Since exhibition games will be underway shortly and we are 2 weeks from the start of the season it's time to start our annual trash talking/discussion thread. Notable games from the first Friday + subsequent week:

#1 UNC vs Michigan State - Carrier Classic
Oregon vs #7 Vanderbilt
George Washington vs #24 California
UCF vs Florida State
Nebraska vs USC
Washington State vs #23 Gonzaga
San Diego State vs #12 Baylor
Michigan State vs #6 Duke
Rutgers vs Miami
#10 Florida vs #3 Ohio State
#13 Kansas vs #2 Kentucky
Creighton vs UAB
LSU vs Northwestern
Maryland vs #17 Alabama
#19 Texas A&M vs Mississippi State
San Diego State vs USC
Penn St vs #2 Kentucky
#7 Vanderbilt vs NC State
Texas vs Oregon State


I dunno about you guys but this is actually the strongest opening week slate of interesting games I've seen in years.

UNC wins it all

/thread

How often does a preseason #1 team win the championship? That's the kiss of death.

I SAID /THREAD

and UNC did, in 2005 and 2009 i think

I don't think the 2005 team was preseason #1 As I recall they went 8-8 in the ACC the year prior.

i take that back, in 2005 they were 3rd, in 2009 they were 1st

BTW Michigan State is playing the projected top 3 teams in the ACC OOC. Neutral vs UNC, @Duke and at home vs FSU. Izzo really likes scheduling suicidally.

i heard a funny story about that. When he scheduled UNC no one knew if Barnes, Zellar, or Hensen were coming back. One of his assistants called him while he was driving home to give him the news that they were after the carrier classic was nailed down, and he nearly drove off the road and proceeded to curse the fact they keep scheduling UNC, as its an ass whooping every time.

Regular season college basketball is boring, the games don't really mean anything.

your right, winning and losing has no bearing on entrance and even seeding for march madness.

by your logic, no sport's regular season means jack. weird

If Florida beats Ohio State, it doesn't matter. Both teams will still end up going to the tournament. Even the end of the regular season games are boring - its rare that you'd ever see two bubble teams playing each other with the winner going to the tournament. Seeds don't matter, you still have a chance to win the championship no matter what seed you've got. In college football, each game is the difference in playing for the national championship or not. In the NFL there is only 16 games so each game can mean the difference in playoffs or not. In baseball, the end of the season games mean a lot during pennant races.

Seeds definitely DO matter for a variety of reasons. For instance a 16 has never beaten a 1 and a 15 has only beaten a 2 twice. Therefore getting a 1 or 2 gives you a virtual guaranteed pass to the round of 32.

Moreover the higher your seed the more likely you are to be placed in a pod that sends you close to your school giving you a "home court advantage" in the first two rounds. Seeds 1-4 get this consideration. Beyond that you generally want to avoid being an 8-9 seed because they have to play a 1 seed in the second round and typically get the toughest path to progress.

Finally you play to avoid getting stuck in the First Four at the tail end. Seeding matters a whole hell of a lot most years.

I actually agree with Jay Bilas's argument that almost no games actually count in football. Boise St proves this point perfectly. The two recent seasons where Boise St went undefeated it did not matter if they went 12-0 or 0-12 because they never had a shot to play for the title. The only games that matter whatsoever right now are the games involving LSU/Alabama and Oklahoma State and MAYBE Clemson. What everyone else does is completely and utterly meaningless.

And the overrankedness has started already. #16 Arizona lost their first exhibition game last night to D-II Seattle Pacific 69-68

MOMO JONESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Well if the NCAA would ever rule for us I would tell you how we will be, but alas they would rather sit there waiting for documents from Eastern Europe.

First upset of the season, Mississippi State loses at home to Akron.

Arizona needs to drop out of the top 25. They lost to a D-II school in their exhibition and now have almost been upset twice this week already by bad teams. Late come from behind wins fueled by home cooking from refs that awarded them 3x as many FTs saved them from being 0-2

UK...too much talent...that is all

no where close to the talent and depth of UNC

sorry

What time is that aircraft carrier game tonight? I'm still confused how that is going to operate. I mean, basketball and wind? I've heard of Duke players whining about light coloring. Then again UNC isn't Duke so I guess I shouldn't use Duke in this analogy because they blow anyway.

Duke certainly does not blow... but UNC do appear to have the most depth this year. But last year Duke had the better looking team yet didnt perform as well as UNC di in the tourny.


perhaps we can use the UNC/Mich St and the Duke/Mich St. as an early performance indicator.

BTW none of the other teams really matter ;p

No, Duke sucks. I will never bend on that point. Haha, plenty of other teams count. It will be interesting to watch the ACC this year and the Big East. I'm looking forward to seeing the Syracuse v UMD/Duke/UNC/etc matchups.

the Game is at 7pm EST, and will be on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson. That is the same carrier that dumped Osamas body into the sea back earlier in the year FYI. There will only be around 7,000 people attending this game and all will be either active military personal, veterans, or political figures. Obama will also be in attendance, as he is a self proclamed UNC fan and even correctly picked them in his 2009 March Madness bracket.

It should be a fin game to watch, although i am expecting a bloodbath because my #1 Tar Heels are just too talented and deep for the Spartans. It seems that ever since we beat them in the 2009 National Championship game, the Spartans haven't played us well since. Its a weird thing, but even when the Spartans supposedly have a better team UNC wins. We shall see in 6 hours though, and it should be one interesting show.

Im just excited that the 2011-2012 College Basketball season is upon us. I have been waiting since April for this day.

next year, Syracuse will be in the ACC.

I should have clarified that's what I meant although I thought it wasn't until 2013-2014 season they officialy came over. Could be mistaken.

Any word on how they manage the wind for the game? I feel like this could be a whole ESPN segment.

Also, you didn't take a potshot at Duke too?

I made my UNC fandom known. That in itself should let it be known that i hate duke, however they are rebuilding. Unfortunately, i think its going to be like UNC in 06 and 10, ranked really high in the beginning of the season, but falling as the season goes on. I do however look forward to meeting them 2, maybe 3 times this year, as every year.

I hate Duke, but its not a blind hatred, and i in no way think that they suck as a program. You still gotta respect them and prepare for them.

My hatred is near blind for them. Few notable exceptions such as Alena and the one or two nice Dukies I know. Alas, I think that stems more from my experiences at the game where Carlos Boozer's mom was claiming we threw stuff at her and she got a concussion--all turning out to be false. Or maybe by JJ Redfluff's horrible bird poetry. Or any number of items now that I think about it. But you're right, they are very discplined in their playing (until they go to the NBA where they tend to suck) and you do have to prepare for them.

Indeed, my point exactly.

i respect UNC but i dont like them either. I was joking about the rest of the country not mattering. I love NCAA basketball but even more specifically I enjoy ACC basketball.

Its similar to people thinking the SEC is all that matters in college football.

Ill admit, i was worried for a few minutes at the beginning, however that was a good game.

Imagine playing, coaching, or refereeing in front of the Nation, and in front of the President of the United States.

http://s303.photobucket.com/...2011%20Carrier%20Classic/

first of many Carrier Classics. UNC #1

A few points from last night's games.

First Top 25 upset of the year as #20 UCLA loses to Loyola Marymount.

I know we all like to say "Duke sucks" tongue in cheek but apparently Duke might actually suck. They struggled in their two exhibitions and beat Belmont last night by 1 at Cameron.

Only the Big East, ACC, and Big 10 remain undefeated after opening night.

Upset alert for anyone paying attention today. #7 Vanderbilt is down by 13 to Cleveland State at halftime.

Terps gonna win it all this year

I didn't know they still had enough players to field a team...

ACC finally picks up a 3rd ranked team as FSU checks in at #24 in the coaches poll today.

It's not our fault the NCAA is retarded and takes months to figure out something they could have learned in 3 minutes.

@Bobby, if we get those twins to committ then we will definitely own the ACC for a few years. Should be decent this year. Turgeon is on a roll with recruiting.

trumper: I'm praying to god Maryland can beat Alabama this week. The SEC always gets such overranked (for no good reason) teams. Vanderbilt already got brought back to reality but Alabama is another one. They went deep in the NIT last year so they are a top 20 team this year? Yeah...sure.

Plus I'd really like to see a fourth ranked ACC team so people will STFU about the ACC being Duke/Carolina

Yah I think AL has won 21 or 22 straight or something along those lines. I would love to knock them down, but I worry they will quickly figure out to simply run a zone D on us because we're been inept at shooting from the perimeter. With that said, if our team hits its mark then they will be pretty good.

I would definitely love to see some ACC growth. Although one way or the other it's coming--Syr and Pitt will come into the league and learn how to play basketball. But they will probably be ranked then (all assuming they get out of 27month ordeal so they can make it next season).

I'm sure you and mrford will agree though. While I welcome UConn and Syracuse to the conference I don't want to rely on a couple of BE yankee schools to bring the ACC back. I want Wake/Virginia/Maryland/Clemson to be good also. (Not NC State/Miami though as I hate them :P)

KENTUCKY WILDCATS ALL THE WAY LADIES!!!!!

just wait till they whip kansas' ass...but seriously that'll be tough, and then UNC the first of december. SOME AWESOME games coming up!

I put us a class above, VA and Clemson in bball. Wake is one of those oddities who has amazing teams or amazingly horrible teams. Agreed on not letting the BE dominate upon joining. I want to see how Calhoun and Boeheim adjust to the ACC landscape. It will certainly be fun to watch.

Ahh the Wildcats--I always hear their hype and yet so rarely see the actual roar =).

virginia tech will win the ACC and win the national title.

you heard it here first!

and last

Correct, and last, at least in the near-future.

It actually would be kinda funny if VT were to finally barely make the NCAAT in the first four and then went on to win the national title after all of their bubble drama.

This reminds me of:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixq_Fv7RAQ0

wait, Gonzaga is not there, so having lived in spokane gotta go with the giant killers.
how they the get high grade players to move to spokane is beyond me lol.

ahhh geeesh I am blind now eye c gonzaga, well at least I got to bring up Gonzaga.

UK downs KU by 10 or so 2night...

Oh My!

Upset alert! If you read this check out ESPNU. Pittsburgh is about to lose to Long Beach State