I apoligize in advance--fellow ASUN fans-- for my impatience in discussing next year's basketball season so prematurely. However, college basketball is a year round sport is far as I am concerned.

At any rate, as we look forward to next season, what are everyone's forecasts and prognastications based on this past season and the incoming recruiting classes? Will Belmont and Lispcomp be the favorites heading into the season? I'm not really familiar with all of the teams yet, so I'm not sure who lost players to graduation or other reasons. It appeared that Gardner Webb had a lot of seniors, so I'm assuming they'll be young and inexperienced. Kennesaw, based some posts on this board, seemed to be relatively young and had a strong recruiting class, so I could see them being towards the top.

My beloved Bucs should be dubbed "The New Look Bucs". Obviously with losing Tim, we will have a different look. I think we have had an strong recruiting class and return the majority of our players. Also, however, we lose some pretty big "cogs"--Sneed, Rhoda and Smith. Also coming in next year, will be Kenyona Swader, a 6'8" SF JC transfer who they say plays like a guard. He was a medical redshirt last year. I also expect Dequan Twilley, a signee from Shelbyville Tn., to make a run as Freshman of the year.

Thoughts?

its never to early 2 discuss basketball. Mercer seems to have a good class coming in, but i think the three teams that will battle it out for the conference will be the bucs, the bruins and the owls. with fgcu coming in now, the conference gets a lot lighter. they'll be around last or second to last with jacksonville.

Florida Gulf Coast will not start conf play until 2007-2008 according to the press release. so they will not be at the bottom next year. Jacksonviille is an interesting team. talent wise they should have won more than one game. they had a few guys that could really play. i expect that coach to get a few more w's out of them next year and have a better recruiting class. i think unf will be at the bottom again...they are very very well coached but with more scouting and familirization(i might have made that word up) i think the talent gap will be exposed even though laroiche is a very good player(unless he graduated, i thought he was a junior so correct me if i'm wrong).

So if ETSu fans thought last year was a down year, then next year we will be hearing a lot of griping. Belmont has to be the early favorite. They lose glue guys like Oliver and Collins(who should get more credit), but there system and talent will be the same. Lipscomb won't fall too far. They will have 2 of the top players in conf w/ fisk and ard. their supporting cast might be weaker but that is still tough to deal with. they will miss poindexter a lot. So i have the battle for second place between Lips, ETSU, and Mercer. I think there recruiting class in a down year will catch people(talking bout Mercer). ETSU with its money and resources should be a favorite every year. G-W could be near the bottom depending on the recruiting class. havent heard about them. and campbell is a team that can beat anybody in the conf and lose to anybody in the conf. there style of play is just that way, but if they are confident i expect some noise out of them this year. should be a fun and balanced league again, just a little weaker.

Money and resources? Umm, 4:20 smoke break in Macon please.. We HAVE NO MONEY, hence ETSU being in the A-Sun in the first place. Resources? We have the WORST basketball facility in the conference, period. Atleast at Campbell you're not playing inside an airplane hanger, and guess what, they're building a new facility!
Onto the basketball part, we are a mediocre team until our mediocre coach decides to remove his head from his rectal cavity and LET THE ASSISTANTS coach the team. Wagers and Boyd have been proven winners in the past, let them do it. The only garbage assistant we have is Will Bailey, and you guessed it, he came with good ol' Murry. Until we prove otherwise, we're a fourth or fifth place team in the conference that will 15-19 games per year.

are you serious right now? if you have no money then quit bidding on the conference tourney. you easily outbid everyone else. you have no idea what mercer goes through then. maybe you don't have as much many as utc or ut or somebody like that but compared to the stetsons and mercers, your recruiting budget is prob bigger than our whole basketball budget. our coaches are the lowest paid. we don't have secretaries or director of basketball operations. heck we don't even have that third assistant you are complaining about. we have two very low paid assistants and a GA. so yes you do have money for this conf(maybe you weren't aware but hopefully you are now). as far as resources, i know nothing about your gym except it looks huge in pictures and you get decent attendence. it could be crappy for all i know, but being that big still has to catch some athletes eyes. also you have resources like a band, booster clubs, etc. you have had players and coaches that have gotten national attention recently. i watched warmups and this is something very small, but i saw you had multiple warmups tops. our guys wore the old warmup tops for 6 years, and i'm sure the new ones we got this year will last the next 6. so yes i do think you have money and resources that nobody else in this league has. you are a state school with an alumni base and your enrollment(while not as high as KSU) is still a lot larger than most of the schools u compete against. i know you don't want to be here but when we look at you, we see that you have an advantage. and i'm sorry your coach sucks, b/c if done right, you guys should win conf or finish in the top 3 every year.

My unofficial pre-pre-season rankings with only a little bias:

10. Stetson - Lost all recognizable talent, I expect huge down year.
9. UNF - Not their fault, still growing to D1
8. KSU - Coach was easily "figured out" at mid-point last year. The "never seen this coach" factor is no more.
7. JU - It has to get better. That freshman was outstanding, I forget his name.
6. Campbell - Loss of Auigiar (sp?) early is huge.
5. Mercer - Lack of size will be tough to overcome.
4. G-Webb - Great coach will overcome losses in talent.
3. Lipscomb - Another great coach
2. ETSU - Seem out of place at the top right now, but they might actually be better next year.
1. Belmont - Will they finish first? Probably not. Pre-season they have to be #1. A top-notch coach & deadly shooting should equal success.. but that's why they play the games.

I think you have KSU way to low. Last year we played without any size inside... we had a guy who played pg in high school playing center... last year some of our best talent never left the bench... a couple of D-1 transfers, from Nebraska and Michigan, including a 6'10 big man and a great "guard" who happens to be 6'6" were red-shirted along with our up and coming prep start Zach... who will be taking over at point after golden heads out. Word has it he has a great shot. Towards the end of the year it wasn?t that other coaches figured us out ... it was that Golden Ingle suffered from multiple inj's. He RAN the team hardcore last year... he was taking up a lot of the slack in the first 10 games in which we went 9-1 to open conf. play.... after he got hurt (twice) we were toast ... our perimeter d fell apart along with our offense... and we never had inside guys to begin with... I think we will be 100% better this year in comparison to the team that went 9-1 to open up. All these red-shirts and new guys are going to help us have the deepest bench in the conf. I am wonder if Andre Morgan ( asun frosh of the year )will even start... guess we will have to see!

I think you have KSU way to low. Last year we played without any size inside... we had a guy who played pg in high school playing center... last year some of our best talent never left the bench... a couple of D-1 transfers, from Nebraska and Michigan, including a 6'10 big man and a great "guard" who happens to be 6'6" were red-shirted along with our up and coming prep start Zach... who will be taking over at point after golden heads out. Word has it he has a great shot. Towards the end of the year it wasn?t that other coaches figured us out ... it was that Golden Ingle suffered from multiple inj's. He RAN the team hardcore last year... he was taking up a lot of the slack in the first 10 games in which we went 9-1 to open conf. play.... after he got hurt (twice) we were toast ... our perimeter d fell apart along with our offense... and we never had inside guys to begin with... I think we will be 100% better this year in comparison to the team that went 9-1 to open up. All these red-shirts and new guys are going to help us have the deepest bench in the conf. I am wonder if Andre Morgan ( asun frosh of the year )will even start... guess we will have to see!

I think you have KSU way to low. Last year we played without any size inside... we had a guy who played pg in high school playing center... last year some of our best talent never left the bench... a couple of D-1 transfers, from Nebraska and Michigan, including a 6'10 big man and a great "guard" who happens to be 6'6" were red-shirted along with our up and coming prep start Zach... who will be taking over at point after golden heads out. Word has it he has a great shot. Towards the end of the year it wasn?t that other coaches figured us out ... it was that Golden Ingle suffered from multiple inj's. He RAN the team hardcore last year... he was taking up a lot of the slack in the first 10 games in which we went 9-1 to open conf. play.... after he got hurt (twice) we were toast ... our perimeter d fell apart along with our offense... and we never had inside guys to begin with... I think we will be 100% better this year in comparison to the team that went 9-1 to open up. All these red-shirts and new guys are going to help us have the deepest bench in the conf. I am wonder if Andre Morgan ( asun frosh of the year )will even start... guess we will have to see!

But lets be honest ETSU is straight out of the SEC. They should win it all ... in every sport! So good! lol This conf. is a "no problem" conf. for them!

kr983 Wrote:I think you have KSU way to low. Last year we played without any size inside... we had a guy who played pg in high school playing center... last year some of our best talent never left the bench... a couple of D-1 transfers, from Nebraska and Michigan, including a 6'10 big man and a great "guard" who happens to be 6'6" were red-shirted along with our up and coming prep start Zach... who will be taking over at point after golden heads out. Word has it he has a great shot. Towards the end of the year it wasn?t that other coaches figured us out ... it was that Golden Ingle suffered from multiple inj's. He RAN the team hardcore last year... he was taking up a lot of the slack in the first 10 games in which we went 9-1 to open conf. play.... after he got hurt (twice) we were toast ... our perimeter d fell apart along with our offense... and we never had inside guys to begin with... I think we will be 100% better this year in comparison to the team that went 9-1 to open up. All these red-shirts and new guys are going to help us have the deepest bench in the conf. I am wonder if Andre Morgan ( asun frosh of the year )will even start... guess we will have to see!

i completely agree. We were VERY beat up at the end of the year, plus if wooten wasnt suspended we would of beat mercer that second time. KSU is by far and away the best coached team in the conference, and now that 2 of their better players are coming off redshirt years, we finally recruited much needed height, andre morgan got experience, and ingle and wooten still there...they very well could be the team to beat. 70 percent of the games we lost were due to the inability to rebound due to height. we got it this year. i'm pumped. I LOVE COLLEGE BASKETBALL! cant wait for it 2 start..o and a side note...has nothing to do with our conference..but duke is finally playing gonzaga this year. thats gonna be 2 cool .

MercerFan Wrote:My unofficial pre-pre-season rankings with only a little bias:

6. Campbell - Loss of Auigiar (sp?) early is huge.

I admit that it hurts to lose Deigo but it started to become clear that he wasn't fitting in the Robbie Laing system. Plus, I am hoping a lot from Dapo next year.

did latham graduate?? i thought he was your key. i hope he did b/c we couldn't stop him.

on a side note, you think you should have beat us twice KSU, and we think we should have beat you twice. we had you here at home. it was one of the many games we let slip away. and if we want to play "if they hadn't been suspended" game, mercer would have been a top 4 team last year if three guys weren't suspended for the year. haha. i hope this rivalry takes off, lord knows we need something to drum up interest. and i agree ingle is a great coach even if i don't agree with his methods. i can't wait to see this recruiting class. you have to give the man a whole lot of credit to be able to recruit and not be eligible to go to the big dance. i tip my hat to him.

Man, KSU, you guys will definitely be tough. I really, really liked Golden Ingle. He was fearless and seemed to have endless range. I'm with you 'kr, I can't wait for the start of next season

mubear Wrote:did latham graduate?? i thought he was your key. i hope he did b/c we couldn't stop him.

Yeah Latham did graduate... that really hurts. We need to find that "go-to" guy. Plus he was great on the boards and the leader of the team.

Im not sure ETSU should be ranked a preseason #2. We will definitely be the new look Bucs, with our 3 best players headed out. We did have a great recruiting class it seems, but it will take time for those guys to develop, and seeing how our current players have developed under the current coaching staff, who knows how that will go. We will have two or maybe three freshman starting. It could be a good year or a bad year, but I think we will need to prove something before we are ranked that high.