect to be put through the ringer with trips to Maryland, UNC, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, NC State, Florida State, etc., pending.  Duke has all of those road games on the schedule, but already half of those teams have lost home games this year, and all of them will eventually.  The essential point is that if you’re not good enough to generally protect your home court against the likes of Stetson, Virginia or even Florida, you’re not likely to do so against Duke, an outfit that prides itself on road conference wins.
3. Duke is not a team that is prone to many letdowns.  There are some schools that for whatever reason do not seem to take the regular season as seriously as they do the postseason.  Michigan State comes to mind immediately, but there are others.  Coach K has never been one of those coaches — in fact, a common critique through the mid-late 2000s was that he wore his teams down by overworking them during the regular season so that they had nothing left in the tank for the NCAAs.  Still, the Devils more than any other team and regardless of personnel tend to come strong all year long.  It’s difficult to catch them snoozing, one of the key recipes for a team to pull a major upset. Read the rest of this entry »

1. In the wake of last night’s Jimmy V Classic where Kansas beat Memphis, two different national writers came up with dramatically different takes as to how KU will handle the addition of Rivals’ #1 recruit Josh Selby later this month.  Jason King believes that the conventional wisdom — that adding a star player to an already talented group — will make Kansas into a great team; while Jeff Goodman takes the contrary position that Selby may upset the fragile chemistry of a team that Bill Self has playing great already — especially guard Tyshawn Taylor, the player most likely to be impacted by Selby’s court time.  Regardless, everyone will be watching in ten days when USC visits Allen Fieldhouse for the ginormous debut of the player who could make or break Kansas’ season.
2. Speaking of ineligible players, need an update on the Enes Kanter eligibility case (and we know you do)?  Matt Jones of KSR interviews The Sporting News’ Mike DeCourcy in this video clip that discusses the various possibilities surrounding the big Turk’s situation, especially as it relates to the argument that Auburn successfully made to get quarterback Cam Newton eligible.  There’s still not timetable on this situation, but news could come literally any day now.
3. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress takes a look at the six freshmen who NBA scouts have been the most impressed with in the early going this season.  It should come as utterly no surprise that Duke’s Kyrie Irving, Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger and Kentucky’s Terrence Jones have been popping the most eyeballs in the early going.  One notable name not on the list: none other than preseason AP All-American, Harrison Barnes.
4. While on the subject of elite freshmen, Luke Winn writes about his concept of Freshmen Who Fit, basically asserting that part of the reason for frosh who succeed has as much to do with talent as it does to finding the right situation.  True in most aspects of life, it’s a poignant yet simple concept that still most people tend to overlook.  He suggests that Tennessee’s Tobias Harris is the best example of this, and adds four other names to the list.  Worth a read.
5. Arizona is getting some early-season love from the hoopsnoscenti for its play so far this season, sitting at 7-1 with its only loss to Kansas and boasting one of the best power forwards in the nation, Derrick Williams.  In this video clip promoted through Pac-10 Digital, Sean Miller talks about what he expects from his team this season and how he’s going about  rebuilding a program in the desert.  Within a couple years, we believe that Arizona will once again be the dominant force in the Pac-10.