FEAST WEEK

Contributed by: Jason Dugan

The first official week of college basketball has come and gone. ESPN refers to last week as Feast Week; I like to call it the Basketball Utopia. In my lifetime, there have been many great inventions and discoveries, but whoever came up with the idea or concept for ESPN is at the top of my list.

For Feast Week I worked the Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving, played cards for 8 hours, had family over for Thanksgiving dinner, spent time with my wonderful wife and son, and still found the time to watch some or all of 19 College Basketball games. Forget YouTube, Hybrid Cars or iPODs - the creation of ESPN is the greatest invention of my lifetime.

Here are some of my thoughts on those games:

Syracuse looked good. Johnny Flynn is a Big East POY guaranteed, but I still see Syracuse as a team lacking an identity. They have some good shooters, some good penetrators, good rebounding at times, but no inside scoring or mid-range shooters. Seven Big East wins, tops.

Wichita State is nicknamed the Shockers. I laugh aloud every time I hear it, and oh yea by the way, they can play. They showed lots of hustle and energy in their game against the hated Hoyas of Georgetown. For those of you that don't know what a Shocker is imagine if someone tried to use you as a bowling ball, and you liked it. I cannot wait until New Mexico State changes their nickname to the Dirty Sanchez’s’

Florida could be a really good team this year. Nick Calathes looked like the absolute best player on the floor in both games I saw him play, and reminded me a little of Larry Legend. The ability to dominate without jaw dropping athleticism, just really good at everything.

The mustache on Aron Baynes from Washington State, let's just hope that no children go missing in Washington because he now fits the description of the suspect. If he owns a van then it is certain that he will spend 48 hours in lockup answering questions.

The Washington Huskies play as if they just met each other 5 minutes before the game and called next. Their point guard is named Isaiah Thomas; maybe he will ruin the Washington program like his namesake has done everywhere he has been since retiring.

How does a team like Notre Dame gets one player that is willing to be physical and all of a sudden they are considered a "tough" team? If you start three players over 6'8" and only one of them averages more than five rebounds a game, and if only one of them shoots from the paint more than from behind the arc, you are not a physical team. Hey, these are not my rules, just the rules.

The best team by far was PITT. Name one other team that held an opponent to 100 points less than their early season best. You cannot do it.