Love Theebz! I remember his whole freshman year he made me hate watching basketball. And yet, even though he still can’t really catch the ball, he won me over. Can’t blame him for leaving, he’ll stick in the NBA for sure, way more athletic than most giants and reasonably responsive to coaching, and, of course, can already make a difference defensively.

More importantly, his douche couture at the MSU-UNC final is an obvious symbol that he’s ready to mingle with the likes of Marko Jaric in the NBA.

Now, a serious question. Can Chucky Okwandu play? Is he even OK at basketball? Because if he’s even serviceable, Cal still has a nice starting five. The reason I bring up Chuck is because I dont think Gavin is good at basketball and thus should not start.

You have to think the Chuckster gets the first crack at the starting lineup — Cal needs someone over 7-1 in the lineup to function — with some type of Majok-Oriakhi low-post combo the second option. (I read something yesterday where Cal said Majok has a 7-5 wingspan, and the team will be bigger than last year.)

I HOPE Gavin doesn’t get a look. But I have this feeling we might be in for a Craig Austrie ‘05-06 situation, where Gavin keeps the seat warm for Majok until second semester because he’s so gritty and tough and hustley.

The most interesting part, though, will be watching the team learn how to play defense next year without Theebz there to clean everything up.

http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2009/04/15/sports/doc49e5f40283baa746352798.txt

So many wonderful things about the “Looking Ahead” part of this article:

1) Cal talking for SEVEN STRAIGHT paragraphs. The writer of this article decided to let his readers really FEEL what talking to Cal is like; which is to say, listening for a really long time.

2) This article was in the Journal Inquirer. I thought they’d gone out of business.

3) Chuck might be good. I know Cal talks up big men, but Ajou Deng and Soulemane Wane were good, just like Cal said. Right? For real, though, I think he’ll be OK enough to start. I like Gavin off the bench still, he could be decent next year in that role.

4) Love that Cal talked up Coombs-McDaniel (how do we not have a nickname for him yet? I’m not sure how much longer I can keep typing that out). I’ve never been this excited about I guy I’ve never seen play. I have a hunch he’ll be one of those leadership guys that make very few mistakes. Like Austrie, except actually good.

5) Love above all that Cal seems to talk to the press between seasons on the assumption that we all think he’s going to trade all the bench warmers. Making a special point about Beverly, then hinting that Scottie 2 Hottie might be traded (never good when Cal has to “lay things out”). All this is so funny, it makes me kind of OK that Scottie might not be back (though I think he stays, ultimately).

Great article all around.