I am back after a brief hiatus.
First off I want to congratulate a Mr. Darren Madigan who was the only one to respond to my challenge. He thought that the team that I accidentally left out was either Pittsburgh or Florida. I made a conscious decision to leave out Pitt because of the loss of their excellent coach Ben Howland, who left for UCLA. Pitt also graduated 3 seniors from last years squad, including Brandon Knight and big Ontario Lett. I put them just outside the Top 25 (while somehow including UIC, crazy). That brings us to Florida. I made my Top 25 and for some reason forgot about them. So here is my Sierack-Attack Power Index revised:
9) Notre Dame
8.5) Florida (25-8): Tons of talent. Will this be the year that former Illini recruit David Lee explodes? Matt Walsh made a big impression last year as a freshmen as did more heralded recruit Anthony Roberson. Florida and Billy Donoven have established themselves as perennial powers.
8) Gonzaga
Livingston visits Illini Nation:
You Illini basketball fans don't need me telling you that Shaun Livingston visited this weekend. For a detailed report see illiniboard.com. I read that Shaun's dad said that if Bill Self were still here then Illinois would be the pick for sure. This is an interesting comment, and I think that it is more positive then it appears at first. The fact that Livingston is still considering Illinois (along with Duke and Arizona) shows that Illinois is really where he wanted to be all along. If not then he would have eliminated it much sooner after Self left. Whatever, all of this speculation is pointless. He is going to announce his decision November 1st, so we'll just wait until then.
Tomorrow is the start of the NBA season, certainly a good day for basketball fans. In honor of opening day, tomorrow I'm gonna enlighten you on why the college game is still better then the Association. See you then.
