Perspective on year

[Storm89]

Not a great season so far, but considering player attrition, injuries, no Lucca and the fact that it is only the second season w/ McD, I'm not feeling too bad about the team and the fact that they are getting better, as they get healthier. Obviously Wes, Rashon, and Jiri being healthy is a huge difference. Night and day since the first games.

No idea how the Big 12 goes, but they were better than anticipated last year and it would be awesome if they could finish .500.

Positives - haven't lost to a bad team.
Drake 11-1 (horrendous loss, but they are proving to be a very good team)
Minnesota 10-2 (we are probably their biggest win)
UNI 10-3 (seem to be getting better)
Alabama 11-4 (appear to be a really talented team 3 of losses to ranked teams A&M, Clemson, Georgetown)

Bradley 7-7 (record a little deceiving, they didn't have their best player for some of the games, beat Iowa and played Mich. St to 5 points, always tough at home and early game for us w/o being healthy)

Biggest win is against 9-4 Purdue, who beat Louisville and losses to Clemson and Mizzou teams.

Oregon St and Iowa are from BCS conferences but both are bad. Rest of wins are against bad teams. Albany may surpise in their conference, but are currently 5-8. So not a lot of huge wins, but even with a healthy team minus Lucca I wouldn't have hoped for anything better than 11-3, so we aren't that far off especially w/o players early on.

If we start conference at 10-5, if we can win tonight, a .500 record is 18-13 and they get their first taste of post season in the NIT. I don't know if .500 is realistic with our point guard play but right now K-St, Mizzou, Col, Ok St, Tex Tech and us are all 9-4, 9-5, or 8-5. Log jam of beatable teams in bottom 6, but their is no gimme in the league this year.

Baylor and Nebraska have had good pre-seasons with a couple nice wins 11-1 and 11-2, but who knows for sure.

Then Kansas, A&M, Oklahoma and Texas seem to be the cream of the crop. The good thing is that we play four of the top 6 teams just once.

The NIT is possible this year and NCAA next year if they keep getting better and point guard play develops. We are on the right track. This program is being set up for sustained success.

 

[chadm]

Good first post.:notworthy:

 

[brianhos]

I am not sure this team can go through the conference at .500, our guard play has just not been up to par and that is going to KILL us once we start facing teams with good guards. I am scared for next saturdays game, @Baylor could get ugly.

 

[cloneu]

I would gladly take a .500 conference record if the Big 12 would offer it to us.

 

[SaxaCLONE13]

Good first post.:notworthy:

Agreed, well done man

 

[Storm89]

I realize that .500 is no given, but last year's group scratched and fought their way to 6 wins. That is with a complete overhaul, all kinds of defections, and grabbing at kids really late in the recruiting process.

Now this off-season was by no means perfect, but it was definitely better than the previous one and there are definitely better basketball players on the roster and more of them. This team is markedly better than last year's at this time.

Point guard play is dramatically improved from last year. Every player has strengths and deficincies, but Peterson works hard to take care of the ball and can step in and hit a three on occasion. Diante can get the ball deeper than any point guard we've had since Tinsley and will continue to grow. McIntosh didn't take care of the ball that well, couldn't hit a 3, and wouldn't dream of getting deep in the paint. They aren't ready for Big 12 ball, but they are better than what we had to work with last year and improving.

Wes at the 2 is much better and more complete ball player than Taylor. As he gets healthy you realize how much better he was than last year and find it hard to believe last year he was playing the 4. I knew he could shoot, but he is much more fluid this year. As he continues to get healthy look out.

Rahshon is playing the best basketball of his career. He continues to do all the little things and is shooting much more in rhythm, while continuing to provide leadership. His style has had to adapt with a different style of play, but he is a much more complete player than he was three years ago, even though we don't have the pleasure of seeing him in the open court as much anymore.

Brackins has proven to be what everyone else thought he would be. He has tons of upside and will get a lot better still this year. He is long, has great hands, a shooter's touch, can block shots and plays a lot stronger than his wt. Wes had a great year last year, but we are better with Brackins on the blocks, as he matches up better.

Jiri is not better than he was at the end of the year last year, but he is light years better than he was at the beginning of Jan. last year. He is getting really close to playing his best basketball of his career right now. He is starting to finish shots again, getting to the line, running the court and playing his role on the blocks.

Cory Johnson is better and stronger than he was last year, combined with AT, and Haluska we have a stronger bench that last year with Dunson, Gray and Marsden. Brock was asked to play in valuable minutes many times last year and the talent level must be higher with the kids that are playing, as evidenced by his lack of opportunities this year.

Just imagine throwing Taylor (who would be substantially better this year without the burden of having to bring the ball up and such a heavy offensive load) and/or Lucca into the mix. They would really stretch defenses and free up interior opportunities, as evidenced by Wes being healthy and hitting from outside. Having players doing it from both wings will be something to see.

So do I think .500 should be expected considering the league this year...no. But is it attainable....yes. If they can win 6 games last year and have improved at every spot on the court this year, combined with the fact that the staff has to be more acclimated and more effective in the 2nd go around, then winning 2 more games isn't ludicrous. Especially if they play with some grit and toughness which they surprised people with last year.

We are going great places and those of you who aren't believing are missing the boat.

 

[cyclon]

Not to downplay your optimism, but I think how well we do in the Big XII this year will be based on the level of competition we are playing and how we match up. Until I see signs of our guards being able to prevent penetration and easy lay ins I have a hard time getting too excited. It will be interesting to see how we respond to significantly better competition in the next few weeks.