NBA Draft - Guard Rankings

Today I will be writing my NBA draft big board. Typically reporters and writers look at the top 50 or top 100, but today I am going to be taking in consideration the positions. I will grouping players by position and give the top 5 or 6 for each of the top positions. I will be taking in account the college career of the player and the potential I believe that the player has.

Point Guard:

1. Kris Dunn - Providence. Dunn only a junior could of came out last year and be a top pick came back to school and improved to be the top point guard in the draft.
2. Jamal Murray - Kentucky. Murray a combo guard who may ended up playing more shooting guard is the reason why he is not in the top spot.
3. Tyler Ulis - Kentucky. Small but crafty and I think will be able to lead a team at the next level.
4. Gary Payton II - Oregon St - Ultra athletic, great defender. Needs to work on his outside shot. 
5. Demetrius Jackson - Notre Dame. Quick, good playmaker, with a good jumper. Competitor.

Shooting Guard:

1. Buddy Hield - Oklahoma. Lights out shooter. Straight up scorer. Excellent on the break. Older then most top picks but you will get a scorer with Hield.
2. Jaylon Brown - California. Young, explosive athletic with a great size. Good finisher around the rim.
3. Dejounte Murray - Washington. Another combo guard. Good handles and versatility with good size. Need to add strength.
4. Malik Beasley - Florida St. Young and athletic. Knock down shooter and great in the open court.
5. Malachi Richardson- Syracuse. Excellent shooter. Lengthy and long. Needs to bulk up.

NBA Draft Coverage Part 2

Today I will continue to look at the NBA draft and go over who I think should be taken or would have a good chance at being taken at a certain time in the draft.

At number 6 the New Orleans Hornets will be picking. Kris Dunn or Buddy Hield would be a upgrade at the guard position for the Hornets to go along with Anthony Davis.
At 7 the Denver Nuggets will pick and I believe they will be looking big. As in Ellenson, Poetl, or Domantas Sabonis.
With the 8th pick, the Kings will be pick. They have Cousins inside and some young guards, so I can see them going either way, Ivan Rabb or Jaylon Brown both from Cal could be an answer if they come out.
With the 9th pick going to the Raptor look for them to upgrade the big man position with one of the top centers if available or Rabb from Cal.
Milwaukee with the tenth pick is an interesting pick. Big man may be an option but if Dunn or Murray fall they won't be able to pass them up. But look at Poeltl, a shooting guard in Furkan Kordmaz, or a Jaylon Brown.

I will be posting links to different mock drafts and big boards to get you acquainted with players and who teams may be looking at. The lottery is coming soon and we are in the First Round of the NBA playoffs. There is quit a bit more time to evaulate players and they could move up or down in the player big boards. Also, more players could declare for the draft or come back to school. A lot can change between now and playoffs.

http://hoopshype.com/2016/04/17/nba-mock-draft-2016/

http://www.nbadraft.net/2016mock_draft

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/25559089/nba-mock-draft-ingram-overtakes-simmons-for-no-1-spot

http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-mock-draft/2016/

http://walterfootball.com/nbadraft2016mock.php

http://fansided.com/2016/04/21/2016-nba-mock-draft-boston-lands-international-standout-dragan-bender/

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2634572-2016-nba-mock-draft-predictions-for-prospects-who-will-sneak-into-1st-round


http://insider.espn.go.com/nbadraft/results/top100/_/year/2016

http://www.nbadraft.net/ranking/bigboard

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/draft/prospect-rankings

http://www.si.com/nba/2016/04/06/nba-draft-prospects-rankings-ben-simmons-brandon-ingram-jamal-murray

http://www.draftexpress.com/

http://espn.go.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/15208529/chad-ford-nba-mock-draft-60-teams-ben-simmons-brandon-ingram-buddy-hield-more

http://espn.go.com/nba/lottery2016/mockdraft

http://espn.go.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/14963113/2016-nba-draft-list-declared-out

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/25563429/players-in-the-2016-nba-draft-who-would-be-smart-to-return-to-college

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/draft/2016/04/22/marquese-chriss-jaylen-brown-dragan-bender-thon-maker-nba-draft/83396256/

http://www.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/index.ssf/2016/04/underclassmen_who_have_declared_for_the_2016_nba_draft_malachi_richardson_is_1_o_1.html

http://www.nbadraft.net/


http://www.nba.com/draft/

NBA Draft Coverage

As the college basketball season ended with the Villanova Wildcats taking home the crown as national champions, the NBA draft is next. The NBA draft lottery is on May 17 and the lottery odds are set for every team that holds a lottery pick. Players in the college game are declaring for the draft or deciding to stay in school. Grayson Allen and Thomas Bryant are the two big names that have decided to come back to school for another year and polish up their game. With most of the names set for the draft and a good idea of the draft order we can look what the teams in the lottery will most likely do in the draft. Today I will look at the top 5 picks in this years draft.

Philadelphia is most likely to get the first pick and that pick will almost certainly be Ben Simmons.
LA Lakers is another almost easy pick with the second pick and will take Brandon Ingram.
The first and second pick will 99% be the combo of Simmons and Ingram in any order.
Celtics have the most likelihood of the third pick and I believe Jamal Murray or Kris Dunn may be that pick.
Phoenix is looking at the number four pick and with that they may go big man in Dragan Bender or Henry Ellenson.
Minnesota is looking to be the fifth big and I believe that they need a big man to pair with Karl Anothy Towns and I believe that will be Ellenson or Jacob Poetl from Utah.

1/30/16 - Final Four Preview

The Final Four begins this Saturday April 2^nd. The games will be held in Houston, Texas, in the Houston Texans football stadium. The first game of the night will begin at 5:09 pm central time, which will be a matchup of 2 seeds in Villanova and Oklahoma. This game will be followed by the matchup of ACC foes in North Carolina and Syracuse. The Tar Heels are the only 1 seed to make it into the Final Four, while Syracuse is only the fourth digit seed to make the Final Four in history.

Villanova:

There road started with an easy win over a 15 seed Unc Asheville. Then the Wildcats shot lights out against the 7 seed Iowa Hawkeyes. Then Villanova took on the Miami Hurricanes. Villanova come out on fire once again and Miami was never able to regroup. Then Villanova’s toughest game of the tournament came when they took on Kansas. It was a nip and tuck game until the end with Nova prevailing.

Oklahoma:

Oklahoma as well would breeze through most of games. The Sooners started off with a game against CS Bakersfield and then took on VCU in the second round. Buddy Hield would lead the Sooners with 31 ppg. In the Sweet Sixteen Oklahoma dismantled Texas A&M to move on to the Elite 8 where Hield would seem to make every shot he took and the Sooners would move on to the Final Four after a win against Oregon.

North Carolina:

North Carolina would breeze through every opponent they would face in the tournament. The started off with a win over Florida Gulf Coast, then Providence. Then came the game against Indiana which everybody thought to be a terrific game but ended up in a blowout. Then the Tar Heels would take care of business against Notre Dame to make the Final Four.

Syracuse:

Syracuse, their 2-3 zone, and timely pressure got them to the Final Four. Dayton was there first opponent and the Flyers were not able to shoot past the zone. Middle Tennessee State was the next opponent and the Orange had little problem putting them away. Then they took on Gonzaga, down in the second half, there pressure got them back in the game to get a win. Same story against Virginia, down most of the game, timely pressure forced Virginia into mistakes which the Orange capitalized on to get to the Final Four.

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3/29/16 - Sweet 16 Recap

The Sweet Sixteen games started on March 24th with Villanova handing Miami a big loss. It was not much of a game as Villanova led the entire game. Then came another highly anticipated game with Oklahoma taking on Texas A&M. Oklahoma got out to an early lead and never looked backed. Then Kansas would take on Maryland. Maryland was able to keep it close during the first half. But Perry Ellis was too much in the second half and led the Jayhawks to a 16 point victory. The closest game of the night would be between Oregon and Duke. Oregon in the end would just be too athletic for Duke to handle and the Ducks would end up winning by 14.

The second set of Sweet Sixteen would provide a little more entertainment. The first game of the night was dominated start to finish by Virginia over Iowa State. The next game between Wisconsin and Notre Dame provided a big boost in entertainment for the games. The game was back and forth for the whole game. Wisconsin would go up three with about 30 seconds left, but turnovers would cause the Badgers to lose the game. Syracuse and Gonzaga had a similar game to the Wisconsin and Notre Dame game. Gonzaga would lead for much of the game, but in the late stages of the game, the Orange would turn on the full court pressure and get back into the game. The Orange turned Gonzaga over and made threes to eventually win the game in stunning fashion. In the last game of the Sweet Sixteen North Carolina stream rolled Indiana in a big win.

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3/21/16 - NCAA Tournament First Round Thursday Recap

The tournament is here. For today's post I will be recapping the games of the first round. Thursday was the starting date of the tournament and the first game of the day was Duke vs. UNC Wilmington. UNCW keep the game close and even led at certain times of the game, but had no answer for Marshall Plumlee in the second half. Plumlee was cleaning up on the glass, scoring and blocking shots to led Duke to a victory. The second game was a back and forth affair between Texas Tech and Butler with Butler eventually winning by ten. A battle between another eight and nine seed, was Colorado vs UCONN. Colorado was leading for most of the game but the UCONN and their great free shooting ended up being the difference. Iowa State then handled Iona, in a high scoring game. Then there is the game between Baylor and Yale, the first upset of the tournament was upon us. A back and forth game, with Yale pulling away in the second half, but Baylor made a run to come back but ended up coming up short. Then the one seeds, Virginia and Kansas took the court and took care of business in relatively easy wins. Purdue then lost lead to Arkansas Little Rock and headed to overtime. The teams would go to another overtime with Little Rock prevailing. Miami then battle Buffalo in a tight game but the Hurricanes squeak out a seven point win. Indiana then gave Chattanooga all they could handle and more, and won by more than twenty. Utah and Kentucky took care of business and won their games but the six seed Arizona could not handle the pressure of Wichita St. and would lose to the shockers by ten. Providence needed a layup in the final seconds of the game to beat USC and in the last game of the night Gonzaga and their big men were too much too handle for Seton Hall.

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3/1/16 - Sneeze Page

is to redirect readers back to some of my best posts in my opinion.

The posts I will be choosing are:

http://collegebasketballrankings.blogspot.com/2016/01/13116.html

http://collegebasketballrankings.blogspot.com/2016/02/22116.html

In my first link I write about college basketball and some of the big games that are happen on the weekend of 1/31/16. On this weekend we had so huge basketball games. We had a showdown of two of the best college basketball players in the country. A matchup of Ben Simmons of LSU and Buddy Hield of Oklahoma. Ben Simmons and LSU lead Oklahoma for most of the game, but when it came down to the end, it was the Buddy Hield show and Oklahoma won on a last second shot. The other big time game was a matchup of Kentucky and Kansas. This game was nip and tuck for the whole game and eventually went to OT where Kansas would hang on to win.

In my next link I go over the list of rankings for the week February 21st, the reason I want to go back to this post is to show how much things change on a weekly base. Since this ranking all the teams in the top 10 except Kansas have lost. Kansas has taken charge as the alpha team and has been rank number one for the last couple weeks. It has been a crazy year for college basketball and will only get crazier.

2/28/16 - Product Recommendation

For today’s blog post on College Basketball Rankings, I will be doing a product recommendation.

Staying with the theme of college basketball, I will be giving my recommendation for tickets to a college basketball game. People may ask what game I should go to or what team should I see. I believe that you can go to any college basketball and have a great experience. With that being said of course there will be some games that would be better than and better teams to see. But, the college game experience is nothing like anything you will ever see. No matter where you go to see a game, you will thoroughly enjoy your time. The college game brings a certain atmosphere that cannot be matched. From the crowd, the smaller arenas, and the players and teams. First thing first, you’re in a college town and a college town just has a certain feel to it. Once you get into the arena you will notice the difference from let’s say a professional game. The college crowds are more a high school crowd on steroids, with students sections and alumni. So the crowd cares about their team and get into the game. That is the best thing about the college game, the crowds. With smaller arenas, you are close to the action. There are no bad seats in the house, which also makes the game more enjoyable. Last thing is the players. The players are not professionals and are not paid for playing. This makes the game so fun because of the fact that the kids are just playing the game, they are not worried about money.

2/27/16 - Review Post

For today's blog post I going to do a review post. For college basketball there are so many things I could review but thing that sticks out the most would be the NCAA tournament. So today I will do a review of the NCAA tournament.

Now first thing is first, Selection Sunday. Selection Sunday is the Sunday before the tournament where the teams who made the tournament are announced. The teams are announced with what seed they will be and where they will be playing in the country. This year Selection Sunday will be held the Sunday of the Championship week with all the conference tournaments.

After Selection Sunday, the First Four will be played on the Tuesday and Wednesday after the selections. The First Four is four games of the last teams to makes the tournament. These games are always played in Dayton, Ohio and are a nice appetizer to the tournament.

After the First Four, Thursday and Friday will start the First Round. There will be 32 games held on both days, which may be two of the best days of sports. After Friday, the Second Round starts on Saturday and Sunday.

Once teams win their Second Round game, they have punched their ticket to the Sweet 16 on the following Thursday and Friday. After that its on to the Elite 8 on Saturday and Sunday.

The following Saturday are both of the Final Four games and that Monday is the end with the National Championship game.

2/26/16 - Promote Your Own Website

For today's post I will be doing a short promotion and I will also analyzing my blog website.

I will first start with promoting my blog. I believe that topics that I have currently written about are well thought out and very detailed. I think that the readers enjoy the insight that I provide and find the material I write about very enjoyable. I believe that the structure of the blog is very easy to navigate and find what people are looking for. I also believe that I have been very organized in my blog posts and everything is label with a date and topic in the title to make finding my posts easily. The layout and theme is easy on the eyes and presents a friendly atmosphere. I believe I have done a good job in presenting topics about college basketball.

Now I will do an analysis of my blog. First thing first, I need to post more frequently to keep dedicated readers coming back with more to read. I think I could also use pictures. Pictures within certain blog posts and even creating a logo for my blog. If I added a logo or pictures it could really entice readers to come to my blog or look at my blog and become interested in it. Overall I think the most important thing is to post more often. Post more posts about college basketball because there are basketball games every day. I need to do a better job of staying on top of keeping readers well informed.

2/25/16 - Link Post

My very first link post is from College Hoops Daily Blog that I mentioned in my previous blog post. This blog is very good at writing their posts. The link is:
http://www.collegehoopsdaily.com/acc-power-rankings-2-24/

This article is about the ACC basketball conference and the power ranking in that conference. College Hoops Daily ranked the teams in the following order:

North Carolina (11-3, 22-5) Last Week: 1

Miami (11-4, 22-5) LW: 3

Virginia (10-5, 21-6) LW: 2

Duke (9-5, 20-7) LW: 4

Louisville (10-4, 21-6) LW: 7

Notre Dame (9-5, 18-8) LW: 5

Pittsburgh (8-6, 19-7) LW: 9

Syracuse (8-7, 18-10) LW: 6

Clemson (9-7, 16-12) LW: 8

Virginia Tech (8-7, 15-13) LW: 11

Florida State (6-9, 16-11) LW: 10

Georgia Tech (6-9, 16-12) LW: 13

NC State (4-10, 14-13) LW: 12

Wake Forest (2-13, 11-16) LW: 15

Boston College (0-15, 7-21) LW: 14

I agree with most of the of the rankings, but I would move Notre Dame ahead of Louisville, because I don't trust this Louisville team in the big game. I trust Demetrius Jackson of Notre Dame to hit a big shot and that is why I would be inclined to have them a spot higher. I also think that North Carolina and Miami can be tied for the top spot. I think both teams have played extremely well and are both deserving of the top spot, but UNC will be there because of the better record. In the College Hoops Daily, the writers go into greater detail on their decisions on why the teams are where they are.

2/24/16 - Analyzing Another Blog In My Niche

For today’s post I want to look and analyze another blog from the same niche area as mine. I write about college basketball and I found another very successful blog to writes about college basketball as well. That blog is College Hoops Daily. They are an independent sports blog. They post every day, posting their opinions, predictions and college basketball information.

Things That They Do Well:

I believe that this blog adds pictures and makes the blog more fun to look at. Pictures capture the eye and you read that section because of the picture sometimes.

Logo. I like the logo of the blog and believe that it fits the blog very well.

Very organized and posts every day. The posts that happen every day, keeps a dedicated reader coming back over and over again to read something new.

Contact and about page, inform the reader who they are and how to contact them.

Also liked that they had an option to email the people who write the blog to try and become about of the team of writers for the blog.

These are all things I could learn from a very successful blog. Doing these things will keep viewers engaged and give the possibility of them coming back to read more. I would not just copy this blog but just keep in mind what makes them successful and learn from that. College Hoops Daily is a very well written blog and if you need more college basketball fix, check it out.

1/23/16 - Promoting Another Blogger

Today I am going to promote the blogger of a fellow Illinois State student and a friend.

jedieck is a fellow sports fan but talks and writes about his favorite team the Chicago Bears team. The Bears are apart of the National Football League in the NFC North along with the Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers. His blog is all about given and getting different opinions and viewpoints when it pertains to the Bears. He writes about he is on his mind about the Bears and what his certain viewpoints are. So far in his blog he has written about the quarterback and running back position. In both of these posts he is going over the current depth chart. He offers his advice on what he would do if he was running the team. He is also. looking at how the players are performing. In his latest post he goes over the top ten bears in the last decade. He starts off the list at number ten with Marty Booker, a receiver in the early 2000s. One could argue that Brandon Marshall could be on this list instead of Booker, but Marshall was a guy that did a lot of bad off the field. To end the list he goes with Brain Urlacher, who followed the footsteps of some of the best linebackers the game has ever seen, in Mike Singletary and Dick Butkus. All in all if your a sport fan that can not get enough or just an big bears fan, go and catch out his blog.

Check his blog out at:

http://chicagobearsnfl.blogspot.com/

2/21/16 - List of College Basketball Rankings

Today is Sunday, February 21st. It is about 3 weeks from Selection Sunday and when the tournament brackets come out. There has been a lot of shuffling around in the college basketball rankings. As of today the rankings look like this:

1          Villanova 22-3 

2          Kansas 21-4

3          Oklahoma 20-4           

4          Iowa 20-5

5          North Carolina 21-4    

6          Maryland 22-4

7          Virginia 20-5   

8          Xavier  22-3    

8          Michigan State 21-5    

10        West Virginia    20-5    

11        Miami (FL) 20-4         

12        Arizona 21-5   

13        Iowa State 18-7          

14        Kentucky 19-6

15        Dayton 21-3   

16        Oregon 20-6   

17        Purdue 20-6    

18        Louisville 19-6 

19        Notre Dame 18-7        

20        Duke 19-6      

21        SMU 21-3      

22        Indiana 20-6   

23        Providence 19-7          

24        Texas   16-9    

25        Baylor  18-7

With only a couples weeks left until the conference tournaments teams will have to make a push to get at large bids for the NCAA tournament if they do not get automatic bids. To get an automatic bid, a team must win their conference championship and after all the automatic bids are taken, the rest of the field will be at large bids. Teams will want to have an impressive resume to be able to get those at large bids. Being in the top 25 is pretty much a guarantee lock to get into the tournament. After this week Villanova will retain the number 1 ranking, while Kansas and Oklahoma will continue to rank behind them. With a win yesterday, Texas A&M will look to make there way back into the top 25 on Monday. With a loss earlier in the week Texas may be the team that falls out of the top 25. 

1/31/16

So catching up on the college basketball news from yesterday afternoon and earlier today. When I last wrote number 1 Oklahoma was trailing LSU at halftime. LSU said in the lead for most of the second half, but then Buddy Hield put on a show. He took control of Oklahoma and started knocking down big time shots and Oklahoma finally got a lead in the game late in the second half. With the game time with 20 seconds left an Oklahoma player hit the game winning shot with about 5 seconds left and LSU could not convert a desperation shot at the end to tie. With that Oklahoma will stay at the number 1 spot for another week. Another game that was coming down to the wire was Texas A&M vs Iowa State. Texas A&M controlled most of the game but Iowa St. stayed within striking distance until Georges Niang fouled out late in the second half. This opened the door for A&M to put the game out of reach. Texas A&M may move up at spot with this win put are sitting in a good spot at number 5. In the big game of Kentucky vs Kansas, the game was back and forth the entire game and eventually went into overtime. In overtime the Jayhawks would be to much to handle and go on to win by 6. Tyler Ulis of Kentucky and Wayne Selden Jr. of Kansas each had stellar games to lead their teams in scoring. North Carolina, Providence, Arizona and Baylor were other ranked teams to win last night. Today number 3 Iowa will be looking to keep a win streak going as the face the Wildcats from Northwestern in the biggest game that is being played today.

1/30/2016

Today is a huge day of college basketball, with some big time games. Early in the day, number 9 ranked West Virginia went to Florida. In this game West Virginia never really got their fast paced offense going and Florida came away with the upset. Then there was a match up of two top 20 ranked teams of 11 ranked Virginia at 16 ranked Louisville. Virginia looked to extend their win streak to five, came out and attacked Louisville right away and ended up winning by sixteen. In ACC play Miami was taking on NC State. The game was close throughout but Miami could never get over the hump and got upset by a 11-10 Wolfpack team. In the early afternoon, two of the best college basketball players are going head to head in Baton Rouge. Buddy Hield from Oklahoma vs Ben Simmons of LSU. Simmons is considered to be the number 1 pick in the NBA draft this summer with Hield going possibly is the top 5 or 10. LSU came out firing and hit early shots when Oklahoma wasn't but then Buddy Hield started to get going and closed the deficit going into halftime. The second half of this game should not disappointed, so get to ESPN to catch the end of that one. Tonight is a matchup of the two teams with the most wins in college basketball history. Kentucky will visit Kansas and try to get a big win against a very good Kansas team. Also, tonight Kris Dunn and Providence will take on a conference foe in Georgetown. Kris Dunn one of the best players in the country will try to get the Friars back on track after losing to Xavier early this week.

About Me

About Me

Hi, I'm Walt Culpepper and I am a college senior at Illinois State University in my last semester before entering the real world. I'm looking forward to starting the next chapter of my life. I am a huge sports fan and can't get enough sports in my life. Football is my favorite sport but basketball is a close second and I have always loved baseball. I have played all three of these sports since I could remember. I played football and basketball all the way through high school. I was from a small town and a pretty good athlete, so played a lot in my time. I am more of a college basketball fan then a NBA and that is why I am writing this blog about college basketball rankings. College basketball is the definition of madness and I will be writing to keep people informed of the ongoing madness that is college basketball. From things such as the changing of rankings, sleepers and bust, and who just missed the cut, this blog is all college basketball all the time. This blog is for the people that can't get into the college basketball season but love March Madness. They need a little information on how teams played throughout the season to be able to fill their brackets to be a little more prepared, everyone the brackets are mostly luck. I take a great passion in be able to inform and/or talk to people about sports, and talking college basketball is fun for. Sports are one of the things I most enjoy in life and writing about them is a pleasure for me.