Around the AAC
Just saw that Landry Shamet for Wichita State broke his foot and is out for a while. That's a huge blow for them. Hopefully he comes back by the start of the season, or conference play at worst.
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For anyone that's interested, Jon Rothstein visited SMU's practice last week. Here are some of his Twitter comments...
Greetingsfrom Dallas. Here for SMU practice. Ponies are aiming for back-to-back NCAA bids. https://t.co/JYOhMovscF The biggest area of focus at SMU practice? Offensive rebounding. Undersized Ponies need extra possessions. Limited size yet again. Arkansas transfer Jimmy Whitt will give SMU a new dimension at PG. Should allow Shake Milton to move to wing and focus on scoring at will. SMU won't have Jahmal McMurray until December. The games without him: Battle 4 Atlantis, USC, and TCU. Epitome of brutality? Indeed. Early prediction on SMU's starting five: Jimmy Whitt, Shake Milton, Ben Emelogu, Jarrey Foster, Akoy Agau. Similar to last year, expect SMU to focus on a "5-out" alignment. Positionless basketball a major theme at practice today. Interchangeable. SMU has NCAA caliber talent 1-4. Big question is if there's anything else after that. Ponies lost three guys that will play for money Biggest surprise I saw after the past few days? SMU freshman Ethan Chargois. 6-9 and SKILLED. Needs to change body, but could help Ponies. Think with McMurray, SMU can get an NCAA bid. Could be tough sledding without him in November though. Seems like SMU will be another tough out during conference play regardless of how they fair during McMurray's absence. |
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I feel if we don't take care of SMU fairly easily this year, then we'll have severely underachieved this year. |
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I agree with Jacob, depth really comes into play when you can press and play a quicker pace. It's assumed we will with Broome and Jenifer running the point. But, we shall see. |
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Against the South Florida type teams though, you can get away with using your depth no matter what bc even our young bench guys are better than their starters. It's a fine line. Luckily, this year we seem to have the best of both worlds. We can use our depth vs anyone without feeling like we're vulnerable. |
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Hopefully Williams can be ready to contribute on the wing at a level close to Evans or Cumberland (as frosh) by mid season. That would take care of our primary backups at each position and be a solid 8 man rotation. We should have plenty of bigs to compete for emergency minutes if we need it. If T Moore can drain some 3's he should also be okay in a pinch. They will all get a chance to show what they can do in the easier games but we need to be able to trust them to put them in bigger situations. |
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Justin Jackson played 3 years averaging about 4 ppg. He shot FT's at a career rate of under 50%. His soph and junior year he saw an average of 20 mpg. This is the type of maniac play Scott needs to try to emulate if his offensive skills don't improve much. There is nobody on the bench at his position that he can't play more than if he puts in 100% effort when he's out there. You can't ever be lazy out there if you're time is limited. |
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Jackson is one of my favorite players all time and his block on Shane Behanan is still my screensaver. You don't have to be an All American to be a favorite. |
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They used 19.4 seconds per offensive possession and we used 18.7. They try even harder than we do to slow the pace down. I also think Depth is pretty overrated when you have 6 interchangeable parts that basically can play anywhere. the 2nd time we played them, their was 25 fouls called, add in TV timeouts and coach timeouts and you have plenty of time to stay rested. |
I'd say the AAC is going to be one of the toughest leagues in the country to preseason predict. Sure, its UC and WSU at the top but then its a blur. Here is how I will go with it.
1. UC: I think we are the best team in the league and until WSU beats someone other than Dayton, Im not changing my mind 2. WSU: UC and WSU could be interchangable. I just hope not. But i do hope WSU is worth the hype 3. UCF: BJ Taylor is the leagues most underrated player, Tacko is a zone defense by himself and they add shooters via Aubrey dawkins and the other transfer 4. SMU Shake Milton might average 20 a game, McMurray can score in any league, Foster is good. But if they get killed on the glass, this could be a bust 5. UCONN Every thing in me says not to put them in the top 5, but Adams, Gilbert, Vital, And Larrier are as talented as any other 4 in the league. They just need production from a big. Bad thing is Ollie sucks at big development 6. Temple: I think Rose has a breakout year, add that with all the young guys plus the experience of Josh Brown and Obi, they could be tough to beat. I dont want to go to Philly to play them. 7. Houston: Rob Gray will score 22 or more PPG but they have so many new comers that Its hard to gauge them. Houston fans will tell you Devin Dotson is easily replaceable. I think their insane 8. Tulsa: Bring back most all of their new comers from last year. Not a ton of talent but enough to get hot one night and beat some one. Thank God for Troy Caupain last season. 9. Memphis: Nothing will surprise me about Memphis, if they finish 4th I would be surprised, if they finish last I wont either. Its a dumpster fire that actually has a lot of mid level talent, I just think they are a year or 2 away. 10. Tulane: They only won 6 games last year but I felt they got better and better as the season wore on. They will play tough but they still Suck ass 11. ECU: they could finish ahead of Memphis and Tulane because Barkley maybe a better player than both those teams have but they lose 3 starters from a shitty team so I Dunno 12. USF: POOOOOP SHOW for years to come My confidence in these picks is about 10%. 3 thru 7 is anyones game. 8 and 9 are interchangable and 10-12 are the battle for the bottom. I really only have absolute confidence in UC this year, as even WSU gives me some doubts. This could be a crazy good year or it could be the same as last year. |
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But I think I’m looking for An elite characteristic when I feel teams so close. UCF is elite defensively. Smu loses its 3 better defenders. It could be close but no one really predicted UCF would finish 4th |
Here are my August AAC Power Rankings...
1. UC... A few question marks at the 1 spot but other than that this team can be scary good. Could easily be Cronin's best team yet. 2. WSU... The only team in the league that returns more than UC and I agree with justin that they can be interchangable with UC at the top spot. Hopefully Chamet's absence early on does not lead to any bad OOC performances. 3. UCF... Ended last season on a high note with a NIT Final 4 appearance and should have more scoring options this season with their transfers in the backcourt and on the wings. Should still be the best defensive team in the league. 4. Temple... I almost put this team at #3. They are going to be VERY good. They return young skill (Alston, Rose, and Alani Moore), size (Obi, Aflakpui, and Damian Moore) and will be getting two 15-16 contributors back (Trey Lowe and Josh Brown). Coupled with a strong recruiting class this team should be very well balanced. The only question is who is going to emerge as "the man" in the clutch. 5. SMU... They're going to be a lot weaker in the front court but arguably better at the 1-3 positions. I think they take some lumps OOC but should be a solid team with McMurray in the rotation. 6. UConn... Like SMU, they're going to go as far as their guards take them. Less experience puts them in this spot. 7. Houston... The story of losing a lot in the front court, returning a lot in the back court continues here. I don't think Gray gets enough help for them to contend for a Top 5 spot. 8. Tulsa... This team finishes no lower than 8th. They return A LOT and will get some more help on the wings with Curran Scott eligible along with one of the better JUCO transfers in DaQuan Jeffries. 9. East Carolina... This is where my picks might turn a few heads. ECU actually finished last season on a decent note beating Temple in the AAC tournament and only losing to SMU by 4 in the quarterfinals. They return some pretty good guards but will be very weak in the front court with a lot of attrition. 10. Tulane... They return two good players in Frazier and and Reynolds along with an under the radar guard in Ray Ona Embo who helped France take bronze at the Euro U20 championships. Like others, they'll be weak in the front court but I think they definitely improve on last year's struggles. 11. Memphis... This team returns TWO contributors from last year's squad and while there may be some pleasant surprises from their newcomers this season I think they struggle like we did during Cronin's first season. 12. USF... They have some grad transfers who should help them compete and a few other players who would probably make decent role players on other teams but collectively they will struggle. Still think they could upset a team or two at home. |
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Unless your putting ECU or Tulane at the top of the conference, its hard to argue with anyones order or logic around their predictions. This league is wide open after the 1 and 2 spots. Its not happening fast But I do think ECU and Tulane are on the rise. They are at least adding 3 star talent to the fold. |
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-Team chemistry: it was amazing last year but 13 guys on the team adds a different dynamic -home court advantage: will playing away from fifth third impact us a ton. -Bench scoring: our starters can light it up but who will emerge as a reliable scorer off the bench. We have good defense and passing just need scoring from it. |
Temple is one of those teams this year that could shock a lot of people by winning this league. Im not saying its going to happen, but Im just saying...Plus they have tended to be our Achilles heal in the AAC....similar to St. Johns in the Big East. Yeah we got em twice last year but the year before they had our number. On paper we have the edge, but toss that out the window. We will need to be sharp against the Owls this year.
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We may even lose a couple more games than last year but improve our overall ranking if we win the right games and don't have any bad losses. It will be a bit tougher playing off campus for home games but hopefully this will also help us play a little better on the road by virtue of not having the benefit of playing in our most comfortable venue. I had not really thought of this particular issue when considering how many points we will average this year. We may not get to 80ppg because we aren't playing in our true home arena. However, we may just be a little better prepared come March. |
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Every preseason publication I've seen has WSU ranked as a Top 10 team. |
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Beat good teams. I watched WSU barely beat Dayton And then lose every other high profile game they played. They will be adapting to a new league. We won’t |
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As for the # 1 in conference I think we will fall short |
If UC isn’t preseason picked to win the league this year it won’t matter, I’m not sure the preseason pick has ever won the AAC.
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Our question marks could very well be upgrades. We have added depth to the bench and upgraded our starters from a team that won 30 games. I'm not sure all the pundits are that in tune with Cumberland and Broome to know what to expect from them. Heck even us fans don't really know for sure. WSU is a safe bet but it doesn't mean it's the right bet. |
We will only be a few spots away from Wichita State overall in the preseason stuff. Out of 351 teams, that's a close margin. It's not that strange to prefer one team over the other.
As for the actual voting, seems like a follow the leader game. No one strays too far from each other on this stuff. The Top 10 teams may be shuffled around a bit, but if one publication has Wichita State over us, they all will. They made news by getting screwed on their seed last year, playing Kentucky, and making the move to a new conference. Add that with a coach and roster returning, and it's easy to make them the pick for most pollsters. It'll play itself out. We need to make sure we don't drop any silly games this year inside the conference. We were really good about that last year. But if the rest of the conference improves some, those games become harder, especially on the road. And it could be the difference between winning the conference or not. The people picking/voting may have Wichita State over us in the AAC, but even for those people, it's likely by a game. |
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I'm just glad to have a team of WSU's caliber in the conference moving forward. |
It will be interesting seeing how wsu does in conference play the Missouri valley isn't even close to the aac in terms of competition, if Uconn is finishing in the lower half of your conference; then your conference is pretty good. They are going from 12 cup cake games in conference play too, ecu USf and Tulane. Being the only teams that should be sure wins. It will be a big change for them but I don't think it will come down to ether us or them for the league title.
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