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Feeling the heat
Sports Illustrated senior writer Grant Wahl will answer your questions every Wednesday during the college basketball season. Click here to send him a question. PAYNES BAY, Barbados -- Call me a moron, but I didn't want to wait in line for an "official" taxi at the airport here on Monday, so when a random guy asked me if I needed a ride I took him up on it. For the next hour we dodged free-ranging goats, Yugo-sized potholes and other similarly psychotic drivers as we took "the back roads" (driver's phrase), supposedly to my hotel. But just as I was envisioning my bloody demise in a bug-infested sugarcane field, we came upon a stunning sight. Basketball players, a dozen of them, none older than 15, stood circled around a rickety goal in a roadside park. One by one, they took the ball, dribbled toward the hoop and dunked, some with such ferocity that the entire goal (regulation height, I might add) rattled for 10 seconds afterward. As I stared slack-jawed, I couldn't help but wonder: How many scenes like this were being repeated in other remote places around the world? How much raw talent goes ignored, here and elsewhere? And, most pressingly, how much longer would their goal remain standing? In case you're wondering, we did eventually reach my hotel, where I now sit typing the 'Bag on a veranda overlooking the Caribbean, with the waves rolling gently ashore and a steel-drum band playing next to the pool. (And you thought soccer wasn't very interesting?) (Which reminds me, before we get to the 'Bag, a little cross-promotion: The biggest U.S. men's soccer game in two years, the Yanks' win-or-else World Cup qualifier vs. Barbados, is on Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN2. Watch it.) As for this week's questions, I have one for you: Where's the love, guys? I give you my unvarnished opinion that Duke will regret signing Mike Dunleavy Jr. over Stanford's Casey Jacobsen, and you all rip me a new one -- all of you except one David Bierman of Durham, N.C., a Duke grad (of all things) who writes, "You are so right. Dunleavy may be a media darling but he's NOT THAT GOOD. My friends and I used to joke about a straight-up trade with Stanford for Jacobsen." Lesson learned, naysayers. David just got his name in the 'Bag, and you didn't. So there. Next question: How would you see this year's amazingly talented Arizona team stacking up against the great UNLV team of Larry Johnson, Greg Anthony and Stacey Augmon?
Well, I do know that Arizona's Jason Gardner has already talked about his hope to be as good those UNLV teams of 1990-91, and I think he might be underestimating his own team. Look at the matchups. At the point, I'll take Gardner over Anthony any day for his unflappability; Gilbert Arenas isn't the pure shooter Anderson Hunt was, but he's more dangerous off the dribble; Richard Jefferson can't match Augmon's defensive prowess, but he's loads better on offense; Michael Wright is a poor-man's LJ already, though not as dominant; and Loren Woods gives 'Zona the athletic 7-footer UNLV never had. Besides, Arizona's bench is better. Whom would you rather have, Gene Edgerson or Moses Scurry? (Bless Moses for his rebound screams, but give me Big Gene for his elbows.) And there's no contest when choosing between Luke Walton or Travis (The Thin Man) Bice. Sorry, Tark. By the end of the year, Arizona will be a better team than your Rebels were. Is this going to be another year where the smaller schools (Gonzaga, Pepperdine, Indiana State, Tulsa) have a chance to hang with the big boys? If so, who are your choices?
It happens every year, Nick, and thankfully this season will be no different. My sleeper teams include Marshall (ranked 'em No. 19 last week in my Top 20); Austin Peay (don't miss Trenton Hassell if you ever get the chance); SMU ( Jeryl Sasser is a definite future pro) and, once again, Pepperdine (despite the Waves' loss to Indiana on Tuesday). If you get your hands on a copy of Sports Illustrated's college preview this week, you'll notice there's something of a pattern to my choices, too. What do you think about St. John's chances? I think Omar Cook will be better than Erick Barkley was and I think the Red Storm should definitely be in your Top 20.
If Cook stays past his freshman year, then, sure, I'd say he'd be better than Barkley. You don't want to take too much out of two games in New York last week, but Cook was as good as advertised on the ball, and he showed more than anybody had expected with his shot. As for putting the Johnnies in the Top 20, that's where I draw the line. Are you telling me that it didn't help immensely to be playing at home in the Garden last week? Let's put St. John's in the 25-40 range and see if Cook can make them even better as the season moves on. How do you see the Cincinnati Bearcats faring in this post-Kenyon season? They lost a lot -- three players to the pros -- but they had a pretty good recruiting season as well. Bob Huggins has a way of taking the next kid in line and getting him ready for the spotlight. Look how Kenyon blossomed after Danny Fortson left! Any chance of these guys getting out of the second round?
I feel really good about the Bearcats on the perimeter, where Steve Logan is a splendid shooter and Kenny Satterfield runs the point with abandon. As for the interior, you'd better hope Huggins finds somebody who can improve as much as Martin did. Maybe that guy will be Antwan Jones, a 6-8, sweet-shooting juco transfer I wrote about in an SI story last spring. But Jones has been gimpy lately, so who knows? Cincy's reliance on its guards makes me wonder if the Bearcats will maximize their advantages and go back to pressing more teams full court this year. What will happen in the NCAA tournament is anybody's guess. Huggins always gets the most out of his players during the season, but his teams always seem to peak too early. (Witness four straight second-round exits, including last year's big asterisk.) If the Bearcats can find a reliable big guy by the end of the season, though, this might be the year to shed the albatross. Until then, they're not in my Top 20. NOR ARE UTAH AND Wake Forest, which irked a couple of readers. Jared Taggart of Salt Lake City writes, "How can you not rank Utah in the Top 20? Rick Majerus is the best at taking so-so-to-medium talent and molding it into a fine-tuned machine." And Dale of Littleton, Colo., writes, "How are you and pretty much every other analyst out there overlooking Wake Forest? With all five starters back and a solid returning bench, I think the Deacons are right up there with UNC and Kansas." Well, folks, let me explain. Utah and Wake Forest just missed my cut, and they did for a couple of reasons. In Utah's case, whenever a team is relying heavily on two guys who didn't play last year (Mormon missionary Britton Johnsen and Duke transfer Chris Burgess ), I think it's going to take some time for them to regain their game fitness -- both physically and mentally. As for Wake, I like Robert O'Kelley a lot, but this is the same team that couldn't even make the NCAA tournament last year from a conference that gets every benefit of the doubt come Selection Sunday. Utah and Wake are a lot like Cincinnati: They could be solid No. 10-20 teams for most of the season, but they're not in my book, not yet. FINALLY, A FEW INTRIGUING morsels from an amusing week of letters. Derrick Jones of Kansas City, Kans., writes that after playing with the Rush brothers, Kareem and JaRon, in high school, he isn't surprised at all by my assertion last week that Kareem may turn out to be better than his more hyped big bro. "All JaRon ever did was jack threes from all over and dominate 2A basketball players with his size and long arms," Jones writes. "Kareem wasn't as large as JaRon and actually had to learn to shoot and play basketball." I'm with you, pal, and thanks for the insight, but then you lost me with this one: "Wish you would let Stanford prove itself before letting your inner alumnus out." Derrick, my man, I may say "dude" too much, but that doesn't mean I went to Stanford. Meanwhile, Karen Raper of Cleveland, Okla., was miffed about my exclusion of Tulsa from the Top 20. More than miffed, actually: "You media people are so ignorant when it comes to fairly assessing excellence. It seems to me that you add a factor that the team has to be located in a populous area -- maybe to appease your advertisers. Well, excellence can and does occur in sparsely populated areas." Karen, you're right. I'm part of a media conspiracy. We believe that excellence never originates from sparsely populated areas. Areas like Oklahoma or South Dakota or Kansas, which happens to be ... my birthplace. BUT KAREN DOESN'T WIN the Dim-Witted Note of the Week Award, which goes to Mike Rose of Ann Arbor, Mich., who got me where it hurts most. My hair. "Sorry, Grant 'I'm too young to need a rug' Wahl, you have Kentucky rated way too low. I take it you haven't seen Jason Parker, Marques Estill and Marvin Stone play yet this year. I will talk to you next week when the Wildcats win the Garden party." Got me there, Mike. (I'm told that women actually dig the aerodynamic look, though. Back me up on this, female 'Bag readers.) You're definitely right about one thing, however: After watching the Wildcats go 0-for-2 in New York, I realize that I did indeed make a mistake in where I ranked them last week. Won't happen again. See you next week. Keep the letters coming ...
Click here to send your college basketball question to Grant Wahl.
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