(07-28-2019 04:20 PM)SoCalBobcat78 Wrote:  

(07-28-2019 01:52 PM)Lopes87 Wrote:  

(07-28-2019 12:21 PM)SoCalBobcat78 Wrote:  

(07-27-2019 06:52 PM)Trod0 Wrote:  In your honest opinion, where do you have them placing at the end of the year? As far as the losing record I was talking about WAC play since were talking about WAC predictions.

Obviously, the favorite is NMSU. After that, there are questions about different schools. GCU was a disappointment last season. They ended up being a paper tiger. I thought Frayer and Lever took steps backward. Carlos Johnson was very impressive. At this point, I think they are the third or fourth in the WAC only because I don't trust them. I am not sure if Majerle is the right coach there. If Chris Jans was the head coach at GCU, then I would go with GCU to win the conference.

Seattle had a rash of injuries last season. I would like to see what they could do if they could stay healthy. I think Jim Hayford is an excellent offensive coach and I think that team could be anywhere from 2nd to 4th in the WAC. There is a lot of talent in the Seattle area and Hayford is recruiting well on the west coast, particularly in California.

CBU will be bigger and more athletic next season with the players coming in. They led the conference in scoring, but they need to get better defensively. Consistently better defense would translate to more fast break baskets. The big question is, will they go 7-deep or 10-deep on their roster? If they can establish a deeper roster, I think they are the 2nd best team in the conference. In the long run, with the talent in Southern California, with their talent pipeline to Australia, with an excellent head coach in Croy and with the school's commitment to athletics, they will be a constant presence among the best schools in the WAC.

I will pick them for 2nd, but they could end up 4th. I don't expect UTRGV, UVU or CSUB to be easy games, but I don't think they have the talent to stay with the top four. UMKC and Chicago State have hired good coaches and they just need time to recruit and develop their talent.

Lever stats wise was a tad better than his freshman year.
Frayer on the other hand did take a step back and it was noticeable.

Hayford has done a great job at SU
Croy has done a good job but needs to help Milan out b/c the strategy for teams after a while forcing the ball out of his hand as much as possible and that stagnated CBU offense at times. Milan had his issues vs GCU as well. Milan is a good player and with Boyd coming in that should help.

NMST

GCU SU CBU

UVU UTRGV Bake

ChicagoSt UMKC

Is how I see it in tiers

Lever regressed badly. He was All-WAC first team in the 2017-2018 season. In his last sixteen games that season, he scored 20 points or more nine times. This season, he scored 20 or more once in the last 21 games. He was in single digits in 10 of his last 19 games. He did not block a shot in the last 28 games and only had two for the entire season. He had 14 blocks in his freshman season, a number that should be double that with his size.

His season high for rebounds was 10 and he did that once. He did not have a double figure rebound game in the last 27 games. He was not scoring, he was not rebounding, he was not blocking shots. He is 6'10" and 230 pounds. What happened to him?

"Regressed badly"?

2017-18: 21.3 mins/g, 12.2 pts, 4.4 rbs, 1.2 ast
2018-19: 24.9 mins/g, 12.5 pts, 4.3 rbs, 1.4 ast

Stagnated? Maybe, but not regressed. Ale caught fire during conference play and rode that out in 2017-18, but he also wasn't sharing the front court with another conference first-teamer in M. Finke that year either. Given the expectations, I think it's fair to say last year may have felt like a step back for Ale to Lopes fans. The reality is that feeling is probably more accurately describes as diappointment that he didn't take a step forward. Overall, he was pretty much just the same.