First Week of College Games

This week college basketball started its regular season. I've had a chance to watch a few games. Here are some of my early thoughts.

Indiana will be slightly better than most expect. That said, it will be a long year. Northwestern State forced them to turnover the ball way too much. IU got caught in the air with no where to go many times. They have no inside guys to go to offensively. They will probably get out rebounded every game this year.

They will improve a lot over the season. Some of their guards have the athleticism, but made a lot of fundamental errors and Coach Crean will clean that up quickly. IU played everyone tonight so that hurts rhythm between the players. They will shorten their rotation after a couple more games.

Michigan hasn't looked too impressive early. They struggled against Michigan Tech until late and they played a little bit better against Northeastern, who is a solid mid-major team. Manny Harris is the real deal though. He is my pick for Big Ten player of the year. I believe the coaches picked Robbie Hummel from Purdue. Hummel makes Purdue go, but Harris is the most skilled player in the league.

Michigan needs an inside presence. They are bringing Sims off the bench right now, but I think he will end up starting as the year goes on. The reason for my logic in that is they need him on the court as much as possible. If they get their 1-3-1 half court trap working really effectively it could help them win some games they have no business winning since you don't see many 1-3-1 traps throughout the season.

I'll try to get some predictions and previews up here in the next few days.