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16-17 A10 preview


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I do think we spend our last year in the bottom half for a long time, but I do think we won't finish last. 11th is my guess. Heck, even the practices will help with the transfers.

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-who would predict something different than last place? for me the unrealistic hope for 16-17 is to surprise but the more realistic hope is to see a team playing better in February than they were in November with quality recruits signing loi's

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-who would predict something different than last place? for me the unrealistic hope for 16-17 is to surprise but the more realistic hope is to see a team playing better in February than they were in November with quality recruits signing loi's

I tend to agree. On paper, we lost three key guys and are replacing them with one promising 3* recruit, a 2* big coming off a major injury, and a 2* guard. Gradual development over the course of the year and a few more wins than last year would meet expectations.

What someone who didn't watch this team closely last year may fail to realize is that Miles and Milik may be cases of addition by subtraction, while that is certainly true with regard to Crews. Two guys who tried to play hero ball are gone, and this team should have more energy playing for Ford. I think we'll be better than last year, but it's still hard to pinpoint many wins in conference.

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I tend to agree. On paper, we lost three key guys and are replacing them with one promising 3* recruit, a 2* big coming off a major injury, and a 2* guard. Gradual development over the course of the year and a few more wins than last year would meet expectations.

What someone who didn't watch this team closely last year may fail to realize is that Miles and Milik may be cases of addition by subtraction, while that is certainly true with regard to Crews. Two guys who tried to play hero ball are gone, and this team should have more energy playing for Ford. I think we'll be better than last year, but it's still hard to pinpoint many wins in conference.

I agree that the team will play better in the upcoming season and the two that transferred would not have made the team better.

1) The Jim Crews buzz kill is over and the Ford energy will make playing basketball fun again for the players.

2) RA and MC are the senior leaders and if they stay healthy will be effective.

3) JB another year older.

4) MB being healthy and another year older and his shot returns.

Wild cards will be can MN play a defensive center that changes shots and rebounds, can EW score a lot and rebound, and can AG pass and defend and hit a few 3's.

That could get this team to 500.

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I tend to agree. On paper, we lost three key guys and are replacing them with one promising 3* recruit, a 2* big coming off a major injury, and a 2* guard. Gradual development over the course of the year and a few more wins than last year would meet expectations.

What someone who didn't watch this team closely last year may fail to realize is that Miles and Milik may be cases of addition by subtraction, while that is certainly true with regard to Crews. Two guys who tried to play hero ball are gone, and this team should have more energy playing for Ford. I think we'll be better than last year, but it's still hard to pinpoint many wins in conference.

Please verify - who is the 3 and the 2. I assume the 2 guard is Moore.

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I don't think we'll finish last, but it's hard to fault the guy for his prediction. I think a ~11th place finish in the A10 this year would be fine. Then as the transfers get to play and Ford gets a full year's recruiting class on board, I think we could see a solid jump in the standings.

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For me, these are best and worst-case scenarios:

Best:

MC finally is healthy, and becomes the leader offensively we have been searching for the last two years.

RA continues to improve, and becomes at least a 10 and 8 guy for us.

MB shoots like he did in the conference tournament for the majority of the year.

JB shows improvement and consistency.

At least one of JJ or ZM shows they can compete at an A10 level.

Two of AG, MN, EW, or BJ show significant improvement at the forward spots (or show they can be competitive in EW's case, as we haven't seen him yet).

DR consistently looks like the player we saw at times his freshman year- can get to the hoop as well as shoot the three.

Ford develops some semblance of a rotation, and actually draws up inbounds plays (somewhat joking about that last part.)

I don't think any of these are super far fetched by themselves, but it is unlikely everything happens. If most of these things happen, though, I could see a mid-conference finish and maybe a CBI invite or something like that. We saw flashes of that team last year, however brief they were (GW and Davidson wins.) That is absolute best case.

Worst case:

MC has nagging injuries all year and shows no improvement/no willingness to be an offensive leader.

RA regresses/does not improve and continues to make 2-3 boneheaded mistakes again.

MB looks the same as he did for the whole regular season.

JB remains frustratingly inconsistent.

JJ/ZM have little to no impact.

None of the bigs jumps out from the rest of the pack, and we get absolutely crushed in the paint and on the glass all year.

DR remains as inconsistent as he was this past season.

Ford shows signs of being exactly what OSU fans said he was: Good recruiter, mediocre in-game coach.

In this case, a bottom of the league finish seems likely. While I don't think every one of these things will happen either, I would say I think this scenario is more likely than the best-case, but that may be the cynical Billiken fan inside me that has grown over the last two seasons.

I think most likely scenario is somewhere in between: Many frustrations about inconsistency, but promising signs, especially from the younger players. Hopefully this will lead to hope for the next season, and show Goodwin and others that we can be competitive in '17-18, especially with the transfers becoming eligible.

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Reading this thread, agree that whatever happens in the 2016-2017 season is pretty much undetermined as yet. I still think we need one more, healthy and presumably very good commit to round up the team for next season. Who this will be and who will be chosen to depart I have no clue about.

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Reading this thread, agree that whatever happens in the 2016-2017 season is pretty much undetermined as yet. I still think we need one more, healthy and presumably very good commit to round up the team for next season. Who this will be and who will be chosen to depart I have no clue about.

I'm 100% confident that the 16-17 season is undetermined at this point.

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I'm 100% confident that the 16-17 season is undetermined at this point.

What are you talking about? They've already played all the games and lost in the second round of the 2017 conference tournament. Jolly had a triple-double in a losing effort against GW.

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What are you talking about? They've already played all the games and lost in the second round of the 2017 conference tournament. Jolly had a triple-double in a losing effort against GW.

-three turnovers and two technical fouls?

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Come on, SLU finally has an experienced squad. They win half their games.

Two seniors, three juniors, and two sophomores. Out of seven, only one has been both a consistent rotation contributor and fully healthy for his entire career (Roby). And the coach is new to the program. I'm sorry, but I don't see a team that can win as many as half of its games. I would love to be wrong.

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