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| HOOPS PREVIEW '07-'08: PRESEASON ALL-AMERICANS | |
| November 2, 2007 | |
| SouthernCollegeSports.com Staff | Contact SCS.com |
With the NBA no longer allowing players to jump straight from high school to the pros, the college game has seen an increasing amount of star power. Like Kevin Durant and Greg Oden last season, some extremely talented freshmen will be entering the college ranks this season, ready to play more like seasoned veterans than rookies. Still, while the novices may be fun to speculate about, college basketball is also filled with super veteran players who have shown the ability to play like stars. Check out which players SCS.com tabbed for the first, second, third, and fourth team All-American rosters.
| FIRST TEAM ALL-AMERICA | |||
| G | Darren Collison | UCLA | |
| G | *Chris Lofton | Tennessee | |
| F | Chase Budinger | Arizona | |
| F | *Tyler Hansbrough | North Carolina | |
| C | *Roy Hibbert | Georgetown | |
(*) Unanimous First Team Selection
Lofton, Hansbrough, and Hibbert are no-doubters here. One of the best pure shooters in the game, Lofton leads a loaded Tennessee team, while both Hansbrough and Hibbert anchor the post for their respective Final Four hopefuls. Collison’s savvy point guard play helps him beat out a slew of other players to make the first-team list, and if Budinger and the Wildcats learn to play some defense, they could finally shake their underachieving reputation.
| SECOND TEAM ALL-AMERICA | |||
| G | D.J. Augustin | Texas | |
| G | Drew Neitzel | Michigan State | |
| G | Sean Singletary | Virginia | |
| F | Brandon Rush | Kansas | |
| F | D.J. White | Indiana | |
A strong case can especially be made for Neitzel and Singletary as first-team performers, as you’ll be hard-pressed to find many guards better than those two. Augustin benefited from the presence of Kevin Durant last season as a freshman, but he will prove this season that his gaudy scoring and assists numbers were no fluke. Coming off an off-season knee injury, Rush figures to be back by the middle of the non-conference season. White will have some help in Bloomington with the arrival of Eric Gordon and should cement his place as one of the Big Ten’s top big men.
| THIRD TEAM ALL-AMERICA | |||
| G | Dominic James | Marquette | |
| G | Jamont Gordon | Mississippi State | |
| G | Eric Gordon | Indiana | |
| F | Chris Douglas-Roberts | Memphis | |
| F | Michael Beasley | Kansas State | |
James nearly declared for the NBA draft this off-season, but he decided to return to Marquette to lead a Golden Eagles team that returns every key component of last year’s NCAA tournament team. The Bulldogs' Gordon is nearly impossible to defend, as he basically is an oversized guard who can do a little bit of everything. Douglas-Roberts' slashing style makes him a unique player; at 6'6", he isn’t a traditional guard, but he doesn’t overpower people like a forward either. The freshmen, Gordon and Beasley, both may only spend one year in college, as both are about ready for the NBA right now.
| FOURTH TEAM ALL-AMERICA | |||
| G | Ty Lawson | North Carolina | |
| G | Derrick Rose | Memphis | |
| F | Brandon Costner | NC State | |
| F/C | Kevin Love | UCLA | |
| C | Aleks Maric | Nebraska | |
Both Lawson and Rose are the type of point guards that will rack up the assists and take on the role of a creator. Love has drawn comparisons to Bill Walton with his outstanding passing abilities out of the post. Costner and Maric, meanwhile, lack flash and national attention, but both are two of the more underrated big men in the country.
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