College basketball insider: Georgia State, conference champ?
Georgia State's Ron Hunter: Setting his cap for a title? (AJC photo by Phil Skinner.)
(A word of explanation: This feature was part of our first weekly college basketball package, which is scheduled to run every Tuesday in the print AJC. I offer it to you in the interest of full digital disclosure.)
Hoops hysterics
1. Who’s the third-best team (behind North Carolina and Duke) in the ACC? Right now it’s Virginia, but there’s some question as to how the deliberative Cavaliers have gotten to 14-1. Their only win over a ranked team came against Michigan, and their loss was to unranked TCU. Their next two games are on the road — at Duke and then at Georgia Tech. We’ll know more soon.
2. Who’s the second-best team (behind Kentucky) in the SEC? Florida lost its conference opener at Tennessee. Mississippi State lost its conference opener at Arkansas. The team to watch is Vanderbilt, which lost four times in pre-conference play (twice in overtime) but has won five in a row and has gotten big man Festus Ezeli back from a knee injury.
3. Can Georgia State really win the Colonial? A confession: I rolled my eyes when Panthers coach Ron Hunter told me his team could take its conference, but let’s look now. Georgia State, picked to finish 11th in the 12-team CAA in a preseason coaches’ poll, just played the teams picked first, second and third — and it beat Drexel and VCU and gave George Mason a rough ride on the road.
My Super Sweet Sixteen
1. Syracuse: Is this Jim Boeheim’s best team since the one-and-done season of Carmelo Anthony?
2. Kentucky: Is this John Calipari’s best team since … er, the overstuffed UK crew of 2009- 2010?
3. North Carolina: The towering Tar Heels might win the ACC by three games. If not four.
4. Indiana: The again-hurryin’ Hoosiers keep winning big games and influencing people.
5. Ohio State: The Buckeyes are a very good team that doesn’t get nearly enough notice.
6. Baylor: The schedule keeps getting tougher, but the Bears remain undefeated.
7. Michigan State: The Spartans lost their first two games but haven’t lost since.
8. Missouri: That weird Frank Haith hire doesn’t look quite so weird now, does it?
9. Duke: The Blue Devils had to work hard to beat Georgia Tech after losing to Temple.
10. Murray State: Is this the swiftest band of Racers since the days of Popeye Jones (circa 1990)?
11. Virginia: The Cavaliers’ eye-opening 14-game winning streak gets tested this week by Duke.
12. Georgetown: A 11-game Hoya winning streak was halted at West Virginia. (Update: Georgetown also lost at home last night to Cincinnati.)
13. UNLV: The Runnin’ Rebels will ride that November upset of North Carolina all season.
14. Kansas: The Jayhawks haven’t lost since being upset in Kansas City by Davidson.
15. UConn: Jim Calhoun returned from his suspension just in time to lose at Rutgers.
16. Louisville: Unbeaten as of Dec. 27, the sinking Cardinals have dropped three of four.
By Mark Bradley
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74 comments Add your comment
Dawgington
January 10th, 2012
3:22 pm
@Times have changed
You are Georgia State, nobody cares.
times have changed
January 10th, 2012
3:40 pm
@Dawgington…funny ‘nobody’ has commented 50 times on here…go figure.
By the way, you are uga, nobody cares…about your bball team
Dawgington
January 10th, 2012
3:48 pm
BB? This is football country.
Greg
January 10th, 2012
4:02 pm
The CAA is a one bid league and it’s going to be tough for State to run the table at the conference tourney in Richmond, where VCU and GMU will be well represented in the stands and GSU might have 12 fans there. That said, GSU does have a chance and, even if they don’t win the tourney, they should end up with a good enough record for NIT or one of the other postseason tourneys. That’s more than any other team in Georgia will do.
times have changed
January 10th, 2012
4:09 pm
college football season ended yesterday…oh and i didn’t notice uga in that game.
Still, I wouldn’t care if this was lacrosse country I support my schools teams (notice the plurality) and not just their football team like most groupie uga fans that never attended the school and may not be able to point athens out on a map
times have changed
January 10th, 2012
4:12 pm
I wouldn’t care if this is lacrosse country. I support my schools teams (note the plural) and not just the football team like most groupie uga fans that never attended the school and probably couldn’t point athens out on a map
GSUBB
January 10th, 2012
4:12 pm
Don’t let facts get in your way Greg. The CAA had 3 teams in the tourney last season, one made the Final 4. This is high mid-major basketball.
GSU is in Atlanta
January 10th, 2012
4:27 pm
Mark,
You should definitely try and make it out to the game on Thursday to see what Ron Hunter has this team doing.
Go Panthers, beat UNCW, and get another streak started!
Really?
January 10th, 2012
4:54 pm
Dawg this that or whatever names you all use. If you didn’t care about GSU you wouldn’t even bother to comment… you hear footsteps. Live with it. UGA has football, no basketball and the academic standings of GSU is rising fast, and UGA slumping fast… you need a new President. The research at UGA is falling even fasting than the general academics except for infectious diseases and the carbohydrate center. Just the opposite at GSU. Live with it and watch.
Paul in NH
January 10th, 2012
4:59 pm
Congratulations to Georgia State on their unexpectedly good season so far. I am looking forward to see their FB team visit Durham soon.
Panama
January 10th, 2012
5:29 pm
Dawg fans…
I see you’re mad…because you paid for an arena renovation and your BB team sucks. Ha! Might be a god thing that you told Hunter no to a game.
Panama
January 10th, 2012
5:31 pm
@Dawgington
Its FB country when you guys win 10 games. Strangely it isnt so much when you win 6. Ha!
tyger
January 10th, 2012
5:57 pm
Falcon Fans Rise Up!!!
- If Mgt. can’t make the tough decisions, rise up!
- If Mgt. stands behind a scoreless QB, rise up!
- If Mgt. bypasses another Heisman QB, rise up!
- If Mgt. produces an inferior product, rise up!
- If Mgt. sells an inferior/defective product, rise up!
- If you were humiliated Sunday, rise up!
- If you value your hard earned $, rise up!
- If you cant take it anymore, rise up!
- If your’e tired of being sick and tired, rise up!
- Why support their half-a$$ efforts???
BariBlue
January 10th, 2012
6:44 pm
Thanks for the write up, Mark. Ron Hunter has really turned this GSU team into something special. This team has great potential and I’m sure they are very appreciative for the good press. Teams like this help grow a fan base and GSU will definitely get there one day.
GSU is in Atlanta
January 10th, 2012
7:43 pm
@Really
Fix the grammar in your argument because it doesn’t help represent the academics at GSU that you are talking about.
GStateBen
January 10th, 2012
9:10 pm
Thanks for the coverage Mark!
Love to see you in the Sports Arena Thursday night.
Go Panthers 88
January 10th, 2012
9:48 pm
Go Panthers!
- Biloxi-Gulfport & South Mississippi News
January 10th, 2012
10:11 pm
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JSS
January 10th, 2012
11:14 pm
Who said the Colonial was “One bid league?” Three bids last year…
slimseville
January 11th, 2012
1:20 am
We’ve got a good shot! Go State!!
BulldogBen
January 11th, 2012
9:06 am
So when do we get to start applying heat to Mark Fox?
That performance last was PUTRID.
How many years must we endure “rebuilding”?
STATEment
January 11th, 2012
9:34 am
Never would have thought that GState would have been able to get off to a start like this regardless of who they were playing. Their roster does not really have much talent on it and no one that can really score the basketball. The thing is they are all buying in and playing with as much effort as I have seen a team play with in a while. Let’s hope that they keep playing at full speed and improve their scoring and this year could be one for the books.
I am extremely excited to see what this team looks like in 2 or 3 years with Hunter’s recruits / style fully in place!
Let’s pack the Sports Arena Thursday!!!! SELL OUT!!!
GSU Bleed Blue
January 11th, 2012
10:04 am
Pretty sure all negative comments are coming from Southern trolls disguising themselves as UGA alumni/fans, but if we are talking UGA basketball or college basketball in Georgia then you really have to give all -the awards to Ga Tech. I think the true UGA fans posting on this blog are ripping on the AJC… not Ga State. As a State alumni you can’t tell me your seriously debating who is historically better in football or basketball Georgia or Georgia State. How the 2 schools would enter the same conversation is ridiculous. Besides I think 99% of UGA fans/alumni could care less about basketball to begins with… for example average attendance at a UGA home basketball game is 8,250. Average attendance for a UGA home football game is 92,746. Well I guess with those attendance number the percentage would be more like 90% instead of 99%.
Tony
January 13th, 2012
9:10 am
Funny thing, several years back when I was a student, seems I remember a Coach Lefty and his boys taking a bus ride out to Athens and kicking the he|| out of some redneck hounds. Then, the next season, them boys from Athens came on out here to Atlanta and got whupped again in the Dome.
Odd how that sticks with a fella. Now, reckon what would happen if them State boys took on the rich kids from east of Atlanta again this season? I think Lefty’s legacy would live on pretty well, how ’bout ya’ll?