I watched the Anderson/Turpin game. Anderson came out strong and went up 12 in the first quarter, and then it was like the air got let our of their ball. From there, Turpin dominated, in a very surprising way, just from looking at the two teams physically. They won going away.
Hardewig is fun to watch. He reminds me of an old school Jimmy Chitwood type of scorer/facilitator. They pretty much give him the ball and ask him to make something happen on every possession, so if he has an off night, it could be a bad night for them. But he had a good night and controlled the game for them. He's tough too, and gets offensive rebounds and took some posssessions in the low post. They play four guards and a not so big forward, and everyone can score, but everything goes through Hardewig.
Starks had a rough night. Physically, he's intimidating. He looks like the kind of guy you'd expect to see in a UC or UK uniform. You can definitely see how he'd lead the league in rebounding, but he did not show much of the skill or finesse you'd expect to see from the assist leader. I think when they're going well, they must just run the ball through him in the low post, and he must just find open shooters. He did make a couple of nice passes out of the post, but he was getting triple and quadruple teamed when he got the ball down there, and he was stymied most of the night.
Bottom line, if this game is indicative of what these teams are capable of (which I'm guessing it's not for Anderson), I think Kings is the best team in the league. They're so fast, and so disruptive on defense, and move the ball so well, and have so many guys who can score... I think they're the favorite, although I don't think they're going to match up well with Anderson's size.