Gophers, Jackets show much promise

Sports Illustrated senior writer Grant Wahl answers your college basketball questions every Wednesday. Click here to send him a question.

We'll start off this week with a question from Ed G. in Boulder, Colo.: "Last year you nailed UConn as a young, talented team that could become very dangerous by tourney time. Do you see any teams out there this season that have that kind of potential?"

Two of the teams you're looking for -- Minnesota and Georgia Tech -- happen to be meeting on Wednesday night in Minneapolis. Check 'em out. Both the Gophers and Yellow Jackets have young stars-on-the-verge (Rick Rickert for Minnesota, Chris Bosh and Jarrett Jack for Georgia Tech). Both teams have already posted look-at-me wins this season against Georgia. Both have coaches who are ready to break out in a major way (Dan Monson for Minnesota, Paul Hewitt for Tech), and both will only get better as the season progresses and they slog through character-building tours of the Big Ten and ACC. They probably won't win their conferences, but each could do some serious damage in March.

Random thoughts

I actually find myself agreeing with Seth Davis' explanation for the troubles Kansas has had out of the gate. My additional two cents: Don't underestimate how tough it is to suddenly step into a vocal leadership position. Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison are marvelous players (and good guys), but Drew Gooden was the vocal leader of the Jayhawks a year ago. Trust me, I spent 10 days behind closed doors with them, and Gooden was the guy who would speak up in the locker room before tipoff. Assuming that role may take some time for Hinrich and Collison, who by their nature are quiet guys. ... Just in case you forgot: The beauty of college hoops is that more than 300 teams can still win the national title, folks. (In other words, just about everybody but Michigan.) ... Give all the love you want to 4-0 San Diego, but let's get the school's nickname right: It's the Toreros. ... Mid-major we knew would be good: Creighton. Mid-majors we thought would be good (and haven't been): Penn and Pepperdine. ... Does Illinois's Luther Head get more SportsCenter highlights per point scored than any other player in the country?

Moving on...

Are the second five on Arizona's bench a Top 25 team?
—Matthew Suhr, Atlanta

Funny, this came up way back in early October when I was discussing 'Zona's sick depth with 'Cats center Channing Frye. "Even our scout team could beat a top team," Frye claimed. Only when I gave him the raised eyebrow did he backtrack. "Well," he said, "maybe not a Top 25 team. Gotta watch that." Fact is, bulletin-board fears notwithstanding, I suspect Frye's first statement reflected his true belief. And you know what? The 'Cats' second five really could hang with a lot of Top 25 teams. If everyone's healthy, you're looking at Will Bynum at the point, superfrosh Hassan Adams and Andre Iguodala on the wings, and Isaiah Fox and Dennis Latimore down low.

Bynum may turn the ball over more than Jason Gardner, but he has the instincts of a pure scorer. Adams and Iguodala are going to be stars when they get the chance (maybe sooner than you think), and Fox and Latimore are two of the steadiest sophs in the West. Match these guys up against the starting fives of the teams ranked 16-25, and it says here that "Arizona B" would win at least half of the matchups.

In the wake of the self-imposed penalties, does Tommy Amaker have the patience to stay at Michigan and turn the program around? I'm worried that the Wolverines may be turning into a perennial Big Ten doormat.
—Steve Ewing, Jackson, Mich.

If this were 10 or 15 years ago, I might have wondered if Amaker would want to stick around. But college hoops is so much more fluid these days that remarkable turnarounds (see: North Carolina) are much more likely from one year to the next. Remember, Michigan has one of the nation's best recruiting classes coming in next year -- a good thing, since the Wolverines are off to a miserable 0-4 start. The only way Amaker would be hamstrung in the long term is if the NCAA decides to hit Michigan by taking away scholarships. If that happens, it could be several years before the Wolverines can recover. After all, LSU only now is breaking free of its scholarship sanctions following the Lester Earl fiasco.

Charlie Coles unplugged

I just wanted to commend you on your Sports Illustrated feature on Miami (Ohio) coach Charlie Coles. I covered Ohio University for two years and Coles' 30-minute press conferences were looked upon with great anticipation. For those who don't know -- i.e., just about everyone outside the MAC -- he's the hidden jewel of college hoops. Give us another story you had to leave out.
—Jon Greenberg, Yuma, Ariz.

Thanks, Jon, and you're right. Guys like Coles are what make college basketball great. If you missed my article or don't know about Coles, perhaps the best way to describe him is by calling him the John Chaney of the Midwest -- a wise, old sage who speaks in italics and can entertain you for hours with his delightfully meandering stories. (Coles even has Chaney's taste for early-morning practices.) Anyway, here are a couple of B-sides from the man himself:

"The first thing about a coach is he has to be able to get up early. Every good coach I've ever had, they've had more energy than anybody in town. The biggest thing I'm proud of -- I'll never win a national championship; hell, I don't know if I'll last here -- is that I've had a triple-bypass, a heart attack, arrhythmia, all these things, and I'm still coaching. No matter how bad things have gotten, I'm still here."

Then Coles segued into one of his favorite riffs. "I didn't decide when things got tough to spend quality time with my family. That kills me when guys say all of a sudden, 'I'm giving this up to spend quality time with my family.' The greatest story with that was when John Madden quit coaching football -- and his kids didn't want to be bothered with him! Both my kids live within 10 miles of here. I talk to them every day on the phone. I see my grandkids every other day. So I've never had to use that. That's America's favorite thing: quality time. I'd like to follow these guys with a camera and say, 'Time for Junior!' They're all playing golf!"

And finally: "I had a kid last year -- one of my all-time favorites -- from Detroit, Brian Edwards. Great guy. Didn't play as much as he thought he would, but you know what? He graduated. I don't know if there's any kid I've coached who I had more respect for. He's working in Chicago now for Black & Decker. He told me last year, 'You know, I may try to play some ball overseas.' I said, 'If you do, I don't want to talk to you. Son, your talent is you need to be sitting behind some kind of desk. Leading. Taking on some inner-city problems in Chicago, because you're the kind of guy people will listen to.' He's a young kid, well-mannered, had nothing but respect from this campus. The one thing I think I can do as well as any coach in the country is tell a kid, 'Hey, look, you're not quite as good as you thought you were, son. I love you, and you're one of the most fascinating people I've ever met, and go do your job.' That's hard. But I don't mind telling them that, because I've had people tell me that. When you coach somebody, you're basically coaching him for life."

Parlor game 2002-03 (cont.)

Thanks for all your responses on the excellent parlor game proposed last week by Jeff Lewis from Plymouth, Minn., asking to list the best college players since 1985 by uniform number. Couple of things before we dig in:

1. For all of you who wrote in complaining about the absence of Wilt Chamberlain, David Thompson, Michael Jordan, etc., READ THE RULES! Only players after the year 1985 are allowed -- I never saw Thompson play in college, and I'm not about to act like I have. (Hence the ground rules.)

2. The players are chosen for their college feats. Remember: In this column, the NBA doesn't exist.

3. I've got a lot of arcana stored in my noggin, but uniform numbers aren't part of it. Nor am I going to spend the hours necessary to do the exhaustive research. Last week's list was Mr. Lewis', not mine, and even he admitted it probably needed some work. That's why we asked for your submissions, which we're posting below (changes from Jeff's original list in bold, other suggestions in parentheses). Debate away!

0: Drew Gooden (over Jerome Moiso)
00: Tony Delk (over Mookie Blaylock and Eric Montross)
1: Penny Hardaway (over Jared Jeffries)
2: Dajuan Wagner
3: Chris Jackson (over Allen Iverson)
4: Larry Johnson (over Chris Webber and Kenyon Martin)
5: Jason Kidd (over Ed Cota)

10: Mike Bibby (over Kirk Hinrich, Tim Hardaway and Sam Cassell)
11: Bobby Hurley
12: Steve Alford (over Kenny Anderson and Anderson Hunt)
13: Glenn Robinson
14: Jeff Hornacek
15: Matt Harpring (over Lou Roe and Vince Carter)

20: Gary Payton (over LaPhonso Ellis and Damon Stoudamire)
21: Tim Duncan
22: Jason Williams
23: Steve Francis (over Chris Carrawell)
24: Jamal Mashburn (over Johnny Dawkins)
25: Danny Manning

30: Rasheed Wallace (over Bo Kimble and Scotty Thurman)
31: Shane Battier (over Ed O'Bannon and Reggie Miller)
32: Christian Laettner (over Sean Elliott)
33: Grant Hill (over Shaquille O'Neal, Alonzo Mourning and Antawn Jamison)
34: Len Bias (over Reggie Williams and Ray Allen)
35: Danny Ferry (over Armon Gilliam)

40: Calbert Cheaney (over Joseph Forte)
41: Glen Rice
42: Elton Brand (over Brad Daugherty and Jerry Stackhouse)
43: Pervis Ellison
44: Hank Gathers (over Derrick Coleman and John Wallace)
45: Raef LaFrentz

50: David Robinson
51: Lawrence Funderburke (can anyone help us out here?)
52: Terry Mills (or here?)
53: Chris Mihm (over Loy Vaught, who actually wore No. 35; for that matter, Mihm wore No. 4 -- could somebody please come up with a better #53?) 54: Rodney Rogers
55: Dikembe Mutombo

Any civil suggestions, comments, send 'em here. If we have enough changes next week, we'll do a final rundown.

Station break: Three random things