Athlon Sports

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sjc88

Well-known member
2023 $upporter
 I picked up the Athlon Sports College Basketball Preview. A decent assessment, although I have a few thoughts. They pick St John's for 10th in the Big East and identify us as an NIT team. They complement our recruiting class most notably Obekpa and feel this will allow God's Gift to slide to power forward. They also are high on the defensive prowess of Jamal Branch indicating that he is a lockdown defender. I also liked that they felt we addressed our outside shooting shortcoming by landing Marco Bourgault who they say is an "outstanding" 3 point shooter. They also identify Jakarr Sampson as a Top 50 recruit.

My disappointment is although they liked everything we did I think 10th in the Big East is selling us short. I think Deangelo Harrison will only get better with all the help and depth we now appear to possess. No reason in my mind we can't get much closer to the top of the conference and really start to push some of these teams. I think we might finally have a little surprise for some folks around the Big East.

Sorry for the lengthy post but I have a lot of faith in Coach Lavin and I think the talent is starting to match the enthusiasm.
 
 sjc88

please list the teams in the order that Althon predicts them to finish.

Thanks.
 
 Otis,
1-Louisville 8-Gtown
2-Syracuse 9- Uconn
3-ND 10-SJU
4-Mquette 11- Rutgers
5-Cincy 12-Providence
6-Pitt 13- Seton Hall
7-USF 14-Nova
15- Depaul
 
sjc88 I think the list and assessment is fair considering we only return 5 players of which only one had a great season. However, as I have repeatedly said all 5 will only get better and we have added a very good and deep class which answered all of our needs. We have talent and depth at every position and now we must play the games. Two years ago Coach Lavin surprised and I believe this year will be no different. We have a good chance of surprising a whole bunch of teams this season.  
 
Redmannorth,  I can't completely disagree. I guess I see our depth improving and if those teams are ahead of us I don't think its by much anymore. Fairly, they did point out that although we had guys get lots of experience because of our roster we will still be a very young and somewhat inexperienced team. Of course, I also admit that I personally have not seen a single new kid play yet. In a nutshell, I am excited, hopeful and can't wait to see this team play.
 
The key will be the x and o game that we have possibly lost with Dunlap leaving. I am hoping Keady can make up for it 
 
The key will be the x and o game that we have possibly lost with Dunlap leaving. I am hoping Keady can make up for it 
Click to expand...
 

Remind me, but doesn't Lavin have 5 Sweet 16 appearances without Dunlap?
 
The key will be the x and o game that we have possibly lost with Dunlap leaving. I am hoping Keady can make up for it 
Click to expand...
 

Remind me, but doesn't Lavin have 5 Sweet 16 appearances without Dunlap?
Click to expand...
 

Maybe crgreen can confirm that. :unsure:
 
The key will be the x and o game that we have possibly lost with Dunlap leaving. I am hoping Keady can make up for it 
Click to expand...
 

Remind me, but doesn't Lavin have 5 Sweet 16 appearances without Dunlap?
Click to expand...
 

Maybe crgreen can confirm that. :unsure:
Click to expand...
 

Actually only 4 Sweet 16s. The 5th was an Elite 8. ;)

His other two tourney appearances (7 in 8 years) were both one-and-dones, but had nothing to do with Xs & Os - in 1999 it was because Center Dan Gadzuric broke his leg the week before the Tourney, in 2011 it was because DJ Kennedy tore his ACL in the final game before the dance. Feel pretty confident those teams would have advanced with those players available. By the way, even in his worst year - the 2003 10-18 "lame duck season" Steve terrified the UCLA "faithful" (yes, the parenthesis indicate sarcasm) by coming within a point of returning to the Dance. In the Pac 10 conference tournament, Steve's bottom-seeded UCLA Bruins upset Arizona, ranked #1 in the country at the time, 96-89 in overtime, then lost to eventual tourney champ Oregon by ONE pt, 75-74. (They still would have had to play one more game to win the Pac 10 tourney, but the opponent would have been Washington - and UCLA had beaten Washington by double digits in BOTH regular season matchups). 
 
The key will be the x and o game that we have possibly lost with Dunlap leaving. I am hoping Keady can make up for it 
Click to expand...
 

Remind me, but doesn't Lavin have 5 Sweet 16 appearances without Dunlap?
Click to expand...
 

Maybe crgreen can confirm that. :unsure:
Click to expand...
 

I was going to say can he confirm it in one sentence.
But that didn't happen :woohoo:
 
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