Louisville will be really good next year. So should we. It's going to be an exciting season.

(08-24-2013 01:39 PM)Tigermaniac Wrote:  

(08-23-2013 02:30 PM)TigerFan386 Wrote:  

(08-23-2013 02:19 PM)Joe1 Wrote:  

(08-23-2013 01:46 PM)MemphisCanes Wrote:  Two out of the three games in Memphis, in March, after that debacle here last season?

We're winning two out of three.

now this is a prediction I agree with.

It's a tall task, but I would never be happier to be wrong.

Tall Task why? They have as many question marks as we do. They just get the respect right now because they won the Title.

1. Will Hancock average 21 PPG which was needed for them to win the title?
2. Will Jones come in and be as good or better then Siva at leading the team?
3. Who will replace Dieng?
4. Will their undersized team be able to compete without getting away with fouling non stop and the opponent not getting called for a foul every other play?
5. Will their freshmen and upperclassmen be better then our upperclassmen and our freshmen? Their class has quite a big drop off compared to ours.
6. Will Ware come in after injury and dominate as they expect. Even though he only averaged 4 PPG anyway?
7. Will Russ Smith shoot better then 42% fro the floor and 32% from three?
8. Will their be chemistry issues between Jones ( Known Ball hog and high turnover rate) and Smith ( High PPgs but takes 14-15 shots per game)?

There are others but I'm not going to type everything I see that could potentially go wrong with Louisville. It took pretty much extreme motivation after the Ware incident, a little hook up from the refs and several players playing out of their minds for them to win the title. I do not expect them to replicate it.

They have a nice team but across the board their stars are small. They were able to overcome it last season with officiating, pressing and teams just not being able to keep up with them when they did press. They caused a lot of turnovers due to that press and officiating and no we were not the only team or fan base pissed about it. There were several. Our game was just very obvious.

I gave us a loss @ Louisville however if, our freshmen are as good as advertised and can handle the adjustment to the Division 1 level then I think we can honestly take all 3. By the time we play them we would have already played Florida, Oklahoma State probably twice, LSU, and quite a few "gimmie" games to hone our skills and find out what we truly want to do.

I agree. thank you for a quality post, well thought out.

(08-24-2013 01:39 PM)Tigermaniac Wrote:  

(08-23-2013 02:30 PM)TigerFan386 Wrote:  

(08-23-2013 02:19 PM)Joe1 Wrote:  

(08-23-2013 01:46 PM)MemphisCanes Wrote:  Two out of the three games in Memphis, in March, after that debacle here last season?

We're winning two out of three.

now this is a prediction I agree with.

It's a tall task, but I would never be happier to be wrong.

Tall Task why? They have as many question marks as we do. They just get the respect right now because they won the Title.

1. Will Hancock average 21 PPG which was needed for them to win the title?
2. Will Jones come in and be as good or better then Siva at leading the team?
3. Who will replace Dieng?
4. Will their undersized team be able to compete without getting away with fouling non stop and the opponent not getting called for a foul every other play?
5. Will their freshmen and upperclassmen be better then our upperclassmen and our freshmen? Their class has quite a big drop off compared to ours.
6. Will Ware come in after injury and dominate as they expect. Even though he only averaged 4 PPG anyway?
7. Will Russ Smith shoot better then 42% fro the floor and 32% from three?
8. Will their be chemistry issues between Jones ( Known Ball hog and high turnover rate) and Smith ( High PPgs but takes 14-15 shots per game)?

There are others but I'm not going to type everything I see that could potentially go wrong with Louisville. It took pretty much extreme motivation after the Ware incident, a little hook up from the refs and several players playing out of their minds for them to win the title. I do not expect them to replicate it.

They have a nice team but across the board their stars are small. They were able to overcome it last season with officiating, pressing and teams just not being able to keep up with them when they did press. They caused a lot of turnovers due to that press and officiating and no we were not the only team or fan base pissed about it. There were several. Our game was just very obvious.

I gave us a loss @ Louisville however if, our freshmen are as good as advertised and can handle the adjustment to the Division 1 level then I think we can honestly take all 3. By the time we play them we would have already played Florida, Oklahoma State probably twice, LSU, and quite a few "gimmie" games to hone our skills and find out what we truly want to do.

It's a tall task because they are a Top 5 team, and winning is hard. Remember?

Different year, same song. National champs? What's that? We'll kill 'em.

If we thought (rightfully so) that we had a bulls eye on our back in C-USA, then we should understand that, this year in this league, lame duck Louisville will be getting everybody's best parting shot. It's probably one of the few times when a reigning national champ's coach could play the "odds are against us" card that Cal used to use all the time and get away with it with his players. He probably won't, but he could.

To me it's more fun looking at the odds of each game as an outsider would and then relishing those wins we sneak away with as big accomplishments rather than expecting to knock off the best team in our league every time we play them and seting myself up for the possibility of a big disappointment if we don't.

Everybody wants to kill Louisville. I'm not going to cry if we don't do it every time. They're good. I'm just glad we're playing teams of that caliber this year.

24 or 25 wins in the regular season seems about right to me with this schedule, and the majority of people seem to be right in that ball park with their predictions. And if we go 30, we'll (almost) all be delightfully surprised!

(08-24-2013 01:39 PM)Tigermaniac Wrote:  

(08-23-2013 02:30 PM)TigerFan386 Wrote:  

(08-23-2013 02:19 PM)Joe1 Wrote:  

(08-23-2013 01:46 PM)MemphisCanes Wrote:  Two out of the three games in Memphis, in March, after that debacle here last season?

We're winning two out of three.

now this is a prediction I agree with.

It's a tall task, but I would never be happier to be wrong.

Tall Task why? They have as many question marks as we do. They just get the respect right now because they won the Title.

1. Will Hancock average 21 PPG which was needed for them to win the title?
2. Will Jones come in and be as good or better then Siva at leading the team?
3. Who will replace Dieng?
4. Will their undersized team be able to compete without getting away with fouling non stop and the opponent not getting called for a foul every other play?
5. Will their freshmen and upperclassmen be better then our upperclassmen and our freshmen? Their class has quite a big drop off compared to ours.
6. Will Ware come in after injury and dominate as they expect. Even though he only averaged 4 PPG anyway?
7. Will Russ Smith shoot better then 42% fro the floor and 32% from three?
8. Will their be chemistry issues between Jones ( Known Ball hog and high turnover rate) and Smith ( High PPgs but takes 14-15 shots per game)?

There are others but I'm not going to type everything I see that could potentially go wrong with Louisville. It took pretty much extreme motivation after the Ware incident, a little hook up from the refs and several players playing out of their minds for them to win the title. I do not expect them to replicate it.

They have a nice team but across the board their stars are small. They were able to overcome it last season with officiating, pressing and teams just not being able to keep up with them when they did press. They caused a lot of turnovers due to that press and officiating and no we were not the only team or fan base pissed about it. There were several. Our game was just very obvious.

I gave us a loss @ Louisville however if, our freshmen are as good as advertised and can handle the adjustment to the Division 1 level then I think we can honestly take all 3. By the time we play them we would have already played Florida, Oklahoma State probably twice, LSU, and quite a few "gimmie" games to hone our skills and find out what we truly want to do.

Why would they need to replace Dieng to beat us?

THat is one fact most here forget about.

I think we finished at worst second place in the 'Merican!

(08-25-2013 07:46 AM)macgar32 Wrote:  

(08-24-2013 01:39 PM)Tigermaniac Wrote:  

(08-23-2013 02:30 PM)TigerFan386 Wrote:  

(08-23-2013 02:19 PM)Joe1 Wrote:  

(08-23-2013 01:46 PM)MemphisCanes Wrote:  Two out of the three games in Memphis, in March, after that debacle here last season?

We're winning two out of three.

now this is a prediction I agree with.

It's a tall task, but I would never be happier to be wrong.

Tall Task why? They have as many question marks as we do. They just get the respect right now because they won the Title.

1. Will Hancock average 21 PPG which was needed for them to win the title?
2. Will Jones come in and be as good or better then Siva at leading the team?
3. Who will replace Dieng?
4. Will their undersized team be able to compete without getting away with fouling non stop and the opponent not getting called for a foul every other play?
5. Will their freshmen and upperclassmen be better then our upperclassmen and our freshmen? Their class has quite a big drop off compared to ours.
6. Will Ware come in after injury and dominate as they expect. Even though he only averaged 4 PPG anyway?
7. Will Russ Smith shoot better then 42% fro the floor and 32% from three?
8. Will their be chemistry issues between Jones ( Known Ball hog and high turnover rate) and Smith ( High PPgs but takes 14-15 shots per game)?

There are others but I'm not going to type everything I see that could potentially go wrong with Louisville. It took pretty much extreme motivation after the Ware incident, a little hook up from the refs and several players playing out of their minds for them to win the title. I do not expect them to replicate it.

They have a nice team but across the board their stars are small. They were able to overcome it last season with officiating, pressing and teams just not being able to keep up with them when they did press. They caused a lot of turnovers due to that press and officiating and no we were not the only team or fan base pissed about it. There were several. Our game was just very obvious.

I gave us a loss @ Louisville however if, our freshmen are as good as advertised and can handle the adjustment to the Division 1 level then I think we can honestly take all 3. By the time we play them we would have already played Florida, Oklahoma State probably twice, LSU, and quite a few "gimmie" games to hone our skills and find out what we truly want to do.

Why would they need to replace Dieng to beat us?

THat is one fact most here forget about.

Because this isn't the Memphis team from last season. Whether we are better or worse. We have 9 new players. We have more depth inside. We have Vet Senior guards, We are bigger faster and better on the wings and we have more size and depth on this inside. Will the front court be better? I think it will be but I'll have to see what Nichols, Pellom, Woodson and a new look Shaq do early on. Also, Behanan and Blackshear will not be guarded by 6'4 180 lb DJ Stephens inside and their bigs will be forced to come out of that 3-4 foot radius under the basket to guard some of our players depending on who we decide to match them up with.

Tarik actually had a good game against them last season. It was the foul issues we couldn't overcome. If you didn't notice we match up EXTREMELY well with that Louisville team. Shaq, Pellom, Nichols and Woodson could have big games against them because they are really at a disadvantage size wise and the only players they would be throwing out there with the size to match would make Stan Simpson look like an All American. They also lose Siva and now without Dieng and our new found depth inside I really feel at least personally that we will cause all sorts of problems for them.

Who's gonna guard King? Smith at the 2? Harrell or Hancock at the 3? If that's the case who's gonna guard Iverson? Harrell, Blackshear, Hancock? Who's gonna guard Pellom, Woodson, Shaq and Nichols? Blackshear, Behanan, Agau? You expect Chris Jones, Russ Smith, Ware or one of their freshmen to guard Joe, Chris, Geron or Dixon? Then turn it around and realize those same size/athletic advantages we have on offense we'll also have on defense. Not to mention a little foul trouble for us won't hurt nearly as bad as it did last season because we are much deeper.

No this isn't a knock on you or anyone else. This is just my reasoning for thinking we are going to take it to Louisville lol. Sure they are good and for most teams they will be a lot to handle. However I think this is going to be one of those special Memphis teams. If it turns out to be a bust, I'll deal with that I guess. However, for now I have no reason to think we won't exceed most of the expectations I have read in this thread.

(08-21-2013 06:00 PM)anothertigerfan Wrote:  We'll win some and lose some. I want to see how we do in the Old Spice Classic before I give true predictions.

Yep. We seem to struggle in these preseason tourneys.

(08-26-2013 04:40 PM)Brother Bluto Wrote:  

(08-21-2013 06:00 PM)anothertigerfan Wrote:  We'll win some and lose some. I want to see how we do in the Old Spice Classic before I give true predictions.

Yep. We seem to struggle in these preseason tourneys.

Yep, hopefully we will get off to a better start. Old Spice field isn't nearly as strong as those in the past, if we don't make it to the championship game then it will be pretty disappointing.

Since the regular season is 2 games away from being finished, I thought it would be a good idea to look at predictions before the season vs where we are right now.

(03-05-2014 10:26 PM)JRR_IV Wrote:  Since the regular season is 2 games away from being finished, I thought it would be a good idea to look at predictions before the season vs where we are right now.

I said Louisville would sweep us, we swept Louisville. Never been happier to be wrong. I'll take my crow served well-done please.