I know that someone else has talked about predictions for wins and losses. Let's see if we can predict for the year:
Top Scorer: Harrison
Top Rebounder: Sanchez
Assist Leader: Harrison
Top Shot Blocker: Sanchez
Steal Leader: Garrett
Most Improved Player: Greene
Least Improved Player: Achiuwa
Top Overall Newcomer (including a Freshman, Transfer or JUCO): Sanchez
Top Freshman: Sampson
And last but not least, how many points per game do you think the team will average this year?
Low 80s, even though crgreen will tell us that a Lavin team is usually in the 70s. I think the offense really clicks and we make a lot of noise nationally at end of year.
Actually, Steve's 2nd Bruin team (which featured 5 frosh in the 10 man rotation) averaged almost 86 a game. Even Steve's worse team at UCLA, the 10-18 team his final season there averaged almost 76 pts a game. That team fell apart on defense, not on offense.
If we press on Defense as much as I THINK we will with this teams depth, length and athleticism, I think low to mid 80's is a solid estimate. Depends on how quickly the new talent meshes, and how many games into the season Steve will be "experimenting" with lineups before settling on a final lineup and rotation. And, of course, how quickly and how non-disruptive integrating Branch will be come midseason. I don't think the Big East is anywhere near as strong as previous years, especially defensively, so I don't think the scoring average will drop over the second half of the season all that much.
I think we have 4-5 double digit scorers this year, and 3 more in the 6-9 pt range.
But how good this team will be will be determined more by our opponent's scoring average than by ours.