Its almost here

I was looking at the preseason USA Today men's basketball and I saw that the season tips off in a little less then three weeks and for one I can not wait. Here are my thoughts on the USA Today Preseason Top 25:

• I never thought that I would see Kansas State above Kansas in the preseason rankings. Will the Big 12 be colored purple this year, maybe.
• Two teams outside of the preseason Top 25 that are going to make noise are: San Diego State Minnesota.
• With Hummel gone to another knee injury there is no way Purdue is going to be a top 10 team.
• Texas forward Thirstan Thompson will be this season breakout player. He is too skilled not to be a star. 
• With one of the top recruiting classes in America, Memphis is going to be a fun to watch. Can a Josh Pastner lead his tiger cubs back to the NCAA Tournament.  

A new way to recruit

For the last couple of year the world of recruiting has started to change. Instead of players keeping their views on their recruitment underwraps, players are taking all of the their thoughts to the public, while others are coming up with tech savy ways of announcing which programs they will play for.

St. Patrick's Guard Kyrie Irving has been at the front of using social media during the process. Irving, who has signed on to play at Duke, has been keeping people up to date with his views with his twitter account. In October, Irving let the world know that he was hanging out with fellow top recruit Tobias Harris at Kentucky. In addition to the twitter, Irving also has a ustream channel that he takes questions from different fans. The twitter aspects of recruiting appears to be growing with 2010 basketball class: Will Barton (Memphis), CJ Fair (undecided), Josh Shelby (undecided), and Kendall Marshall (North Carolina) all have accounts, some of them are open to the public while others are protected. These few just show how much social media is growing when it comes to recruiting.

On Friday, Harrison Barnes took announcing his college pick to a different level. After giving a speech about the final six six schools that were involved in the recruiting process, Barnes said he would Skype the college coach that he was committing to after a couple of seconds Roy Williams face popped up on the screen. I guess the days of just picking a hat up and putting it on are almost over.

Social media is continuing to grow and over the next couple of years many other top high school players wilil be turning to social media.

Hello Cal!!!

Moving on is hard on everyone and yesterday Memphis fans and Kentucky fans felt both sides as Kentucky hired coach Cal from Memphis to lead the Kentucky Nation. Here is how area newspapers covered the events.

The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)

The Courier-Journal (Louisville)

The Lexington Herald Leader (Lexington)

In the News: March Madness

Yesterday all around the country students gathered to see if their team would make it. Some schools were happy, while other were not so much. Here is some how of the papers around the country covered the events.

The Clarion Ledger
The Forum

Tulsa World

Tallahassee Democrat

The Wichita Eagle

The Albany Times Union

Idaho Statesman

The Post Standard

The Memphis Commercial Appeal

The Seattle Times

Thoughts on the Big Dance

The NCAA Selection Committee has spoken and some teams are happy and others are not going to be happy for some time. Here are OTWT first thoughts on the just released brackets.

• For a team that might have been the last at large in Arizona has a game that no one is going to be scared of Utah.
• I would not be surprised to see Utah State beat a fast sliding Marquette.
  
• For all of the talk of Maryland being on the edge of the bubble, it looks like they were safely in the tournament as a 10 seed.
  
• Wisconsin is the type of team that is going to give Florida State some issues.
  
• Portland State vs. the X-Men. Don't sleep on Portland State. They are the have beaten some good teams this year, including a win at Gonzaga.
  
• This year Western Kentucky beat the number one overall seed Louisville, so playing Illinois will not be that intimidating.
  
• I understand how the Big East has been the greatest conference in the history of the world, but how could three teams be number one seeds. I just don't understand how the third best team in a conferences warrants being a number one seed. Two teams from one conference is hard to take. I think that you should at least win your conference to be considered for a number one seed. I would have love to seen Memphis as the final number one.
• Final Four at first glance: North Carolina, Memphis, Pittsburgh, Louisville.
  
• I do know this. The tournament is always fun and will be again this year.
  

It's now the start of the season

The season started last night with Duke beating a church or some terrible school. Here are some of the covers Athlon College Basketball Preview Magazine.

Memphis

Arizona/Arizona State

UCLA/USC

Texas/Texas A&M/Baylor

The Real Star of NCAA Tournament

Some might say the real star of the NCAA Tournament might be Derrick Rose of Memphis or even Kevin Love of UCLA, but the real star of the big dance has been Endy in the Outfields favorite pop-a-shot player Chuck. Just check out the intensity.

The new Number 1

For the first time in their history Tennessee will be the number 1 ranked team in college basketball. Last night the Vols defeated former number 1 Memphis to take their spot at the top of the game.

Here is how papers in the Volunteer state covered the so called "Game of the Year.''

The Tennessean (Nashville)

The Knoxville News Sentinel (Knoxville)

The Memphis Commercial Appeal

Does Anyone Remember Omar Cook and DaJuan Wagner?

There was a day when Omar Cook and DaJuan Wagner were headed for stardom. Now Wagner is playing for the Polish champions Prokom Trefl Sopot, while Omar Cook is a starring for Red Star Belgrade. Both teams sound like they should be playing in the UEFA Cup, thanks Endy in the Outfield for that line.

This videos shows players like Joseph Forte, Jay Williams, Cook and Wagners when they were superstars in high school.

Oh the memories.

It's that Time of Year Again

Dick Vitale has been sleeping for the last couple of months getting is vocal chords ready for tomorrow night, Midnight Madness the official start of the college basketball season. So before long Joe Lunardi will be running around talking about bubble teams, Jay Bilas will be breaking down the high pick and roll, and Digger Phelps (pictured) will be trying to pick out highlghter that match all of his great looking ties.

Here are my Top Five teams as the practice gets started.

1. North Carolina: Only the Heals can have a lottery pick and still be the top team in a America.
2. Memphis: Here is the deal, enough is a enough for Coach Cal. Every year we hear all about how good they are and every year they crash out in late March. So this has to be the year.
3. Louisville: Pitino has all of the tools to have the best team in the Big East and when the coach gets to March few are better.
4. UCLA: I hate UCLA, they bore me to death, but they should be one of the best teams in the West.
5. Kansas: Talent: check. Great home court: Check. Coaching: no check. Last year, North Carolina and Kansas had the best talent in American, but in the end they lost. I'ts now or never time for Coach Self.

So everyone sit back and get ready, the real games are only a couple of weeks away.