Articles

Top Ten Prospects By Position

Last Updated June 26th. (Final ranking.)

Florida 84, Ohio State 75
My three keys going into the game:

1. Can Greg Oden avoid foul trouble?

What happened? Oden pretty much single-handedly kept the Buckeyes in the game when it seemed like each second half three hit by the Gators would break this game wide open. Oden went for 25 and 12 on this night, playing thirty-eight of the forty minutes. Foul trouble was more of an issue for classmate Mike Conley Jr., who sat out a large portion of the first half due to two fouls.

2. Will Taurean Green play better than he did on Saturday night?

The best thing about the NCAA Tournament is no matter what happens, the Final Four always has an air of excitement. There are always BCS Championships, World Series and NBA Finals that no one seems to care about (i.e. last season’s World Series, the 2002 and 2003 NBA Finals, every college football game ever played besides 2005’s USC-Texas). But the Super Bowl and Final Four always draw attention (whether it be for gambling purposes or not) and this year is no different. We have last year’s champ and runner-up, the No.

Game 1: Ohio State 67, Georgetown 60

My three keys heading into the game:

1.      How would the Buckeyes defend Jeff Green?

Player of the Year: Kevin Durant (Texas)

First-Team All-American
G: Acie Law (Texas A&M)
G: Alando Tucker (Wisconsin)
F: Kevin Durant (Texas)
F: Nick Fazekas (Nevada)
C: Greg Oden (Ohio State)

Second-Team All-American
G: Arron Afflalo (UCLA)
G: Chris Lofton (Tennessee)
F: Jared Dudley (BC)
F: Tyler Hansbrough (UNC)
C: Aaron Gray (Pittsburgh)

Third-Team All-American
G: Aaron Brooks (Oregon)
G: Sean Singletary (Virginia)
F: Al Thornton (Florida State)
F: Al Horford (Florida)
C: Joakim Noah (Florida)

And then there were four.

There were 61 other teams who swear they could’ve, should’ve, or would’ve been playing for one more weekend, yet there are plenty of reasons why this particular foursome remains.

North Carolina collapsed. Kansas faltered. Memphis didn’t defend. And Oregon ran out of bullets. They are no longer at the party. For those Elite Eight teams, the dance is over.

But this isn’t about the dearly departed, this is about four schools who are deserving of dancing past midnight.

- Yesterday's UCLA-Kansas game went just as planned. The Bruins were able to shut down Kansas' offense just like SIU did.. but unlike the Salukis, UCLA had a hot Arron Afflalo coming off two subpar games which enabled them to pull away. The only thing that's gone more according to plan is this tournament in general. I don't see Oregon or Georgetown ending that trend unforutnately..