Wall and Patterson. Bledsoe could have been the third guy, but he's gotten worse with Wall's emergence. The good news is he will be back next year for the Cats, but he's picking up dumb fouls and seems content to ballwatch, while Wall tries to take a guy to the basket. Actually everyone besides Patterson seems to do that, except Cousins on 3 or 4 possessions.

Duke is definitely better than UConn, at least until Majok comes in. UConn is playing 5 guys 30 minutes a game, and their bench players are miserable. Absolutely miserable (I am counting Edwards as a starter, and the guy that does the opening tip-off as a bench player--Ogawandu?), while Duke will be in much better shape than the top 20 this year.

Patterson is playing less of a role in the offense. That's not his fault though because Cal's system is different from what they ran his first two years. I'm not blaming anyone for that. It had to happen, and he is a really solid guy. I think having an intelligent and mature guy would help the team out quite a bit, but it doesn't seem like enough players are following his example. I thought that every time Orton got a call against him, he could have been T'ed up, which was very strange.

I think Calipari is relying too much on Wall, and this will negatively effect the team. I was guessing that Wall would average 14/8/3 turnovers this year and be the top pick. It looks like he may average more like 18/9/5 turnovers because he is being relied on too much. If he gets into foul trouble against a team that isn't as wasteful as UConn (they'll turn the ball over on anyone), that can put UK in a huge hole.

FWIW, Duke has looked worse than I expected as well. Smith, Scheyer, and Singler are taking 40 shots a game, while the big men are taking 10. That is a ridiculous discrepancy, and for some reasons, Singler thinks he is now Kobe Bryant and is taking it to the basket in any close situation. Of course he can't convert nearly as well as Kobe, or even a stud like Wall.

Right now, I wouldn't put either Duke or UK in the Elite 8

The reason why I put Wall as a top 2 pick is because the Nets would be dumb to take him first when they have the player in the NBA that he most resembles already playing his position.

This post was edited on 12/9/09 at 11:44 pm