2011 Southern Cal College Basketball Predictions
October 28, 2011
Recap
Southern Cal had a mediocre season in 2010-11 having a 19-15 record and also a 4th place finish in the Pac-10. In the conference tourney the Trojans made it to the semifinals, then proceeded to lose in the play-in game of the NCAA tourney to Virginia Commonwealth.
Southern Cal acquired results by being a fantastic defensive group. Southern Cal held their foes to less than 41% from the field shooting and to less than 64 points game.
The loss of Nikola Vucevic and Alex Stepheson is going to be tough to replace. Vucevic averaged more than 17 points per game and brought down 10.3 rebounds per game. Stepheson was the team’s second best rebounder at 7.2 each game and also contributed 9.8 points.
2011-12 Overview
Kevin O’Neill has been the Southern Cal head coach for a couple of years and has provided the fans teams that play hard and improve as the year goes on. This year’s group has lots of production to replace, but O’Neill does have Jio Fontan, Maurice Jones, and Garrett Jackson all back. Along with a strong recruiting class the Trojans brought in transfers Aaron Fuller and Dewayne Dedmon.
Backcourt
USC is going be heavily depending on their guard duo of Fontan and Jones. Fontan sat out fall semester last season, but returned to lead the team in assists and finished second in points at 10.5 points every contest.
Jones was third on the Trojans in points with 9.9 points per contest, gave out 110 total assists, and established the team record with 69 steals as a freshman. His achievements helped to bring in a place on the Pac-10 All-Freshman team.
Bryon Wesley is a 6’5″ freshman perimeter player who is expected to contribute around the offensive end right away. Alexis Moore is another freshman who ought to see time and contributes well on each side sides of the court. Junior college transfer Greg Allen can be a lock down defender and can shoot 3.
Frontcourt
The Trojans 3 big men should be Aaron Fuller, Dewayne Dedmon, and James Blascyk. Fuller was forced to sit out the 2010-11 season soon after transferring over from Iowa. In his sophomore season for the Hawkeyes he was honorable mention on the All-Conference team with 9.7 points and almost 7 boards every night.
These players will be pushed in practice by a few transfers who will sit out this season. Ari Stewart came over from Wake Forest and Eric Wise is a transfer from UC-Irvine.
Every single year we present our USC basketball predictions in order to get you ready to beat the NCAA basketball lines.
2011 Pitt NCAA Basketball Preview
October 25, 2011
The Pittsburgh basketball team and head coach Jamie Dixon experienced an incredibly prosperous regular season in 2010-11. Despite playing a challenging Big East schedule the team ended up having a the best record in the conference at 15-3.
The Panthers beat eventual national champion UConn handily in the final regular season game, but were beat by the Huskies by two points in the conference tourney. Pitt didn’t have much success in the NCAA tournament either, getting beat in the second round to Butler. Both tournament losses were by two points or less, but that probably didn’t lessen the sting of getting bounced so early despite their regular season dominance.
This season’s edition of the Pitt basketball team will have only two starters returning. The three starters lost: Brad Wanamaker, Gilbert Brown, and Gary McGhee both contributed a lot and will be missed. Still, coach Dixon has created a winning tradition and the school has a history of reloading when losing superb talent.
Backcourt
Pittsburgh’s guard play centers around Asthon Gibbs. Gibbs thought about entering his name in the NBA draft, but withdrew due to the likelihood of a lockout. That proved to be a wise decision as the NBA still isn’t ready to hit the floor. Last season he averaged almost 17 points per game on nearly 50% 3-point shooting. He’ll be counted on to improve his production as much as possible to make up for the losses of some of the other key players off of last year’s team.
Taking the place of Brandon Wanamaker will be Travon Woodall. Woodall is a good defender who must live up to the hype of being an excellent distributor since Wanamaker was the team’s leader in assists a year ago. Also getting plenty of action will be Cameron Wright, Durand Johnson, and John Johnson.
Frontcourt
Pittsburgh’s biggest losses occured from the post that will be devoid of Gilbert Brown and Gary McGhee. Brown averaged 11.3 points per game while McGhee was the interior stopper. Even so, the Panthers do get some stable players returning to go in addition to some exciting recruits.
Nasir Robinson will deliver the experience to the court. Last season he averaged 9.4 points and 4.9 rebounds per contest, but he ought to get more minutes this year. With the additional playing time I expect to see his numbers jump up quite a bit.
Khem Birch was a McDonald’s All-American and one of the most-wanted centers coming out of high school. Malcolm Gilbert was also wanted by a whole lot of universities on account of his rebounding and shot blocking capabilities. Both of these players have enough talent to contribute as soon as they hit the floor.
Providing the team with some extra minutes might be Dante Taylor, JJ Moore, and Talib Zanna.
Each year we offer our Pittsburgh basketball preview so you can get yourself ready to beat the college basketball odds on their games.
2011-12 Iowa State NCAA Basketball Season Predictions
October 25, 2011
2010-11 Recap
Not a lot was expected out of Iowa State last season. Almost everyone figured they could be last in the Big 12 conference with just two players back from the season before, but the Cyclones were sort of a surprise. Ordinarily, it is hard for people to become enthusiastic about a .500 season, but it was the first time Iowa State did not possess a losing record since the 2005-6 season.
In Fred Hoiberg’s very first season Iowa State totally changed their identity. Heading from a slow it down and grind it out group to one which ran much more and spread the court. That modification of pace helped the Cyclones rank fifth in the conference and 39th within the nation in offense at 74.8 points for every contest.
Iowa State also shot the 3-ball incredibly effectively last season, draining 275 (8.6 for every game) shots from beyond the line. That was ample to pace the conference and rank 13th in the country.
2011-12 Preview
Only two starters return for Iowa State this year, however the real key could be the addition of four transfers. Last season this group was called the best scout team within the country and helped keep every practice competitive. Now Chris Allen, Chris Babb, Royce White, and Anthony Booker will be ready to prove themselves on the floor.
Last year Iowa State wasn’t extremely deep, so they performed a more conservative half-court defense. With more talent on this year’s roster you can wager they will probably be extra aggressive in utilizing pressure to force turnovers.
Backcourt
Iowa State is going to have to search out a strategy to replace Dainte Garrett’s numbers. He was a high quality point guard who blotted his name all over Iowa State’s record books for both assists and points.
There’s still a whole lot of talent in the Cyclone backcourt. Scott Christopherson is a quite talented shooter who has nailed 131 career three-pointers already. He drained 86 last year, ending up second within the Big 12 and 33rd in the nation at 2.8 each contenst. His 44.1 three-point percentage was good for 11th around the nation and he’s buried a trey in 34 consecutive games. Christopherson doens’t turn the ball over, works hard, and shouldn’t have to log countless minutes this year because of the team’s bench.
You may likely see Iowa State using a good deal of three-guard sets because of possessing so much talent in the backcourt. Transfers Chris Allen, Chris Babb, and Tyrus McGee are strong shooters. Allen and Babb had been Big 10 starters and both avereaged just less than ten points for each game back in 2009-10. McGee is coming over from Cowley Community College.
Chris Allen brings 3 years of expertise from his time at Michigan State. He hass played in 14 tournament games and two Final Fours. He can not only shoot from the outside, but can be a defensive stopper.
Chris Babb made 69 3-point shots in his final season at Penn State and averaged 10.2 ppg in Big Ten action.
Tyrus McGee made 115 3-point baskets last year at a 48.7% clip. He was a NJCAA First-Team All-American and may play both at the two and at point.
Two additional players to keep an eye on are Bubu Palo and Tavon Sledge. Palo played all 32 games last year and proved capable of playing the point position. Sledge is the one with the most potential. He’s incredibly fast and was ranked as the 3rd best participant in New York City following averaging 25.3 points and 5.2 assists in his senior year.
Frontcourt
Mevlin Ejim and Jordan Railey each should see time as returning letterman while Royce White, Anthony Booker, and Percy Gibson will all make an impact as newcomers.
Ejim experienced a really productive freshman season last season for the Cyclones. The Canadian put up 10.3 points and 6.7 rebounds for every game. He was only the 12th freshman in school history to record double figures. Despite his quality production, Hoiberg thinks Ejim will probably be even much better this season. Ejim is more of a small forward, but was forced to move down low last year thanks to the team’s lack of depth.
Royce White was an extremely highly touted recruit two seasons ago, but didn’t perform a game for the Minnesota Golden Gophers and then he sat out last season immediately after transferring to Iowa State. White is sturdy and can be an superb passer. He’ll be beginning at power forward and may very well be the star of this team.
Percy Gibson was one of the top big guys in Michigan last year, averaging 21.2 points and 12 boards every game. Booker was a top-50 player coming out of high school, but only averaged 6.4 points and 4.1 rebounds when he was a freshman for Southern Illinois.
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