It's That Time Of Year Again

Do you feel it in the air, cause I do. It's basketball season ladies and gentlemen, and especially for fans of national powerhouse teams this is the time of year when we finally get to distract ourselves from our underachieving football team with a great set of basketball teams.

Last night marked the first exhibition game for the defending national champions and it was pretty much as expected, a win that showed a disjointed effort and lacked any real excitement. What it did showcase however was a team in desperate need of a backup point guard behind Shabazz Napier, a position that Ryan Boatwright was supposed to fill before his eligibility came under question. Lamb played point for parts of this game and the offense was not nearly the same as it was with him as the swing man. The talent at every position is undoubtedly higher than it was a year ago and with the development of the younger players coupled with the championship experience of the older players this team has real potential, noted emphatically by their number four preseason ranking.

So what can be taken away from this game, well that Calhoun has his work cut out for him. We've seen extremely talented UConn teams fall to live up to their potential in the past, losing to George Mason is hard to forget, and it isn't uncommon to see it happen in college basketball. Ohio State was widely regarded the best team entering the tournament last year while Kentucky and North Carolina were more talented and none of them made it to the championship game. So for this Huskies team to truly defend it's title from other powerhouse teams in the Big East and then in the tournament they'll need to establish themselves within their roles because unlike last year one player doesn't need to carry the load offensively and the defense looks to be much improved and much longer. Seriously the big men on this team are enormous and even our shooting guard and small forward are lanky as anything, try to dribble into that mess.

I'm excited for the actual season to start and look forward to seeing how this team works to come together in the next few months as they look to repeat as national champs.