College Sports Madness' 2017-18 Top 144 Countdown

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#98 Furman

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/14994

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#97 Tulsa http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/14999
#96 Iona http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/15002

and former candidate for MVC expansion..
Belmont is #95

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/15005

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#100 LOYOLA....
Also - one of their top newcomers expected to contribute, juco Adarius Avery - is out with shoulder surgery....

more tough injury news reportedly at Loyola.. ..

Adarius Avery's surgery was initially said to be going to keep him out several weeks, but now an announcement says he will be out for the year.

Also incoming freshman Christian Negron underwent another knee surgery for a meniscus tear.
This is his 2nd knee surgery in the past 10 months ....on the same knee that he had surgery for ACL tear....concerns that he may not play this year either..


if both are lost for the year it is a big blow...
Adarius Avery is a 24 ppg/11 rpg juco kid who was expected to be a big contributor right away
Negron hasn't played for a year due to ACL surgery and now faces sitting out another year
Some ACL tears can recover in 6 months but most take a full year or more - and some essentially are career-enders like ISU's Bobby Hill

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Princeton at #94

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/15008

#93 Western Michigan

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/15011

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#92 Mississippi State - 11th in SEC

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/15014

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#91 Middle Tennessee

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/15017

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#91 Middle Tennessee
http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/15017

#90 Wyoming

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/15020

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#89 Kansas State - with former BU recruit Kamau Stokes

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/15023

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#88 Northern Kentucky - the potential first game opponent in the Bahamas Tourney

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/15026

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#87 St. John's - http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/15029
#86 South Carolina http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/15032

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Zach Lofton commits to New Mexico State - seems NMSU frequently gets guys in that are not academically eligible anywhere else - like Johnathon Wilkins, Harold Givens, Marlon Jones......

I noticed something very odd about New Mexico State.
They just landed yet another transfer kid from somewhere else - https://twitter.com/VerbalCommits/st...67287559716864

So when you look at their scholarship grid..
Zach Lofton is one of 4 seniors or grad transfers
then they have 6 juniors, 4 sophomores, and 4 freshmen - all supposedly on scholarship!
That's EIGHTEEN kids listed as scholarship players currently on their roster. ...and 17 appear on their athletic site roster.

https://verbalcommits.com/schools/new-mexico-state

eight are juco transfers and at least three more are transfers from other DI schools....but the only way they can have eighteen scholarship players listed is if a whole bunch of them are still trying to qualify but are not gonna do so...I suspect Marlon Jones *, maybe Lofton, and a few of those other juco kids & redshirting kids are on the bubble...

Their new head coach Chris Jans explains it as...
"It’s (the roster) is still a fluid situation," Jans said. "We knew it was going to be when we first got here.
.. we are still going to add some pieces to our team and not everybody that we signed is even here yet."



#85 Harvard - http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/15036

#84 Davidson - http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/15039

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#83 Penn State http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/15042
#82 Louisana Tech http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/15045

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#81 UT-Arlington http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/15048

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#80 Florida State http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/15051

#79 Colorado http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/15055

#78 Oakland (Illini transfer Kendrick Nunn) http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/15058

#77 Oregon State http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/15061
This one is a surprise to me since Oregon State was horrible last year - they were 5-27 overall (only 4 were DI wins and 3 of those were weak midmajors)
and only 1-17 in the Pac-12 and the majority of their losses were double digits and bigger - many were 20-30 pt blowouts.

They highlight the difference from last year being a 2.6 ppg transfer from UMass and 3 new freshmen. They do get one of their best players back who was injured much of last year.

[Da Coach]

...
#77 Oregon State http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/15061
This one is a surprise to me since Oregon State was horrible last year - they were 5-27 overall (only 4 were DI wins and 3 of those were weak midmajors)
and only 1-17 in the Pac-12 and the majority of their losses were double digits and bigger - many were 20-30 pt blowouts.

They highlight the difference from last year being a 2.6 ppg transfer from UMass and 3 new freshmen. They do get one of their best players back who was injured much of last year.

They actually get 2 injured starters back who missed nearly all of last season. One is their big 7-foot center, and the other is Tres Tinkle, son of Oregon State Head Coach Wayne Tinkle. He is more than just one of their best players, he is a real star who was their best player and their top scorer until he got injured. He will likely be a preseason 1st team All-Pac-12 pick this season. He averaged over 20 ppg and over 8 rpg in the 6 games he played last season before breaking his wrist.
Oregon State returns their top 9 scorers from last year, and if they stay healthy, they will have a pretty good year in 2017-18, considering they are still rebuilding from the damage Craig Robinson did there in his 6 horrible seasons. Robinson never had a .500 season in the Pac-10/12, something Tinkle has already accomplished.