Cunliffe opts out

by **BEARZ77** » October 28th, 2020, 4:52 pm

Reported that Sam Cunliffe has opted out of coming season. Who'd of saw that coming :roll:

Feel sad for UE fans after riding so high this time last year in anticipation of the McCarty era. But to the credit of the institution they moved on, and one can hope they are on a more conventional path to sustained success.

**Sponsor**

by **ACECARD** » October 28th, 2020, 6:29 pm

We were going to be a last place team even with him, so I doubt that it will make that much difference. I had hoped that maybe we could win a couple of Valley games this year, but that looks doubtful now. Drake went 2 years without winning a Valley game, so it can be done.

by **BEARZ77** » October 28th, 2020, 8:39 pm

ACECARD wrote:We were going to be a last place team even with him, so I doubt that it will make that much difference. I had hoped that maybe we could win a couple of Valley games this year, but that looks doubtful now. Drake went 2 years without winning a Valley game, so it can be done.

I honestly think you'll win a couple games; despite his physical skills, I thought Cunliffe was just too inconsistent to be a go to player. I think you have some talent in your jucos/transfer and a couple young players to at least be competitive.

by **VUGrad1314** » October 28th, 2020, 11:12 pm

If the Aces team I saw last year shows up again this year--the one that fought so hard and came so close multiple times to some very surprising victories despite all of the adversity and turmoil--they will not be a winless team again and you can take that to the bank. I don't know how many wins they'll have or exactly where they'll finish (probably 10th but who knows in this competitive conference?) but you can believe that it won't be zero. I think Aces fans will be surprised and heartened by the growth of their team this year. They made the right hire to stabilize that program and they will soon be on the right path. You'll see.

by **Blers** » October 29th, 2020, 1:10 pm

VUGrad1314 wrote:If the Aces team I saw last year shows up again this year--the one that fought so hard and came so close multiple times to some very surprising victories despite all of the adversity and turmoil--they will not be a winless team again and you can take that to the bank. I don't know how many wins they'll have or exactly where they'll finish (probably 10th but who knows in this competitive conference?) but you can believe that it won't be zero. I think Aces fans will be surprised and heartened by the growth of their team this year. They made the right hire to stabilize that program and they will soon be on the right path. You'll see.

I agree here, if I had to guess Evansvilles going to play really ugly, but ugly enough to muddy games up and steal a few, especially if their opponents shot isn't falling. From a culture standpoint it also might be addition by subtraction... i felt like he shot Evansville out of a couple games last season.

by **Eville Ways** » November 6th, 2020, 6:20 pm

The Aces should be OK defensively. Not great or even good but respectable. They'll be really bad on the boards. The question is how we systematically generate points. We don't have a go-to scorer, and while Lick knows from his Butler days how to take hard work and character to overcome a lack of talent, I'm not sure he's enough of an X's and O's offensive mind for us to average more than 60 a game. We'll probably live and die with jump-shooting, and since there's not one knock-down lights-out shooter on the team we'll die more often than not.