The Regular Season Is Here!

As the post title states, the regular season is here. Two games from the Coaches vs Cancer Classic were played today, and interestingly enough they both said something important about the season to come:

#5 Duke 80, Presbyterian 49
The score in this game was obviously irrelevant. Duke could have played the last five guys off their bench for 40 minutes and won this one easily. But what surprised me, in a negative way, was the way Coach K played the game. Just take a look at the box score, if you missed the game on tv. I talked a few days ago about what I needed to see out of Duke in order to take them seriously as an ACC and National Championship contender. I didn't see any of it. Miles Plumlee did get the start, but he only played 13 minutes and scored nary a point. Olek Czyz only played a few garbage minutes, and Brian Zoubek fouled out in seven minutes. For most of the game, they played the lineup of Scheyer, Paulus, Smith, Henderson and Singler. That's basically four guards and one forward. It's possible that Plumlee is expected to play more time as the season goes on, but he only qualifies as a Singler-style forward. None of those six players qualify as big bodies to put in the post. Duke played the same style they did last year, which is to press like crazy on the perimeter, and drive and kick out for three pointers. And they've got a very deep bench, along with great three-point shooters (even if their shooting wasn't very good in this particular game), which makes them the perfect team to play this strategy. But I just don't see how Duke is any different from last year's team: good enough to spend much of the season in the Top Ten, but not good enough to be a serious National Championship contender. The one chance for them, as I stated in the aforementioned preview, is for Brian Zoubek to become a star. It's hard to tell if Coach K wanted to play him more, since he fouled out so quickly. But for one thing, he chose to start Plumlee instead of Zoubek. Secondly, if Zoubke's fouling out in seven minutes against Presbyterian, what hope does he have against Tyler Hansbrough? If Zoubek just isn't a good fit for this team, then I'm sure Coach K isn't going to force him into the lineup. He's going to do what is best for the team. But without a capable big guy who can bang with the big boys in the ACC, I just don't see how we can list Duke as a plausible National Championship contender.

Georgia Southern 65, Houston 63
The first game of the season turned into the first upset of the season. Now before you get too shocked, keep in mind that this isn't a huge upset by any means. There's a reason why I didn't just pencil Houston in to tomorrow's match-up with Duke. Remember that they finished last season tied for first place among teams in the SoCon not named Davidson. And while Davidson is obviously the heavy favorite to sweep through the SoCon yet again, Georgia Southern deserves to be in the conversation in the "Who can contend for the title if Stephen Curry breaks his wrist?" discussion. And while Houston was a bubble team last season, they were expected to drop off a bit this coming season. I thought that the talent on their bench would be good enough to at least keep them in contention near the top of Conference USA. I guess not. This kind of loss would be tough for any bubble team to overcome, and I just don't see why Houston has the ability to turn this around. Tough way for them to start the season.