Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Watch out for K-State

Hopefully some of you caught the Texas-Kansas State game last night or have had a chance to see K-State play this year. Michael Beasley is the best freshman I've seen in a while. Yes, he can be better than Durant, Oden, and the other recent one year stops. This kid is like a point guard who has the ability and the size to score at will. I love how he draws the triple teams, then can see right over them to pass off.

The thing is, Beasley may stick around. And Kansas State remarkably has built a solid young team around him and managed to keep it in place with the departure of Bob Huggins. If Beasley, Walker, and Pullen stay together for another year or two (and do not repeat efforts like Walker's 0-14 performance last night) I think you'll start to see these Big 12 match-ups go the other way.

For this year, though, keep an eye on them for the tournament. If they lose to Kansas then beat Iowa St. and Colorado, that gives them 20 wins heading into the tournament. And I think they can play with anyone. To me, Texas is a #1 seed and they were tied at halftime. If they hit more threes (Fred Brown?) and make the shots that Beasley sets up from his double- and triple-teams, I think they can actually beat most teams out there. Young teams get better as the year goes on.

March Madness is practically upon us. I'm ready. Tennessee/Vandy tonight. If Foster steps up, Vandy can take it at home. I think Ogilvy can control the middle.

2 comments:

Allen Wedge said...

All year everyone's been saying Memphis' downfall was free-throws but Calipari said they'll make em when they need to... don't you think vs. Tennessee was a valid time that they needed to? They make their free-throws and that game wouldn't have even been close.

Mike said...

Definitely true. But now his excuse is, "Well, you guys said we needed a loss and now we have one."

Overall, it really doesn't matter. They can win out (unless USM upsets them in the CUSA tournament??) and probably still get a #1 seed, even though I don't think they should.

But I guess it does matter if they don't get the #1 overall, cause that goes through North Carolina. If Tennessee wins out (very tough) and gets that draw, that's a big advantage, being only a few hours away. Same, obviously, for NC or Duke, should they be able to pull it off.