{"id":426861,"date":"2018-02-12T12:28:43","date_gmt":"2018-02-12T18:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/?p=426861"},"modified":"2018-02-12T15:48:51","modified_gmt":"2018-02-12T21:48:51","slug":"listen-mark-gottfried-on-the-opening-kickoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/listen-mark-gottfried-on-the-opening-kickoff\/","title":{"rendered":"LISTEN: Mark Gottfried on the Opening Kickoff"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Scott McInnerney
\nWNSP Reporter<\/p>\n

MOBILE, AL \u2013 The NCAA released its top 16 teams Sunday, with Virginia leading the pack.<\/p>\n

Former Alabama head coach Mark Gottfried joined the Opening Kickoff on Monday to discuss some of the top teams in college basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know that there\u2019s just one team right now,\u201d Gottfried said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen Villanova twice.<\/p>\n

“They play well and pass the ball and move the ball. I love their point guard Jalen Brunson. Michigan State is really good, and I watched them at Ohio State.<\/p>\n

“I have not watched Virginia in person this year, but I think Virginia is such a hard team to play against. I\u2019ve watched Purdue twice. Purdue is a veteran, juniors and seniors type team.<\/p>\n

“They\u2019ve got the big kid Isaac Haas who\u2019s just a mountain of a young man. Those four to me separate out more than the others.\u201d<\/p>\n

A surprise this year is not seeing Duke in the top five. Despite having one of the top recruiting classes this season,
\nthe Blue Devils have struggled to meet expectations.<\/p>\n

Duke, currently ranked No. 9 in the nation, was the preseason No. 1 ranked team, but it has dropped five games this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve watched them seven times this year,\u201d Gottfried said. \u201cHere\u2019s what I think people have to always remember: they had a phenomenal recruiting class.<\/p>\n

“But what\u2019s happening is you\u2019ve got a young team. When you have a collection of that many young guys at one time, you\u2019re going to have ups and downs. They\u2019re the type of team talent-wise who can get hot during the tournament, and they could roll through that thing. Or they can get upset on a given night because defensively, they\u2019re not engaged or they\u2019re not all the way ready to play against a certain team.<\/p>\n

“They\u2019re talented enough to string it together come tournament time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another surprise team is Auburn, who was not ranked in the preseason but has jumped to No. 5 in the nation. Auburn is currently leading the SEC with a 10-2 conference record and a 22-3 overall record.<\/p>\n

\u201cBruce Pearl has done an amazing job,\u201d Gottfried said. \u201cAnd again, a team that doesn\u2019t have a bunch of superstars, but they defend well, they\u2019re big and strong, and he\u2019s got them playing at a high level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Usually a favorite to make it deep in the NCAA tournament, Kentucky has been up and down this season. The Wildcats started out at the No. 5 team in preseason rankings, but dropped to No. 24.<\/p>\n

Kentucky is 6-6 in SEC play, with a 17-8 overall record.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Kentucky, they have a hard time scoring,\u201d Gottfried said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re used to seeing is Kentucky with Demarcus Cousins, Anthony Davis, John Wall, and guys who were top five or top ten picks in the draft, and there were multiple guys like that on every team.<\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t think this team has that. This isn\u2019t a typical talent-loaded Kentucky group of freshmen. So now you\u2019ve got a group of freshmen who are good players, but they may not be the superstar level players they\u2019ve had in the past.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ll see how they fare down the stretch, but they\u2019re not the talent-loaded type teams that we\u2019re used to seeing from Kentucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alabama, Gottfried’s former team, has been another up and down team. The Crimson Tide has picked up wins against the top three teams in the SEC, but they have also dropped games to the bottom four.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know about Alabama,\u201d Gottfried said. \u201cThey have some nice wins, and they\u2019ve done a great job with that. But it\u2019s going to depend on how they finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gottfried led Alabama to its deepest NCAA Tournament run in school history in 2004. The Crimson Tide made it to the Elite Eight, losing to the eventual national champion, Connecticut.<\/p>\n

For more, tune into the Opening Kickoff weekdays from 6 to 9 a.m., and Sports Drive weekdays from 3 to 6 p.m.<\/p>\n\nhttp:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Mark-Gottfried-Interview.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott McInnerney WNSP Reporter MOBILE, AL \u2013 The NCAA released its top 16 teams Sunday, with Virginia leading the pack. Former Alabama head coach […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4489,"featured_media":426866,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,106,176],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-426861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured-news","8":"category-on-the-air","9":"category-top"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Mark-Gottfried.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426861"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":426872,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426861\/revisions\/426872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}