billiken_roy Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 i think a number of c-usa teams can be top 25 teams next year. louisville and marquette (sorry folks, but i think crean has everything working right for himself these days) are both going to be approaching top 10 status, i fear for cincy having character problems, but if huggy can control the inmates, they too might be in that group. if the iti guy is as advertised, charlotte is going to be leaps and bounds better, i was more impressed with uab than any team at the tourney. williams is a coach and uab is going to be a player. so that is 5 possible top 25 teams imo. that still leaves memphis and depaul and slu. the recent news about memphis' top recruit being in trouble is concerning. it will be interesting to see how calipari responds to that reported incident. but couple that with the fact that i dont think calipari was thinking perkins would go straight to the nba, might knock memphis out of the top 25 race. their inside game will be thinner than maybe the billikens. i think a lot of depaul's fortunes will be decided by which donte holland and andre brown shows up each night. when these two are playing their top games, they are as good as any forward pair in the country imo. however, they seem to pick their nights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 willie, there is no doubt that the i/o we saw versus west virginia could be THE difference maker. how do we get that every game? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheA_Bomb Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 SLU in tourny in 03-04 You heard it here first. I am like New Hampshire with predictions gotta be the first. Cincy will be better than last year. UofL will not fade down the stretch like last year but won't be ranked as high as #2 either. Marquette will be top 25 but not Final 4 material. Memphis will be about the same. UAB will not sneak up on anyone and will be solid. DePaul a little better. Charlotte will return to form. SLU will be better than last year. No sick Soderberg this season that may have cost us 2 games and a tourny berth last year. As long as Bryant, Sloan or Fericks don't develop monkeypox we will do well. We need to get those attendance numbers back up. CUSA has the 6th or 7th highest Conference RPI next season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thetorch Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 I think I am going to fall on the really optimistic side on this. I expect no less than 18 wins this year and an NCAA berth. We have a ton of good things not least of all is we play defense, I think we will be the top defensive team in the conference and one of the best in the nation. As we saw last year Fish and Drejaj can check any guard out there, our post defense is still a ? but I don't think it will be for long. We have a bevy of good outside shooters. Drejaj, Bryant, Clarke, Sloan, and fish and IO who will improve. We can concievably put out lineups where 4 and sometimes 5 guys are comfortable shooting and making outside shots. We have concievably 3 guys who can score and take over games, Bryant, drejaj, and IO. All of these guys can dish, penetrate and shoot. Instead of one go to guy we have 3 who can fill the bill. We have much better athletes, last year we were plodding in some games, like against 'Zona and we could not keep up with athletic teams. With JJ, IO, CLarke, Bryant, Ficher, and Drejaj we won't be cought flatfooted, and with more scoring options we can keep up better instead of running a one man show. I truly believe we have two big time players in IO and Bryant. Both of them will score over 15 points a game. That is firepower we did not come close to having last year. We may not win all the tough games, and we may not go on a huge run, but I don't think we will have to. This team will be capable of winning on bad nights, no more losses to Martin, SMS and Houston. For all these reasons I think the Bills are sure to be top 4 or 5 in CUSA and a good bet to go dnacing in an improved CUSA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quality Is Job 1 Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 Torch (and Nark, BigMacSLU, and others in that camp), I'm nearly ready to see the light. However, I'm gunshy after crashing and burning last year. I believe I'll maintain a conservative expectation and a wait-and-see attitude. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taj79 Posted July 10, 2003 Author Share Posted July 10, 2003 Who's our lawyer type? Is that davidnark or Billiken Law? I will give you great marks for looking at things from teh "half-full" side or even higher but all these things you offer are pure conjecture. Speculation. Circumstantial evidence? I am with you in hoping that all you speculate on comes true but Bryant only averaged about 9 a game with 'Nova in his last season there. You've got him at 15 a game. Some have him even higher. Some have dissed JJ as a head case. I'll call him a redshirt and leave it at that. The guys you list as shooters may have had a game here and there but consistency was not their trademark. Some, again like Bryant and JJ, have had a year off from the real thing. I commend you on your optimism. But if we go back to the court case scenario, I think your arguments get booted right now. Lack of evidence. Speculation and hearsay. But keep the good thoughts coming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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