BirdsEyeView wrote:To win this league, ISUr will need players to step up outside of Lee, McIntosh and Hawkins. Tony Wills needs to develop an offensive game and we need a suitable backup pg to Lee.
We have uncertainties just as WSU and UNI and everyone else. There is no guarantee like last year on who will emerge as the champion. Should be an exciting season.
Of course we all have uncertainties, however, my argument is and has been that WSU has fewer, or at least fewer risk in those uncertainties. McDuffie, Morris, Brown only have to show that they are comfortable being the focal point of the offense. That's it. Conner needs to do better than 6 points in 16 minutes, but he was a top 40 high school player. He probably hasn't hit his ceiling. Shamet is a freshman, but he was a top 80 recruit that averaged 9 points in 19 minutes before the injury. Kelly is a good defensive player and rebounder. We brought in a 6-9 JUCO top 10 recruit, a former top 100 guard that can kiss the rim, a JUCO all district PG, and a 6-5 PG that once scored 32 points in an 8 minute quarter. Then there's Rauno Nurger; probably further along than the Redbird center, and Eric Hamilton who, if he played for Drake or Bradley, would be there best interior player.
Certainly there are question marks there, but it would be incredibly bizarre for most of them to fail. Of course stars and ratings don't amount to a hill of beans, but if I haven't seen any of them play, I will take the top 100 recruits over the second team all-staters.