Covered?

Where are we covered, and where are we not? It would look like point is covered - how well we don't know. We will have two incoming points, plus Solo, and even Matt in a pinch. Shooting guard should be in excellent shape assuming Matt is healthy. Small forward likewise with Alex and the incoming juco. From there it gets iffy. The 4 and the 5 are covered, but quality is a question. Probably the point and the front line are the biggest question marks. And defense.

SLU

If you want to follow an up and coming team over the next few years, keep an eye on St. Louis Univ. Their entire roster this past season were freshmen and sophomores. And the thing that most young players do not do well they did superlatively - play defense. They held opponents to 39% overall and a paltry 26% from the arc.

faulty logic

It is interesting to listen to those who consider soccer to be boring. How can it be boring given the constant activity? True, scoring is rare, as though scoring the only activity that counts. Further, if a football game has a score of 21-14, there have only been five touchdowns scored, and some would consider that exciting and a 3-2 soccer match boring even though most of a football game is totally dead time.

predictions

I will be very surprised if we are picked higher than 4th in the division next season. We just didn't warrant it, and are not bringing in any sort of headline recruiting class.

biggest detriment

What is the single biggest detriment to this program. The "we don't oink" factor? Lack of much history? Walk-on campus? Lack of attention of the administration? I don't know. Wish I did. But even if I did, I couldn't fix it.

humbug

Here's hoping the new superconferences and ESPN all go broke!

best and worst

In our best dream world, Money and Bails become beasts up front and we finally win it all. In our worst nightmare, they don’t, and we still don’t play defense, and we struggle to get to .500.

Money

I hope Montrelle spends more time at the 4 this season, instead of the 5. He is a natural 4, and I think he should do some outstanding work there.

the Wisconsin way

They didn't turn the ball over (8.8 turnovers per game). They did not allow many baskets (56.9 ppg by opponents). They didn't allow opponent to crash the glass (got 73% of available rebounds on defensive boards).

downside of jucos

One disadvantage of recruiting too many jucos. When a coach uses mainly freshmen, he can see when he might have an exceptionally good team and schedule a tough slate that year so he might make a little more impact than usual. With jucos, by the time you know if they are going to be good, they already are seniors and it is too late to toughen the schedule.

buy in?

I could be wrong, but it seemed like the 23-win team year before last bought into Shields' system pretty well and thrived on it. Every coach has his system, and that will be what the team uses. They can fight it, or buy into it. If they buy into it, they might do better earlier.

Quote from Jay Wright, Villanova coach

after their overtime win against Robert Morris:
"They are well coached. That is actually harder to play against than great athletes that are undisciplined."