Last April's clash between the Duke Blue Devils and the unexpected Butler Bulldogs will go down in history as one of the greatest college hoops finals ever. Butler's chances aren't great to get back there this year, but Duke, who loses three senior starters from last season, is looking for the same outcome in 2010-11. Ranked preseason #1 indisputably, Duke added top recruit PG Kyrie Irving, G Seth Curry, who's NBA star Stephen's younger brother, G Tyler Thornton and F Josh Hairston. The Devils also have both Plumlees, Mason and Miles, starting in place of Lance Thomas and 7'1" Brian Zoubek. They are the favorites.
But this is college basketball. How much does being the favorite actually matter? Because I'm pretty sure Butler wasn't one last year. Duke was atop the list, but no one saw Kansas or John Wall's Kentucky in the final like everyone expected. Mid-majors are always lurking, like Memphis, who, under coach Josh Pastner, seem to be improving since John Calipari left. There's also many top teams in the mix, like star senior PG Kalin Lucas' Michigan St, who reached the final four last year, to be beaten by the Blue Devils. Kansas St. looks to win their first Big 12 title since 1977, and this looks to be a year they can do it.
Now the seemingly always strong Big East, whom beating each other up last year seemed to take its toll. Pitt is the favorite, returning most of last year's top scorers. But Corey Fisher and Villanova will try to prevent the Oakland Zoo from celebrating a conference title.
Is this the year when a 16-seed finally beats a #1? Probably not. But get ready for another upbeat, crazy season of college basketball.
I've been incredibly busy lately and haven't written in five weeks, but I can guarantee there will be a new post early this week and regularly after that.
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