you didn't ask me and I know nearly nothing of hoops, especially at the collegiate level, but our first 5 stacks up well with everyone in the country. We will struggle against teams with stout inside presence, but the those are few and very far between.
I believe Memphis is the best team in the state, but I also think they're the top team in the country, if Dorsey stays out of foul trouble. Even with Dorsey foul saddled, they have some help in the middle as well. They are extremely athletic, but will struggle with their shooting many nights. If Cal truly gets them to buy in and play some D, they will be the team to beat.
UCLA will flat play some D and that gives them an advantage in a slow paced ballgame. They don't have dominant size to take advantage of our soft center, so I think they would struggle to beat us, but it would be a good ball game. They need to find someone to replace Afflalo and I haven't yet seen it. PGs don't replace scoring swing men very well.
UNC would be the most intriguing matchup with us because they like to get up and down a lot and that plays into our hands. UNC has Hansbrough, but I think he's the most overrated player in college hoops. Very unathletic, but will kill you at the FT line because the officials think he has to be getting fouled (I might agree given that a full fledged leap gets about 2 inches of airspace from heel to ground). I don't believe he's the dominant big man he's sold to be. UNC kills with their speed and depth. I don't that's a particularly strong advantage against our speed and depth. Their defense is as suspect as ours with their losses from last year.
Don't know if much made sense because it was done quickly, but I don't like any of these three to wipe the floor with us. I like us at home against any of them and on the road it's a tossup, for the most part. I do not like us AT Memphis this year, but Lofton's shooting is a constant X factor for us, unfortunately it cuts both ways.
