Sports Weekly Sends OU Dancin’

USA Today’s Sports Weekly has a special college basketball preview on the newsstands.  I picked up a copy today and found something interesting — the magazine has Oakland in the NCAA Tournament.

According to the magazine’s projected bracket, the Golden Grizzlies will be a sixteen seed and take on top seeded North Carolina.  (OU vs. UNC, Part II?)  The magazine also believes that OU will bypass the play-in contest.  Next year, it’s straight onto The Dance.

Now, before we get too excited, let me provide a broader perspective on Sports Weekly’s projections.  The headline above the Summit League preview suggests Oral Roberts will prevail, but watch out for Oakland.

While giving love to the Grizzlies was more than enough to get me to part with five dollars, their ORU guess flies in the face of the prevailing thought.  Nearly everyone else I’ve seen has IUPUI as the conference champion.

Would anyone be surprised if the Golden Eagles won the Summit League?  Nope.  They are the kings until someone dethrones them.  I’m tempted to give the magazine respect for not blindly following the crowd and picking IUPUI.

However, I can’t help but feel the magazine kind of mailed this preview in.  We all know ORU is the premier program in the conference, they always win, so why not just write them down and be done with it?

What muddles the matter further is that Sports Weekly provides a projected order of finish in the Summit and our Golden Grizzlies came out on top.  Their headline for the conference preview implies an ORU repeat with Oakland a possible contender.  Their projected order of finish (which was provided by some organization called the Sports Xchange) has the Grizzlies beating ORU for the title.  Which is it?

Underneath each team in the projected order of finish comes Jerry Palm’s , of CollegeRPI.com fame, prediction.  The magazine used Palm’s analysis to create their pre-season field of 64.  Palm has Oakland in The Dance, so Sports Weekly does as well.

Confused, yet?  Hold on, it gets a bit worse.

Following in the footsteps of ESPN’s Summit League Summer preview, Sports Weekly has Shawn Hopes still on the Grizzlies roster.  As has been well established here, Hopes used up his eligibility at the conclusion of last year.  No matter what the MSM believes, Hopes isn’t a member of the 2007-08 Grizzlies.

The question becomes do Sports Weekly, the Sports Xchange and Mr. Palm think Hopes is still in the black and gold?  If so, wouldn’t his absence alter their predictions?  I would certainly think so.

While I’m happy to see Oakland get some pre-season attention, and love the thought of making the NCAA tournament again, we have to take this all with a grain of salt.  Can we trust a preview that believes OU still has a player that, in fact, has left the program?

There is some other good news for OU fans, though.  Guard Erik Kangas made Sports Weekly’s All-Summit League first team.  That seems to be a consensus opinion at this point.

I was also pleased to see Derrick Nelson’s name in Oakland’s preview, but disappointed to see Johnathon Jones get snubbed.  Not even a mention of JJ?  That ain’t right.

Make of this preview magazine what you will.  You get another single paragraph preview of Oakland.  Even worse it’s a paragraph that includes a player no longer in the program and ignores a freshman All-America point guard.

On the upside, part of the preview has OU winning the Summit League and there’s a full two page pre-season NCAA tournament bracket that has the Golden Grizzlies in the field of 64.

At $5, Sports Weekly’s preview is less than the high gloss annual publications, but if their Summit League preview is any indication, you get what you pay for.  It’s a reminder of why I stopped subscribing when they dumped the Baseball Weekly theme.

TSN Looks At Xavier

The Sporting News’ Mike DeCourcy blogs about Xavier. 

An Early Look At Michigan State

Fox Sports’ Dick Weiss submits a typical September piece on Michigan State.  Spartans’ All-America guard Drew Neitzel is the (deserving) focus of the story.

OU will see plenty of MSU this season.  The Golden Grizzlies travel to East Lansing on Saturday, November 24.  Last year, the Spartans ran the Grizzlies clear out of the gym. 

Oakland also plays in the Spartan Clash on December 22 at The Palace of Auburn Hills.  MSU will take on Texas in the opener and the Grizzlies will face nationally ranked Oregon in the second game of the doubleheader.

CHN’s #72: Michigan

Joel Welser’s ongoing Top 144 list continues over at College Hoops Net.  The seventy-second team in Mr. Welser’s pre-season rankings in none other than the University of Michigan.

Coach Kampe and the team head to Ann Arbor on December 12 to take on Coach Beilein’s side.  The game, according to Michigan’s website, will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.  Tip-off is slated for 7:00pm. 

Xavier Preview

Lindy’s has posted a preview of Xavier’s 2007-08 squad.   (Alright, it’s more of a blog post, but you get the idea.)  Not surprisingly, Xavier is going to be good again. 

The Golden Grizzlies travel south to take on the Musketeers on Wednesday, November 28.

Studying For Michigan

As I’m sure you know, Oakland travels to Ann Arbor this December to take on Michigan.  The Wolverines have issued a summer prospectus that includes a detailed look at their roster.

For those of you diligently studying all of the Golden Grizzlies opposition this year, now might be a good time to brush up on the Wolverines. 

More Duquesne News

CHN’s Joel Welser continues his Top 144 previews with a look a Duquesne University.  The Dukes are in at #77. 

D.U. is going to be pretty good this year, kids.  They are coming into our house two days before Thanksgiving.  This is going to be a rather meaningful regular season affair.  It will not only be important to get a barometer on where the Grizzlies are at, but a win gives OU some more national respect.

Duquesne Links

Duquesne University, one of OU’s opponents this coming season,  has been the subject of a couple of stories in the last week.  First, the Dukes have already begun practice as they are playing over Labor Day weekend in Canada. 

The other AP story picked up by a number of news sources is how the Duquesne players who were shot a year ago are progressing.  Stuard Baldonado’s recovery and return to the team is the focus of the piece.  (An interesting tidbit is that Baldonado is suing the university over the incident.)

Thankfully, it sounds as if all those involved are in various stages of recovery.  This could have been much, much worse.

I hope Grizzlies’ fans will show some love to the DU players during introductions on November 20. 

CHN Previews IUPUI

College Hoops Net continues their pre-season Top 144.  Their favorite to win the Summit League, IUPUI, is ranked #114.  Sounds like the Jaguars have the same questions up front that OU has.

Another Oakland opponent, UW-Green Bay cracks CHN’s rankings at #136.