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Baylor
The most complete team in the tournament and the highest ranked opponent the Cougars could face in Charleston (and will face next week in Waco). Freshman Isaiah Austin came to Baylor as a highly ranked player and he still managed to blow the national media away with his play in the Bears' 99-77 win over Lehigh on opening day. The 7-foot-1 Austin dominated to the tune of 22 points on 12 shot attempts (he was 2-4 on threes) in just 17 minutes of play before rolling his ankle. The injury caused Austin to miss Baylor's second game against Jackson State but he's on track to play in the Classic. Also up front the Bears have junior forward Cory Jefferson who is averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds over the first two games. Baylor has more size and length than anybody else in the tournament and once they get their three point shot going (25% on the year), they'll be an offensive juggernaut.
Murray State
The Racers, who finished last year 31-1 and ranked 10th in the USA Today Coaches Poll, have the best player in the Charleston Classic in senior point guard and All-American Isaiah Canaan. Murray State will have only played one game before the Classic begins (they blew out Brescia) and will face an athletic Auburn team in the first round. Despite Canaan's brilliance last year, the team will lean even harder on him this year. The Racers graduated three significant players from last year's team and are depending on a supporting cast of mostly unproven and untested freshman. A lot of people predict Murray State will win their side of the bracket but there are a lot of question marks.
College of Charleston
The hometown boys. From what I've heard from the marketing and ticket offices, TD Arena should see it's largest crowd in Charleston Classic history Thursday afternoon despite the 5pm game time against St Johns. The Cougars couldn't ask for a better state to be in heading into the weekend. They've played well and are adhering to Wojcik's system, they're 100% healthy and the tournament they're playing in is on their home court. Trent Wiedeman and Andrew Lawrence are living up to preseason expectations but, as I mentioned after the Towson game, the Cougars are going to need more than just those two guys to step up if we're going to make a run. Postseason tournament fatigue has been the undoing of this team the last few years and Wojcik is the type of coach who accounts for this by playing that deep rotation. Anthony Stitt was the Cougar's MVP in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament last year so you can expect to see big things from him. We'll also need that forward rotation of Wiedeman, Baru, Hall, Theo Johnson and Sundberg to hold steady and stay out of foul trouble as we go against the BCS teams.
St Johns
As I sit here and write this I'm watching St Johns take on Detroit as part of the 24 Hour Tip-Off Marathon. It's St Johns' first game of the season; the Red Storm will face a quick turnaround as they will leave NYC tomorrow morning and take on CofC Thursday afternoon. St Johns is a very quick and athletic team. They use this to their advantage mostly on defense, getting blocks and steals with frequency. However, from what I've seen in this game, they're a bit lackluster on offense. For stretches they settled for contested jump shots and gave up too many offensive rebounds before tightening up in the second half and making a game out of this one (they just won). This bodes well for the Cougars if we can continue to limit them offensively like Detroit is and get our own high percentage shots. D'Angelo Harrison is the team's returning leading scorer and he's been coming off the bench this season to help "control his emotions". Also look out for shot blocker Chris Obekpa and Sir'Dominic Pointer, who has the best name in NCAA basketball.
Colorado
The 2012 Pac-12 Champion Colorado Golden Buffaloes were an NCAA Tournament team last year, upsetting UNLV in the first round before losing to fellow Charleston Classic participant Baylor in the second round. Colorado has already crushed one SoCon team in Wofford and they have the potential to get that rematch against Baylor. The offense is run by PG Spencer Dinwiddie and he's really the only option as a pure point. That's not necessarily a bad thing as he was already solid and is making huge strides in his development as a floor general. In just under 30 minutes of playing time against Wofford, Dinwiddie had 13 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and no turnovers. The Buffs best all-around player might be Andre Roberson, one of the best forwards in the conference last year. He's a rebounding machine but his offensive production isn't very flashy. If he is scoring the Buffs can be very tough to beat, if not Roberson will make sure they're still tough to beat.
Dayton
Colorado's opponent in the first game is Dayton out of the A-10. Cougar fans are a little familiar with this team after defeating the Flyers at TD Arena in the first round of the NIT a few years ago but the team is much different. They are led by two fifth-year seniors: Kevin Dillard and Josh Benson. Dillard is a talented point guard (the matchup against Dinwiddie in the first round is one of the more anticipated matchups of the tournament) who is good at finding his big men and getting the ball to his playmakers in the right position. If need be he is also capable of scoring in bunches. Josh Benson is a long and athletic forward who gets out in transition to score (now there's the Dayton I remember). Dayton is not at the same level as Baylor or Murray State but, like Colorado, they're a solid, solid team to have in this year's Classic.
Auburn
With the football program struggling the way it is, maybe Auburn basketball will take center stage. Ha who am I kidding? I remember this program being historically bad a few seasons ago but they've turned things around in recent years. Maybe it's the location of the Charleston Classic, but SEC teams always seem to play above their talent level in this tournament. I remember LSU looking like a legitimate conference threat in last years tournament. Auburn is competing with Dayton for the most athletic team in the Classic. Not only athletic in terms of speed but also physicality. You have to build your team that way if you're going to compete in SEC basketball. Auburn is still a young team though, I wouldn't be surprised if they went 0-3 and I wouldn't be surprised if they completely zoned in on Canaan and were victorious in Round 1.
Boston College
Poor Eagle basketball. They were the bottom of the barrel in the ACC last year and were picked in the preseason to finish in the same spot. So then surely they'll be granted mercy in the first round of the Charleston Classic right? Let them get a win to start the season...Baylor in the first round? Lord have mercy. They started five freshman last year so the only direction to go is up, but with that comes a steep uphill battle.
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