How long til hoops season???

[wyo 1]

I like the assessment. But I just don't see us having less wins than last season.

For the fact that...
our PG production will be improved. Yes it is gonna suck losing the MWC D player of the year but gilmore and adams will be able to score

SG- luke martinez will be improved

SF- losing paco cruz will suck... the only way we can replace our production there will be if its leonard

PF- Either its leonard or nance, nance will be greatly improved

C- Not to offend any of the wyo wadell lovers, but he will be replaced in terms of production quite easily.

and our bench will be better. definitely. deeper, and stronger.

Aaah I can't freakin wait

Who do you see easily replacing Waddell's production? From what I've heard, Cooke is not very effective offensively and Sellers sounds like he is a ways away.

 

[BeaverPoke]

I guess I didn't really clarify.

If nance plays center he will easily replace it. plus some. then our question is at sf cuz leonard will be playing pf. but if leonard is at sf, nance is at pf I think either cooke or sellers will be able to replace wadell. maybe not point for point or board for board but the starting five in general this year will be able to outscore and out rebound the team from last year.

Maybe not an upgrade at every position, but across the board they will have more.

 

[wyo 1]

I guess I didn't really clarify.

If nance plays center he will easily replace it. plus some. then our question is at sf cuz leonard will be playing pf. but if leonard is at sf, nance is at pf I think either cooke or sellers will be able to replace wadell. maybe not point for point or board for board but the starting five in general this year will be able to outscore and out rebound the team from last year.

Maybe not an upgrade at every position, but across the board they will have more.

I think Nance will be playing center and Washington at the 4. Cooke could give either guy a breather and Sellers relieving the 5 only.

SF imo, will be Martinez and the kid from Torrington. I don't see Leonard as a sf.

BTW, I hope your right on Nance stepping up, I expect him to make a pretty big jump in production this year. Cant wait for this season to get started, should be interesting.

 

[gopokes1399]

Like i said before positions are going to be irrelevant for this team in all reality. They are gonna run their offense based on skills and match up on defense. They actually could even run a pretty nasty zone with Nance in the middle. But on defense what position youre playing doesnt matter, you match up. On offense positions and numbers just tell you where you go.

 

[wyo 1]

Like i said before positions are going to be irrelevant for this team in all reality. They are gonna run their offense based on skills and match up on defense. They actually could even run a pretty nasty zone with Nance in the middle. But on defense what position youre playing doesnt matter, you match up. On offense positions and numbers just tell you where you go.

Agree with you here, what I'm trying to say is imo you wont see Washington , Nance and either Cooke or Sellers on the floor together at the same time. Maybe some rare occasion, but not for any extended minutes.

Just my thoughts on it.

 

[gopokes1399]

Like i said before positions are going to be irrelevant for this team in all reality. They are gonna run their offense based on skills and match up on defense. They actually could even run a pretty nasty zone with Nance in the middle. But on defense what position youre playing doesnt matter, you match up. On offense positions and numbers just tell you where you go.

Agree with you here, what I'm trying to say is imo you wont see Washington , Nance and either Cooke or Sellers on the floor together at the same time. Maybe some rare occasion, but not for any extended minutes.

Just my thoughts on it.

I agree completely

 

[gbpoke]

I'm really excited for the season but I drank a lot of the Wyoming defense kool-aid and now I'm deathly ill and can't drink any basketball kool-aid.

This

Eh, if we talk it up or not, we have no control over the game, so just suck it up and join the BS!

What do you guys think our best record could be? Best accomplishment?

I think, we could hit 25 wins, MWC tourney title, and sweet16 in the big dance.
if we win the mwc tourney i definitely think that we can win a couple games in the tourney. too unreasonable?

Your force feeding us the kool-aid that is just mean. Realistically with our weak schedule which will give us a weak SOS. 22 Wins, split in MWC games 8-8 NIT bid. Winning 22 might be a stretch but I don't think it's that much of a stretch.

See Im not trying to be TOO overly kool-aidish BUT at the same time, we won 21 games last year. I see more than just a 1 game improvement from last season.
Especially if we do protect home court a little bit better (in MWC play) and DONT drop games that we should have won like at csu and at tcu.
Therefore we get a better seeding in the MWC tourney.
Ok so the only thing I'm really stretching on is predicting we win the MWC tourney. There is no way, to predict the post season in college bball, ESPECIALLY before the season. I'll admit that is literally, making the kool-aid, and pouring glasses.

But back to reality, if we repeat what we did PLUS don't drop the AFA game at home, and don't drop the game at csu then we are at 23 wins. then we go 3-3 against the big3 (SDSU, unlv, NM) instead of 1-5, we improve from 23 to 25.

Honestly I think we can get 25 wins. and go to the big dance

I think expectations are way out of hand. Not necessarily a horrible thing (it's great to have excitement around the program after the dark days of Heath), but could result in some disillusionment once the season starts.

This team just has some functional weaknesses that will be difficult to overcome. From an overall standpoint, we are just very small and not exceptionally athletic (there are exceptions of course). Certainly skill, preparation, and effort can overcome some of that, but it's a difficult road when you start at least half of the conference games off at a distinct physical disadvantage.

From a scheme/personnel standpoint, we have several glaring issues:

1. Limited post play - Who do we have that can post up and generate offense in the paint? Pretty much just Leonard, and he is 6'6" (still very effective on the block though). Nance has a long way to go before he can be a back to the basket force (although obviously has a lot of potential and significant gains from Fr. to So. would not be a surprise). He brings some things to the table that Waddell didn't (much more range on his jump shot, more of a shot blocking threat, etc.), but is still developing in many respects.

2. Rebounding - On paper this team should be better on the glass than a year ago. Leonard is a very good rebounder and I expect him to be able to stay on the floor for more minutes next year and Nance rebounds at a much better rate than Waddell did. Martinez is a very effective rebounder for his size and position, and Cooke brings a dimension that we didn't have last year as an athletic force that can rebound out of his area. That's on paper. In the Canada games, they were underwhelming on the glass against inferior opposition.

3. Create off the dribble - This is the same problem as last year. When it comes right down to it, who is going to create offense late in the shot clock?


Anyway, I am very excited to see this team develop, but I think we have an uphill battle. I think 20 wins (against an admittedly easy schedule) and CBI/CIT is the realistic target for this team.

The rebounding thing could be a possible problem, but remember Washington didn't play in any of those Canadian games. Since he's one of the team's best rebounders then not having him for those games would skew the numbers a bit in the negative direction.