The Bottom 3: Big Sky, Big South, Big West

By early next week, every Top 25 team in America will have opened its season, presumably blowing out the Elon’s and Prarie View’s of the world. Rather than previewing college basketball by telling you that Florida and UNC are lookin’ good or going out on a limb and guessing that Villanova might be down, I’ve decided to break down some of the worst teams in every conference. (Note: The small conferences will be done three at a time, while the major conferences will focus on three pitiful teams – hence the Bottom 3.)

Big Sky
Northern Colorado
In keeping with the hopeless from the start trend, the Bears have zero chance to qualify for the NCAA tournament, or the Big Sky tournament for that matter. It’s literally impossible. The team’s Division 1 status is still in its infancy and they are ineligible for the post season this year. They do return four starters off last year’s 5-24 squad but they’ve got a ton of fresh faces, including head coach Tad Boyle.

Big South
Radford
CBS Sportsline says the Highlanders have no guards, which can only hurt you. I always said that you’ll run into trouble on the basketball court when you can’t dribble. How’s that for analysis? They do return second team all conference forward Chris Oliver, but their other big man (Jr. Duane Ricks) only started playing basketball his senior year of high school and his 49% FGP indicates that the game might not be for him. On the bright side, he is good for one out of every two free throws.

Big West
UC Riverside
The second group of Highlanders that I picked as worst in their conference (see above) are dealing with all kinds of problems this year. Three of the team’s players were injured and one was killed in car accident in September and they only bring back two from last year’s 5-22 squad. Throw in 10 of its first 13 games being on the road (including @UCLA) and you’d have to assume that the newcomers might be shell-shocked come January.