Burns’ All-America Team

We are now in the final days of the 2008-09 college basketball season and it might be the most exciting time of the year. The NCAA is playing its Sweet 16 round, and the NIT finals are scheduled at Madison Square Garden next week. Thus far the tournaments have been chock full of great games and great players. I have spent many hours watching different battles and every game truly is a clinic. I have pages full of notes, Xs and Os and am looking forward to taking many more notes in the next few days as the games play out. But, that is material for another time.

However, in this blog, I want to talk about the players who I have thoroughly enjoyed watching on T.V. this year.  For want of a better term, I call this group the “2008-09, Burns All-American Team.”  There may be others who are better, but as I said, the following players are the ones I have had a chance to see, and in my mind are among the best in the country. They are listed by position — that is the position where I believe they best fit.

The players are not in any specific order but just as I remembered them when making the list.

Point Guards

1) Jonny Flynn, Syracuse

2) Patrick Mills, St. Mary’s

3) Stephen Curry, Davidson

4) Ty Lawson, North Carolina

5) Sherron Collins, Kansas

5a) A.J. Price, UConn

Shooting Guard

1) Toney Douglas, Florida State

2) Tyreke Evans, Memphis

3) Devin Ebanks, West Virginia

4) Jodie Meeks, Kentucky

5) Manny Harris, Michigan

5a) Orlando Mendez-Valdez, Western Kentucky

Small Forward

1) Terrence Williams, Louisville

2) Chase Budinger, Arizona

3) Robbie Hummel, Purdue

4) Kyle Singler, Duke

5) Earl Clark, Louisville

5A) Evan Turner, Ohio State

Power Forward

1) Blake Griffin, Oklahoma, *Player of the Year

1a) Taylor Hansbrough, North Carolina

2) Jon Brockman, Washington

3) Trevor Booker, Clemson

4) DeShawn Sims, Michigan

5) Taj Gibson, USC

Center

1)  Hasheem Thabeet, UConn

2) Goran Suton, Michigan State

3) Dejuan Blair, Pitt

4) Luke Harangody, Notre Dame

5) Cole Aldrich, Kansas

5a) Jujuan Johnson, Purdue 

5b) Patrick Patterson of Kentucky

All Frosh Team

1) Samardo Samuels, Louisville 

2) Devin Ebanks, West Virginia

3) Tyreke Evans, Memphis

4) William Buford, Ohio State

5) Demar Derozan, USC

6) Isiah Thomas, Washington

7) Louis Jackson, Purdue

I cannot believe how many really good players there are in college basketball today.  I could make another list and probably come up with another list of players who are just as good as or, better than many I have on this list, but I will take this group to the bank.

If you notice, many of the players listed are still involved in either the NCAA or NIT tournaments.  The others have led their teams to great seasons and in many cases their particular team lost to a team in the tournament that has players on this list.  To add food for further thought, is it any wonder that teams like UNC, UConn, and Louisville, are No. 1 seeds in the tournament?  All three teams have two players on my list.

This is my attempt to name an All-American Team.  As you can see it is not an easy task, as I had trouble keeping it to 25. It amazes me as to how the pundits come up with only five All-Americans. I just know this — I would love to have the opportunity to have this kind of talent at my disposal as a coach!

Until next time, God Bless and take care.