The road to New Orleans begins

By Alan Rubenstein Sports Central Columnist

We enter the 2002-03 season with a significant change in the way teams will be required to schedule their games. The new "two-in-four" rule will limit the amount of in-season exempt tournament teams who will be permitted to participate in to two every four years.

This will have a major impact in various popular tournaments such as the Maui Classic, the Great Alaska Shootout, and the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic. Some teams had to pull out of tournaments while other tournaments had to restructure their formats. The Coaches vs. Cancer Classic is going from a four-team, two-day traditional single-elimination tournament to an eight-team, two-day, four-game exhibition.

The 2002-03 season begins with Maryland defending their first national championship and Arizona and Kansas as the odds-on favorites to reach New Orleans. Oklahoma, Duke, and Maryland appear to be the leaders among the next group of teams with their sites set on the 2003 Final Four.

This will be the beginning of an ongoing look at the 2002-03 season, leading up to the beginning of the season with the AT&T Wireless Coaches vs. Cancer Classic at Madison Square Garden on November 14th with Memphis facing Syracuse and Alabama facing Oklahoma.

Arizona returns their team from 2002 virtually intact, finding them in a similar position to the dawning of the 2000-01 season. Naismith and Wooden Award candidates Jason Gardner and Luke Walton lead the returnees.

The leadership provided by Gardner, Walton, and fellow senior Rick Anderson will be a key development in the Wildcats' season. "The experience is so vital to us, just as it was a year ago. I don't think it's possible to be a really good team unless you've got great upperclass leadership," head coach Lute Olson said.

To improve on last season's Sweet 16 appearance, the Wildcats are going to have to toughen up inside. Sophomore Channing Frye had an outstanding 2002 NCAA Tournament, but is more of a finesse player. However, Lute Olson has been very encouraged with Frye's progress in the weightroom this summer. Meanwhile, sophomore Isaiah Fox showed flashes last season of becoming a physical presence inside, but needs to show more consistency. "Isaiah has made some great strides. He's running the court like a forward," Olson observed.

Few teams can match Lute Olson's squad on the perimeter. Freshman guards Chris Rodgers and Hassan Adams and freshman forward Andre Igoudala will join returning starters Gardner and Salim Stoudamire in addition to Will Bynum. The previously-mentioned Anderson, an outstanding outside shooter, can also step out on the perimeter and play either the two or three. He is playing out of position at the four, his most natural position being small forward.

The Wildcats face a daunting early season schedule. Four out of their first six games will be against teams that played in last season's NCAA Tournament. The opener will welcome probable lottery pick Chris Marcus and Western Kentucky to the McKale Center.

Despite losing All-American F Drew Gooden and four-year starting point guard Jeff Boschee, Kansas is still in position to improve upon last year's Final Four loss to eventual national champion Maryland. The heart of the 2002-03 Jayhawks will likely be seniors Nick Collison (15.6 ppg, 8.3 rpg) and Kirk Heinrich (14.8 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 5.0 apg).

Sharing the paint with Collison will be Wayne Simien, who is poised for a breakout year, and 6-9 junior college transfer Jeff Graves. But the strength of the 2002-03 Jayhawks will lie in their backcourt. Heinrich leads an experienced group that includes Super Sophomores Aaron Miles and Keith Lankford. The 'Hawks open the season November 19th in the Preseason NIT against Holy Cross in a rematch of a hotly-contested first round match in last season's NCAA Tournament.

After Arizona and Kansas, there appears to be a sharp drop off. The best among the next 10-15 teams appears to be Oklahoma. The Sooners lost star power forward Aaron McGhee and rugged sixth-man Daryan Selvy. The Sooners will remain among the elite largely due to the return of point guard Hollis Price and running mates Ebi Ere, Quannas White, and Jason Detrick.

Along the frontline, Joseph Szendrei, and Jabahri Brown will look to provide rebounding and defense, and enough scoring to allow Price, Ere, and company room to drive and shoot. Recruits De Angelo Alexander, Kevin Bookout, and redshirt freshman Matt Gipson also look to contribute. The Sooners open November 14th against Alabama in New York in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.

After exploding onto the national scene in 2001-02, Pittsburgh returns all five starters expecting to be the hunted instead of the hunter this season. Led by point guard Brandon Knight, sharp-shooter Dantas Zavackas, and highflying shooting guard Julius Page, the Panthers look to improve upon their Sweet 16 appearance of a year ago. They open their new on-campus arena, the Petersen Events Center, November 6th against cross-town rival Duquesne.

According to Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, his 2002-03 Blue Devils will be a team of discovery. Schools such as Duke, Kansas, and Arizona do not rebuild -- they reload. This will be a "reloading" year for the Blue Devils. Duke lost Jason Williams, Mike Dunleavy, and Carlos Boozer a year early to the NBA, but return junior G Chris Duhon, sophomore G Daniel Ewing, and senior F Dahntay Jones.

Krzyzewski is concerned about his about his team's lack of leadership. He called Duhon a natural leader, but when discussing his returning players stated, "None of them have been in that leadership role." A stellar recruiting class includes point guard Sean Dockery, F/C Shelden Williams, and F Shavlik Randolph.

On relying on so many freshmen, Krzyzewski commented, "That is a little bit of a concern." Don't expect the Blue Devils to have a down year. The last four seasons have seen Duke lose six players early to the NBA. In that time span, they have posted a 132-15 record.

Coming off of the school's first national championship and back-to-back Final Four appearances, the Maryland Terrapins are looking to join the elite programs in college basketball and become a perennial national title contender.

The Terps usher in a new era in 2002-03 as they open the Comcast Center, a 17,500 seat on-campus arena on November 24th against Miami (OH). The return of guards Steve Blake and Drew Nicholas and F/C Ryan Randle and Tahj Holden should soften the blow of graduates Juan Dixon and Lonnie Baxter and the early departure of PF Chris Wilcox, a lottery pick in the June NBA Draft. Blake is a finalist for the Naismith National Player of the Year Award.

Boston College enters the 2002-03 season with one of the best backcourts in college basketball. Troy Bell and Ryan Sidney can play either guard position and have excellent three-point range. Jermaine Watson enters his sophomore season, while talented newcomer Tavio Hobson provides depth. Upfront, Al Skinner welcomes back Uka Agbai (11.9 ppg, 6.0 rpg), who leads a group that will need to assert itself after losing Kenny Walls to graduation.

Canadian national team player Nate Doornekamp returns at center, with junior Andrew Bryant likely to inherit the small forward spot. They key to the Eagles having a balanced offense will be how well Agbai, Doornekamp, Bryant, and freshman Craig Smith play. 7-1, 283-pound sophomore Kirsten Sullener is a project who will back up Doornekamp. The Eagles were picked to finish second in the Big East eastern division behind Connecticut and just ahead of Villanova. The Eagles open their season with a visit from St. Joseph's on November 23 at Conte Forum.

After losing star forward Tayshaun Prince to the NBA, a new era of Kentucky basketball will commence in Lexington in 2002-03. The focus of the team will now fall on senior Keith Bogans. When asked about his star guard playing up to his potential, head coach Tubby Smith said, "If he does that, he'll be an All-American, [and] one of the top, if not the top, shooting guard in America."

The Wildcats will be a team reliant on the perimeter game this season. In addition to Bogans, junior guard Gerald Fitch will lead a talented group of backcourt players while point guard Cliff Hawkins sits out the first semester due to academically not qualifying.

Frontcourt players Chuck Hayes, Marquis Estill, and Jules Camara are athletic players who run the court well and can block shots, but tend to stray outside too much. "Jules is not really a post up player and even Marquis likes to wander away and shoot the jumper," mentioned Smith about his team's post-up game.

In order for Kentucky to become a top-10 team, Smith discussed the importance of Hayes becoming a cop inside. "Chuck is the kind of guy whose play inside inspires you, his toughness, his hard-nosed play, his aggressiveness on the court. His take no prisoners type of attitude sets an example." With high expectations in Athens and Gainesville, Kentucky will enter its 100th year of basketball in unusual territory -- as an underdog.

Across the Bluegrass, the Louisville Cardinals enter their second season of Rick Pitino Ball with a stellar recruiting class and a stacked schedule. Junior college transfers point guard Prileu Davis and F/C Kendall Dartez and freshman Taquan Dean, Corric Riggs, and F Fransisco Garcia in addition to Kentucky transfer Marvin Stone, a 6-10 center, will give Pitino the depth he needs to implement to his vaunted press and baseline-baseline game he loves to utilize. Returnees Ellis Myles, Bryant Northern, Luke Whitehead, Erik Brown, and Larry O'Bannon join All-American candidate Reece Gaines.

After losing in the NIT's second round last season, the Cardinals hope to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three years. A daunting schedule highlighted by visits from Kentucky and Indiana and trips to Ohio State and Tennessee should prepare the Cards well, come March. Air Force will visit Freedom Hall on November 23 in the season-opener.

The 2002-03 season appears to be one of the most wide-open in recent memory. While Arizona and Kansas are expected to punch tickets to New Orleans, anything can happen in the spectacular one-and-done NCAA Tournament known as March Madness.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.