Commentary by Mark Wiedmer
Last Monday night, just after his Kentucky basketball team secured an uninspiring exhibition victory over outmanned Pikeville College, UK basketball coach John Calipari said of his newest litter of one-and-done Wildkittens, “They don’t understand; they don’t get it yet.”
But, he quickly added, “I reminded them it’s only November 1.”
Ready or not, college basketball’s regular season begins Friday in the Tennessee Valley when the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga travels to big brother Tennessee for a 9 p.m. start.
Next thing you know, we’ll have the Halloween Haunted Hoops Summit, or the World Series Tip-Off Tournament sponsored by Major League Baseball.
And the NCAA says it cares first and foremost about the student portion of student-athlete. Give me a break.
“It’s too early, especially in the South,” UTC coach John Shulman said Saturday afternoon. “People are still in college football mode. But I’d probably have less of a problem with it if we had more practice time. It’s way too early for a game of this magnitude.”
Of course, there’s one team that probably needs no practice time to prepare for this season, and that’s the defending national champion Duke Blue Devils. Not only do they return the vast majority of last season’s champs – including preseason first team All-American Kyle Singler and slashing guard Nolan Smith – but they also add Top 10 prep player Kyrie Irving and transfer Seth Curry, who is said to be nearly as good a pure shooter as his brother Stephen, the former Davidson star who lit up the NBA as a rookie last season.
To understand what Curry could mean for Duke, Davidson coach Bob McKillop said last week of Stephen’s little brother: “When he’s open he hits it, and with the players he’ll have around him, he could be open quite a bit.”
In fact, with Curry, Irving and the maturation of the physical Plumlee brothers inside, it’s easy to see Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski collecting the 35 wins he needs to pass mentor Bob Knight as the game’s all-time winningest head coach. Coach K stands at 868. Knight retired with 902 victories.
Not that winning the tourney will be as easy this season with 68 teams, up from 65 a year ago. As Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl joked during the recent Southeastern Conference media event, “There’s no way that [Virginia Tech] coach Seth Greenberg won’t get in now.”
And the Hokies, who seemed to be the 66th best team each of the past three Marches, should benefit from the slightly expanded field, if necessary.
But Pearl may be at the center of the biggest question involving the 2010-11 season: Will the findings of an ongoing NCAA investigation cost him his job before the tournament begins?
“I really don’t know,” said Pearl, who a year ago became the first coach to take UT to the Elite Eight. “I pray that it will [work out].”
If it does, the Volunteers – ranked 23rd in the Associated Press preseason poll – just might become the season’s ultimate dark horse team, a deep and dazzling squad led by junior guard Scotty Hopson outside and freshman forward Tobias Harris all over.
But whether the Big Orange have a big year or not, most schools are just praying not to have the kind of injuries suffered by Purdue forward Robbie Hummel, who has twice blown out his knee in the past nine months. His latest ACL tear probably will cost the Boilermakers a shot at challenging second-ranked Michigan State for the Big Ten title, as well as a Final Four berth.
So is there a Butler in the bunch this season, a true mid-major capable of reaching the Final Four? Unlikely, though San Diego State – with five starters returning from the team that barely lost to the Vols in the NCAA opening round – certainly could make some noise.
Though not a mid-major, so could Minnesota in Tubby Smith’s fourth season as coach. The Gophers have shown steady improvement since Smith arrived. This could be their breakout year.
But assuming no other All-America candidate goes down this season, look for Duke, Michigan State, Tennessee and Kansas to reach Houston for the season’s final weekend. Just don’t expect anyone but the Blue Devils to cut down the nets.
For as Krzyzewski said last week, “We have a deeper team than last year.”
And that can only spell deep, deep trouble for the rest of college hoops, regardless of when the season begins.