On the Radar: UCLA
01.05.04
Ben Howland may be a great coach, but in the case of taking the UCLA job this year, timing was everything. It really didn't matter whether UCLA improved this year, only that they didn't take a step back. Just standing still, UCLA is able to watch the rest of PAC 10 slide down a notch or two. Only Stanford, and maybe Washington St., are improved this year. After their sweep of the Oregon schools over the weekend, the Bruins look likely to return to the postseason. They take on the Washington schools on the road this Thursday/Saturday, and both games are winnable. Well, just about every game the rest of the way for UCLA is winnable, since almost every conference foe already has an embarrasing loss on their record.
On the Radar: Nebraska
12.22.03
Nebraska is not even on the radar of the folks in Lincoln, where even a lowly 9-3 football team still captivates the locals attention through December. The hoops team must play second fiddle to Creighton for the state's basketball interests. Creighton is also the only team Nebraska has lost to so far this year. Nebraska is incredibly balanced with their leading scorer, forward John Turek, only averaging 10.6 ppg.
The only road game the Huskers have played was against Creighton, and they're going to have to do some damage on the road if they want to avoid another last place finish in the Big 12. A good barometer game will be next Monday at Minnesota, where their former coach Danny Nee nearly led Duquesne to an overtime win tonight.
On the Radar: BYU
12.16.03
Before a review of today's team in issue 3 of OtR, let's review how the previous 2 OtR picks have fared in their next game, just to establish some credibility.
Week 1: Troy St. Next game: Lost to a D2 team who had won like 6 games the year before and had to hitchhike to the game.
Week 2: Portland. Next game: Lost to Duke. By 41 points. Shot 3-28 (10%) in the first half.
This weeks entry features a BYU team led by Steve Cleveland. Seven years ago he was called in to rebuild a program that was coming off one of the worst seasons any team in a semi-major conference has ever had. But each year since then, BYU seems to have improved every year under Cleveland (except for a step back 2 years ago). Yet they have never accomplished any more than they deserved. They've never been ranked during the last four years in which they avaraged about 22 wins a year. They haven't won a game in the NCAA tourney either. They haven't had a game that propelled them into the national limelight. This year is no different. Save for a one-point loss at Cal in their second game, they would be getting some attention. As it is, they need to leapfrog 7 teams to get a ranking in the AP poll. But they are a top 25 team.
BYU is not only lead by an experienced core of seniors, but they are really experienced. 5 seniors get significant playing time: 4 of them are 23, and one is 25. The one making the difference this year is 6-11 Rafael Araujo:
Araujo 2002-03 (PPG/RPG/FG%/MinPG): 12.0/ 8.9/55.8/25.1 Araujo 2003-04 (PPG/RPG/FG%/MinPG): 21.8/11.8/63.8/27.0
His playing time really hasn't changed, but the production has. Last year, Araujo would disappear for entire games. This year, he busted out 32 pts. and 17 rebs. in a win over Oklahoma State. BYU is more than Araujo. Heck, their lineup is filled with guys who are old enough to be 5 year vets in the NBA. Maybe this is the year they get some attention.