Palehosefan

Barnes isn't leaving Texas anytime soon. He doesn't want to have to deal with Duke and Carolina in conference every year. He's got it VERY well in Austin. He doesn't have the admissions standards as he would have in most ACC schools, he can get anyone into UT, example PJ Tucker, Kevin Durant(maybe). He's got top notch facilities, a huge athletic endowment, and basketball is really growing in Texas. Sure, it won't catch football's excitement here anytime soon or Indiana's state love of basketball, but it will have it's fair share of attention.

WARNING: here is a spoiler, the winner of the Dunk contest and the 3 point contest if you want to know ahead of time. Dunk contest: Gerald Henderson 3 point contest: Wayne Ellington

Game is tonight, don't forget to watch. Fans can finally watch and actually cheer for their player to do well now. Things I have been hearing. Sherron Collins and Tywon Lawson have been playing very well, both ridiculously quick and it should be fun watching them go against each other. Greg Oden has been Greg Oden, he doesn't even get talked about with the practice reports anymore because its just a given that he's the best in the class. Kevin Durant has been dominating every practice, and there isn't even talk that he should be the top player in the class. H.S. teammates Gerald Henderson and Wayne Ellington have been dominating, practices and elsewhere... Guys that are the leading candidates for the MVP award of the game, Kevin Durant, Oden(suprise), Thaddeus Young, Javaris Crittendon, and Chase Budinger. If Kevin Durant doesn't win the award, I will be shocked. He's been on fire, and loves to shoot the ball.

I don't think James will be a future superstar at the next level like Gerald will be :-)

Agree on all points, but that's why I threw in the "Only Tyrus already has a jumpshot in his arsenal, and has the body to add 20 pounds." part to seperate him from Stromile. Swift never has had the body to bang in the post, or any kind of jumpshot.

Fun new rumor that K-State and Huggins will be landing the #2 player in 07 class Michael Beasley, when he hires Dalonte Hill onto the staff, who is Beasley's main contact from Charlotte. Huggins is sleazy as hell, but damn he might be landing the top 3 players in the class according to Rivals rankings and 3 of the top 6 in Scout's rankings in 07.

http://northcarolina.scout.com/2/514249.html Check out this ridiculous dunk that James White might pull out at the contest. White, Grier, Carney, and Noel are all ridiculous dunkers. "It will be televised on tape delay Thursday at 9 p.m. on ESPN."

My biggest question is can he recruit as well with higher admissions standards? He could get absolutely anyone in at OU, regardless of grades. I know he's a good guy, and has a very solid record, and recruiting at IU is "just a bit" easier than OU. But we will see how its goes. I have a feeling IU will start recruiting with the elite again in a couple of years.

I agree with him 100%. Tyrus is an awesome talent. He reminds me alot of another former LSU PF in Stromile Swift. Only Tyrus already has a jumpshot in his arsenal, and has the body to add 20 pounds. At his best, I could see him peaking somewhere near Amare's level. Though Amare was already a beast at 235 pounds at 18 years old.

With Florida and LSU, I don't think you could get two more comparable teams. Both have dominant frontcourts, point guards that can fill it up, and supporting guards that do a specific thing and do it very well. Florida has Lee Humphrey as an outside specialist, while LSU has Garret Temple as a defensive specialist. Both teams have a 4 man frontcourt rotation, with two big's getting the majority of the minutes. Both team's frontcourt tandem's average 4 or more blocks a game combined. I would say Darrell Mitchell > Taurean Green, both from season statistics and from post-season play, atleast what I have seen. But I would give Florida the slight edge in depth, as they have had 8-9 guys that have been getting minutes in the tourney compared to 6-7 for LSU. Overall, I'm going with Florida over LSU in a brilliant finale.

As much as I want George Mason to win, I think it will be an all SEC final. With the nations best two frontcourts going at it. Noah guarding Davis, and Horford going at Tyrus Thomas. SF: Brewer vs. Tasmin Mitchell PF: Horford vs. Thomas C: Noah vs. Davis That would be an amazing finally, and the best frontcourt matchup in a long, long time. Possibly 6 present or future NBA 1st round draft picks. Tasmin Mitchell has a ways to go, but he was a top 5 recruit this year and has alot of skills. I would go with Florida to win it all in a brilliant finale. With that said, I would love to GM to spoil it and win it all, that would be fitting.

Honestly, if somehow George Mason could win it all this year, I would be almost as happy as when UNC won it last year. That would be something else.

68-70% interest is usually the minimum I will start with, but there are rare occasions when nobody is really recruiting a player for some reason, then you can jump in at like 60-65% and be in the early lead.

It really takes alot of focus, I found that out the hard way. You really have to spend the time to recruit players. I also found out that the foreign players don't get recruited very hard by many people, so you can find a great foreign prospect and feel pretty good about getting them. I also found out that emailing recruits each week to the limit increases their interest by 1% usually, which doesn't sound like much, but it can really help in the end. I usually had about 15 recruits from each class that I gave attention to with emails at the very least, and about 5-6 elite prospects that I really focuses the visits and more expensive recruiting on. It worked out really well with the top class in the nation and 5 5 star players and a 4 star. I haven't had time for the game in a while, but I loved the recruiting, especially the fact you can go to their high school game and play it to see how good they are.

That was terrible, it was amazing the speed of the impact, even with spotters telling everyone to be careful, it happened in a blink of an eye. Prayers go out to Paul Dana's family, and Ed Carpenter's, hopefully Carpenter will be ok.

I had to vote for the fireworks, as I kind of like them :-).

I'm still going with my bracket pick of Florida over Villanova. I don't think Nova can get the same kind of rebounds with their guards when Noah and Horford are inside. Corey Brewer is going to be a very tough matchup for them as well. But, Nova should be in their press again and Florida doesn't have great guard play, that's going to keep Nova somewhat close in my opinion.

I found out a week ago.

http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/5444368

Now apparently Jaime Dixon has accepted a 5 year 900k per deal from Arizona State to leave Pittsburgh.

However, I will agree that Roy is recruiting alot of white guys in this next class. We will see how that turns out.

Yep I agree. Alot depends on who returns as well, guys like Richard Roby from Colorado, Thomas Gardner from Missout etc could be foolish and make the jump early.

Maybe I'm confused. Who of Brandan Wright, Tywon Lawson, Wayne Ellington, Alex Stepheson, Deon Thompson, and William Graves is white? Roy has always recruited a nice balance of white and black players. He just recruits whoever fits his style the best. He has complimented guys like Collison, Heinrich, with guys like Paul Pierce, Drew Gooden, Wayne Simien, Keith Langford, Aaron Miles, JR Giddens, etc. As a matter of fact, of Roy's 11 recruits coming to UNC in his tenure so far, an astounding 2 of them are white.

Dang right I was talking about basketball. Texas and Kansas will be elite. Texas A&M returns their top 6 players as well as a top 50 PF in Bryan Davis from a 22-9 team. Nebraska returns 6 of their top 8 from a 19 win squad. Kansas State returns 7 of their top 8 from a 15-13 squad. Iowa State, barring total abandonment from players, will be tourney contenders. Oklahoma loses alot of talent, but has some nice young players, and a great recruiting class coming in, they should fight for .500. Oklahoma State returns their top 8 players from a 17 win squad and brings in a 4 star SG. Texas Tech returns everyone from a 15 win squad, including the 6 freshmen from this year that will be a year older, and bring in two talented Juco's, including a 7 footer, finally. Missouri returns everyone but two players, and will fight for .500, especially with a new coach. Baylor returns everyone, and gets a hell of a recruiting class, including a talented 7'1 player, and a Mickey D's AA PG. Even Colorado returns their best player Richard Roby. You will have alot of teams fighting for .500, and 5-6 legit threats for the NCAA tourney. Sure the Big East will have more teams in the tourney, but from top to bottom it won't get any better than the Big 12 next year.

Fraser is such a sad situation. He was an amazing athlete, and dominant shot-blocker coming out of high school, and was even ranked as the top player in the class by one analyst. Now after all the surgeries, he's a shell of a player.