Expectations

[WSUbballer]

What are your teams' legitimate and reasonable expectations in your eyes? How many wins do you expect from your team? What place in the Valley do you expect them to finish out with at the bare minimum? Do you expect some type of postseason with your team? If so, what is it?

Any specific things that would disappoint you?


For my team, I expect a minimum of 24 wins with a Top 2 finish in the Valley. An NCAA Tournament appearance is expected. Anything short of an NCAA bid would be extremely disappointing. I do have a few question marks about our offense and the point guard position. But with the depth, experience, and coaching we have, we should at least be dancing. Coach Marshall is buying into some of the hype and I expect him to deliver.

[saluki762]

What are your teams' legitimate and reasonable expectations in your eyes? How many wins do you expect from your team? What place in the Valley do you expect them to finish out with at the bare minimum? Do you expect some type of postseason with your team? If so, what is it?

Any specific things that would disappoint you?


For my team, I expect a minimum of 24 wins with a Top 2 finish in the Valley. An NCAA Tournament appearance is expected. Anything short of an NCAA bid would be extremely disappointing. I do have a few question marks about our offense and the point guard position. But with the depth, experience, and coaching we have, we should at least be dancing. Coach Marshall is buying into some of the hype and I expect him to deliver.

I expect SIU to always contend for the Valley title. I predict a Thursday night play in game and would call the season a success with any finish above 6th or above. I predict a mediocre non-conference record due to numerous tough games. I do believe unlike the last couple of seasons we will be better in March than we are in October.

[WSUbballer]

I expect SIU to always contend for the Valley title.

I should have been more specific. I didn't mean general expectations but this year only, as I know some may vary on a yearly basis.

[MSUDuo]

I went with 6-3 OOC before knowing who we might play in Springfield for the consolation bracket of the Pre-season NIT and for our BB. Went with 13-5 in conference. Can't even say for STL right now. So looking at 19-8 with 3 opponents TBD, two being at home and one of the road. So, 21-9 before STL.

It would be nice to say anything short of a NCAA berth would be a disappointment but considering where we have been, I will take a NIT berth and keeping moving in the right direction. We finished 7th in conference last year and are expected to compete for the title so anything short of 3rd would be disappointing and I wouldn't think 13-5 falls short of that.

Need to see that the freshmen will be able to lead us in years to come. They will get plenty of minutes this year and I fully expect growing pains. However, we lose a ton of talent in the next 2 years so hopefully we aren't sitting and wondering which direction we are headed again after this year.

Weems, Leonard, Mallet, Ricks, Patterson, and Creekmore are as good as a top6 as anyone else has. Hoping that they all don't have an off night together and will be able to lead us most nights. Like I said, 4 freshmen are going to see minutes so I expect drop offs at some point but maybe, just maybe, these 6 can get us to where we want to be.

[saluki762]

I expect SIU to always contend for the Valley title.

I should have been more specific. I didn't mean general expectations but this year only, as I know some may vary on a yearly basis.

I knew exactly what you meant and that was why I gave my legitimate thoughts on our team as well.

[valleychamp]

I expect, and think it is a fair expectation, for UNI to win 18-23 games. And I expect them to finish in the top 3-4 of the MVC.

I don't think we will win the MVC, and I don't think we are an NCAA tournament team at this point, but neither of those things are unattainable for this team.

I think we might struggle early, and get significantly better as the year goes along. I think we will finish in the top half of the MVC, and will be a very very tough team to beat in STL.

[DUBulldog]

Tough question for a Bulldog fan. While I am very optimistic about the future, I don't really know what to expect this season. Most Bulldog fans will say that DU has more size, speed, strength and depth then at any time in recent years, including the 2007-08 miracle season.

But.......nobody on this team has played more than one season at Drake. Most teams have at least 2-3 guys in their 4th year and more who are in their 3rd year of playing for their present school. In this respect, Drake is almost like a juco team. A bunch of guys in their 2nd season and an equal amount in their first. How will they mesh together? Will there be enough playing time to go around?

I was pleasantly surprised last night with how well this team passed the ball, and how willing they were to pass the ball. The switch from a match-up zone to a man-to-man defense is something else that I like.

But, because of youth and experienece, I expect a lot of ups and downs this season. And, Drake fans are ok with that. You better believe that the bar on expectations will be set much higher starting next season.

I think most DU fans this season would be very pleased with avoiding the play-in game and finishing with a winning record. If that happens, the next 2 seasons start to look very good.

[Khan4Cats]

I expect, and think it is a fair expectation, for UNI to win 18-23 games. And I expect them to finish in the top 3-4 of the MVC.

I don't think we will win the MVC, and I don't think we are an NCAA tournament team at this point, but neither of those things are unattainable for this team.

I think we might struggle early, and get significantly better as the year goes along. I think we will finish in the top half of the MVC, and will be a very very tough team to beat in STL.

I agree for the most part.

Breaking it down further, I think we should be able to win 10 of our 13 OOC games at least, and I EXPECT to beat Iowa and Iowa State among those. The difficult ones will be at Syracuse (would be a great feather, but more expecting to compete well and see what happens), at TCU in the MVC/MWC challenge, Morehead State and their high scorer at home, and the two games in Las Vegas (an improved Indiana and either New Mexico or Colorado), and Bracketbuster. Those are 6 of the 13, and I expect to at least split those 6 while winning the other 7.

I expect us to go 12-6 in conference, probably win a couple we wouldn't expect and lose one or two we shouldn't, but I think we get 7 or 8 wins at home and play 4-5 or 5-4 on the road.

That should put us at around 20-22 wins heading into St. Louis and possibly looking at a bubble, depending on how those 6 OOC games turn out.

I think an NIT bid is a reasonable expectation with a strong chance to make a run in St. Louis and possibly be sitting around the bubble not that far off.

[Little Eddie]

I think both the teams I follow will be just a tad below winning 2/3rds of their games. Both are capable of winning more...especially CU due to the mid year addition of Echinique...Indy St's schedule worries me some...not a ton of "gimme" wins on it in my opinion. I see a possible NIT appearance for CU...CIT or CBI (if they can afford it...only if they go on the road like last season) for Indy St.

[shockalot]

I expect my team to win the valley championship and to notch at least two BCS "kills" before they end their season, with a trip to the NCAA tournament and a minimum of one win there. That should probably put them around 25 wins at minimum. So, I'll be disappointed if they don't go to the NCAA tourney this year, if they make it there without winning the valley regular season or tournament championship I'd be disappointed. And if we don't take down at least one BCS team, given the opportunity we have, I'd be disappointed. High expectations, but they are not unreasonable for this team.