While all the discussion about football rages on, guess what else is coming? BASKETBALL, BABY! Both men's and women's, WBB vs. Cal Poly at 11am and MBB vs. Utah Valley at 2/2:30pm (seeing both times in different places). This thread will be about MBB, since I'm 1. excited to continue following MBB, and 2. sure others who are way more knowledgeable will start one on WBB.
MBB opens against Utah Valley State at home. They are coached by Stanford legend Mark Madsen, which is a fun homecoming. (I only wish he could've returned to a bunch of fans who undoubtedly remember him fondly.)
Unfortunately for the Mad Dog, only a handful of players - and zero starters - return from last year's very bad team (in the 250 range by KenPom). In year 2, Madsen is clearly in the early stages of a full-blown rebuild, stocking up on transfers from the likes of GT, BYU, UNLV, Mercer, Weber State, and a few JuCos. Besides the GT grad transfer, I have no idea who else is immediately eligible from the 4-year schools, but the JuCo guys should be able to play right away.
However, such an influx of transfers does not a good team make. KenPom has them in the 280 range. We opened at #34, the highest I've seen us open ever. This should be a massacre a la the MD-Eastern Shore or Long Beach State games last year, both of which were 30ish-point blowout affairs. (Against MD-ES, we were up by 31 with 3 minutes left in the game before the bench bunch allowed a 12-1 run, which Haase was noticeably upset about.) Long Beach State had a similar transfer-dominated roster makeup last year as UVU does now.
For those worried we may look rusty in the first game of the season, that's fair. The Montana game last year was "only" an 11-point win, and we struggled in the first half. However, keep in mind Montana turned out to be not too bad - #137 by KenPom, and more importantly we completely blew the game wide open in the 2nd half before the bench bunch allowed an 11-point run in the final 3 minutes. We shouldn't see these bench bunch beatdowns this time around, as our bench is now full on healthy scholarship players as opposed to 2 walk-ons on scholly and down Kodye Pugh for the season with injury.
FWIW: IMO the starting lineup looks pretty clear - Davis, Wills, Jones, Williams, Da Silva. But that won't matter much when the team appears deep and capable of rotating 10+ players, and will undoubtedly do so liberally against an overmatched opponent.
Also, one more tidbit: much like Bryce Wills and Jaiden Delaire before him, Max Murrell is one of the youngest freshmen in the country. He just turned 18 in September. (Wills and Delaire are October and late August birthdays, respectively. Tyrell Terry is older than both.)
MBB opens against Utah Valley State at home. They are coached by Stanford legend Mark Madsen, which is a fun homecoming. (I only wish he could've returned to a bunch of fans who undoubtedly remember him fondly.)
Unfortunately for the Mad Dog, only a handful of players - and zero starters - return from last year's very bad team (in the 250 range by KenPom). In year 2, Madsen is clearly in the early stages of a full-blown rebuild, stocking up on transfers from the likes of GT, BYU, UNLV, Mercer, Weber State, and a few JuCos. Besides the GT grad transfer, I have no idea who else is immediately eligible from the 4-year schools, but the JuCo guys should be able to play right away.
However, such an influx of transfers does not a good team make. KenPom has them in the 280 range. We opened at #34, the highest I've seen us open ever. This should be a massacre a la the MD-Eastern Shore or Long Beach State games last year, both of which were 30ish-point blowout affairs. (Against MD-ES, we were up by 31 with 3 minutes left in the game before the bench bunch allowed a 12-1 run, which Haase was noticeably upset about.) Long Beach State had a similar transfer-dominated roster makeup last year as UVU does now.
For those worried we may look rusty in the first game of the season, that's fair. The Montana game last year was "only" an 11-point win, and we struggled in the first half. However, keep in mind Montana turned out to be not too bad - #137 by KenPom, and more importantly we completely blew the game wide open in the 2nd half before the bench bunch allowed an 11-point run in the final 3 minutes. We shouldn't see these bench bunch beatdowns this time around, as our bench is now full on healthy scholarship players as opposed to 2 walk-ons on scholly and down Kodye Pugh for the season with injury.
FWIW: IMO the starting lineup looks pretty clear - Davis, Wills, Jones, Williams, Da Silva. But that won't matter much when the team appears deep and capable of rotating 10+ players, and will undoubtedly do so liberally against an overmatched opponent.
Also, one more tidbit: much like Bryce Wills and Jaiden Delaire before him, Max Murrell is one of the youngest freshmen in the country. He just turned 18 in September. (Wills and Delaire are October and late August birthdays, respectively. Tyrell Terry is older than both.)
