#2 - Little Rock

I readily admit that this is a homer prediction, but it is based upon facts I have about this team that I have no way of knowing about other teams without devoting time and money that I cannot spare. I really think that the upside potential of Lis Shoshi and Jalen Jackson is enormous, and that fact alone would be enough for me to keep them in the top tier of the league. Add to the fact that we have six scholarship seniors on the roster, and it is hard to pick a team coming off 30 wins much lower than this.

The only real question marks this team has are rebounding and point guard. I figure we can get a competent point out of the mixture of candidates available. Expecting one of them to be Josh Hagins in his senior year is expecting a lot, but we do not have to have that in order to be really good. We just need a consistent, competent point guard, and I think we can get that. The other issue that bothers me is rebounding, but we won 30 games last season being a mediocre rebounding team, so maybe we can do that again.

On the plus side, we have one of the premier 3-point shooters in the conference, tons of maturity and experience, lots of confidence coming off a record year, a bunch of seniors with something to prove on their watch, a strong incoming recruiting class, adequate roster height, and the enthusiasm of a new coach on his first gig. There are a lot of things right about this year's team, and I will be very surprised if we finish much lower than this.

Too high. I'm thinking more like fourth.

We are bringing back most of the players from a 30 win team. Plus some quality redshirts and Freshmen. I would think #2 is not out of the question, and I don't think #1 is completely out of the question. Of course the ball has to bounce right for you. No key injuries and winning some games that could go either way. I believe #2 is pretty conservative.

(08-30-2016 10:43 PM)tweaky1 Wrote:  Too high. I'm thinking more like fourth.

I admit there was a tablespoonful of wishful thinking in this one. Largely dependent upon the new point guard and Shoshi's progess.

Point guard won't be a problem. Deshawn Watkins will be a solid SBC performer. He will not need to be Josh Hagins.
He might not need to be a big scorer. Just distribute the ball to several seasoned veterans who will provide the offensive power we need. Marcus, Jr. will be an All SBC selection. Lis will be an even more prominent figure this year. Jalen could be an All league performer, and Kemy has the potential to give us a steady stream of scoring. Oliver Black will be a terrific addition, Marius Hill could be the surprise of the season, and Andre Jones could be in the mix for Freshman of the Year in the conference. All in all, this is potentially a championship team. Fourth place is way too low for this group. But hey. The ball bounces in strange ways sometimes, so we'll see. It should be another exciting season.

(08-31-2016 05:31 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  

(08-30-2016 10:43 PM)tweaky1 Wrote:  Too high. I'm thinking more like fourth.

I admit there was a tablespoonful of wishful thinking in this one. Largely dependent upon the new point guard and Shoshi's progess.

I'm not sure is too high. Only team I think is clearly better than us on paper is UTA. Obviously, I really don't now what most of the other teams are bringing in. I do believe GaSouthern will be very good, but like you said, they may still be a year a way.

This season, we're #1 or #2. Next season we might be lucky to be #4.

Looks like my prediction of fourth was too high. Barring some sort of unprecedented winning streak.

"Largely dependent upon the new point guard and Shoshi's progess." I missed it badly, also. But at least I qualified it, and sure enough, both the qualifications happened: no point guard, Shoshi injured.

Oh well. It was worth a shot.

(02-06-2017 11:08 PM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  "Largely dependent upon the new point guard and Shoshi's progess." I missed it badly, also. But at least I qualified it, and sure enough, both the qualifications happened: no point guard, Shoshi injured.

Not a bad pick Pappy. You at least got us in the top twelve in the league. he he

We could really move up if we win all our games. It's possible isn't it?

Theoretically, yes.

(02-10-2017 12:53 PM)outsideualr Wrote:  We could really move up if we win all our games. It's possible isn't it?

If we win out we'll be 11-7. Probably good enough for a bye. Considering the schedule (Top 5 teams; 5 of 7 on the road), I'd feel pretty good going into the tourney winning 3 of the 7. Win 4 of 7 and I'll be looking at flights to Dayton.

(02-08-2017 11:02 PM)LRTrojan Wrote:  Not a bad pick Pappy. You at least got us in the top twelve in the league. he he

"Frequently wrong, but never in doubt."

I missed badly on stAte, also, but I hedged my bets on them because they had such a large roster turnover. Very difficult to predict.

(02-10-2017 01:07 PM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  I missed badly on stAte, also, but I hedged my bets on them because they had such a large roster turnover. Very difficult to predict.

Nobody could have predicted ASU's success. I would think most of their fans are surprised as well. I honestly did not have any problem with you picking us second, at the time. I underestimated how big the loss of Josh and Roger would be, of course, not knowing that our new point guard would miss the season. I also didn't give Ruttley as much credit as he deserved- a really skilled player who was willing to put his stats second to team success. Of course, losing Mareik's outside shooting and size left a hole as well. However, with us playing the league's best, the next 5 games, I still think we can be a "spoiler" for a couple (if not more) of those teams.