Kentucky Sports Radio
[Moderated by Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and Tyler Thompson]
[Moderated by Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and Tyler Thompson]
What we have before us starting today is a unique situation: a largely interest-free March Madness tournament without the depressing spectre of hopelessness that the BCG offered. We have every reason to believe that next year will be at least just fine, even though this year was disappointing. I say we enjoy it, and have fun with our picks.
But before we get rolling, let’s take a look back at ESPN The Magazine’s preseason rankings for the 2013 season. Believe it or not, with a few exceptions, they were actually pretty spot on. Except on Kentucky, of course. But we all know that.
1. Indiana (Projected 1, Actual 1) – The Hoosiers more or less lived up to their preseason hype by earning the East’s #1 seed, but behind someone entirely unexpected. While Zeller and Watford got a lot of love from the Mag in November, the real MVP of this year’s Indiana team has been Victor Oladipo. One of the nation’s premier defenders developed an aggressive, slashing offensive game that has really opened up for the floor for more stationary players like Hulls, Sheehy, Zeller, and Watford.
2. Louisville (Projected 1, Actual 1) – We know Louisville well. Maybe too well. We said after last year’s Final Four that they’d be tough, and sure enough, they enter the tournament as the overall #1 seed, and open in Rupp. There’s very little surprise with the Cardinals: they play tough, super annoying defense, and have super athletic players from 1-19 on the depth chart.
3. Kentucky (Projected 1, Actual NIT) Whoops. Our bad.
4. Michigan (Projected 1, Actual 4) – The Wolverines peaked earlier in the season by reaching a number one ranking, but quickly proceeded to finish the season’s last 12 games with a .500 record. But the Mag said early on that Trey Burke would be the guy to watch, and the Big Ten Player of the Year hasn’t disappointed so far.
5. Kansas (Projected 2, Actual 1) – The Jayhawks are the first team listed to exceed expectations, if only by a little. Give credit for that extra boost to Ben McLemore, the emerging freshman who might take the NBA Draft’s number one spot instead of Nerlens Noel. The rest are solid, but McLemore is the guy responsible for taking a projected 2-seed to a 1-seed.
6. NC State (Projected 2, Actual 8) – The first really disappointing team, after Kentucky, the Wolfpack have played all season either out of their minds, or completely asleep. They’ve picked up big wins (Duke), but also stumbled into ten losses. It’s likely that C.J. Leslie’s lack of improvement has kept N.C. State from the top seed they wanted, as they enter the tournament
7. Ohio State (Projected 2, Actual 2) – This team was all about Deshaun Thomas and Aaron Craft from the start, and after a whole season of play, it’s all about them at the end, too. Some folks may be afraid of a lack of real depth, but those players on the rotation are solid. No surprises with Ohio State.
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March 21st, 2013 at 9:10 am
Damn is this all there is to talk about…… WHO CARES? GO CATS!!
March 21st, 2013 at 9:15 am
Baylor really payed us back this season for beating them last year.
March 21st, 2013 at 9:15 am
IF, and only if, the non-big east refs call the games halfway fairly, call the hand-checks, smacking, flopping, wild elbows and pushing off, Louisville will not be a factor for long at all. If the U of L defense gets away with the way they’ve been taught to play and have played all year, I look for a deep run. Ugh. Dirty birds.
March 21st, 2013 at 9:17 am
Why isn’t Zeller flopping around like he’s been shot in that picture? It looks like there could possibly be contact.
March 21st, 2013 at 9:17 am
You suck so bad you can’t even keep your font consistent in one post. What is that in the second half, comic sans?
March 21st, 2013 at 9:25 am
Wow..those candy-striped warm-ups really are unspeakably hard to look at. They’re proud of this why?
March 21st, 2013 at 9:26 am
And damn the photo, to have to look at that first thing, zeller is a joke just like his coach, The cheerleader are DOG ugly.. #4 Yea zeller should be flopping…. iu will choke! GO CATS!!
March 21st, 2013 at 9:26 am
At least Baylor backed us up on the underachieving.
March 21st, 2013 at 9:27 am
#1 – You read it AND commented. Quit complaining.
March 21st, 2013 at 9:32 am
#9 Didn’t read it, that’s the point…. Soon as i saw espn and the photo, I knew right then it wasn’t worth reading. GO CATS!
March 21st, 2013 at 9:39 am
Just watched the Randle mixtape again – http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XtuR-xdFXqo
The fact that that kid is not the number one player in this class should illustrate to everyone the difference between this year’s class and next.
My God, Randle is an amazingly polished player already.
March 21st, 2013 at 9:41 am
Take this freaking post down. Don’t want to see that ugly goof and most definitely don’t want to ready anything from Corey Nichols.
March 21st, 2013 at 9:45 am
#12 Thank you… GO CATS!!
March 21st, 2013 at 9:46 am
I thought this was pretty interesting, actually. For those that always say that early season rankings are meaningless, it’s a good counterargument. It seems that the early season rankings were pretty close to how each team ended up… with one glaring exception, of course.
March 21st, 2013 at 9:55 am
You know I’m actually going to root pretty hard for Louisville. They may not do the same for us, but Kentucky is still Kentucky, and it’s better than Indiana or Duke.
March 21st, 2013 at 9:55 am
iu pics…laetner pics…what up? go cats…
March 21st, 2013 at 10:12 am
Why a picture of IU? Corey Nichols sucks so bad. KSR should listen to the readers – get rid of Corey. His posts remind me of a monkey doing monkey business on top of a football.
March 21st, 2013 at 10:20 am
Victor Oladipo, quite possibly, is the most overrated player in the nation. Good defender but incredibly limited offensively. Whoever wastes a lottery pick on that joker is crazy. He is a poor man’s DeAndre Liggins.
March 21st, 2013 at 10:53 am
GAYEST PANTS EVER!!!!
March 21st, 2013 at 10:58 am
all things considered ESPN did a very nice job in the preseason predictions
March 21st, 2013 at 11:01 am
11 WOWOWOW that highlight reel is sick, can’t wait to see him in rupp
March 21st, 2013 at 11:07 am
6. NC State (Projected 2, Actual 8) – The first really disappointing team, after Kentucky, the Wolfpack have played all season either out of their minds, or completely asleep. They’ve picked up big wins (Duke), but also stumbled into ten losses. It’s likely that C.J. Leslie’s lack of improvement has kept N.C. State from the top seed they wanted, as they enter the tournament
C.J. Leslie would be in the NBA if he had come to Kentucky. May not have belonged there, but that’s where he’d be.
March 21st, 2013 at 11:53 am
Let’s Go Duke!!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 21st, 2013 at 11:55 am
I hate iu but oladipo is a monster. He should get drafted ahead of zeller
March 21st, 2013 at 12:43 pm
IU only wins when Zeller is full steam; oladipo is awesome as is Hulls,Watford,Yogi; the team is deep IU all the way! baby!
March 21st, 2013 at 1:36 pm
KSR readers are more biased against Corey than Pat Forde is against UK, and that’s saying something…
March 21st, 2013 at 3:26 pm
24. A monster… with no left hand. Quite ferocious.