by Aargh » December 20th, 2012, 12:03 am
UNI @ WSU is an early conference game.
WSU has 4 early-season starters beat up. Orukpe won't be 100%. Hall, Wessel, and Baker are out. 4 of the 8 "healthy" players either missed a bunch of practice due to injuries or are nursing injuries they can play through.
Somehow, UNI doesn't scare me - actually, UNI doesn't concern me. I'm confident the last 8 guys on WSU's bench can beat anything UNI has.
I am aware UNI fans probably do not share that opinion, and I certainly wouldn't expect them to share that opinion. I fully expect a bunch of pretty fair players for WSU who weren't expecting much PT are going to be pumped to be getting PT and won't want to let down their injured leaders.
The plus for UNI for this season is that UNI is likely to be able to keep Jacobsen for quite a while longer, and I think Jacobsen will get UNI back to the upper levels of the Valley again. Not this year. With what would be expected in the Valley and the RPI's in the Valley, UNI is likely to be top-150 - not top-100.