First Impressions of the New Season

Syracuse is a legitimate Final Four contender. The Orange made a huge impression during the first week of their season. They blitzed their way through the Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament at Madison Square Garden, beating two top-25 teams, Mississippi State and Memphis, en route to the title. The one-two punch of Gerry McNamara and Hakim Warrick has been electric and they are proving to be one of the best inside-outside combinations in the country.

Syracuse has a huge advantage because they will not play a game outside the state of New York until a January 10 date with Notre Dame and should be 15-0 heading into that game. The Orange will be an extremely tough team to beat and, along with Connecticut, will dominate the Big East conference. They have a very legitimate shot at making a trip to the Final Four.

Santa Clara will be a dangerous team in the West Coast Conference. The Broncos pulled off the shocker of the early season so far, defeating the then third-ranked Tar Heels at the Pete Newell Challenge. Although Carolina was playing without Raymond Felton, their floor general, it was nonetheless a huge victory for the Broncos.

They then followed that up with an impressive home victory, this time over the Pac-10's Stanford Cardinal. Travis Niesen has been a revelation so far, scoring 26 and 31 points, respectively, in the wins against the Tar Heels and the Cardinal. Keep an eye out for this team.

If Niesen can continue to give the Broncos that type of production in the frontcourt, the Broncos will challenge Gonzaga for the conference title. Also, remember those two victories in March. If the Broncos perform well the rest of the season and are sitting on the NCAA Tournament bubble, those wins over North Carolina and Stanford will look pretty darn good on their resume.

The Arizona Wildcats are not yet playing to their potential. The Wildcats came into the season with high expectations ... and they may yet fulfill them. But they have struggled so far this year, losing to a Virginia team that many picked to finish seventh in the brutal ACC. Next, they went to New York City to participate in the Preseason NIT and again struggled, although they managed to reach the finals. They squeaked by a Michigan team that should be solidly in the middle of the pack in the Big 10 before losing to the No. 1-ranked Wake Forest Demon Deacons.

While there's no shame in losing to the top-ranked team in the country, the Wildcats did not play their best in New York. They played sloppily and shot extremely poorly. They shot just 34% from the field in their last three games and look just a bit out of sorts. They need to tighten things up if they are to fulfill the promise of this team.

St. John's is in a world of trouble. What can you say about the Red Storm? Just when you think there's a light at the end of the tunnel after last season's disaster, the university puts itself on probation for two years amid allegations of players being paid by members of the athletic department.

After last season's highly-publicized strip club and hooker scandal forced the university to expel students and fire coach Mike Jarvis, new coach Norm Roberts knew it would take some time to rebuild his program. However, after allegations by former player Abe Keita that he was paid by members of the athletic department, the school imposed two years of penalties on itself, including the loss of scholarships and a postseason ban for this year.

Although a postseason ban for this season accomplishes nothing, given the talent level on the roster, this season will undoubtedly be one of the worst in the school's storied history and could rival one of the worst in the history of the Division I basketball. Once a giant of the Big East, the Red Storm will be fodder for teams like UConn and Syracuse and will be a non-factor in the Big East for many seasons to come.

The North Carolina Tar Heels are scary good. Okay, they lost to Santa Clara in their season-opener. But, that was without their general, Raymond Felton. He's the catalyst for a team that has the best starting five in the country and is the engine that fuels the most dangerous up-tempo team in the land. With him, the Heels have averaged over 90 points per game and ran through a pretty decent field at the Maui Invitational. Offense will not be a problem for this team, especially as long as Rashad McCants is on the court. McCants is easily the most explosive scorer in the country and when his outside shot is falling, he's unstoppable.

However, this team will go only as far as their defense carries them, and if their jaunt to Maui is any indication, it will be carrying them to the last weekend of the season in St. Louis. The hallmark of coach Roy Williams' teams at Kansas was defense and so far, that's the area in which the Heels have vastly improved from last season. If they continue to show the type of commitment to defense they showed in Maui, there might not be a college team in America that can beat them this year.

The ACC is the best conference in the country, by far. Everyone knew that the ACC boasted the best collection of teams in the country, with North Carolina, Wake Forest, and Georgia Tech all opening the season ranked in the top five of most preseason polls. And so far, neither team has shown anything to disprove those lofty predictions, save for Carolina's little hiccup against Santa Clara.

However, with all the attention being laid at the feet of those three schools, squads like the Maryland Terrapins, Duke Blue Devils, and North Carolina State Wolfpack were left to ask, "What about us?" Well, after watching each team play their first few games, people won't be asking that question too much longer.

Duke, NC State, and Maryland, along with Virginia, have shown that they too are teams to be reckoned with and come conference season, will give the top-three teams all they can handle ... and more. Once the conference season plays itself out and all of these teams finish beating up on each other, there's a very good chance that seven teams from the ACC will get NCAA tournament bids.

The ACC is on the verge of a dream season not unlike the 1984-85 Big East season, the gold standard for conference play in the NCAA Tournament. That year, three teams from the Big East made the Final Four, St. John's, Georgetown, and Villanova. With so many talented teams in the ACC this season, a similar scenario unfolding this year in St. Louis is not out of the question.

The last few weeks has been a very tough time for the world of sports, from the brawl and ensuing riot at the Detroit Pistons/Indiana Pacers game, to the fight between the South Carolina and Clemson football players. However, Thanksgiving is a time for people to reflect on things for which they are grateful.

This week, I'm grateful that the college basketball season has started anew and the first impressions of the new season have been made. Some impressions were good, like North Carolina and Syracuse, while some were bad, like St. John's. However, I give thanks that the season is finally underway and we're once again off on the Road to the Final Four.