Monday, November 12, 2012

First Weekend Thoughts

The first weekend of the college basketball season is in the books.  Every team except Clemson has played at least one game (UNC has played two).  For the most part, the conference escaped disaster.  The one notable exception is Florida State.  They had a bad home loss against South Alabama, a team that went 8-8 in the Sun Belt last year.  I had Florida State taking a step backward this year, and they are not off to a good start.  It's just one game, though, and they had some head-scratching losses last year, so it's not time to panic yet.

Without question the team that impressed me the most was Maryland.  Yes, they were one of three ACC teams to lose this weekend.  But they had a very good chance of beating Kentucky.  This Terps team has a lot of talent, and Alex Len looks like he could have a breakout year.  The other team to lose was Virginia, on the road at George Mason.  It's a game you'd like to win over a team from the CAA, but Virginia was down two starters, so I give them a pass.  All of the teams in the ACC who won did so against teams from lesser conferences.

The competition gets a little stiffer this week, as several teams are playing in early-season tournaments.  On Thursday, Boston College takes on Baylor and N.C. State plays Penn State.  Duke plays a neutral site game against Kentucky on Tuesday night, which should be a dandy.  It's a big week for the ACC, they need to prove that they can win games against teams from the other big six conferences (so far they are 0-1).

No comments: