Lavin already said this year would be the toughest job he's ever had to do. I don't doubt it. Great raw materials and rewards to be had if it can come together. In the Big East, there is a fine line between disappointing year and a good one. SJU could grab the 10th or 11th Big East bid into the tourney and be dancing. Or 11 or 12 could be sitting at home. I hope we can sneak into one of the bottom spots. Not out of the question.
I think the Big East is a nine bid conference this year due to the perceived lackluster performance last year. Also, the conferences that were down last year likely will be better. I think we take some big lumps, but the SOS could be a savior once again.
If there is a borderline SJU team this season with a SOS ranked #1, which I'm pretty confident it will be, then it will make it tough for the NCAA committee to turn us down. Not just us. Teams like WVU, Notre Dame and maybe even Georgetown Nova I think we can creep ahead if we play well down the stretch. It will be a brutal Big East again, but lots of those schools lost top players. Not going to be easy for Georgetown without Wright and Freeman. Those guys were their bread and butter. Notre Dame without Hansbrough, Carleton Scott, Nash etc.. We will struggle for sure, but with our SOS and RPI I'm hoping we can sneak one of those lower spots into the NCAA's. We'll see. Our league just needs to do what we have been and win our OOC games...
Why not us? Why cant we be good? I dont think we will be a top Big East team but plenty of teams have had a loaded freshman class and have faced success. No doubt we take our lumps and growing pains but i'm more interested to see this team in late Feb and March rather then November. At the end of the year we can be very dangerous
I'm not saying we can't be good. Freshman usually play ugly and make a ton of mistakes. I expect to take some lumps. It's hard to say with a group this deep and talented. The country has never seen anything like this class. The thing is we don't have top 20 talent...surefire first rounders. I think Notre dame will be way better than what anyone on this board is predicting. There is just no way in my mind that we come close to their overall record next seson. Experience is huge in the NCAA.
I'll say this, though...if we can slide into the NCAA Tournament somehow, I think we are very dangerous team with nothing to lose.
I wasn't disagreeing with your post it was more of a general statement. I dont expect everyone to catch on right away but as of now I have faith in us having a successful year until i'm proven otherwise
I believe this kind of thinking undervalues our coaching staff. I think it's true the normal heavily frosh laden teams have serious issues and struggle. However, Coach Lavin has experience - his 2nd team had an all frosh backcourt - Baron Davis and Earl Watson. His second team had an all soph backcourt, and an all frosh frontcourt, with frosh as his 6th and 7th men, and sophs as his 8th-10th men. (Dan Gadzuric, JaRon Rush and Jerome Moiso were the starting frontcourt. Matt Barnes backed up the forward spots, Ray young the guard spots. Sophs Billy Knight, Rico Hines and Trevor Reed were the bench.
Each of those teams won 21 plus games, and made the dance.
And that's not including that these frosh are going to be subjected to Mike Dunlap from the get-go. And a Hall of Fame coach in Gene Keady will be advising on integrating these kids. And Rico Hines will be whipping them into shape.
I think this team will gel early, and truly be a force by midseason.