I think Trinity could have a rough weekend with Centre and Depauw coming to town.  I think this will be an excellent test to see what they are really made of because if you can't win big games like these at home it's tough to expect to win them on the road come tourney time.  That being said I just don't know if this years Trinity team has the fire power to keep up with the red hot colonels.  Trinity has a good record but if you look closer into it you'll see that they have squeaked out many of these games against lesser opponents.  I know a win is a win, but the scores tell more than just the W or the L.

 

beans82, i noticed you included peter murray into your discussion about POY.  I thought Peter was a solid contributor on some very good Trinity teams but I don't think he was ever a guy that any of the teams were scared of.  I think playing with Devins helped him tremendously because he would get the second tallest player guarding him and at 6'8 that usually meant he had at least 4 inches to work with.  Morris and Devins were definately POY material, but I think Murray benefited from the system more than anyone else during his tenure.

Since my last upset special turned out to be a laugher in the wrong direction I think the Millsaps fans will thank me again because I'm going to go Ogelthorpe by 2 on the road in their Friday night matchup 

I have to agree with Dave on this one.  Statistics have and always will be overrated when it comes to looking at a player's overall value to a team.  Just because someone puts up 20 points a game doesn't mean he's making his team any better.  Also, and yes I am a little biased towards Trinity but hear me out, the teammates around you dictate your performance in the "statistical" categories i.e. pts, rebs, assts.  When surrounded by other good players it is difficult to average very high in any one category.  I think 4 Trinity players, Morris, Devins, Burt, and Bates would have won POY honors had they played on teams that weren't as good.  However, it's almost as if they're penalized for playing with good players and having lesser numbers.  I'm certainly not saying that every year the POY should go to a player on the team that finishes first but this should definately be taken into consideration.  I'm also still in shock that Burt and Bates split 2 POY votes back in '05-'06 after Trinity dominated the league that year.  I can understand that one of them didn't win because you figured they would steal each other's votes but to only end up with 2 combined was a little surprising to me.

And congrats to Millsaps this weekend for completely ruining my upset special pick.  It looks like these guys might be for real especially once they get Rogan back on the court.   

That dunk was awesome, he has absolutely no fear at all.  I just wish that guy on asheville's team wasn't so unathletic.  I know it's nearly impossible to be that big and be able to move, but wow, what a sight to see if that guy was even a slightly below average athlete.  Going back in the day again does anyone remember Adam Luton for Trinity about 4 years ago.  I was at the Trinity v. Millsaps (@ TU) game his senior year and he threw down one of the most incredible dunks I have ever seen over Lash and Adams (2 of Millsaps best players) on a drop step from the block.  The kid had incredible athleticism but everything I heard from the TU players was that he just didn't have any basketball IQ. 

On to the weekend matchups, I've been a little out of the loop this year so my opinions could be slightly misguided.  I like the Depauw Rhodes matchup Friday night and i think it should be a closer game than most expect with Depauw pulling it out in the end.  Maybe not in the same dramatic fashion from their championship game a few years back but when will we ever see something like that again.  Even though everyone probably agrees Trinity is the better team I think it will be a close one in San Antonio this weekend with Trinity edging out the Pirates by 5.  My upset special comes from Austin College on sunday as I think they can take out Millsaps at home.  It's a tough travel weekend and games like these are easy to overlook.  Austin by 4. 

I think it was pretty obvious to anyone that followed Trinity basketball over the course of Devins career that he was an extremely talented player who was surrounded by players equally as talented.  Therefore, he had no reason to dominate games because the Trinity team was exactly that, a team, and played to win games not personal recognition.  During the seasons from '01-'02 to '05-'06 Trinity had 7 players that could have played division 1 ball but chose to go to Trinity instead.  When you have that many good players on one team it's going to be hard for any one of them to dominate.  With all that said Devins was hands down the best and most feared defensive player the SCAC has seen in the past 15 years.