Why Kendall Marshall and His Peers Makes College Basketball Exciting

The point guard has always been the hardest and most exciting position in college basketball, especially recently.

No matter how good the pivot or the wing players are, without a steady head to control the flow of the game and feed the post appropriately, things can get really difficult (ask Baylor’s Perry Jones and Florida’s Patrick Young).

At the beginning of last season, Roy Williams had a talented team but they were underperforming until he made a change at point guard.

Talk about last season, some of the biggest stars played the point. Duke had Nolan Smith and Kyrie Irving. BYU had Jimmer Fredette. Kentucky had Brandon Knight.

No one can forget Kemba Walker after he led UConn to third championship under Jim Calhoun.

Kansas had Josh Selby even if his performance wasn’t up to scratch.

Of the last five NBA drafts, three of the No.1 picks were point guards, which make the position even more intriguing going into the season. Can any of these guys be the next Derrick Rose or John Wall?

Dana O’Neil recently highlighted the fact that the top four ranked teams will be depending on either freshmen or sophomore floor generals.

North Carolina has sophomore Kendall Marshall. Kentucky has freshman Marquis Teague. Ohio State has sophomore Aaron Craft and UConn has sophomore Shabazz Napier.

According to the O’Neil article, no team has won a championship with an underclassman as point guard since 2006 when Florida Gators won with sophomore Taurean Green.

One can easily expect these four teams to be the No.1 seeds next March (at least it is theirs to lose) and it would be interesting to see which of these four young guys can deliver the goods.

But they are not by any means the best of the best. Wisconsin’s senior Jordan Taylor was recently named to the Associated Press’ preseason All-America first team.

Xavier’s Tu Holliday may just be a shooting guard playing the point, but he has to be considered here.

Two other freshmen to be considered are Arizona’s Josiah Turner and Texas’s Myck Kabonga.

Texas may be rebuilding, but Kabonga will make them exciting to watch.

Turner did not impress during Arizona’s recent exhibition game, but he is highly ranked for a reason.

Teague is probably has the best situation with several talented freshmen and Terrence Jones around him. He is also athletic and exciting to watch and may be the closest to being drafted No.1 next season.

A very long shot though with the likes of Harrison Barnes and Jared Sullinger around.

If I had to choose the best of this lot, I would have a hard time deciding between Marshall and Taylor. Experience does matter.

Ask me to choose the point guard with the best shot release and that’s easy: Seth Curry of Duke.