Who's the best team in College Basketball?

Who is the best team this year. Especially with this being the year of the superfrosh's thanks to the new NBA rule.

Florida 19-2 (defending National Champs, and ranked #1)
Wisconsin 21-1 (Off to their best start in 100years?)
North Carolina 19-2
Ohio State 18-3 (Led by two super freshmen Oden and Cook)
UCLA 18-2
Pittsburgh 19-3
Texas A&M 17-3 (Considered by most as the best Defensive team in US)
Texas 15-5 ( Starting 4 freshmen, Lead by Kevin Durant who averaging 25pts, and 11rbs)

What do you guys think. Who wins the National title?

I feel like it is impossible to bet against Florida right now.

They have the experience, a wicked front line with Noah and Horford, the best defender in the game with a healthy Brewer, and a strong point in Green.

I think Wisconsin and UCLA are susceptible to lapses in scoring.
North Carolina and Ohio State are raw (although by tournament time...)
I'm just not a believer in Pitt...Gray just wouldn't be able to match up with the Noahs and Odens of the world (to be fair...who can?).

Don't get me wrong, any of those teams have a real shot.

I just don't see Florida losing when it's all on the line.

You guys probably didn't get the memo, but Wisconsin lost to Indiana the other night.

I think it's really wide-open. Florida certainly has the horses, but if I had to pick a team right now, I'd say Ohio State. By the time the tournament rolls around, I think Matta will have a young team playing its best ball and if they get on a roll, look out.

I've had an opportunity to see Matta in action for a long time, since he played and coached locally at Butler. He's got the talent on the team, and I think he can go a long way with them.

I've got nothing but love for Matta.

Although it kind of creeps me out that the dude is 39 years old.
39.

I don't know what's in the water there, but Matta (who looks about 55 and is 39) or Oden (who looks about 110 and is a teenager) should stop drinking it.

Originally posted by Essedarius
I don't know what's in the water there, but Matta (who looks about 55 and is 39) or Oden (who looks about 110 and is a teenager) should stop drinking it.

I never thought about that before. The common denominator there is they bot spent significant time in Indy. Which is where I am. Now, I'm old enough to be Matta's ...um... older brother. And yet I've retained my boyish good looks.

However there's this portrait of me in the attic...

"The Portrait of Yeahright" I'm intrigued.
I'm going to start a thread about your eerie youthfullness but I don't know whether to put it under "Paranormal Phenomena", "Mythical Beasts", or "Literature."

Congrats on the Colts, by the way.

Originally posted by Essedarius
I'm going to start a thread about your eerie youthfullness but I don't know whether to put it under "Paranormal Phenomena", "Mythical Beasts", or "Literature."

Try "Urban Legends".

Originally posted by Essedarius
Congrats on the Colts, by the way.

Yes, that's pretty awesome. Never had anything of that magnitude associated with an Indy team. I remember the Pacers' ABA championships and given the reverence for basketball around here, that was a very special time. But not equal to a Super Bowl championship.

I was listening to an interview on the radio today and a writer from Indy was asked to compare the jubilation today with the Indiana NCAA basketball championship victory in '81.

He said "no contest." He said this celebration for the Colts dwarfs that of Bobby Knight and Isiah.

That surprised me a little...I've always thought of Indiana as BASKETBALL country.

Ohh it definitely is. But there hasn't been a real unifying force in sports here for quite some time. IU hasn't been consistent. And don't really have the following they used to, anyway. The '76 team that went undefeated probably had more celebration around it than the '81 team. And the '87 team that won it all probably dwarfed the '81 team, since it was lead by Steve Alford, local Indiana boy and Indiana Mr. Basketball.

The Pacers had a brief fling with NBA championship possibilities, but ran into the LA Two Headed Monster with Shaq & Kobe in the finals. Haven't done much since. Their heyday was in the ABA where they won championships in '70, '72, & '73. Now THOSE were big deals locally. Much bigger than IU, at least in Indy.

The Colts have really won people over, especially since Manning's been here and double especially since Dungy's been the coach. I think a great deal of the exhuberance is due to people being happy for Manning and Dungy. Basically, the entire team is composed of very decent guys and that means a great deal here.

My pick for Most Valuable Person of this team is the owner, Jim Irsay. He's been smart enough to bring in good people and let them run the show. He doesn't micro manage. No one has to look over their shoulder with him. The Colts have been consistent winners ever since Bill Polian got here as the President to run the operations, and Irsay was smart enough to get him and let him handle it.

Originally posted by yeahright
...the entire team is composed of very decent guys and that means a great deal here.

I think it means a lot everywhere.
It's so rare to have a professional team with ZERO a-holes on it...total class top to bottom.

Even Lovie Smith admitted in his post-game interview that if someone had to win other than the bears, he's glad it was Dungy and the Colts.

You've got to give it up to Polian too.
That's the same guy that made the Bills the AFC team to beat (quite literally, unfortunately) four years in a row, isn't it?

Yeah, Polian was the architect of those Bills teams which was no small achievement. You've got to get to 4 Super Bowls before you can lose 4. (Like the much-maligned Fran Tarkenton who lost 3, but that's another story).

Polian also was the GM in Carolina where they played in the conference championship in their second year of existence. (Trivia question: Who was the first player to be cut by the Carolina Panthers? Answer: Bill Goldberg of wrestling fame.)

My hat's off in a big way to Irsay, who has the sense to hire a guy like Polian then leave him alone to do what he does. Irsay's not afraid to spend the money, and he doesn't feel the need to hog the spotlight. He's had his personal demons, and those stories are out there. But for my money, I think that Indianapolis has the best ownership in sports, between Irsay and the Simons who own the Pacers.

It's kind of surprising to me, when you see ownerships like that of the Colts and Patriots pretty much lay out the blueprint for success, that teams like the Lions and Cardinals can flop SO BADLY year after year after year.


Oh...and just to give a nod to the ACTUAL topic of this thread:

Florida is still the best.

Subtract my favorite team Texas from the list after A&M them. They quit in the end and it made me

I heard their coach after the game and he was :bnghd::bnghd::bnghd:

I watched that game last night too (Texas v. A&M) and I was struck by several things:

1) A&M is better than I've been giving them credit for.

2) Acie Law is good...why haven't I heard that name before??

3) Durant is good too. It was odd though, his stat line at the end of the game was STRONG (27 and 13 or something like that?), but it never felt like he was DOMINATING the game. I can't decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing...

4) It's a shame that Texas will never realize their potential. I think they're the first in what will be a long line of teams where you say: Man, if they just stayed together a couple years they would be AWESOME.

5) A&M and Washington State are the same team in different uniforms. AWESOME defense, capable offense. If they met in the tourney: WSU 53, A&M 51.

Its hard to like the Aggies for me because I'm a Longhorn.

I havn't given them enough respect, mainly because the San Antonio paper has been shoving them down my throat.

The Aggie's are always telling me they have this new and improved team in every sport.

PS I really when the guy acted like he was running out the clock, then waited until texas let up and dropped a 3 to end the game.

It kind of reminded me of football when the kept cheap shotting our QB.

Those 2 things just helped remind me why I HATE them, even in a win they can't do it with any shread of class

But they are a top 5 team in the Country in BBall so I will

Originally posted by Essedarius
I feel like it is impossible to bet against Florida right now.

They have the experience, a wicked front line with Noah and Horford, the best defender in the game with a healthy Brewer, and a strong point in Green.

I think Wisconsin and UCLA are susceptible to lapses in scoring.
North Carolina and Ohio State are raw (although by tournament time...)
I'm just not a believer in Pitt...Gray just wouldn't be able to match up with the Noahs and Odens of the world (to be fair...who can?).

Don't get me wrong, any of those teams have a real shot.

I just don't see Florida losing when it's all on the line.

Tennessee Vols already wooped them once and just won today against Virginia. Their going to the sweet 16.
So watch out Gators coach Pearl and the Vols are on a mission,

Butler's still in it. Watch out for the Bulldogs!

(Okay, so I'm a homer. Sue me. )

I love watching Butler play. Great coaching and great teamwork. They're as fundamentally sound as any team you're likely to see. I don't realistically see them beating Florida, but if they could...

Originally posted by Royal76
Its hard to like the Aggies for me because I'm a Longhorn.

I havn't given them enough respect, mainly because the San Antonio paper has been shoving them down my throat.

The Aggie's are always telling me they have this new and improved team in every sport.

They say that every year, and have since 1939. I guess they do have a pretty good BBall team this year.

Don't worry Horn, we will keep beating them to keep their heads from getting too large..heh

I was at the ohio state florida basketball game. Dude The gators dominated them worse than our football team in that other championship I would love to see a rematch but I think the outcome would be the same well maybe a 10 point game this time. Yea them gator boys are hot!

Originally posted by GiantPanda1979
I was at the ohio state florida basketball game. Dude The gators dominated them worse than our football team in that other championship

I would love to see a rematch but I think the outcome would be the same well maybe a 10 point game this time. Yea them gator boys are hot!

The Gators are in baby. Just beat Oregon. I lived on St Pete Beach (FLA) with some roommates from Cleveland and the entire football season built up and up between us (to their dismay). I, for one, am hoping for another game against them but just for my buddies sake. They really deserva another thumpin for waht they tried to put me through,

I guess you can tell by my name I'm a lil biased though...

Go Gators!