Football is coming fast, but hoops ain't far behind

[DawgatAuburn]

And we have a squad that will likely gather a fair amount of pre-season buzz. Maybe not consensus top 25 buzz but I expect we will be mentioned a few places. Here's one to whet your appetite.

Five Under the Radar Teams for the 2023-2024

The 2023-2024 season will be here before you know it, so let’s take some time to look at some teams that are flying under the radar heading into the new year. Cal First-year head coach Mark Madsen put together a roster that is ready to compete immediately in the PAC12. He’s reuniting with...

burnerball.com

 

[Shmuley]

And we have a squad that will likely gather a fair amount of pre-season buzz. Maybe not consensus top 25 buzz but I expect we will be mentioned a few places. Here's one to whet your appetite.

Five Under the Radar Teams for the 2023-2024

The 2023-2024 season will be here before you know it, so let’s take some time to look at some teams that are flying under the radar heading into the new year. Cal First-year head coach Mark Madsen put together a roster that is ready to compete immediately in the PAC12. He’s reuniting with...

burnerball.com

View attachment 371638

Uh oh. “Second weekend potential.”

kiss of death.

 

[DawgatAuburn]

Uh oh. “Second weekend potential.”

kiss of death.

I'll take that over three long years

 

[Seinfeld]

And we have a squad that will likely gather a fair amount of pre-season buzz. Maybe not consensus top 25 buzz but I expect we will be mentioned a few places. Here's one to whet your appetite.

Five Under the Radar Teams for the 2023-2024

The 2023-2024 season will be here before you know it, so let’s take some time to look at some teams that are flying under the radar heading into the new year. Cal First-year head coach Mark Madsen put together a roster that is ready to compete immediately in the PAC12. He’s reuniting with...

burnerball.com

View attachment 371638

I’m always a little cautious with coaches that get off to a hot start because as much I’d like to believe that we’ll maintain steady upward trajectory, it seems like there are ups and downs in the first few years more often than not.

That said, based on what we saw last season, it stands to reason that if we can find even the slightest inkling of an actual offense, this could be a special year. Maybe not start to finish, but a team that definitely has the capability to make some noise when it matters in March

 

[patdog]

I’m always a little cautious with coaches that get off to a hot start because as much I’d like to believe that we’ll maintain steady upward trajectory, it seems like there are ups and downs in the first few years more often than not.

That said, based on what we saw last season, it stands to reason that if we can find even the slightest inkling of an actual offense, this could be a special year. Maybe not start to finish, but a team that definitely has the capability to make some noise when it matters in March

There's definitely some real potential to be a good team this year. The summer exhibitions in Portugal will help a lot too. It's like extra spring practice we get to get the players adjusted to the coaches and system and figure out which lineups and rotations work best.

 

[Drebin]

And we have a squad that will likely gather a fair amount of pre-season buzz. Maybe not consensus top 25 buzz but I expect we will be mentioned a few places. Here's one to whet your appetite.

Five Under the Radar Teams for the 2023-2024

The 2023-2024 season will be here before you know it, so let’s take some time to look at some teams that are flying under the radar heading into the new year. Cal First-year head coach Mark Madsen put together a roster that is ready to compete immediately in the PAC12. He’s reuniting with...

burnerball.com

View attachment 371638

Excited about hoops this year.

 

[MedDawg]

Uh oh. “Second weekend potential.”

kiss of death.

There's a second weekend?

 

[DoggieDaddy13]

Be interesting to see how the TEAM develops, but sure seems like the Coach is making real progress.
Hopefully none of the losses this season will be head scratchers and we get a few big wins.
Gonna be fun to watch.
LIKE OUR FOOTBALL SEASON!

 

[ronpolk]

I'll take that over three long years

After more than a decade we may be back to where Stans left us.

 

[MSUDC11-2.0]

A lot to be excited about. We return our whole starting lineup from last year and should have a greatly improved bench.

Jans can really coach, that much is obvious. I thought he got the absolute most he could’ve out of last year’s roster. Did not think we would even be in the NIT before the season. If we stay healthy, our combo of returning experience and better offensive options should have us safely in the tourney with no bubble watch required.

 

[BoDawg.sixpack]

About to start a white boy playing guard. If that don't get ya hype you need to hit the alarm and roll over.

 

[Seinfeld]

There's a second weekend?

Poetically, it’s been 17 years since we’ve been

I can’t count. 27, omg

 

[DawgatAuburn]

Poetically, it’s been 17 years since we’ve been

I can’t count. 27, omg

Yeah, it would be nice to get out of this tie with UGA for the longest streak in the SEC without a trip to the Sweet 16.

	last NCAA	last Swt 16	last Final 4	Notes
Kentucky	2023	2019	2015
Florida	2021	2017	2014
Arkansas	2023	2023	1995	Went from 1996 to 2021 with no Sweet 16 appearance
LSU	2022	2019	2006
Alabama	2023	2023	N/A
Tennessee	2023	2023	N/A
Auburn	2023	2019	2019
State	2023	1996	1996
Vanderbilt	2017	2007	N/A
Georgia	2015	1996	1983	Only 3 bids since 03, one was auto for tornado tournament
Ole Miss	2019	2001	N/A	Only 3 bids since 03
South Carolina	2017	2017	2017	their only NCAA appearance since 2004
Texas A&M	2023	2018	N/A	Six straight bids from 06-11, only three since then (joined SEC in 2012)
Missouri	2023	2009	N/A

Let this also serve as a reminder of just how remarkable the 96 Final Four run was. Look at the programs that have never been there - Alabama, Tennessee, and Missouri in particular have had teams capable of making it but just haven't been able to do it.

 

[L4Dawg]

If we have not acquired some reliable outside shooting, I suspect this year will be a repeat of last year.

 

[DawgatAuburn]

If we have not acquired some reliable outside shooting, I suspect this year will be a repeat of last year.

Allow me to introduce you to a couple of guys.

Trey Fort played a year at UT Martin and year of JUCO at Howard College. FR at UT Martin didn't play much (81 minutes), but was 5-12 from three.
Transferred down to Howard College (a JUCO, not to be confused with Howard University) for his sophomore year. Started all but one game. Was 89-197 from three, comes out to 45.2%. Also shot 86% from the line. 24.9 ppg. He won't sniff that point total this year, but hopefully he can at least be a guy who can knock down an open jumper at least 37% of the time. I mean, his name is TREY for Pete's sake.

Andrew Taylor is a fifth year transfer from Marshall. Averaged a little better than 20 ppg last year. For his career he's a 35.5% three point shooter. He got his points in part because he was a high volume guy. Got off almost 19 shots/game last year. For reference, Tolu led us in shots/game and he was only at 10 shots/game! This is the above referenced white guy. He's from Kentucky, so maybe he's the second coming of Riley Benock? Before you laugh, Benock shot 42% from three his senior year on 118 attempts. I have to think Jans would take that right now.

There's also Josh Hubbard.

 

[WrightGuy821]

Josh Hubbard has potential to be a HUGE contributor towards the end of the year. Would love to see 2-3 good years out of that guy

 

[L4Dawg]

Allow me to introduce you to a couple of guys.

Trey Fort played a year at UT Martin and year of JUCO at Howard College. FR at UT Martin didn't play much (81 minutes), but was 5-12 from three.
Transferred down to Howard College (a JUCO, not to be confused with Howard University) for his sophomore year. Started all but one game. Was 89-197 from three, comes out to 45.2%. Also shot 86% from the line. 24.9 ppg. He won't sniff that point total this year, but hopefully he can at least be a guy who can knock down an open jumper at least 37% of the time. I mean, his name is TREY for Pete's sake.

Andrew Taylor is a fifth year transfer from Marshall. Averaged a little better than 20 ppg last year. For his career he's a 35.5% three point shooter. He got his points in part because he was a high volume guy. Got off almost 19 shots/game last year. For reference, Tolu led us in shots/game and he was only at 10 shots/game! This is the above referenced white guy. He's from Kentucky, so maybe he's the second coming of Riley Benock? Before you laugh, Benock shot 42% from three his senior year on 118 attempts. I have to think Jans would take that right now.

There's also Josh Hubbard.

That sounds great, let's see what they do here.

 

[mstateglfr]

Debbie downer time- Eric Reed was an awesome outside shooter when he was coming in. Multiple years of consistent high volume shooting at the d1 level.
...and then we saw what happened.

I really hope that doesn't happen again this season with a hyped shooter.

 

[MSUDC11-2.0]

Debbie downer time- Eric Reed was an awesome outside shooter when he was coming in. Multiple years of consistent high volume shooting at the d1 level.
...and then we saw what happened.

I really hope that doesn't happen again this season with a hyped shooter.

My counterpoint to that would be that Reed played in a horrible conference when he did all that, I think the OVC was 29th in conference NET last year.

I think it’s fair to be skeptical of Fort coming from JUCO until we see him do it, but Taylor played in a much better mid major conference than what Reed came from. And frankly was more successful, too. I’d be surprised if he ends up being the same kind of player as Reed.

 

[DAWGSANDSAINTS]

About to start a white boy playing guard. If that don't get ya hype you need to hit the alarm and roll over.

And from Kentucky.
Kyle Macey 2.0

 

[DawgatAuburn]

Debbie downer time- Eric Reed was an awesome outside shooter when he was coming in. Multiple years of consistent high volume shooting at the d1 level.
...and then we saw what happened.

I really hope that doesn't happen again this season with a hyped shooter.

I had Reed's name in my original post with that exact statement but took it out because I figured someone would say "Your a moran! Fort's game and Reed's game are not at all similar!" And maybe that's true. I haven't seen Fort play, but I do know he's bigger and he got to the line more in JUCO than Reed did at SEMO. So I took it out. But I agree that there is probably a comparison to make.

I'll push back a little on the awesome and multiple years parts about Reed. He shot it great his freshman year, but regressed his sophomore year. Then he fell off a cliff this year. It's hard to put this year's struggles all on the increased competition level. I mean he was missing WIDE OPEN jumpers all year long. Back to his freshman year stats - he was 45.9%. To qualify for the NCAA leaderboard you have to make 2.5 threes/game. Reed was at 2.3 per game. He was seven makes short of qualifying which is not that much over a 27 game season. Maybe one more made three every other week and he would have been on the leaderboard.

Fort made 3.1/game this year and at his 45.2% would have had him third in D-1. That's why I backed it down to 37%. That would still be top 75 in the country if he makes the required 2.5/game.

 

[BulldogBlitz]

We are happy to have 2nd weekend potential, but not 2nd weekend reality. I've never understood that contentment.