What were your expectations when we moved to D1? Have we met them? Overachieved? Underachieved?

My plan for our basketball and baseball programs were as follows.

1st year- Just get our feet wet in the new level of competition.

2nd year- shoot for .500 in conference..Nothing else matters. Start competing in conference and worry about everyone else later.

3rd year- Finish in top tier of the league (top three or four teams)

4th year and beyond- Compete for the Atlantic Sun title.

So far our program has been right around where I thought we would be. If we played better in conference last year our baseball team would have went well beyond what I expected.

i feel they should be shooting for a conference title this year.

and for our first couple years of d1..were doing a lot better then the other recent d1 schools first couple years. We have a chance to be a damn good program and i'm really excited to watch our program grow.

I would agree if we had a proven point guard and true center. Not saying we won't be good at both positions...just not sure if we can be good enough..

I feel we have some good guards and with our recruiting class have got some ppl that can contribute right away.

We lost a lot of close games last year..due in part we didnt have the experience. With a year under their belt a lot of those close games and late game collapses will decrease a lot. Plus we play in the weaker division.

Mattone and Jacobs will play early no doubt. I think a lot could depend on the progression of Cornett and Allison(although I think he needs another year to keep getting bigger). If we could find that true center it would be huge.

well lucky for us we have good size at the forwards and guards. We have some other guards i dont really know anything about.

Like Croft and Mcconnell. You know anything about them?

Well i did some searching for McConnell..and apparently he's a two star recruit on rivals.

school choices consisted of

tulane
New Mexico St.
Colorado
UNLV
Army
Chattanooga
Furman
James Madison
Gardner-Webb
Arizona State
Wofford

My expectations only faulter on the fan support side. The teams are performing well or as well as can be expected through a probationary period.

From greatest success and exposure from best to worst in my eyes:
Basketball. A few unlucky breaks and some inexperience has kept us under the radar so far. Remember the first season when everyone underestimated us the first go around. That was outstanding and couldn't have started better. Wish we could have finished stronger though. Should we have beated UGA or Witchita St it would have been huge upsets. WSU because they were ranked on/off that season and UGA because of the timing of NCAAs. We'll get more chances, better chances and experience to pull those types of wins off.

#1 dissappointing moment was shooting Jacksonville out 35-3 in soccer playoffs last year and losing. It was the saddest ending to a season of soccer I have ever seen, and I've played all my life. Great future and great coach make this team enjoyable and our best chance to win a national championship anytime in the near future. Some community pull with little league soccer coming to games.

Baseball/Softball have exceded my expectations even though I don't show them the same support as other sports just based on personal preference. No community exposure

Golf, Tennis, Track, XCountry all levels, mediocre showings except for the Cross Country Season Champs. All non-spectator sports as far as I'm concerned. Maybe to watch pros play but not a pull for collegiate players.

Volleyball, a Title IX program with no where to go but up because they haven't done anything to warrent more than this sentence.

Hockey, strong lower level (NAIA or D-II now) team. Hell National Champions at any level is a good thing. Ask basketball. Still not D-I and probably won't be because of lack of competition in the south and good ol' Title IX.

Rugby, lacrosse, bowling, ultimate frisbee, flag football... great if you are participating but nothing to grab a chair on a sideline for.

Expectations going forward are that basketball start getting the recruits I know we can and start dominating this league. There's no reason we should not be ranked #1 in this league when we come off probation. That's a pretty high expectation I guess but the competition just looks shoddy compared to where we've been.

Soccer, keep playing above the talent level of the ASun because the focus on soccer around here is so strong, it'll keep the program strong. Same with baseball/softball. They'll be contenders each year.

Baseball/Softball, keep blowing them away, be contenders for conference championship.

Volleyball/Tennis, get out of the cellar. I don't care how far they go, just not at the bottom.

Football. Period.

McConnell was ranked the 25th best player in Georgia according to one rivals writer. Another thing to note as based on that same writer's rankings Ladaris was 17th. From everything I read McConnel is a shooter. One of the best in state. An early guess would be he'll see limited time off the bench but could provide a spark with his offense.

I don't know much about Croft.

Recruiting seems to be on its way up. We got some good minutes from our frosh class last year. This years class- Jacobs, McConnel, and Mattone could contribute early with Mitchell contributing big time next year.

Assuming we lose no recruits then next years class should off to a good start. Ladaris Green, and Cummings..

As for baseball I think we'll continue to improve. In order to be dominate we need a superstar and thats what we're lacking. We have some very good players but nothing teams have to play in fear of (an awesome pitcher or two...or great power hitter). We also have to start hitting the ball 1-9. There aren't a lot of great pitchers in this league so you have to be able to outscore teams. We aren't far off from being very very good. The biggest thing we're missing is power. I don't mean a true power hitter either, just some pop scattered through the lineup. Our homerun numbers last year were downright sad.

McConnell is a PG. He has a nice stroke, and plays very strong for not being a huge kid. The reputation is that he is a hard worker, so from the sound of it we should have some good battles in practice between Berry, McConnell, and Mattone.

From what I have heard our recruiting class this year brought in a lot more toughness. All of the following guys have reputations of being hard nosed players:

Mattone
Jacobs
Mitchell
McConnell

Not to say that other players on our team are not tough, but these are the new guys that I have heard this about. One thing that defined Ingle's DII championship teams were toughness. They outworked everyone. Our first in D1 we outworked every team but we were simply too small and had too little talent on the floor. Last year we had more talent, but probably let a few games slip away. Hopefully this year we can take another step forward.

Isn't McConnell nearly 200lbs at 6ft even? I can see him playing really strong for his size. Would you say we have one of the more physical teams in the ASUN this year? I would think so..

Ronnell is going to be the man this year. I just can't wait. Make sure our PG (berry?) has that ally oop pass down and it'll be money. Wooten knows how to get free, we've all see that. And there's no one in the league that can shut him down when he's in the air.

Expectations: Any more than 4 losses this year in conference is unacceptable. We should start positioning ourselves on the top of this league because that is where we are.

Oh, and if we go undeafeated except for an ETSU loss on Super Bowl Sunday, I will be very upset. I want to beat them more than any other school In or Out of Conference.

Only four losses in conference is pretty steep. Not saying we can't do it, but thats more than cutting our total in half from last year. I agree we must establish ourselves among the league leaders this year. I would say anything lower than second in our half of the conference, and fourth overall is unnacceptable. Although Im shooting for third place or better this year.

Its hard to see how much better we'll be til we see how guys improved. A look at our starting five should tell us a lot.

so 6-7 losses?

we only play etsu/belmont once each

I'm not trying to upsell you but 4 losses isn't that much with our favorable conference.

Conference Schedule:
- 01/05/08 vs. Mercer * Kennesaw, Ga. 7:30 p.m. ET
- 01/10/08 vs. Jacksonville * Kennesaw, Ga. 7:30 p.m. ET
W 01/12/08 vs. North Florida * Kennesaw, Ga. 7:30 p.m. ET
W 01/17/08 at Stetson * DeLand, Fla. TBA
W 01/19/08 at Florida Gulf Coast * Fort Myers, Fla. TBA
- 01/24/08 vs. Belmont * Kennesaw, Ga. 7:30 p.m. ET
- 01/26/08 vs. Lipscomb * Kennesaw, Ga. 7:30 p.m. ET
W 02/01/08 at USC Upstate * Spartanburg, S.C. TBA
- 02/03/08 at East Tennessee * Johnson City, Tenn. 2:00 p.m. ET
W 02/07/08 at Campbell * Buies Creek, N.C. 7:00 p.m. ET
W 02/09/08 vs. Gardner-Webb * Kennesaw, Ga. 7:30 p.m. ET
W 02/14/08 vs. Stetson * Kennesaw, Ga. 7:30 p.m. ET
W 02/16/08 vs. Florida Gulf Coast * Kennesaw, Ga. 7:30 p.m. ET
W 02/21/08 at North Florida * Jacksonville, Fla. 7:00 p.m. ET
- 02/23/08 at Jacksonville * Jacksonville, Fla. 3:30 p.m. ET
- 02/29/08 at Mercer * Macon, Ga. 7:30 p.m. ET

7 games with teams who placed higher than us last year. I know it's not a good way to look at things but I think we could at least split that many higher profile games.

I dont see Mercer as much as a threat as most ppl see them. I feel we'll win at home..and with the game being on TV at Mercer....maybe Striped Crew can make the trip and make it a home court advantage for KSU.

I'm with Nick, If we dont win our division it should be looked at as unacceptable. Our team is going to be very very very tough, strong, and have a lot of hustle players that will want the ball more then the other team. I could see Tanner Jacobs quickly becoming the most popular player on the team.

6 losses or fewer would be nice. As long as we're taking another step forward I wouldn't see this season as a disappointment. Don't get me wrong I think we have the ability to finish at, or near the top.

I do not think our team will lose more than 5 games in conference play this year- lots of depth. I had lunch with an inside person the other day and his top three teams were ETSU, Mercer, and JU (of course outside of KSU). He thinks we should be in the top 3. Also, the PG starting spot is under intense competition. From our talk it seems like the south will be just as tough as the north.


Also, have you guys seen Jacobs or McConnell play? We need someone down low with a mean streak in them like Reggie McCoy from our NC team in D-II. I have also heard the guy from texas tech who will be playing with us next year is very good.