Jeff Goodman has Gophers at #25

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He gets the spelling of Mbakwe, also Osenieks, (tough names) but N-O-L-E-N just seems to get the best of a lot of people. So much for my pet peeve. Preseason, of course means nothing, but no Wisconsin or Northwestern in his top 25. Those 4 Big Ten schools ahead of the Gophs are really talented.
 


Noticed the misspellings as well. He did miss the first "e" in Osenieks.

I'd have NC State somewhere in the top 25. Outside of Duke (and maybe Virginia Tech), I think the Wolfpack are going to be the best team in the ACC.
 



SelectionSunday said:
Noticed the misspellings as well. He did miss the first "e" in Osenieks.

I'd have NC State somewhere in the top 25. Outside of Duke (and maybe Virginia Tech), I think the Wolfpack are going to be the best team in the ACC.
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SS, can you explain to me the hype surrounding VT this coming year? Do they have a lot coming in or is there just a lot leaving in the ACC?
 

True, Va Tech is a perennial bubble program like the Gophers, but I think there's good reason for Hokie fans to be excited about the upcoming season. They have their top six scorers coming back (most of 'em seniors), including Delaney (20.2 ppg), Allen (12 ppg) & Hudson (15.2 ppg). It will be interesting to see if Seth Greenberg will challenge this team with a tougher nonconference schedule, or if he'll put together his usual assortment of soft pastries, then whine in March if his team is on the short end & isn't invited to the party.

The ACC also is down quite a bit, I think. Doesn't appear to be a Final Four contender in the bunch other than Duke. I'd expect the Dukies to run roughshod over the ACC this season. There'll be no one in their league.
 

"It seems like Jeff knows more about the Gopher's basketball than some of the fans on this board????"

In what way?
 

Would you think that with the talent returning in the BT coupled with only 1 really good team in the ACC means the BT has a good chance to repeat winning the BT-ACC Challenge? Or would you say it's too early to make predictions like that?
 



Too early to tell until we see the actual pairings. One advantage the ACC appears to have is it appears the Big Ten's three best teams (Sparty, Purdue & OSU) all have to play on the road. Even so, there's no reason Purdue can't win @ Florida State or Ohio State @ Virginia Tech.
 

SelectionSunday said:
I'd have NC State somewhere in the top 25. Outside of Duke (and maybe Virginia Tech), I think the Wolfpack are going to be the best team in the ACC.
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I know you've been touting NC State for months. Wondering why you are so high on them?
 

Hey, I just want to throw this out, no Texas in his top 25. They were in his "others to consider".
 

NC State

Just a general feeling that they're finally on the cusp of being pretty good. 2010-11 is certainly a season Sidney Lowe needs to show something.
 



SelectionSunday said:
Just a general feeling that they're finally on the cusp of being pretty good. 2010-11 is certainly a season Sidney Lowe needs to show something.
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I know they have a nice recruiting class coming in, but they were a slightly less than mediocre team last year. I just can't raise them to the 2nd best team in the ACC as you have. If I had to predict, I'd say they will have another lower division finish in the ACC and likely breaking in a new coach a year from now. Time will tell.
 


BigGopherFan said:
Illinois is going to be very, very good.
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Illinois is another "I'll believe it when I see it" type of team. On paper they were supposed to be a contender last year and they continually dissapointed given the amount of talent they have. They played below their ability the entire year and played disinterested. McCamey, Tisdale and Davis need to step it up there senior years. With that said, they have a string of great recruiting classes coming in, on paper, they should be good. We'll see.
 


NC State was up & down last year (5-11 in the ACC, so mostly down), doesn't lose much and adds a few pretty good recruits - sounds like a team that should be UR to start the season and have to earn their way into the rankings. CJ Leslie is an excellent athlete but not very skilled - I don't know if he "moves the meter" for me. Definitely should be better than last year, but last year was not good. Hard to say who's going to be #2 behind Duke in the ACC, but there is a lot of quality competition - FSU, VT, UNC all come to mind.

At this point, I would put Northwestern and Texas in the rankings. But the team that everyone seems to be rating very high that I have doubts about is Villanova. They lose an All-American and Wayns/Cheek are "just as talented"? Really? If they were just as good, then why didn't they play ahead of Reynolds last year? If they are so good, why (even with AA Reynolds and Redding) did they lose to St. Mary's and barely beat Robert Morris? Don't even bring up the "sex scandal" because that was a hoax and Deadspin even posted an article debunking it a day after their article that published it.

I think Washington (with Terrence Jones), Missouri and Florida are all very intriguing teams that may be underrated by some other folks but they deserve to be considered for the top-10, maybe Missouri is a little high at #9 - a glue guy is harder to replace than people expect.
 

That's exactly what I thought last year and now to a lesser extent this year. They'll be better this year for sure but that ranking looks pretty high right now.

Gold Vision said:
Illinois is another "I'll believe it when I see it" type of team. On paper they were supposed to be a contender last year and they continually dissapointed given the amount of talent they have. They played below their ability the entire year and played disinterested. McCamey, Tisdale and Davis need to step it up there senior years. With that said, they have a string of great recruiting classes coming in, on paper, they should be good. We'll see.
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