Recruiting Wire-Happy New Year

College basketball season is back! Thanksgiving Tournament schedules have come and gone, the Champions Classic has come and gone, and the official start of college ball season is underway.  

The start of the new year is here and with it, there is a few buffer weeks to figure out what teams are going to compete this year and who the X-Factor will be. Something that has been extremely evident so far, this year, the Duke Blue Devils are going to you on a roller coaster throughout every game that they play. Duke has been in nail-bitters the last three games against Portland State, Texas, and Florida. This Duke team is a young team with eight freshman on roster. This Duke team is not the same as the old teams. The Blue Devils will have to grind out each and every game until they finally figure out their identity (and this might be it).

After the first round of tournaments the Top 25 looks like this:
1.      Duke
2.      Kansas
3.      Michigan State
4.      Villanova
5.      Norte Dame
6.      Florida
7.      Kentucky
8.      Wichita State
9.      Texas A&M
10.  Miami
11.  Cincinnati
12.  Minnesota
13.  North Carolina
14.  USC
15.  Gonzaga
16.  Baylor
17.  Louisville
18.  Virginia
19.  West Virginia
20.  Arizona State
21.  Xavier   
22.  Texas Tech
23.  TCU
24.  Alabama
25.  Creighton
There a ton of teams that you don’t normally see in the Top 25; but it’s early and teams like Texas A&M, USC, and Alabama might actually have good years—ultimately possibly being in the Sweet 16 in March Madness. It is early so we will have to see but that effort that Alabama had on Saturday night against Minnesota.

The entire bench for Alabama was ejected for a fight that broke out in the beginning of the 2nd half against Minnesota, leaving them with only five players. After that Dazon Ingram fouled out and John Petty sprained his ankle. If you are keeping score at home; that would leave Alabama without three players eligible to finish the game. You’d think that #14 Minnesota would roll over the tide after that right? Well, the final score was 89-84, a five-point loss that says something. So, my Underappreciated Performance this week goes to Alabama’s head coach Avery Johnson. To coach three players to almost winning a game they had no business winning. Johnson who is going back to college after being fired by the Brooklyn Nets, it’s interesting to see what the Tide will be following this fight. There will be some suspensions from the NCAA, but it won’t be the entire bench, and the fight that this team showed is worth a lot to Alabama moving forward.

The upcoming TV schedule for this week goes as follows… #16 Baylor on the road against #21 Xavier on FS1 at 6:30 EST tonight. Tomorrow, #13 North Carolina might be in trouble as they go to Ann Arbor and face a really good Michigan team (I’m not just saying that) at 7:30 EST on ESPN. Thursday, a Top Five matchup between #3 Michigan State and #5 Norte Dame tips off 7PM EST on ESPN. Then to start your week next week, #6 Florida hosts in-state rival Florida State in Gainsville it will be a great game at 9PM EST on ESPN 2.


The Recruiting Wire is starting over again and the madness is starting up a little early this year. After the drama with the College Football Playoff ends, the drama will just turn to the hardwood with what North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky, and Michigan State are going through. The Tournament might seem like a long way away, but this year of college basketball is shaping out to be one of the best ones yet.

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