TheTastyGreek

7 months earlier than usual. Who had July/August in the pool? WKU's tournament is one of the ESPN sponsored MTEs. WKU is arguably the bottom end of TV appeal, they got the invite because people recognize the name from their NCAA runs a few years back. We don't have that yet. Foreign pre-season exhibitions are allowed once every four years. As far as "dreaming" about them... It's not a dream for anyone who wants to pay for it. MTSU is going to Canada, FAU and Denver went overseas last year out of the Sun Belt. Teams usually use those foreign tours as a way to develop younger teams; a lot of us think we may take one next summer when all our new recruits will be sophomores.

One more note on who might win the SBC autobid to the NCAA Tournament- The last time a school won the SBC Tournament with an OOC record below .500 was before the year 2000. UALR was very unusual last year in that they were one game below .500 against D1 OOC opponents. They were 8-7 overall, 6-7 against D1 schools. Other than a ULL team (that doesn't really count, because they vacated the records and their championships in 2004 and 2005), every other SBC rep since 2000 has been .500 or better against D1 OOC opponents. Coaches who blow off OOC and try to peak for conference play and the SBC tournament haven't gotten rewarded with NCAA appearances. Once January rolls around, look at which teams are .500 or better in OOC. History says those are your SBC Tournament contenders.

Wide open, tough to predict. My grim expectation is that we're not going to be much better overall than we were last year, at least in terms of talent. Hopefully better RPI, assuming schools like ASU and Denver actually give a damn in OOC. ULL will be RPI improved (not exactly going out on a limb with that one...) UALR looked like a strong favorite, but one of the reasons I liked them so much was a great lineup of bigs: Neighbor and Javes (incoming recruits) going alongside Gus Leeper. But Leeper is probably out for the year due to an offseason injury... So they won't have the frontcourt advantage I thought they would. Still should be a top 2 or 3 team in the West, and if I had to pick one team to win the regular season West, it would probably be them. ASU doesn't bring in anyone that impresses me much. They should be down from last year... Weaker at PG, with the rest of the cast the same as the ones that couldn't get it done last year or the year before. ULL continues to improve under Marlin, but I don't think they brought in any difference makers, either. They'll get some OOC wins (unlike last year), probably get 9 or 10 SBC wins, too. Put it this way... They won't be as bad as they were in OOC last year, and they won't be as good as they were against the SBC, either. Better overall, not good enough to win the conference on their own. A couple of teams will have to fumble it for the Cajuns to win (like we did last season). I don't think Denver is a threat in the division, and ULM is a complete disaster. Last year was atrocious, this year may look like an intramurals squad. In the East, WKU is practically a mirror image of our situation. Lost all their stars, brought in a lot of great talent (including a late pickup of a Turkish PG named Kaspar who could be the most critical addition of all). If they hit the ground running, the young talent is good enough to crush the rest of their division. MTSU- does this sound familiar? Another year of JUCOs and D-1 transfers. The transfers are better than usual (LaRon Dendy and Torrin Walker), and there's talent already there. But guys like Dendy (JUCO to Iowa State to MTSU) are frequently more trouble than they're worth. Just ask WKU fans about Juan Patillo and whether his stats made them a better team than they were without him. And, of course, nobody in the league does less with more than Kermit Davis. I expect another year of bad OOC, uptick for SBC regular season, and a quick exit in the tournament. FAU brings back pretty much everyone but Brett Royster, and their solution for replacing him seems to be throwing scholarships at every Florida community college student 6'9" and above. They've got excellent talent there, and Jarvis is a good coach... But nobody in the league was more critical to how their team could play, specifically in terms of player deployment and defensive approach, than Brett Royster was to FAU. That guy was a one man post defense. He kept Kore White from being a liability, and he allowed the undersized guards to defend tighter on the outside. With Royster as shot-blocking security blanket camped out in the paint, nobody had to worry much about giving up a lane to the basket if they happened to get beaten on the perimeter. Now, everyone has to defend differently and work harder just to maintain at the same level. As much as everyone here thought we needed someone to replace Tramiel... "Replacing" Royster will be 5x harder and more critical. Don't take my word for it, though- CBL should be along shortly to sing his praises. All in all, FAU is still the likely favorite in the East, but they won't be as formidable as they were last season. USA, I'm not sure what happened to that team. They lost Martino Brock, who transferred to USF. Rubit is back, but they're planning on guys like Antoine Lundy playing major roles. Lundy, for anyone who remembers USA's trip to the Pit last year, was the guy who spent most of warmups screwing around and jacking up long distance 3 pointers from out of bounds. They spent most of April signing period biting their nails and hoping that a JUCO point guard named Trey Anderson would sign with them. Anderson is the critical part of their class, and I don't know that he's a better recruit than Brandan Walton (our early period JUCO signee, the one that had most of us underwhelmed and scratching our heads). Last year, I thought USA was going to be a contender. But they melted down, it looked like Arrow lost control of the team and/or just stopped giving a damn, and then they lost Brock on top of it all. This year could be the end of the line for Arrow. FIU still has Isiah. Their roster last year proves you can't just throw highly ranked recruits on the floor and win. Isiah's bizarre coaching in the SBC tournament (if we didn't have a shot clock, their games would have had single digit scores) shows... I don't know what it shows. That program is a revolving door of suck. I don't see them challenging for the title with Thomas on the bench. Troy had another head scratching recruiting class. They seem to just be killing time until their new arena opens up. Not sure what's going on with them.

Holmen looked better in the last few weeks before his injury than at any point in the previous year and a half. He seemed to be embracing an inside role. He was cutting down on the mental miscues and bad decisions... His injury came at a terrible time not just for the team, but for his personal development as a Mean Green player.

Let's define "contributor" a little more precisely, then. Because he doesn't have traditional post skills or the standard weight that a post player at the D1 level carries, and because he played against lower level competition (2A? 3A? I can't remember; I think it was 3A)... A lot of people (myself included) didn't think he'd be a rotation guy this year. Some people, before Knox's departure, even floated the notion that Robinson might be best served by redshirting a year to prepare for a more standard post role. I'm not saying one all-star game makes me think the guy is going to come in and start for us. But if he can shoot and hold up his end at that level, even if it's a no-defense all-star environment... I can see him potentially being ready to play a 10-12 minute per night role. Something between what we got from Edwards/Knox and what we got from Holmen. That's what I mean by "contributor". It's not just the game performance, it's that we've got fellow players and the coaches saying that Robinson is a legit 3 point threat. One of the best on the roster, from the quotes in the articles. I thought he could be a major player in a year or two, but didn't expect anything at all for this upcoming season. Now, I think he might be bringing something to the table right away. Not something huge, but at least something.

Short answer: Too early to tell. There are only 4 returning scholarship players... One of them missed all of last season on a medical redshirt, and the other three all had medical issues that nagged them or ended their year early. We have no idea at this point how this team is going to come together. 3 months ago, the general consensus seemed to be that Tony Mitchell was going to play primarily on the wing to develop himself for a future as an NBA small forward. But then he played in the paint (and played quite well) in the U-19 tournament... So maybe we were wrong in assuming that he wouldn't take on a traditional post role for us? Before yesterday, many of us thought Forrest Robinson was going to be so raw that he'd need a year to develop before we could expect any serious contribution from him. Then, he goes out in an all-star game and shows that he might be able to make a fast impact. Even if he is ready to take on a notable role right away... How does a 6'10" wing-oriented player fit in to our offense? How do two of them fit in, with Niko Stojiljkovic also appearing to have that mentality? Back in September, a lot of people might have made the case that Trey Norris was our best incoming point guard. Then Chris Jones went out and put up a season that has some of our big basketball fans saying that he'll likely be the biggest impact player in the class; bigger than Jordan Williams. What is Norris going to do for us, and how much is he going to play? We don't know if Roger Franklin is going to get a hardship waiver and get to play immediately. We don't really know what Brandan Walton is going to bring to the table. We don't know if we'll fill the one remaining open scholarship before the season starts, or whether whoever that might be would be able to play this year. The lineup on November 9th is not going to look like the lineup on December 18th, and neither will probably look like the lineup on March 3rd. All we know is that we've got a great pool of talent to work with, but no idea how they'll fit together or how quickly they'll cohere. Tough to make predictions when it's all such a big question mark. Right now, if I had to put odds on our shot at postseason play... I'd put us at about a 20% to go to the NCAA tournament, 30% to go NCAA or NIT, 75% to play postseason somewhere, whether it's the 2 big tourneys or a CBI/CIT deal. But that 20-30% shoots up dramatically if Franklin gets a waiver and/or the freshmen come in and start with a bang.

Academic issues? Or is he trying to showcase himself for a year and hopefully leverage better D1 offers?

Thanks, Cooley. Just looking at the rosters... It looks like the North team is heavily loaded. Demps is the only name I recognize as an upper tier state recruit from the South squad.

Wow... That is VERY unexpected. Here's the ungated Rivals article. I would have loved to see him sign up as a DE... As a basketball recruit, he seems like the undersized (in height, at least) type of post that we're hoping to move beyond. I'd like to hear from Cooley or Buford if either have seen him play live basketball. Where is he at as a post prospect, and what's his potential upside now that he's focused only on basketball? Is he a contributor, or is he more of a backup plan for this class?

Getting back to WKU's schedule... 6-7 non-conference, 11-5 in regular season SBC play. 17-12 going into Hot Springs. Dangerous all year in and out of conference play, contenders in league, very scary next year and beyond. Thoughts?

Totally agree. I was particularly critical of his early on-field performance, but I'm proud to have him as an alum of our school and I'm glad life is turning out well for him. Everything anyone ever uses as a justification for leaving, it seems like Meager suffered through it. Injuries, fan abuse, yo-yo playing time, coach termination, coach neglect/disrespect, broken promises... That guy never bailed and he never said one negative word, at least not anywhere that it ever got back to the fans or the media. Good for him. Keep kicking ass at life, Meager.

Green P1 tried, once. But it wound up just getting us all in trouble.

Not me. Forrest Rucker is how I found out that if I'm ever in a jam, I can just borrow Stebo's credit card. Callback jokes make us all better future husbands and fathers.

He'll be forever mackin'.

Scott Hall update: He did good at GMG bowl. Javia Hall update: Still considering his options. Jordan Case update: Still breakin' necks and cashin' checks at Park Place. Joey Byerly update: Not sure; haven't been to Subway in a while. Scott Davis update: Obsessively breaking down Austin conspiracy clues... LACES OUT, KEITH CASH!!! LACES OUT!!! Mitch Maher update: No longer breaking down routes and defenses, now breaking down other playbooks instead. Matt Phillips update: WHY COME WE DON'T HIRE NORTH TEXAS ALUMS?!?!?eleven!!1? Eppy update: Still a terrible mascot. A stain of shame on our athletics history.

Why not everyday posts on those subjects?!?

Exception acknowledged, and approved. Burn in hell, xenophile.

The "P" makes the bit. Haikus for bad news, "BIH, P." when people outside the NT universe die. It's how we mourn.

BIH, P?

Says the guy in Guatemala. I decided to get a head start on both seasons so that it doesn't come across the wrong way. Since football starts with a nightmarish first month and a half, I didn't want to throw up a season countdown in the middle of a potentially bad start. Originally, it was 3 countdowns: One for basketball season, one for Tony Mitchell Day, and one for Hot Springs. But it took up half the screen. I'll just swap out as each date comes and goes.

The letters on that bobblehead's jersey are too small, and too close together. How the heck are people supposed to read that?

Why do you hate America, Flyer?

I'm never quite sure whether you like me very much or not... But I definitely like you, sir. +1