by BEARZ77 » August 8th, 2021, 11:18 am
I'm not trying to defend Coach Dana Ford here, I'll say the same for any Valley coach or similar MM coach at this point, which is , I don't know how you can evaluate them based on making the NCAA Tourney anymore. Yeah they should make it some of the time, but when you look at the scheduling difficulties most have and the fact an at large bid is entirely dependent on first getting, then winning a similar # of Q1/Q2 games that any mid -lower level P-5+1 team can and will, it's getting very difficult.
That said, yeah this is the year expectations for Ford will ramp up. Overall, I think he's done a decent job building a team , especially given the problems he encountered culture wise when he went the Transfer U route in year 2. This team still has some transfers, D-1 and juco combined, but it also has a nice core of HS/Prep kids who now have ownership and leadership roles in the program. He's proven he gets enough talent to beat most of the Valley teams consistently , but hasn't beaten the really good teams but rarely. Now he has to if he's gonna avoid some scrutiny.
The Bears have 5 starters back including the two stars, but they could easily have two new starters in Clay and Minnett, get 7'0 Hawaii transfer Carper back from an injury year as post depth, and I really like freshman Isaac Haney as additional backcourt depth. The 6'1 Minnett , IUPUI's all time leading 3 point shot maker and a 16 ppg scorer is said to have been very impressive in summer workouts, and of course everyone is familiar with Donovan Clay. Should be interesting. Still, I doubt I pick the Bears to win it, probably 3rd or 4th. Gotta see CDF do it first.
The Bear is the largest carnivore on the North American continent; beware the Bear!
] I thought both of those were a bit low, but I may be prejudiced 
