This one person's guess favors most teams playing nearly all veterans, so he has little knowledge of or faith in the incoming players, which is normal. I kind of feel that way myself, except that Cal's incoming had better be better than this guy thinks, or we will finish behind the Cougs again. Personally, I think that unless JHD has made huge improvement handling the ball and shooting, and he is in the starting lineup, we may be doomed to last place again. I favor playing the best defenders, but we have to have some offense, and starting only one guy who has demonstrated he can shoot, Bradley, is not going to cut it. Unless Klonaras is a klutz, and Double K can't shoot, or South (or Street) isn't ready for PAC 12 level, I think at least one of them will start, not JHD.smokeyrover said:
As compiled here, along with one person's guess at conference standings.
Not a whole lot of returning talent and lots of new pieces. Could be another rough non-conference.
SFCityBear said:This one person's guess favors most teams playing nearly all veterans, so he has little knowledge of or faith in the incoming players...smokeyrover said:
As compiled here, along with one person's guess at conference standings.
Not a whole lot of returning talent and lots of new pieces. Could be another rough non-conference.
Lou,LOUMFSG2 said:SFCityBear said:This one person's guess favors most teams playing nearly all veterans, so he has little knowledge of or faith in the incoming players...smokeyrover said:
As compiled here, along with one person's guess at conference standings.
Not a whole lot of returning talent and lots of new pieces. Could be another rough non-conference.
Actually, his top two picks, Washington and Arizona, lose a lot of veteran talent, and bring in highly touted freshman classes.
Washington loses Nowell, Thybulle, Crisp, Dickerson and Green, but bring in two 5-stars in Stewart and McDaniels, and a 4-star in Battle, all expected to start.
Arizona loses Randolph, Coleman, Luther, and Akot, but brings in three 5-stars in Mannion, Green and Nnaji, with Mannion and Green projected as starters, and I'm sure Nnaji will be a major contributor off the bench.
I'm not sure the author favors veterans.
This all sounds good, and I hope you are right about Fox's coaching. That is a big key to everything, as we just spent two painful years learning. So far, with these recruits, he seems to have recruited well for need, and we have a couple of players for each position, although three are coming off injuries, and a few of them can play two or three positions. Now we have to find out if they are any good, and if the coach does the things you say, the program may have begun the healing. Things are looking up, for this fan at least.LOUMFSG2 said:
It feels to me like the Pac-12 should have a rebound season over last year, which was historically weak. I think the top half of the conference will be fairly strong. But looking at the other teams projected in the bottom third, Utah, Stanfurd and Washington State, I think we have a real opportunity to at least leap past those teams in the standings. I like what Fox and staff have been able to do recruiting-wise, coming in late and filling out the roster with what looks like pretty reasonable talent. And I think Fox was known more for his coaching and player development than recruiting. Whenever you have a new coach and a new system, there is the potential for things to get worse before they get better. But in this case, I think Fox is very good at molding his game plan to fit the talent that he has (as opposed to trying to make the players fit the coaching philosophy), and I think we should see real improvement this year. I think finishing in the 7th - 9th place range is a reasonable goal for this group.
