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Chatter: Ben Goessling will have your baseball updates from Nationals Park as Washington continues its home series against the Marlins.
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With the series back in Cleveland, LeBron James will try to get the Cavaliers — and his game — back on track against the Celtics. 8 p.m., Chs. 7, 2
FROM WASHINGTONTIMES.COM ” EXCERPT FROM D1SCOURSE, OUR COLLEGES BLOG
Patrick Stevens ranks next year’s college basketball teams. … for the second time.
Every team is treated as if their players who have declared for the NBA Draft won’t return. So it will be worth coming out with another set of rankings in late June once the deadline to remain in the draft has passed. Players who could theoretically return are in parentheses.
1. Connecticut: Assuming A.J. Price is healthy, the Huskies could be in very, very good shape.
2. Pittsburgh: They’ll fall back toward the middle of the top 10 as players return to school, but they’ll still be formidable with Sam Young back.
3. North Carolina (Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington, Danny Green): Yep, the Tar Heels are this high even with three of their top six players in the draft. Getting Tyler Hansbrough will do that.
4. Louisville: Earl Clark’s decision to remain makes placing the Cardinals in the top five last month looks more credible.
5. Texas (A.J. Abrams): The Longhorns won’t be No. 1 without D.J. Augustin. But they still have a lot of superb pieces to remain a top-10 team.
6. UCLA (Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook, Josh Shipp, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute): The Bruins’ recruiting class is good enough to land them back in contention for another Final Four trip.
7. Purdue: Scott Martin has transferred, but the Boilermakers should still be the Big Ten’s top team.
8. Duke: The Blue Devils stay where they were a month ago.
9. Notre Dame: Not sure whether they can be Final Four good, but it’s tough to envision them as anything but a tough out even after they fall a bit with players coming back to school.
10. Tennessee: Does Bobby Maze solve the point guard questions? Who knows. But the Volunteers are still in decent shape to pace the SEC.
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