Next year predictions

[Aces44]

Red shirt freshman Will Artino (6'11") has been impreesive in the Omaha Summer league. Runs the floor well and can pop from the outside. Same goes for incoming (6"10") Geoff Groselle who is impressing all with his toughness and ability to knock down outside jumpers

My guess is that Mac, Merf and the rest of the Staff are not overly excited to hear their front line is jacking it from the outside. Their advantage over nearly everyone in the league outside of WSU is their size in the paint, but God Love Em for giving back their advantage as quickly as possible.

I am also interested to hear that the IN ST fans were pretty quick to forget how much Aaron Carter did for them, and also the depth that Jake Kelly gave them. JO is really good, but he couldn't play with any more confidence than he did last year, and I hope for his sake he doesn't listen to anyone from TH critique his game or he might think that his season is going to get locked out this year. Remember they only beat Evansville and MSU by a combined 2 possessions in the tourney (I simply can't remember the other game) so it is not like they were manhandling the league at the end.

As for my Aces, they have lots of experience at the guard positions which always gives you a chance for success, but I have a bad feeling that they may need a schematic change on the defensive end in order to hide some deficiencies (read: POST DEFENSE and REBOUNDING here) and I am not sure Marty will have an easy time with that, I know it would be difficult for me (and has been in the past).

Great stuff for the Summer!

[Khan4Cats]

Red shirt freshman Will Artino (6'11") has been impreesive in the Omaha Summer league. Runs the floor well and can pop from the outside. Same goes for incoming (6"10") Geoff Groselle who is impressing all with his toughness and ability to knock down outside jumpers

My guess is that Mac, Merf and the rest of the Staff are not overly excited to hear their front line is jacking it from the outside. Their advantage over nearly everyone in the league outside of WSU is their size in the paint, but God Love Em for giving back their advantage as quickly as possible.

I am also interested to hear that the IN ST fans were pretty quick to forget how much Aaron Carter did for them, and also the depth that Jake Kelly gave them. JO is really good, but he couldn't play with any more confidence than he did last year, and I hope for his sake he doesn't listen to anyone from TH critique his game or he might think that his season is going to get locked out this year. Remember they only beat Evansville and MSU by a combined 2 possessions in the tourney (I simply can't remember the other game) so it is not like they were manhandling the league at the end.

As for my Aces, they have lots of experience at the guard positions which always gives you a chance for success, but I have a bad feeling that they may need a schematic change on the defensive end in order to hide some deficiencies (read: POST DEFENSE and REBOUNDING here) and I am not sure Marty will have an easy time with that, I know it would be difficult for me (and has been in the past).

Great stuff for the Summer!

I don't know about Merf and his recipe for success, but if you watched Mac at UNI then you would recall a number of post players that could step out and hit from outside: Schneiderman and Stout being key contibutors on the NCAA teams under Mac that were quite comfortable stepping outside.

[Aargh]

WSU has lot of returning talent, but replacing Durley, Blair, and Ellis with a JuCo and a Fr and expecting WSU to move up or maintain their position in the league doesn't seem logical.

InSU seems solid, but there will be 9 coaches and 18 assistants going over film of Odum for 6 months. If a couple of coaches find a way to neutralize Odum, I don't know that InSU has enough of a supporting cast to counter that. Odum came a long way during the year. I doubt tht the scouting was keeping up with his progress.

I'm going with:

1 - CU - Crown 'em - and that's not sarcasm
2 - InSU - If Odum stumbles, they could fall lower
3 - WSU - JuCo and Fr PF's have to be ready to play and contribute. Stutz has to limit his fouls to one every 10 minutes instead of every 5 minutes. Orukpe needs to be able to provide credible minutes. If all of those happen, WSU can challenge CU. If none of those happen, WSU can challenge SIU for their spot in the standings.
4 - MSU - I can't believe I have them this high, but what are the options? Weems and not much else.
5 - UE - Ryan and not much else, but Simmons has them on the right track
6 - SIU - Seck can probably carry them this far, even with CLo coaching.
7 - DU - Rice and not much else. DU fans are already wondering how long Phelps will last
8 - UNI - Hate to put them this low, but the teams I put ahead of them all have a stud who can carry the team. Plus, I saw them after O'Rear was hurt, and that indicated this might be accurate.
9 - BU - Good Fr class will get a lot of minutes, and I have a feeling Ford will end up being a good coach.
10 - IlSU - Sorry, Birds fans, but Jank seems to have the Redbirds moving to the level of their OOC schedule.

[DoubleJayAlum]

WSU has lot of returning talent, but replacing Durley, Blair, and Ellis with a JuCo and a Fr and expecting WSU to move up or maintain their position in the league doesn't seem logical.

Gabe Blair was one of the most, if not the most, underappreciated players in the entire league last year. Although Durley was a better scorer, Blair was a much more intimidating presence on defense and always played hard (unlike Durley who seemed to take a lot of plays off).

[BirdmanBB]

My revised groupings. No particular order in any grouping.

CU (should be overall favorite)
WSU (good recruiting class should maintain success)

IN St. (Odum and a couple other key players, but could move into next grouping)

DU (Rice is ready to explode)
UE (Marty should have them about in the middle next year)
ISU (replaced a lot of bad talent with good talent in offseason and added more depth)
MSU (Weems should be able to keep them out of last grouping alone)

UNI (my gut tells me they are going to fall pretty far next year)
BU (new coach, new system, some injuries but will bounce back after next year)
SIU (Until CLO is gone, so is SIU. Seck is good, but not good enough supporting cast)

[shockem]

WSU has lot of returning talent, but replacing Durley, Blair, and Ellis with a JuCo and a Fr and expecting WSU to move up or maintain their position in the league doesn't seem logical.

Gabe Blair was one of the most, if not the most, underappreciated players in the entire league last year. Although Durley was a better scorer, Blair was a much mor eintimidating presence on defense and always played hard (unlike Durley who seemed to take a lot of plays off).

Agree. Both he and Ellis were long and athletic. Neither provided a huge scoring threat, but they both could score when needed and both were tenacious/smart defenders and a key to our NIT run. I just don't see us replacing those guys very easily. WSU will be a much more guard oriented team this year, it could go either way.

[Aces44]

I don't know about Merf and his recipe for success, but if you watched Mac at UNI then you would recall a number of post players that could step out and hit from outside: Schneiderman and Stout being key contibutors on the NCAA teams under Mac that were quite comfortable stepping outside.

Agreed, but keep in mind those two were 6'6" and 6'8" respectively, not 6'10" and 6'11".

I am pretty much in line with Birdman on ranking them, but it is July and we have no idea who will get hurt, blossom, etc.

[2livewu]

WSU has lot of returning talent, but replacing Durley, Blair, and Ellis with a JuCo and a Fr and expecting WSU to move up or maintain their position in the league doesn't seem logical.

Gabe Blair was one of the most, if not the most, underappreciated players in the entire league last year. Although Durley was a better scorer, Blair was a much mor eintimidating presence on defense and always played hard (unlike Durley who seemed to take a lot of plays off).

+1 If WSU can't find someone to play defense and rebound with Gabe's intensity, there will be a lot of disappointed Shocker fans around.

[45otseoj]

I'm picking the Shox to win the whole shabang, but the Blair discussion got me thinking...
Last year the Shox had two men in the lane. Other than Carmichael, ISUred had a post full of boys. When they played, it was pure domination (especially in Wichita). WSU had the strength and athleticism of a high-major team that allowed them dominate certain games even when their shots didn't fall. Wichita's strength looks like it is shifting from the post to the perimeter which can hurt consistency because of the reliance on outside scoring. It will be interesting to see how this year shakes out.

[WSUbballer]

I agree with the point about Blair and even Ellis to an extent. Those guys were the glue around the basket and cleaned up a lot of the garbage there. They will be sorely missed, in addition to a Durley and even a Hatch.

I'm very skeptical on high preseason predictions for this team. If pieces fall together quickly than expected and some of the newbies contribute right away, then this could be a dangerous team. But I too have my doubts about a guard-oriented team making a run in this league.