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By
Shawn Siegel
njhoopsnet@aol.com
February 20th, 2005
College
Basketball Surprises
Providence? Florida State?
UNLV? Why did we think these teams were good at the beginning of
the year? Who knows, but we do know that each year there are
dozens of teams that fail to expectations.
Here are a list of the
Top 10 most disappointing teams in the country. Check back later
in the week for the Top 10 teams who have exceeded expectations.
Top
10 Worst Surprises
10 –
Illinois-Chicago
The Flames were great last
year, running off 24 wins and 12 in the Horizon League. With star guard Cedrick Banks back for his senior year, big things were again expected
in Chi-town. An opening day 1-point loss to Georgia Tech had fans
optimistic. Now we just realize that Georgia Tech was overrated and
that the Flames have been an average HL team. Banks' game has been
particularly off, as his FG% has dropped from .440 to .383 and his 3P%
has dropped from .431 to .337.
9 –
Indiana
Regardless of what the talking
heads on ESPN tell you, this team does not deserve to be within 1,000
miles of an NCAA Tournament site in March. The Hoosiers have one road
win all year, and that came over lowly Purdue. And even if they beat
struggling Michigan on the road today, they’ll still be on this list.
8 -
Florida State
Perhaps FSU is only this list
because we here at CHN mistakenly thought the ‘Noles might be one of the
country’s surprise teams of the year. Well, they were surprising..
surprisingly bad. At least FSU wasted no time showing they’d
disappoint, losing to Texas A&M Corpus Christi back in November.
7 –
Syracuse
You might be wondering how a
team with 22 wins who at one point ran off 13 in a row could be on
this list. The answer is that I thought Syracuse was a serious National
Title contender, but their recent play has been that of a middling Big
East team. The Orange are 2-4 in their last 6 Big East games, and Gerry
McNamara has been in a major funk. He’s 12 for 46 from three in his
last 5 games, and you don’t need a calculator to realize that’s barely
over 25%.
6 –
St Louis
This pick might surprise you,
but the Billikens have historically been a solidly overachieving team that
finishes in the upper half of the CUSA. Forget that. After winning 18
games last year, SLU has struggled to a 7-17 record behind a putrid
offensive attack.
5–
UNLV
With a new big name coach (Lon
Kruger) and some highly respected seniors (like Odartey Blankson) we
thought UNLV was primed for a big year following their 18-win 03-04
campaign. Unfortunately, the Rebels have only recently been able to get
above .500 thanks to a 3-game winning streak.
4 –
Princeton
We thought Princeton would be
right there competing for another Ivy League title. Competitive
early losses on the road at
Duke, Syracuse, and Temple still had us believing. But suddenly, the Tigers
got off to a surprisingly bad 1-5 start in the Ivy League, including an
embarrassing collapse at Penn.
3 –
Providence
The Friars are not nearly as
bad as their conference record suggests. But, lots of close losses
still adds up to a shockingly bad 1-11 Big East record. Gomes
solid 22 and 9
have gone to waste. Was it a mistake for him to return to school?
2 -
Georgia Tech
Sure, injuries have hurt this
team, but the Jackets have one conference win of note (at home over Wake
Forest) and no non-conference wins of note. Before beating ACC
doormat Clemson last
week, GT’s only other road win on the season was a 1-point squeaker at
UIC.
1 -
Rhode Island
The Rams are simply
awful. After winning 20 games and making the NIT in 2004, Rhode Island
is 4-18 right now. To make things worse, they lost to lowly Saint
Bonaventure, who has just 2 wins on the season!
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