Men's College Basketball

It's just getting started. The college basketball season is opening. I will from time to time cover some of the college basketball games, with a heavy leaning to the ACC. Yes, I grew up in ACC country and watched the teams dominate the country year after year. There is no better basketball, year in year out, than what you get in the ACC. I am a Duke homer, although I try and give a fair account to all of the games. So, with that said, the first game we'll talk about happened at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

First up: Presbyterian @ Duke (2K Sports Classic)

We knew this wasn't a good matchup for those from Presbyterian, but this was a warm up for the Blue Devils. The Blue Devils return a squad loaded with talent (but not as much as their cross town rivals, UNC) and a coach with an Olympic Gold medal. Coach K got to see a lot while working with D'Antoni this summer and hoped to implement some of that offense into his system. Al'Lonzo Coleman (13 points) scored a bucket 17 seconds into the game and that was the only time the Blue Hose led. Duke was led by Kyle Singler with 19 points and it was interesting to see that Greg Paulus didn't start. Coach K wasn't happy with the defensive intensity at times of his team and he will harp on that later. All in all this was a ho hum win for the Blue Devils as they start the season 1 - 0.

My take on this year's Duke team: Until I see a Duke team with a presence in the middle I can't really pick them to win it all. They were much better off when they had a Laettner, Carlos Boozer, Elton Brand, Shelden Williams, and even when they had Roshown McLeod. Duke always has good wing players and good point guards (except Paulus), but they need a good big man, even if he doesn't do anything but rebound well. If they don't rebound well, you'll see a lot of pictures of Coach K like the one above.

Who's your team and where do you think they will end up at the end of the year?