(10-30-2019 02:41 PM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  

(10-30-2019 02:02 PM)pesik Wrote:  b0ndsj0ns-- about the 11 new players/chemistry comment... look around the conference ..temple an usf are the only teams returning the core of what they did last year...wichita/uconn arent massive overhauls but will be heavily reliant on freshman..the remain 6 teams in the aac are going through massive overhauls

tulane has 11 new
ucf has 10 new and still waiting on waivers
memphis is likely starting all freshman
smu has 2 potential starters still waiting on waivers, 6 of their top 9 are new players (they dont even know who is playing yet and have to divide practices)
cincy has 7 new players & a new coach, and jarron cumberland is injured and hasn't practiced this offseason

all of them have drastically harder schedules ,...none of them are worried about away/home games of not good mid-majors

also most sport related tendonitis is a 3-6 week recovery tine..and he's already been out a couple weeks

StillJonesing- there are also "300rpi" games in that early stretch to navy and vmi... 2 300-ish, 2 200-ish, 1 60 ...

also few college teams press, getting the ball up and down the court shouldn't be an issue....wichita starting pg last season was a true freshman with limited handles and not very dynamic and was a horrible shooter...they went to the NIT final 4

Well none of those teams except maybe Tulane is stuck with a schedule that if they lose 1 or 2 games early that their RPI is DOA for the whole season. Obviously you can join in on beating the dead horse about how horrible our OOC schedule is (I've done it on our board to the point even I'm tired of doing it), but the schedule is what it is from a SOS perspective. To have a shot at an improved overall RPI (something approaching the 150's) ECU can't lose more than like 1 or maybe 2 games not named Liberty. All those teams aside from maybe Tulane probably have some high level games where if they win that could make up for maybe a bad loss if it were to happen. ECU doesn't they flat out can't lose to any of these teams there is zero margin for error to escape this OOC schedule without being again a drain on this league. As for your "expert" diagnosis on Jackson you are again kinda proving my point of concern there. You say it's usually a 3-6 week injury give or take and we aren't exactly sure when it happened but sometime before the NC State scrimmage on the 19th. If it's the 3 week timetable he might play the opener. If it's 6 weeks it's right around the time of the Bahamas tournament, and if it's slightly longer you are talking about possibly December. Robinson no one has a clue about he thinks he could be ready for the opener and Dooley sounds skeptical as hell.

By the way the worst possible thing for the AAC in general is for the concern SJ and I have to be true, that by having the PG's out we drop a few of these games and then they get back in late November/December and conference play rolls around and we start beating good teams and tanking RPI's. I'm glad us beating Cincy didn't end up costing them a bid last year, but it could have dropped them down a seed or 2 because of the harm to their NET.

Not to mention the fact even when Robinson and Jackson do come back how much practice time they have lost. Hell Robinson hasn't even practiced with the team at all other than summer 3 on 3 and pick up. Jackson's been out for the scrimmages and most of the preseason too.

You can't just expect to throw these guys in and them hit the ground running like nothing happened even if they cameback next week. It's the basketball equivalent of throwing a QB in that hadn't practiced with the team ever in Robinson's case. Robinson hasn't even played at all in 2 month. No one should expect miracles.

All that said I still feel pretty good about Newton and him getting an opportunity I think he could step up, Curtis I do not and that's where it scares me. Also like you said, no Gardner can't be expected break a press no matter how good of a PF he is and just like you said one 20 TO game and we could easily lose.