#9 - Arkansas State

To be honest, with a new coach and a largely-revamped roster, I am hard pressed to know where to put the Red Wolves. So, this prediction could possibly be way off. Presumably there will be some enthusiasm for the new coach, especially after the disaffection with the old one. And, there appears to be some legitimate talent coming into the program as the new guy tries to jumpstart the process.

Devin Carter is one of the few holdovers from last year, and he is a good one. He averaged 17.3 ppg and shot 41.7% from the arc, (although that scoring total is probably slightly inflated due to his having to play 35 minutes per game due to lack of depth). Donte Thomas with his 11.2 ppg also returns. After that, however, the cupboard is pretty bare.

Probably the gem of a large and strong, juco-heavy recruiting class is Deven Simms, a first-team JC All-American at Connors State. He averaged 20.3 ppg and 10.1 rpg.

We don't know what to expect either, but we do know McCasland is instituting the same requirements of culture around the team that our football program has had for the last 5 years, so we're confident.

We could literally finish in last, or in the Top 5. there's no good way of knowing since we're basing a lot off of what was a pretty darn good recruiting class given our roster situation heading in.

On paper you look pretty good, and Coach M. might pull another first-year wonder. Hope there are no chemistry issues.

(08-25-2016 11:27 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  On paper you look pretty good, and Coach M. might pull another first-year wonder. Hope there are no chemistry issues.

Chemistry shouldn't be a problem, I think the issue is simply whether we have the bigs in place to compete in the SBC. We lost basically every forward on the roster from last years team.

Didn't one of them end up in Lubbock?

(08-25-2016 01:11 PM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  Didn't one of them end up in Lubbock?

Yeah, Livingston ended up there after he didn't get in to where he wanted to go.