Pre season poll

[slu72]

results are interesting. Most going with 20+ wins. Boy, I hope so, but I just think we once again have too many unanswered questions going into this year and CUSA appears loaded for bear. First though, if we get 21 wins or more that means we win a couple of conference tourney games which would boost our RPI, I can't see us being ignored by the prom committee if this happens. But I don't see this as a 20+ win season. What am I missing. I've got to admit I didn't give the pool much thought, i.e. a game by game analysis. Figure this is an unofficial pool. Official should come after the exhibition games are over.

[Quality Is Job 1]

You talk about unanswered questions being cause to doubt a 20-win season. Teams do come from out of nowhere to have great seasons, you know -- sometimes after being picked by virtually everyone to finish in the middle of the pack. Consider Iowa State of 2000. On the other hand, sometimes teams with few preseason unanswered questions and lofty expectations fall flat on their faces by season's end. Last year's Missouri Tigers come to mind.

I think it's healthy to be optimistic, within reason. Go ahead and expect the Billikens to win 20 or more and make the NCAA Tournament, because they probably will. Certainly that's what the team expects of itself. And if they fall short -- well, we St. Louis fans have a lot of experience with that over the last 12 months and counting (Mizzou b-ball of last year; the Cardinals in the World Series; the football Tigers of this year; the Rams).

[TheA_Bomb]

We had 19 wins last season w/ unanswered questions. We have our leading scorer returning along w/ our leading rebounder. We have our back up PG back as well. We seem to have upgraded at the 3/4 spot. 20 wins is not out of the question.