Will it be stronger? How young is your MBB team? UTEP, for one, should be much better next year if our coach can finally stabilize his roster. With a strong set of traditionally good basketball teams, smart scheduling by all, this conference really should become a multiple bid conference. That alone would make up for the shortfall in tv money coming up.

Rice should be much stronger, barring injuries or transfers. We only have one senior, and he's not really a big contributor. The strength of our team is freshman/sophomores, and our leading returner scorer from last year has yet to play this year due to injury. He'll come back next year strong. That's in addition to a good class we've got coming in.

ODU loses Freeman, Bacote, Biberaj, and Shaw. Obviously the first two are huge losses as they are the bulk of our offense. In the backcourt, we will return Jordan Baker (who I hope continues to play like he did last night) and current freshman Ahmad Caver who has shown flashes of brilliance, but needs more time and experience. We have 4-star UVA transfer B.J. Stith available as well as two freshmen (Tre Evans and Xavier Green) and a Juco (Randy Haynes) coming in. Backcourt will be talented but young and inexperienced.

The frontcourt is where we should be vastly improved as we are very thin this year. Brandon Stith keeps improving and will be back as well as Denzell Taylor (who I hope discovers an offensive game in the offseason), and current freshman Zoran Talley, who is starting this year and playing well. 4-Star Illinois transfer Austin Colbert, Mason transfer Trey Porter, Redshirt Freshman Aaron Carver, and incoming Juco Allasane Kah give us, on paper, a very deep and talented frontcourt.

If everything gels as it should, ODU will be a different type of team next year, but should be very good.

(01-22-2016 10:37 AM)07owl Wrote:  Rice should be much stronger, barring injuries or transfers. We only have one senior, and he's not really a big contributor. The strength of our team is freshman/sophomores, and our leading returner scorer from last year has yet to play this year due to injury. He'll come back next year strong. That's in addition to a good class we've got coming in.

To echo this, Rice will be much, much better next season. Rice would have been much better this season, but last year's top returning scorer (Marcus Jackson, 14.5 ppg) and one of our top freshman (Chad Lott) blew out their knees before the season started. Rice has 3 freshman playing very well this year who should continue to improve (Marcus Evans, Marquez Letcher-Ellis, and Connor Cashaw). Next year's freshman class includes some much needed size, including a concensus top-200 PF.

Most importantly, Rice is playing with only 8 healthy scholarship players right now (started the season with 2 open sports, then 2 injuries, then had an early transfer). Next season Rice will actually have 13 scholarship players. 5 extra bodies on defense will make a huge difference. The only player we are losing is a 5'9" PG (Max Guercy). He is a great passer and hard worker, but obviously his size gives him some limitations on both ends of the court.

If Charlotte keeps our main freshmen in White, Scott, and Davis, we will be a force to be reckoned with. We'll have to fill in some gaps, but I have confidence in Coach Price and our basketball program going forward. Charlotte basketball is on the rise.

(01-22-2016 10:33 AM)MinerInWisconsin Wrote:  Will it be stronger? How young is your MBB team? UTEP, for one, should be much better next year if our coach can finally stabilize his roster. With a strong set of traditionally good basketball teams, smart scheduling by all, this conference really should become a multiple bid conference. That alone would make up for the shortfall in tv money coming up.

I agree. We should definitely be a conference with multiple bids to the tournament with the pedigree of programs that we have. It's just messed up that so many are down at the same time. Still, I'm cautiously optimistic. Never say that things can't get worse, but I think things will be better next year based off the games I've watched that featured our conference mates.

No offense to any Marshall fans, but I haven't expected anything from them in basketball for a good while until they went on that run. They're reminiscent of a lot of C-USA teams in how prolific they can be on any given night, but when you rely on the three that much you're bound to have bad nights even if the score doesn't reflect as much. I like their play, though.

Middle Tennessee is still one of the top teams in the conference and they have looked solid in every one of their games I've looked at. The drop off at La. Tech was to be expected, but I expect them to get better, too. UTEP and Charlotte won't be down long. Southern Miss is still in recovery mode so I probably won't expect much from them in a while. I don't think Rice is as bad as their record indicates. Their main problem is that they seem to take too many jump shots. If they slowed the game down, played bigger, and let their free throw shooting (and Evans) carry them then they'll be much better.

I don't really have much to go on with the Florida schools, North Texas, and UTSA. I haven't caught any of their games.

My main concerns for next year are with WKU and ODU. I don't even know what happened to WKU. They straight up got smashed in everyone of their games that I looked at it. There are a lot of things they need to work on but it's more of a team issue kind of thing. ODU, on the other hand, is going to lose one of the best players in the conference in Freeman. I don't really see how they're going to fill the void he leaves behind, but I hope the ODU fans have some answers.

^I agree. We aren't going to replace he and Bacotes mid range jumpers. At all. We won't resemble the same team next year at all I don't think. We're going to be much bigger and probably play inside out.

(01-22-2016 10:33 AM)MinerInWisconsin Wrote:  Will it be stronger?

The conference is pretty terrible this year, so it would hard to be worse!

(01-22-2016 11:01 AM)Hopeful Wrote:  I don't think Rice is as bad as their record indicates. Their main problem is that they seem to take too many jump shots.

Last season, Rice was #2 in 3-pt% (and #1 in 3-pts made). This season, Rice is #13 in 3-pt %, but has kept heaving up the rock. Rice's style will dictate taking a lot of 3-pt shots and they absolutely must improve in this area. We have a couple guys in shooting slumps right now and the injured Marcus Jackson is an excellent shooter.

WKU...hmmm. We should be stronger next year. But depends, we could see a whole new coaching staff that could lead to (more) transfers. On paper, with our current players having this year under their belts and some nice transfers coming there's reason to hope. Just too many variables for me to guess on WKU though.

UAB loses only Robert Brown. Big loss though.

I think MT will be a bit more improved next year. We have a REALLY good transfer from Arkansas becoming eligible (most athletic one on the team). Harris and Buford are our senior PFs and Raymond is a senior SG... We should be at least even next year with Williams (the transfer) and Upshaw in the post and our returning guards becoming better. Raymond has always been iffy, so I think that's a net gain with the experienced corps returning.

(01-22-2016 10:59 AM)Timo99 Wrote:  If Charlotte keeps our main freshmen in White, Scott, and Davis, we will be a force to be reckoned with. We'll have to fill in some gaps, but I have confidence in Coach Price and our basketball program going forward. Charlotte basketball is on the rise.

Only if we get competent bigs too.

Our freshmen are ridiculous and we even have 1 really good big man this year, yet we're still 5-13. We need a good wing and 2 good big men, otherwise we're looking at 2 years before we're going to be good.

Rice played well last night for such a young team. They really hedged hard on screens on the perimeter which disrupted our offense.

As far as next year for UAB, the only player we lose is Robert Brown. He's an all-conference player so he'll be missed, but we'll be adding three guys. One is a 2 guard that's sitting out a transfer year from Southern Illinois. All indications are that he should slide in to Brown's starting spot next year. We also add two freshman guards. One is a 6'5" slasher that can jump out of the gym and is currently the #2 player in AL. The other freshman is a 6'5" sharp shooter out of DeMatha High in DC.

I actually expect UAB to be a better, even deeper team than we are this season.

Is it too soon to be talking about next year? I still think a couple of CUSA schools can make a run in post season tournaments. Don't be surprised if UTEP gets a NIT bid and wins a couple of games.

(01-22-2016 02:42 PM)Fitbud Wrote:  Don't be surprised if UTEP gets a NIT bid and wins a couple of games.

As long as the most overrated coach not named Bob Huggins is in El Paso then UTEP isn't doing anything.

Who knows what next year holds but Marshall will only lose 2 players. Those being James Kelly and Austin Loop.

WKU will be significantly improved next season.The variable will be coach.We keep our current coach it could be a big advantage or maybe not.A new coach might spark the players OR their might be a rough transition.Also depends how players work to improve in the off season.If the team works on defense


ALL summer that would be a great help.


Very difficult to say at this point.

WIth WKU who knows who will even be on team next season.....New motto for WKU basketball is "wait until next year" every year, so who knows who or what our roster will look like next season...Harper's contract expires after this season and I for one do not think he he has done anything to earn an extension, so I guess we shall see....Even with Harper we turn over the team every season with transfers leaving...

(01-22-2016 11:14 PM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  WIth WKU who knows who will even be on team next season.....New motto for WKU basketball is "wait until next year" every year, so who knows who or what our roster will look like next season...Harper's contract expires after this season and I for one do not think he he has done anything to earn an extension, so I guess we shall see....Even with Harper we turn over the team every season with transfers leaving...

If your AD is taking notes from Massaro's football strats, if Harper finishes above .500 he will get an extension.

If, if, if my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle. A lot of that. Sounds like the conference has the potential to be much better. I know if WKU returns who they should, it could be a great year. We have all the pieces in place, other than shotters. We need shooters bad.

(01-23-2016 08:32 AM)Theflash Wrote:  If, if, if my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle. A lot of that. Sounds like the conference has the potential to be much better. I know if WKU returns who they should, it could be a great year. We have all the pieces in place, other than shotters. We need shooters bad.

You've got Harrison-Docks for another year.

He's the least athletic-looking player in the conference, but don't tell me he can't shoot. My lying eyes know better.