What do you guys think? We brought back all of the supporting cast...Smart, Earley, Branson, Clark, Eursher and Larson but lost the stars... Russell, Harris, Barnes.
You also have Hanback, who played a little... and Idada and Elkamil who have been practicing with the team for over a year so it seems like we should have good team chemistry pretty quickly with all of the returners which should translate to low turnovers and better defense. The question is are we going to have enough scoring threats?

I honestly have no idea how this team will do. Someone will need to step up to be the main scorer on this team.

I wonder how long it will take for Kobe Clark to get back, we need him because this could be more of a defensive team this year

(10-12-2023 02:13 PM)Myers Hall Zuke Wrote:  What do you guys think? We brought back all of the supporting cast...Smart, Earley, Branson, Clark, Eursher and Larson but lost the stars... Russell, Harris, Barnes.
You also have Hanback, who played a little... and Idada and Elkamil who have been practicing with the team for over a year so it seems like we should have good team chemistry pretty quickly with all of the returners which should translate to low turnovers and better defense. The question is are we going to have enough scoring threats?

I think the scoring will be spread around more with probable no one averaging over 15 a game. We need Clark back at 100%. Then I think this will be a pretty good team.

We also picked up a couple of good ball handlers - from a post back in April:

Ward (#2 White) versus Martin (#1 Black) from January 2022.
They both look good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6YOd7rU9YE

Its interesting SEMO Basketball has enough guys returning that they got picked 5th out of the 11 teams at OVC Media Days but they lost their three stars so they have no pre-season ALL OVC Players. Rarely do you see a team picked in the top half of a conference without a single Pre-season All Conference selection.

(10-17-2023 09:09 AM)Myers Hall Zuke Wrote:  Its interesting SEMO Basketball has enough guys returning that they got picked 5th out of the 11 teams at OVC Media Days but they lost their three stars so they have no pre-season ALL OVC Players. Rarely do you see a team picked in the top half of a conference without a single Pre-season All Conference selection.

There is no one guy that jumps out at you that is returning but I am hoping one of the newcomers will take that role

KenPom has their beginning rankings out for all teams and conferences. The OVC is ranked #28 out of 33 ranked conferences and SEMO is ranked #311 out of 362 ranked teams. They also have a prediction for every D1 game each team will play during the season but that can change every day once the season gets under way. They have us losing our first game to Grand Canyon 81-63.

In his first 3 years here Korn's team has not only covered the spread in our opening game but pulled off the upset. Grand Canyon is a very good team and picked to win their conference (Western Athletic Conference) so it will be very hard to pull off the upset but I believe 18 is way too many points to be laying. I hope the line comes out at that.

(10-17-2023 11:24 AM)arich35 Wrote:  

(10-17-2023 09:09 AM)Myers Hall Zuke Wrote:  Its interesting SEMO Basketball has enough guys returning that they got picked 5th out of the 11 teams at OVC Media Days but they lost their three stars so they have no pre-season ALL OVC Players. Rarely do you see a team picked in the top half of a conference without a single Pre-season All Conference selection.

There is no one guy that jumps out at you that is returning but I am hoping one of the newcomers will take that role

And who would that be?

(10-20-2023 08:02 AM)redmyers Wrote:  

(10-17-2023 11:24 AM)arich35 Wrote:  

(10-17-2023 09:09 AM)Myers Hall Zuke Wrote:  Its interesting SEMO Basketball has enough guys returning that they got picked 5th out of the 11 teams at OVC Media Days but they lost their three stars so they have no pre-season ALL OVC Players. Rarely do you see a team picked in the top half of a conference without a single Pre-season All Conference selection.

There is no one guy that jumps out at you that is returning but I am hoping one of the newcomers will take that role

And who would that be?

My educated guess based on pretty much nothing is Braxton Stacker or Rob Martin

(10-20-2023 03:01 PM)arich35 Wrote:  

(10-20-2023 08:02 AM)redmyers Wrote:  

(10-17-2023 11:24 AM)arich35 Wrote:  

(10-17-2023 09:09 AM)Myers Hall Zuke Wrote:  Its interesting SEMO Basketball has enough guys returning that they got picked 5th out of the 11 teams at OVC Media Days but they lost their three stars so they have no pre-season ALL OVC Players. Rarely do you see a team picked in the top half of a conference without a single Pre-season All Conference selection.

There is no one guy that jumps out at you that is returning but I am hoping one of the newcomers will take that role

And who would that be?

My educated guess based on pretty much nothing is Braxton Stacker or Rob Martin

Maybe Gavyn Elkamil can be a scorer for us, if he is finally healthy. He was injured his first year at Tulsa too but coming out of high school he was a three star recruit with ten plus D1 offers.

Mark Freeman from Morehead is out for the year, pre-season OVC Player of the Year.

Any reports from the game last night?

(10-24-2023 11:29 AM)arich35 Wrote:  Any reports from the game last night?

I listened to it on the radio stream. Aquan Smart had a nice game with 16 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 steals and he went 8 for 8 at the line. Josh Earley had 12 points and Stacker, Ward and Biel each had 10. Played all 13 available players. Martin and Clark not available for this game. Overall the team had a balanced attack and shot free throws well, not a bad defensive performance. One low point was they had 18 turnovers against a D2 team. We have some talent but we will need to have the turnovers under control against better teams.

The free throw shooting was great to see. Outside of Josh Earley going 0 for 3 at the line, the rest of the team made 17 of 18. Seems like we have had a lot of years we have come out of the gate struggling at the free throw line and then had to try and improve in that area as the year went on.

I think Biel has a big upside. He's very athletic. Korn thinks this will be a better defensive and rebounding team than he's had in the past. Branson had 3 fouls before the 10 minute mark of the first half. The last thing I'm worried about with this team is where the points will come from. SEMO ALWAYS has good offensive teams. They looked rough especially early but I expected that to be the case. By the time conference rolls around I think this will be a pretty good team. Larson only played 11 minutes but I think that is only because Korn wanted to get a longer look at some of the new guys. We really need Clark back before conference play starts.

On a side note, UALR has pretty much retooled. I was told by someone who should know that they will easily be the most athletic team in the league. They have two SEC transfers. One a 6'10" 5th year player from Arkansas who averaged 11.4 pts • 10.0 reb and 4.7 blocked shots.

(10-24-2023 02:09 PM)semosupporter Wrote:  I think Biel has a big upside. He's very athletic. Korn thinks this will be a better defensive and rebounding team than he's had in the past. Branson had 3 fouls before the 10 minute mark of the first half. The last thing I'm worried about with this team is where the points will come from. SEMO ALWAYS has good offensive teams. They looked rough especially early but I expected that to be the case. By the time conference rolls around I think this will be a pretty good team. Larson only played 11 minutes but I think that is only because Korn wanted to get a longer look at some of the new guys. We really need Clark back before conference play starts.

On a side note, UALR has pretty much retooled. I was told by someone who should know that they will easily be the most athletic team in the league. They have two SEC transfers. One a 6'10" 5th year player from Arkansas who averaged 11.4 pts • 10.0 reb and 4.7 blocked shots.

His size alone is something we have really missed from a SF type of player

(10-24-2023 02:09 PM)semosupporter Wrote:  I think Biel has a big upside. He's very athletic. Korn thinks this will be a better defensive and rebounding team than he's had in the past. Branson had 3 fouls before the 10 minute mark of the first half. The last thing I'm worried about with this team is where the points will come from. SEMO ALWAYS has good offensive teams. They looked rough especially early but I expected that to be the case. By the time conference rolls around I think this will be a pretty good team. Larson only played 11 minutes but I think that is only because Korn wanted to get a longer look at some of the new guys. We really need Clark back before conference play starts.

On a side note, UALR has pretty much retooled. I was told by someone who should know that they will easily be the most athletic team in the league. They have two SEC transfers. One a 6'10" 5th year player from Arkansas who averaged 11.4 pts • 10.0 reb and 4.7 blocked shots.

UALR could be really good, but even without Freeman, Morehead will still be solid. They have a Juco kid that is nails and will be hard to stop. Martin will be solid also. SiuE has alot of talent returning, but they seem to never get it together for some reason.