I agree that OSU is the prohibitive favorite,but probably not the #1 overall seed in the NCAA tourny again...losing Lighty,Diebler and Lauderdale will weaken them a bit,altho they have a very good class coming in. Still,nothing beats having 4 year starters like these guys were.
With Morris going away...Michigan remains a top 4 team,but will not challenge OSU.
I would agree with the assessment of OSU if they didn't return the two best players in the BIG. Jordan Taylor is good, we will see how good he is without Leuer and others. Buford is the most underrated player, no matter what All-Conference team he is on. Look for him to have an E'tuwan Moore type year, but better. Sullinger has lost a lot of weight from his Jr year in high school. I compare him to Kevin Love, it took Love to year two to know his body after he lost all of his weight, look at him today. Anticipate a more explosive and overall better conditioned Sullinger, that is a scary thought.
Michigan is still probably the second best team in the BIG, unless losing Morris has that big of an effect, with the recruits they have coming in and the experience the return, the non-conference will be up and down for them as they figure out how to replace Morris, but they will be okay. The BIG just isn't going to be as deep.
No team returns the talent and adds the recruits as OSU does this year, they have a chance to be special and yes, better than last year. The No.1 overall seed means nothing to me, they should be a No.1 seed again.
On the Iowa front. I want to believe, like Mulder, that it will be a much better year and with the BIG down that somewhere like 5th is realistic. The problem is, there is still a mentality that has to be changed. Right now the program and its players know losing. The good, there are four players that don't know about Iowa and losing and the four that were brought in last year are already the focal point of the team. The other good is that the players that didn't leave, only one has more than one year of eligibility left. The mentality of Iowa basketball has been changed in one year with Fran and it doesn't look like that will change. Fran is brining in players that are unhearalded, or underrecruited, like Cartwright and Basabe. White/Olaseni fit the mold, White has proven he can play against real competition and Olaseni is having the same things said about him as people did about Basabe.
Iowa will only go as far as Basabe's development. We know what we are going to get from Cartwright every night, we know what we are going to get from Gatens. Basabe has to stay out of foul trouble and be the double double man night in and night out. The incoming freshman give Iowa a lot of options, with shooting, athleticism and shot blocking. Hubbard is going to have a big role weather as a starter or first guy of the bench, but he is unproven at this moment as well. Basabe has to be the focal point, he has to get a steady jumper, better ball handling and the ability to recognize the double team right away. Basabe was the third best freshman in the BIG at the end of the season, but there are a lot of sophomores that are going to have breakout seasons, for Iowa to truly move forward, Basabe has to be the third best sophomore. Maybe this is a lot to put on Basabe, but he has the talent and seemingly, the work ethic, so it shouldn't be all that much.
