Welcome to the PPI...Musings about Y2K Coaches vs. Cancer Classic

Welcome to your one-stop shop for college basketball analysis. Over the winter and early spring of 2008-09, I will be watching literally hundreds of games, while constantly updating my 1-342 college rankings, now known as the PREMiere Power Index. The first PPI will be released after December 7th's games.

Yes, it is only November 20th, but there are a ton of good games on already. Currently, the Y2K Sports Coaches vs. Cancer Classic is being held in Madison Square Garden, featuring four traditional NCAA superpowers: Duke, UCLA, Michigan, and mid-major Southern Illinois, who's done some damage in the NCAA. The early matchup (which I'm currently watching) features Duke and Southern Illinois.

An early observation (non-biased of course) is that Duke is not playing like a #5 team in the country. They struggled at home against Rhode Island last Sunday - for the record Rhody was picked to finish 9th in the Atlantic 10 conference. The thing that will plague Duke this year is once again the lack of frontcourt play. Yes, they have a healthy 7'1" Brian Zoubek (hailing from the "Armpit of America" - New Jersey), but he can't do the job himself. Meanwhile, Kyle Singler is not a natural power forward, he is more of a "European" type of forward. If you put him against a natural rebounding guy like Blake Griffin or Luke Harangody (GODY!!!), he would get eaten alive and would get in significant foul trouble. Moreover, this team will always get in trouble away from the friendly confines of Cameron Indoor Stadium, where they are the recipient of some quite ridiculous presents from officials.

The second matchup is Ben Howland's UCLA Bruins against John Beilein's Michigan Wolverines. UCLA is a team that will always be there because they are groomed to play defense first. Howland, even in his Pittsburgh days, won games when his team would score in the 50s and 60s, due to the fact that his team's defense would not give up more than 40-50 points. Yes, the team is younger, but they will make the Sweet 16, like they do every year due to Howland's coaching. Meanwhile, on the other side, Michigan had a very subpar last year, but this is Coach Beilein's second year on this team to get his system implemented. Look for Michigan to have a big-time bounceback season.

So, fasten your seatbelts. This will be a great year. Let the good times roll...