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Season tips tonight, and almost no chatter…
So, just to kick something off, what’s your record prediction for the year?

I’m going same as last year…23-8

With all the new faces, I wouldn’t be shocked if my win column is off 5 games, either way

So I count 12 OOC games, I don't care about the non D1 game. I think we'll go 9-3 in those games. The schedule is really tough despite what some say, and guaranteed wins are only around 6 this year.

In conference I hope we can get to 13-5, but I just don't see it. I have us going 11-7 in conference.

That leaves my prediction at 20-10

NIT berth

20 regular season wins I think is a realistic number to start with. looking forward to tonight and the rest of the season! Fully Trust AK and his ability to have this team ready by March.

Expectation - NCAA Tourney and a deep run
Prediction is based on us taking a while to gel, our annual WTF game, and in an injury thrown in.

OOC: 10-3
AAC: 12-6
AACT: 1-1
NIT: 1-1

Final Record 24-11

Obviously I hope and want better. If they gel quicker, stay healthy, and Gaines is all conference, it could be better and they sneak in the NCAAs. It could be worse if guys don't gel, Gaines doesn't keep improving and implodes, and there are major injuries.

Anything less than these stats will be a disappointment:
At least 20 wins and at least split the series with our top team "pod" - Memphis, FAU, UNT, Tulane.

With those wins, that is at least an NIT at-large. Sweep any of those teams and a decent run in the tournament could equal NCAA at-large.

Difficult to see how many bids we get with this league until conference play starts.

Wichita isn’t in our pod, Tulane is. I’m really hoping FAU lives up to the hype, because it’s almost impossible to follow up what they just did. Most importantly, we need all five teams in this pod to perform OOC, because if we get to conference play with hiccups all over, we collectively won’t be able to overcome them.

(11-06-2023 01:18 PM)blazers9911 Wrote:  Wichita isn’t in our pod, Tulane is. I’m really hoping FAU lives up to the hype, because it’s almost impossible to follow up what they just did. Most importantly, we need all five teams in this pod to perform OOC, because if we get to conference play with hiccups all over, we collectively won’t be able to overcome them.

Oops. Meant Tulane. But I also really want to be Wichita too.

With 31 games, I am thinking anywhere between 18-22 wins, with a lot of struggles early on.

Biggest, pun intended, question to me is our size. I don't think Shaver is ready to play meaningful minutes this season. That leaves us woefully thin, in both physical size and roster depth, at the PF/C positions. Will AK adopt a full run and gun style to accommodate that weakness? Or figure out some other way to mitigate it? I have confidence he will, but it will take time.

That and the obvious issues with experience. With so many major players/contributors coming from Juco or high major teams where they didn't really play much, it will take a lot of on the court time for this team to figure it out.

I still think we have a ton of talent and depth, but after what I heard about the scrimmage and what I saw from the exhibition, I think this team struggles more early on than I even expected it to.

It's NCAA or bust for me every year. Last year's team did not live up to expectations. Razor thin margins, sure, yada yada yada, they didn't live up to expectations. That being said, and being realistic, I think an NIT berth would be a good outcome for this team. If I'm being overly negative, we gel early, and we can pull off some upsets, we have the schedule to build an at large resume. No matter what, I expect us to be a really solid team by the end of the year and be a tough out in the AAC tournament. Next year I will expect a lot more from the jump from this group of players.

If you average the projections from KenPom, BPI & Torvik, we're expected to go 18-12. I'm hoping for more and that this team finishes closer to the top-50 than the top-100 bucket everyone has us in for preseason.

We won't double anyone in the post, the 13 defense will be highly successful, and we will see more balanced score sheets.

I really have no clue. I need to see all these new guys play some more minutes together before I even want to guess. I trust AK’s ability to form a team, but think it’s fair to expect we will have some bumps on the road to getting these guys to gel as a unit.

We will miss Trey the most this year.

19 wins prior to post season.

A lot of very talented, new players but in a more talented league. Expect a quarter season or more to gel and find the right rotation.

Could push for the conference championship in 2025 if Dunning and White bloom, and if we sign a steady point to replace Gaines, along with a bruising big.

I think the PG is already on campus in Satterfield. 6’4 pass first PG who has the tools to be a tenacious on ball defense. Not sure that he will help us much this year due to injury but the upside and bloodlines are there.

(11-06-2023 07:34 PM)BlazerMatt Wrote:  I think the PG is already on campus in Satterfield. 6’4 pass first PG who has the tools to be a tenacious on ball defense. Not sure that he will help us much this year due to injury but the upside and bloodlines are there.

I hope Satterfield is the PG of the future. Waiting to see. Do we know the type injury?

How long is Satterfield out?