The brand new Athlon 2011-2012 Preseason Basketball Preview Issue - Verdict = thumbs down

Now we have the ATHLON Preview....but I am going to start right off and tell you DO NOT WASTE a bit of time nor money on it UNLESS you are a BIG ACC fan or North Carolina fan...
Gotta wonder just who they are aiming this stuff at if half their issue really is devoted to just the players and coaches in one league.

Cover has Illinois' Brandon Paul, Notre Dame's Eric Atkins, and Northwestern's John Shurna.

Then of all the features in the 1st half of the magazine - as I said most have something to do with Roy Williams, North Carolina, Harrison Barnes, etc... and a little more about a few items in the Big East & ACC.

But here are a couple other items of interest --

One page listed the Top 10 things to watch this season...
-Of course #1 was to watch North Carolina and see them run the table and win it all
-#2 was watch Butler fall significantly and never even hit the top 25
-#3 was all about Calipari's stud players
-#5 was that Kansas loses too much and won't win the Big 12
-#8 will be that Florida will use a 4 guard offense this season - Brad Beal, Mike Rosario, then returnees Walker & Boynton.

Then the listing of coaches on the HOT SEAT has Carmody at Northwestern, Doc Sadler at Nebraska, Chris Lowery at SIU (for the 3rd or 4th year in a row), and again it has Bruce Weber of Illinois.

Among a page of Key Transfers are Anthony Booker at Iowa State and Sam Maniscalco at Illinois.

They give some 2010-2011 awards and one - the BEST NEW COACH is Indiana State's Greg Lansing. Dana Altman was 4th.

Then a bunch of TOP TEN's..
Marquette's Darius Johnson-Odom (who was very close to coming to BU) was #5 best scorer.
#8 among the BEST SLASHERS is Kyle Weems - otherwise there's barely a mention of anyone from a midmajor in anything at all so far in this preview.

Then they move to the various special articles, each covering something about this coming season but almost all of them dealing with players & teams east of the Alleghenies.....

Then the Preseason TOP 25 - all BCS schools no Valley teams nor any mid-major..
Then the 68 teams in the NCAA Tournament - and they give the MVC two teams - Creighton with the automatic bid as a #8 seed - beating Purdue then losing to UNC, while Wichita State - a #11 seed losing their first game to Texas A&M.
They slate UNI & Indiana State as NIT Teams.
and then the list of All Americans all the way to 3rd Team and Hon. Mention has not one mid-major player...

So -- now about 90 pages deep into this issue we finally get to the various conferences...
but guess which conference is not only highlighted FIRST but also gets about 40 pages -- yup the ACC with special articles on each player especially Harrison Barnes.

I glanced at the Big East section -= DePaul picked 16th...
Then the Big Ten - Wisconsin picked to win, Illinois 5th, Indiana 9th..
and in the one-page section about Illinois they do have a really nice blurb about Sam Maniscalco - a team leader, smart kid, should help Illinois.
Illinois is picked to get an at-large bid but lose their only NCAA game.

SO......finally - yawn -- I battle fatigue and get to the Missouri Valley section and REALLY am disappointed.
The whole Valley section is 3 pages long...
1st page just picks the finish, describes the overview of teams, and lists All Conference players, then nearly a page on Creighton, then a page for Wichita, UNI, & Indiana State, then the very next page is Mountain West Conference, - and you realize, that Athlon must think the MVC has only four teams !!!!
NOTHING at all - not a mention - of anyone other than the top 4 finishers!!

Their predicted finish:
Creighton
Wichita State
Indiana State
UNI
Evansville
Missouri State
Drake
SIU
ISU
Bradley - picked last - I guess I might have expected it.

In their overview they have one tiny mention that BU has a new coach and will be dealing with injuries as they note Will's knee and Taylor's uncertain status.

Then the final few pages rank the recruits for 2011, 2012, and 2013...no surprises but...
Remy Abell is #101 in 2011, Jabari Parker is #1 in 2013.

Overall recap -- worst preview I have seen yet in every regard - especially in regard to fairness to 99% of the NATION that are NOT North Carolina or ACC worshippers.
And even in regards to the info on the Valley - not one single tiny iota of news or info that I am sure ALL of you didn't know back in June.