Vitale’s Top 40

[quote="usguard" post=399389]Rutgers 25
Does think much of us[/quote]

How do you know we weren't 41
 
I don't see this as a negative at all. One of the pundits recently had us as 6th place in BE and a bubble team for NCAA which would be a very good 2nd year for CMA and not inconsistent with Vitale's top 40.
 
The Team was playing very well at the end of the Season. We have some new Players coming in . We will see what they bring in a month or so . We know the Team will play hard and Coach will use many on the Roster as a result . I think we expect a big season from Champagne and with the loss of Figgy , Cole will have to pick up that scoring load . We don’t know what we will get from Alexander in his first season but , he has a rep so a good first year from him will help a lot . A key for us will be Shooting better and on a consistent basis . That’s why Cole will have to step up from the first game . The BE Coaches we face are battle tested and know how to adjust to CMA’s style . They will challenge us to be a better 3 pt shooting team . It has been a weakness for us for too many seasons , which isn’t on Coach . At some point , we need to get that top 50-100 player . Most of our BE opponents seem to have, at least 1-2 . We need that going forward in 21-22.
 
[quote="Beast of the East" post=399583]Just for you overly optimistic guys, this will not be easy to dance[/quote]

I think we would need an element of the "stars being aligned" for us to make it. By that I mean:
-improvement from most/all of our returning players
-limited amount of injuries
-expectations for new players met or exceeded

Don't think it's that much of a reach, and I would consider the season a huge success if we dance, but my feeling is that may come up a little short and wind up in NIT. Which I'm still ok with.
 
Uncharted territories in so many respects. I see us as around a .500 team in conference, no way of telling what that will mean regarding NCAA this year.

Let's just enjoy it.
 
[quote="Monte" post=399588][quote="Beast of the East" post=399583]Just for you overly optimistic guys, this will not be easy to dance[/quote]

I think we would need an element of the "stars being aligned" for us to make it. By that I mean:
-improvement from most/all of our returning players
-limited amount of injuries
-expectations for new players met or exceeded

Don't think it's that much of a reach, and I would consider the season a huge success if we dance, but my feeling is that may come up a little short and wind up in NIT. Which I'm still ok with.[/quote]

I guess the point is, in year 2 of the past 3 regimes at least, we turned on the coaches because we had an unrealistic expectation of what could occur. Norm went 12-15 and 5-11 in conference. We expected a bounceback and the loud whispers followed. Mullin followed a 8-24 initial campus with 14-19 and 7-11 and we started trashing him Lavin went from an NCAA bid in year one, to 13-19 and 6-12 in year 2. The criticisms were so emotional against Lavin, who was recovering from prostate cancer, that he was accused of bailing on the team so he wouldn't be blamed.

While we expect the team to be better this year than any of the year 2 teams cited, however after losing what was expected to be their 2 best players last year to transfer (Figueroa) and graduation (Heron), just how much better may we be. I don't see JC as a guy who will carry the offensive load the way Figueroa did - even if his sophomore year is better than his freshman year. After that, a fair number of question marks as to whether the current roster can carry us to the post season.

Could you see an 8-12 in conference (similar to Mullin's 7-11)? I could, although I'm setting 9-11 as a likely outcome. If 8-12 should happen, we would need 6-1 in OOC schedule just to nudge past .500 and a possible NIT bid. 10-10 in will may require 6-1 or 7-0 OOC to secure an NCAA bid. It would be difficult to imagine that we get in at 15-12.

In any event, as Ncjohnnie said, let's just enjoy the season.
 
[quote="Beast of the East" post=399611][quote="Monte" post=399588][quote="Beast of the East" post=399583]Just for you overly optimistic guys, this will not be easy to dance[/quote]

I think we would need an element of the "stars being aligned" for us to make it. By that I mean:
-improvement from most/all of our returning players
-limited amount of injuries
-expectations for new players met or exceeded

Don't think it's that much of a reach, and I would consider the season a huge success if we dance, but my feeling is that may come up a little short and wind up in NIT. Which I'm still ok with.[/quote]

I guess the point is, in year 2 of the past 3 regimes at least, we turned on the coaches because we had an unrealistic expectation of what could occur. Norm went 12-15 and 5-11 in conference. We expected a bounceback and the loud whispers followed. Mullin followed a 8-24 initial campus with 14-19 and 7-11 and we started trashing him Lavin went from an NCAA bid in year one, to 13-19 and 6-12 in year 2. The criticisms were so emotional against Lavin, who was recovering from prostate cancer, that he was accused of bailing on the team so he wouldn't be blamed.

While we expect the team to be better this year than any of the year 2 teams cited, however after losing what was expected to be their 2 best players last year to transfer (Figueroa) and graduation (Heron), just how much better may we be. I don't see JC as a guy who will carry the offensive load the way Figueroa did - even if his sophomore year is better than his freshman year. After that, a fair number of question marks as to whether the current roster can carry us to the post season.

Could you see an 8-12 in conference (similar to Mullin's 7-11)? I could, although I'm setting 9-11 as a likely outcome. If 8-12 should happen, we would need 6-1 in OOC schedule just to nudge past .500 and a possible NIT bid. 10-10 in will may require 6-1 or 7-0 OOC to secure an NCAA bid. It would be difficult to imagine that we get in at 15-12.

In any event, as Ncjohnnie said, let's just enjoy the season.[/quote]

I don't recall the criticism of Lavin being because he bailed on the team, at least not at that point. He had a very short roster his 2nd year, and there was no reason for that. Granted most of his first team graduated, but he Ron Roberts and essentially told him he wasn't wanted here. Roberts went on to have a nice 4 year career at the other SJU. Lindsey left the team and Stith followed later on. We played basically with 6 kids. It was the start of the usual drama that I think had the fan base upset. As for Mullin, I don't remember at what point he started falling out of favor with our fan base, but I don't actually ever remember him ever being fully endorsed by most of our fan base. Not saying that he deserved to be, but I think that even his biggest supporters took a "(extremely) cautiously optimist" position when it came to Mullin. I think one of the reasons why our fan base is feeling confident about this year's team is because what we accomplished last season was done mostly without Heron, and with a subpar season by LJ. I would be thrilled with a dance invite and disappointed if we don't make the NIT. At this point, I'd consider the season a success if we get an NIT bid. That could change depending on how things unfold.
 
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I don’t read anything into this. We have some decent new players coming in. However, no one and I mean no one has any idea how these players will or won’t perform at the college level. I would bet Dickie V may have watched some Dookie recruit video but I find it hard to believe he’s been watching Posh Alexander or Vince Cole videos. College prognosticators are full of it.
 
This is going to be another building block year. I think we are going to make forward progress, but the league is going to be brutal so the final record may not be that much better. Being a bubble team would be a wonderful outcome.

I look for Years 3 and 4 to be statement years about our progress.
 
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