<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">1. Arizona: Is Mustafa Shakur the next great Arizona point guard? Steve Kerr, Damon Stoudamire, Khalid Reeves, Mike Bibby, Jason Gardner, Jason Terry. The point guard position has defined this program, and when Shakur arrived in Tucson two years ago as an instant starter, it was safe to assume he would take his rightful place in that pantheon. Shakur, however, took a palpable step backwards last season, shooting 42 percent from the field and showing spotty decision-making late in games (most notably in the Wildcats' regional final collapse against Illinois). Shakur is Arizona's toughest player and hardest practicer (it's a Philly thing), but with Channing Frye and Salim Stoudamire gone, the Wildcats will need him to be a dependable leader and primary scorer. 2. Boston College: How will the Eagles fly in their new league? There are numerous challenges accompanying BC's move into the ACC. There's the unfamiliarity factor, for one. Coach Al Skinner has to bone up on 11 teams, while the rest of the league has to do extra homework on just one. The bigger problem is adjusting to the different style of play. This team featuring forwards Craig Smith and Jared Dudley, was built to last in the rugged Big East, but now it has to keep up with the speed demons in its new neighborhood. That won't be easy with an inexperienced backcourt. 3. Duke: Is Greg Paulus really another Bobby Hurley? Hurley came from Jersey City to Durham in the fall of 1989 and was the starting point guard from day one. He left four years later having won two national championships and set a new NCAA career assist mark. While it would be unfair to put those lofty expectations on Paulus, a 6-foot-1 freshman from Syracuse, the question of whether he can provide Hurleyesque leadership from the point is the only thing (besides injuries) that could hold the Blue Devils back from winning the title. Duke does have a serviceable alternative in senior Sean Dockery, but if Paulus hasn't wrested the starting spot from him by January, it will not be a good sign. 4. Gonzaga: Can the Zags shed their new label as chokers in March? I know, pretty harsh to lay the c-word on a team before practice even begins. But despite having national championship-caliber talent, the Zags have failed to make it to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament the last three years. Coach Mark Few does all he can to stack his non-conference schedule with heavyweights, but the reality is, the West Coast Conference does not prepare Gonzaga well for the one-and-done crucible of March Madness. People say this year's team could be Gonzaga's best, but we won't know for sure until March. 5. Indiana: Will a leader emerge who is worth following? This is the most talented team Mike Davis has had in his six years as head coach, including the 2002 squad that lost to Maryland in the NCAA championship game. That team, however, had gritty leaders such as Jared Jeffries and Tom Coverdale. The problem for this year's edition is that its best player, 6-9 D.J. White, is a sophomore, which means it won't be easy for him to assert himself as a locker room force. There's also a potential chemistry problem since White also plays the same position as the Hoosiers' best newcomer, 6-8 Marco Killingsworth, a transfer from Auburn. 6. Iowa: Will the Hawkeyes put up or shut up? The good news for coach Steve Alford is that he finally has a team that is capable of making a run at the Big Ten title. The bad news is, everybody knows this, which means expectations are quite high in Iowa City. If the Hawkeyes don't get off to a good start, the usual speculation over Alford's job security will once again run rampant. Fortunately, Iowa is stacked with upperclassmen -- seniors Jeff Horner, Erek Hansen and Greg Brunner, and junior sharp-shooter Adam Haluska. 7. Kansas: Will youth be served in Lawrence? I'm surprised how many preseason publications have left the Jayhawks out of their top 25. True, having at least two freshmen in the starting lineup isn't exactly a recipe for a Big 12 title, but coach Bill Self already had arguably the nation's best freshman class before he added dynamic forward Brandon Rush in the late spring. And besides, Kansas relied on a trio of experienced seniors last year and still failed to win the league before losing in the NCAA first round to Bucknell. My advice to the rest of the league: Beat the Jayhawks now because they could be plenty scary come late February. 8. Kentucky: Will the Wildcats have Randolph Morris? I am still shocked that Morris, a 6-10 sophomore center, didn't get selected in the NBA draft last June. So was Morris or he wouldn't have entered the draft in the first place, much less conducted workouts with NBA teams that jeopardizes his eligibility. Morris and the Wildcats are still waiting for the NCAA to decide how many games to suspend him for -- if, that is, he can play at all. And even if Morris is declared eligible, will he play up to the potential that could make him one of the top two or three centers in the country? 9. Louisville: Can the Cards beat the injury bug? No top 20 team begins practice with more significant injury problems than Louisville. None of the Cardinals' heralded frontcourt trio -- Juan Diego Palacios, Brian Johnson, and Kansas transfer David Padgett -- are healthy enough to suit up right now. And don't forget senior point guard Taquan Dean always has some lingering injury or another that he must play through. Coming off a Final Four run, Louisville has high expectations, but not a whole lot of proven talent. 10. Maryland: Was last year's slide really all John Gilchrist's fault? As the Terps lost their final four games last year and missed the NCAA tournament for the first time in 11 years, coach Gary Williams made no secret that he believed Gilchrist, his high-strung point guard, was a locker room cancer. Still, the Terps had other problems too, like Nik Caner-Medley's inconsistency and Travis Garrison's inability to become a scorer in the post. Gilchrist is gone now (he turned pro early, went undrafted and will play in Israel this year) while the Terps' other four starters are back, along with defensive whiz D.J. Strawberry, a 6-3 guard who sat out last year because of an injury. If things turn sour in College Park again, Williams won't have Gilchrist to kick around anymore.</div> Full Story
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">11. Memphis: Can the Tigers get through a season without drama? Coach John Calipari had reason to feel optimistic this time last year. Then he had to suspend -- and eventually dismiss -- his best player, 6-8 sophomore forward Sean Banks, for skipping class and having a bad attitude. In February, Calipari allowed an ongoing distraction to fester by refusing to suspend point guard Jeremy Hunt, after Hunt was charged with assaulting a female student. Yet, the Tigers still came within a Darius Washington free-throw of winning the Conference USA tournament. Hunt was kicked out of the program this fall for failing to meet obligations, and if the Tigers can avoid such distractions this year, they could become a top 10 team. Washington is a year older, 6-7 senior swingman Rodney Carney is on the cusp of stardom, and Calipari has two freshmen (6-5 forward Shawne Williams and 6-4 guard Nick Douglas-Roberts) who are among the best in the nation in their class.</div> Seth Davis doesn't understand that the University of Memphis brings all that "drama" upon themselves. They're the ones who have absolutely no academic standards, they're the ones who don't care about recruits' arrest records, and they're the ones who recruit kids with attitude problems that no other coach will touch. I have no sympathy whatsoever for Calipari; these are his kids. If someone came in and cleaned up the program at Memphis, then the recruits they'd be getting would be 100-150 ranked recruits, not 25-50 ranked recruits. They can't have their cake and eat it too... Davis was also off about Lorbek. When Erazem Lorbek played at Michigan State, he was a complete offensive nonfactor who played no defense. Since he has been drafted, I've heard more crap about how he helped Michigan State than I can stomach. He was a nuisance.
