Season opens on Nov. 7, 3 weeks away. What do folks think of our prospects? It looks to me that we have a strong roster this year. It not only includes some really good talent, but this is the first roster under JH that I have seen that is well balanced. We have talent and good size in the post, and if reports are true that our guys are stronger, another plus. We have very capable guys at the wings and guards with solid 3 pt shooting. Plus we have depth. But most of all, I like that we have a nice balance of bigs and smaller guys. Our biggest weakness might be that we don't have any elite quickness. That will hurt us agst. the top teams with that kind of quickness, but overall we should be able to overcome that. We may need to use a healthy amount of zone.
Bigger concern is our schedule which looks pretty daunting. We play Wisconsin away early and they always have a good team. San Diego St. and Texas are both ranked preseason and Texas particularly good. The tourney in Orlando opens with Ole Miss and has other good teams there. Then we draw Ucla real early and then have to go to ASU on the road. Loyola and Chicago St. are far from gimmes. Not sure about the quality of the P12 opponents, but I noticed that 4 of our last 6 games are on the road - the LA and Oregon schools. So that makes for a tough finish when trying to obtain post season.
I'm more excited about this MBB season because I think that this is the best roster JH has had in his tenure. He previously has had some excellent talent but this is more of an overall team than I've seen and they should have chemistry. OTOH, it is also a challenging schedule. Seeing how our guys will handle that will be fun.
Bigger concern is our schedule which looks pretty daunting. We play Wisconsin away early and they always have a good team. San Diego St. and Texas are both ranked preseason and Texas particularly good. The tourney in Orlando opens with Ole Miss and has other good teams there. Then we draw Ucla real early and then have to go to ASU on the road. Loyola and Chicago St. are far from gimmes. Not sure about the quality of the P12 opponents, but I noticed that 4 of our last 6 games are on the road - the LA and Oregon schools. So that makes for a tough finish when trying to obtain post season.
I'm more excited about this MBB season because I think that this is the best roster JH has had in his tenure. He previously has had some excellent talent but this is more of an overall team than I've seen and they should have chemistry. OTOH, it is also a challenging schedule. Seeing how our guys will handle that will be fun.
