I hope so we are a deep talented team,with a favorable schedule!! We got a Sexy Coach!! Back to the Big Dance!!
Is this the year we get back to the Big Dance
- Thread starter Bigandcocky00
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The weakness is our bigs. Once again we are expecting freshmen to come in and provide an upgrade in talent at our post positions. If we have to rely on our veteran post players again it will be a long season.
1) I'm not ready to predict a NCAA appearance yet, but it is a realistic goal. The NIT should be the expectation, and if we get a couple of key results to go our way the NCAA is certainly possible. We're actually a year ahead of where I thought we'd be right now when Martin took over.
2) I think you're seriously selling the Lithuanians, especially Chat, short. Kacinas is in the game mainly for defense (which he does superbly) and rebounding (where he's good, but not great). Chat improved in a big way as the season went along last year. If he continues on that trajectory he'll be more than capable.
3) As I noted in a stat crunch yesterday, what we really need is the guards to start hitting shots from outside. We shot an appalling 30.1% from beyond the arc last year, good for dead last in the SEC and our worst mark in at least a decade. This, in turn, made it harder for us to score inside as teams just camped out in a tight zone (perhaps hurting people's perception of the bigs?). If we knock down some jumpers and force teams to push out or play man-to-man, we'll be well on our way to a solid season.
2) I think you're seriously selling the Lithuanians, especially Chat, short. Kacinas is in the game mainly for defense (which he does superbly) and rebounding (where he's good, but not great). Chat improved in a big way as the season went along last year. If he continues on that trajectory he'll be more than capable.
3) As I noted in a stat crunch yesterday, what we really need is the guards to start hitting shots from outside. We shot an appalling 30.1% from beyond the arc last year, good for dead last in the SEC and our worst mark in at least a decade. This, in turn, made it harder for us to score inside as teams just camped out in a tight zone (perhaps hurting people's perception of the bigs?). If we knock down some jumpers and force teams to push out or play man-to-man, we'll be well on our way to a solid season.
I like our bigs......Big Dance- humm... Like to think we could get in there, but I havent looked too hard into what everyone else has- how tough is the schedule- is the SEC east going to be tough this year? We should be improved, but how about everyone else?
Well, first of all, there's no divisional play any more. There's now a rotating schedule with a handful of permanent opponents.
As for our outlook... we were voted just voted 7th at the basketball media days. I don't think that's too far off. There's only one team in the SEC who's clearly better than us (Kentucky), and only one that's clearly worse than us (Mizzou). I think Mississippi State (voted 8th) is a little overrated based on the signing of one player, and that Vandy (voted 2nd) is overrated as well. They shot nearly 40% from three last year, and there's no way they'll keep up that pace. Apart from that, I think they got it mostly right. We're perfectly capable of beating everyone else, but unfortunately everyone else is capable of beating us, too.
I would consider 8 conference wins the minimum expectation, with 10 the goal, putting us solidly in the middle of the pack. That should be good enough to get us into the NIT. I think the ceiling for this team is 13 SEC wins. That, plus a strong non-conference campaign, should be enough to get us to the NCAA. Honestly, though, I think that would be a big stretch. They would have to be playing at a very high level for the whole of the season, and they haven't proven to me that they're consistent enough offensively to do that. That being said, I'm basing this on last year's numbers. They still haven't played a game yet, and if they go out and steam-roll the non-conference slate, I'll start to believe.
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The SEC is not a strong basketball conference and hasn't been for a few years. If Martin can continue to upgrade the talent we could definitely get in the upper echelon of the league. Only Kentucky is a consistent powerhouse now. Florida used to be but has fallen off in recent years.
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