2008 Woodie Awards
Sixteen sweet surpises in early season
Frank Seravalli '10
Issue date: 12/1/06 Section: Sports
- Page 1 of 3 next >
Sports Illustrated recently selected their Sweet Sixteen and issued their annual College Basketball Preview edition on Nov. 20. In my best Lee Corso voice, I'd like to say "Not so fast, my friends."
SI ranked every team, 1-65. At #29, they picked Hofstra. While Hofstra features preseason Player of the Year Loren Stokes, they have gotten off to a slow start. Even with a fairly easy schedule, the Pride are 2-3 after dropping their first three games.
Hofstra will most likely not win their conference title, with the CAA also featuring Old Dominion and George Mason, a Final Four team last season. St. Joe's will get a firsthand look at Hofstra in New York at the Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden.
Despite their 4-1 record, 44th ranked St. Louis has tough games approaching with Southern Illinois, Missouri State, and North Carolina. The Billikens have four returning starters and imported Ian Vouyoukas (6'10", 270 lbs.) from Greece, but have proved that they cannot hang with the big boys in a 36 point loss at the hands of 12th ranked Texas A&M.
St. Joe's plays St. Louis on ESPN2 on Feb. 1, but the Billikens will not earn the Atlantic 10's second invitation to the dance.
The start of this season has been quite a strange one for the NCAA. The polls and rankings have been a definitive source for the best teams in the country. This season the AP and USA Today/ESPN polls are very biased towards the conference and prestige of a program while failing to acknowledge the quality wins of another.
Take Texas for example. Just because Texas plays in the Big 12 Conference and has had a perennially winning team, Texas is still ranked in the Top 25. The Longhorns are 5-1, but their record does not reflect their play in games. They lost to a poor Michigan State team that didn't return any starters and beat struggling St. John's by one point.
Granted, Texas features five freshman on the floor numerous times, but wins over Alcorn State, Chicago State, and Texas Southern don't really build credibility.
SI ranked every team, 1-65. At #29, they picked Hofstra. While Hofstra features preseason Player of the Year Loren Stokes, they have gotten off to a slow start. Even with a fairly easy schedule, the Pride are 2-3 after dropping their first three games.
Hofstra will most likely not win their conference title, with the CAA also featuring Old Dominion and George Mason, a Final Four team last season. St. Joe's will get a firsthand look at Hofstra in New York at the Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden.
Despite their 4-1 record, 44th ranked St. Louis has tough games approaching with Southern Illinois, Missouri State, and North Carolina. The Billikens have four returning starters and imported Ian Vouyoukas (6'10", 270 lbs.) from Greece, but have proved that they cannot hang with the big boys in a 36 point loss at the hands of 12th ranked Texas A&M.
St. Joe's plays St. Louis on ESPN2 on Feb. 1, but the Billikens will not earn the Atlantic 10's second invitation to the dance.
The start of this season has been quite a strange one for the NCAA. The polls and rankings have been a definitive source for the best teams in the country. This season the AP and USA Today/ESPN polls are very biased towards the conference and prestige of a program while failing to acknowledge the quality wins of another.
Take Texas for example. Just because Texas plays in the Big 12 Conference and has had a perennially winning team, Texas is still ranked in the Top 25. The Longhorns are 5-1, but their record does not reflect their play in games. They lost to a poor Michigan State team that didn't return any starters and beat struggling St. John's by one point.
Granted, Texas features five freshman on the floor numerous times, but wins over Alcorn State, Chicago State, and Texas Southern don't really build credibility.
Be the first to comment on this story