College Basketball Season is Upon Us

The Syracuse University basketball team actually took the floor yesterday, facing off against former SU great Stevie Thompson's DII Cal State-LA team. As you can expect, it wasn't much of a game.

I'm not going to go into much detail about the game, because it's hard to learn much when you're playing a team that has a 5'5" point guard who looks like a muppet and back up center who banks in 3 pointers and was accurately described by the Glaude as looking like a lumberjack.

A couple of quick observations:

* Obviously it will be hard to keep James Southerland off the floor. The 6'8" freshman who looks like Preston Shumpert, both in physical build and the release point on his jumper, was sensational, scoring 19 points off the bench and going a perfect 5 for 5 from 3 point range.

* Brandon Triche is going to be a solid player, he's built like a tank. However, I did notice the release point on his jumper is a little unconventional, basically he shoots the ball off his shoulder. At 6'4" he can still shoot it over most guards, but it's a little low.

* Arinze wasn't really aggressive, but then again, maybe he was worried about tripping over the smurfs on the court.

* Scoop Jardine played well - he'll never be a jump shooter, but he can make free throws, dish the ball and get to the rim. As advertised, he looks thinner and in better shape.

* Wes Johnson had a couple of sick dunks - someone get them up on YouTube please.

For those that haven't yet seen Southerland, here he is dunking in AAU ball.