Recruiting Wire Vol. 3

Recruiting Wire- Gonzaga is legit, I promise
Well I was right about 2 things last week in this article series, and does that shake up the college basketball world a ton this week. The Baylor Bears who as I said were overlooked and put on a very pedestal got upset in their first game as the number one team in the country in a tough game against then #10 West Virginia. West Virginia is an extremely dangerous team and team that is just hard to beat in 2 halves. Baylor is a good team, but that rank of being the best was just a bit too much to hold for Baylor and that is okay. Secondly, the Duke-Louisville game was probably the best game of the week with Anas Mahmoud lifting Louisville ahead of the Blue Devils.

The AP Top 25 this week looks like this:
1.    Villanova
2.      Kansas
3.      UCLA
4.      Gonzaga
5.      Kentucky
6.      Baylor
7.      Creighton
8.      West Virginia
9.      North Carolina
10.  Florida State
11.  Oregon
12.  Louisville
13.  Butler
14.  Arizona
15.  Norte Dame
16.  Virginia
17.  Wisconsin
18.  Duke
19.  Florida
20.  Cincinnati
21.  Purdue
22.  Xavier
23.  St. Mary’s
24.  South Carolina
25.  Maryland
I like the addition of West Virginia to the Top 10, but as you will see, I see the Mountaineers a little higher in that Top 10. Maryland is an interesting addition to the Top 25 just due to the fact how awful the Big 10 have been this season. Gonzaga is another one of those dangerous teams that will be a title contender come tournament time. My Top 10 is as follows this week:
1.      Villanova
2.      Kansas
3.      Gonzaga
4.      UCLA
5.      West Virginia
6.      Kentucky
7.      Baylor
8.      Creighton
9.      North Carolina
10.  Florida State
I am a huge believer in both Gonzaga and West Virginia. The way they have played these past couple of weeks isn’t to be taken lightly and could potentially lead them to number one seeds in the tournament. Right now I would have both of these teams in the Final Four that’s how tough these squads are. The hype around Duke has come to a crashing halt after a disappointing loss to Louisville. It isn’t entirely their fault with the injury bug hitting the Blue Devils hard this season (even coach K has become a victim).

My Unapproached Performer of week and it an interesting one (a guy my dad just loves). St. John’s Guard Shamorie Ponds. Ponds in the win against DePaul scored 14 points with 6 assists and was a problem on the defensive end with 3 steals. Keep your eye on this Johnny in the waning weeks of the college basketball season. My Best Performance of the week goes to the Jacksonville Dolphin’s forward J.R. Holder for scoring 39 points in a win on Thursday last week against NJIT. Holder also had 4 rebounds and a steal. Holder has efficient going 14-18 and 4-6 from 3-point land.

The upcoming schedule is interesting this week. Tomorrow, Wednesday January 18th Norte Dame travels to Florida State to play a compelling Top 15 game on the ACC Network at 7PM EST. This Saturday isn’t as crazy last Saturday, but there are some games that should be fun to tune into. Kansas hosts Texas, which is always a tough task when Shaka Smart goes into a good venue against a Top 10 team. That game is on CBS on 2PM EST. Louisville gets another Top 10 opponent going to Florida State at 2PM EST on ESPN, and if Louisville wins this game, they will definitely be in the Top 10 next week. Number 4 UCLA hosts #14 Arizona on Saturday at 4PM on CBS. Moving into the week, a week from today Tuesday January 24th #2 Kansas travels to #7 West Virginia, for my game of the year so far (on paper). I will not miss this game. That is all for the week of January 17th, so please keep your eye on the wire and just prepare for the madness.
Sources:(espn.com)

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