<p>The new season is underway, so I thought it would be nice to start a thread </p>
<p>Notable storylines this year:
-Duke tries to repeat this year with Singler, and Smith.
-Kansas State looks to dominate the Big 12, and potentially win a title
-UNC looks to bounce back from last year with a stacked freshman class, including Harrison Barnes
-Butler and Ohio State look to go deep this year after losing their best players</p>
<p>Personally, I'm looking forward to my Spartans returning to the Final Four, and winning it all.</p>
<p>Yes!!! I like this thread already. Another Michigan State Spartan fan here, and I actually have Izzone tickets this year for the first time </p>
<p>I just have to say, I’m so disappointed that Hummel had a season-ending injury, mainly because Purdue would’ve been an epic rival (they still are a great team, but not to the same extent without him).</p>
<p>Looking forward to this season. Hope the Dukies can repeat! (I’m not a bandwagoner, my dad went to Duke and have been a fan since I was born.) As far as South Carolina goes, we were picked last in the East and I think finishing anywhere above that would be an accomplishment. Definitely a rebuilding year (not saying much considering we had a losing record last year). We’ve got a couple of good freshmen so it will be fun seeing them in a year or two. </p>
<p>I went to the Wake Forest/Stetson game on Friday at Wake (girlfriend goes there). Stetson won by 15-20 if I recall correctly. Wake looked awful. Terrible defense, bad shot selection, no rebounding. They have a couple good freshmen and I think they actually started three freshmen, but it’s going to be a down year in Winston-Salem as they adjust under a new coach.</p>
Yeah, I was disappointed to see him get injured to. It really sucks when talented players don’t get a chance to play because of injuries. That said, I wouldn’t count Purdue out just yet. They’ve still got a lot of talent, and I think they’ll go deep. Michigan State was still able to win important games after Kalin Lucas got injured.</p>
<p>Looking forward to another Big Ten season here for the Badgers. Couple things to watch with us, the loss of our two starting senior guards and how our young talent develops. We ran a three guard line up a lot last year, but will be back to relying on the bigs again this year.</p>
<p>Very excited to play some of the Big Ten great teams this year, especially beating down Izzo again! We have MSU’s number recently and hoping we keep it that way.</p>
<p>Harambee- good point. I think sometimes the loss/injury of one player can even boost the team to achieving more than they typically otherwise would. Although I think only time will tell and we may notice Hummel’s nonpresence to be more of an issue as the season goes on.</p>
<p>Ohio State’s win against Florida today by an 18 point margin - pretty impressive. Michigan State’s second half today against South Carolina - not impressive at all (although they got the W-can’t complain about that!). </p>
<p>That being said, I am super excited for Big 10 teams in general. Michigan State is definitely going to have some crazy good competition this year, with Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Purdue looking to have very strong squads.</p>
<p>As for other teams, I’m a little surprised that Louisville beat Butler. But I guess that shows that you can never count Louisville out of the bball hunt…</p>
<p>Interesting games tonight. I was hoping that Maryland would be able to pull it out against Pitt, but alas, the Big East prevailed tonight. Was happy to see my Tar Heels do some serious work down in Puerto Rico, Barnes looks legit.</p>
<p>Kemba Walker looks like the best player in college basketball right now. He helped UConn upset Michigan State and Kentucky. That’s impressive.</p>
<p>Duke looks really good after beating K-State the other day. I’m curious to see how well they’ll play against Michigan State next week in the Big 10 - ACC challenge.</p>
<p>It would be good to see Sparty take down the Dukees. And as a Big Ten and Wildcat fan, I HAVE to root for MSU and Kalon Lucas. I hear Lucas called Persa after he snapped his Achilles to commisserate and cheer him up - a total class act.</p>
<p>And maybe this is the year the Cats finally make the NCAA… or will Dantonio try another fake punt and make us cry all over again?</p>
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