SSSSHHH they're sleeping on us!

[Jaybo]

Now last year we went 20-10 with no hopes of making any tournament be it conference or the NCAA. I believe we could have ended up 22-8 or so but injuries and suspensions cost us those wins. This year we return everyone but Wolf our one true center whose time was cut short and hurt the team. Now we have everything to play for,everything to lose, more experience and if the new recruits can play a little,more depth although raw. Yet we're predicted to barely be a top 25 team and picked 4th in the AAC?! Are you kidding me! there's no way you look at this team and pick too many ahead of us. Hell Louisville is most likely starting a guy 6'7" at center and losing key guys. Most of UK hasn't even seen the floor together and you see what they're predicted todo this season.The haters can sleep on us,but they won't for long because we're gonna make some noise this year.

 

[huskiesnyc]

Last year we finished 20-10 not sure where you're getting 14 losses from

 

[Kemballin']

He's probably mixing it up with the 11-12 season, lost in the past, poor chap...

 

[BoatShow]

A+ for the headline. D for the rest of the post. Really was hoping to give this one a "like"

 

[CTBasketball]

Louisville is a national title defender. They are rightfully predicted to win the conference. I think with frontcourt improvement and vicious rebounding, we give them a serious run for their money.

 

[Huskybass]

[quote="CTBasketball, post: 664415, member: 2809". Louisville is a national title defender. They are rightfully predicted to win the conference. I think with frontcourt improvement and vicious rebounding, we give them a serious run for their money.[/quote]
Louisville lost a quality big man and Peyton Siva.They will be next to impossible to replace. Plus we have KO and Bazz. Get the scissors ready, there are nets to cut down.

 

[caw]

UL still has Harrelll, Behanan, Smith, And Hancock. That's a really solid foursome. They also have their returning starting three whose name is slipping my mind.

Sure they will need some major contributions from their newcomers but they could be really good again.

UConn could be better, but it will depend on who has developed, who is healthy and who gets key contributions from newcomers. Considering they won it all past year, predicting them to win conference is fine.

It's a bit odd to have Cincy ahead of UConn though. Memphis may be better but they need Pastner to show he's a coach and not just a recruiter.

 

[Brochacho]

The thing with Louisville is that Dieng and Siva were so important to that team. They added some good talent, but who is to say their team won't be like ours after we lost Kemba? Could argue 2012 was our best collection of talent but yet it didn't work out.

 

[DanDar]

UL has a junior college transfer PG coming in to replace Siva. The guy is supposed to be really good. The bigger loss IMO is Dieng. He shut us down in the paint last year. Reminded me of what Thabeet did to them in our FF year with him. We could hang against their guards, but in the second half we got demoralized by their front court.

 

[Jaybo]

UL still has Harrelll, Behanan, Smith, And Hancock. That's a really solid foursome. They also have their returning starting three whose name is slipping my mind.

Sure they will need some major contributions from their newcomers but they could be really good again.

UConn could be better, but it will depend on who has developed, who is healthy and who gets key contributions from newcomers. Considering they won it all past year, predicting them to win conference is fine.

It's a bit odd to have Cincy ahead of UConn though. Memphis may be better but they need Pastner to show he's a coach and not just a recruiter.

Those guys got there numbers because the attention Russ Siva and deng commanded. Behanan at 6"6 was able to rebound because of 6"11 deng would draw the bigger defender and with Russ you also had to worry about Siva and now he's gone. And Hancock won't ever surprise any one this season and be left open.

 

[Kitaman]

I think the media is sleeping more on our foundation (players/coaches) than anything else.

Remember many games last year were won late in the 2nd half, or we simply held on. Without the benefit of post season play exposure, many in the media really don't even know who are players are and what they are capable of. So to everyone else we are above average roster wise, especially when you look at our interior.

The components are there, we have an AA point guard, Pro player roster, great coaching staff (however we did lose Sir Blaney) and a team philosophy of ten toes in. If everything goes according to plan we could be a top ten nationally ranked team, and even better if we continue to 'out-work' other teams like last year.

So we are truly the sleeping giant, and very soon this giant will awaken and again like Khalid shouted 'Shock the World".

 

[Jaybo]

Last year we finished 20-10 not sure where you're getting 14 losses from

Yea,it was late and went off the top of my head and got mixed up.

 

[DOZE860]

Siva was the one that always killed us..we had no one who could guard him, and no big man down low to stop him at the rim..Russ is good, and i dont know about the juco guy, but, i like this years match up with them a lot more now, then any other time since they had Siva

 

[HooperScooper]

Yea it was late went of top of my head and got mixed up

Your rambling post that was hard to understand also had so many grammatical and spelling errors that I had to go in and edit the post. I got a headache trying to read it. Were you drinking last night?

 

[UChusky916]

It's all a matter of staying healthy. Last year, we couldn't do that.

Shabazz especially needs to stay healthy... we saw how important he is the the team last year when he was out. He and Boat are on the small side when it comes to guards, so they will take a beating from bigger guys. And once Boat and Bazz start having their way with teams, they will get physical to stop them.

Olander looked a shell of his freshman-year self... some blame it on the injury he suffered, i'm not so sure.

Calhoun also needs to get healthy. Has he even started playing yet since his dual-hip surgery?

If we can stay healthy and SOMEONE down low can grab a rebound and defend, we have a legit shot at competing for a national championship.

 

[ctchamps]

UL has a junior college transfer PG coming in to replace Siva. The guy is supposed to be really good. The bigger loss IMO is Dieng. He shut us down in the paint last year. Reminded me of what Thabeet did to them in our FF year with him. We could hang against their guards, but in the second half we got demoralized by their front court.

I would say the second half was primarily the result of some Ville kid doing a body plant on Shabazz's shoulder end of the first half essentially making our star player ineffectual.

 

[jibsey]

Louisville is a national title defender. They are rightfully predicted to win the conference. I think with frontcourt improvement and vicious rebounding, we give them a serious run for their money.

Still not sure we have front court improvement. I think Olander is what we have seen, Wolf is gone and unless we have a takeover freshman we could be the same up there.

 

[ctchamps]

Still not sure we have front court improvement. I think Olander is what we have seen, Wolf is gone and unless we have a takeover freshman we could be the same up there.

You could have TO and PN be the same as last year and Brimah be similar to Wolf and still get improvement from the team if DD is stronger than last season and OC 's weakness as a rebounder clears up with his surgeries.

 

[champs99and04]

UL still has Harrelll,

Behanan, Smith, And Hancock. That's a really solid foursome. They also have their returning starting three whose name is slipping my mind.

Sure they will need some major contributions from their newcomers but they could be really good again.

UConn could be better, but it will depend on who has developed, who is healthy and who gets key contributions from newcomers. Considering they won it all past year, predicting them to win conference is fine.

It's a bit odd to have Cincy ahead of UConn though. Memphis may be better but they need Pastner to show he's a coach and not just a recruiter.

Wayne Blackshear is the kid you're forgetting about, and I think a lot of other people are too. He's an extremely talented wing who has kind of been lost in the shuffle of a guard-oriented offense the last couple years. Everybody mentions Behanan, Harrell, Smith, and Hancock, but I wouldn't be surprised if Blackshear was their second best player next season - he's finally getting his chance and he definitely has the talent to cash in.

 

[CTBasketball]

Behanan is a monster. We have nobody to match up against him. Our guards will keep theirs in check, if not out-perform them. But we have some frontcourt matchup problems with Daniels at the 4.

But we are so good of a running team it balances out. We just gotta execute.

 

[Jaybo]

Your rambling post that was hard to understand also had so many grammatical and spelling errors that I had to go in and edit the post. I got a headache trying to read it. Were you drinking last night?

Nope was the end of a long day and even longer week. Plus this damn auto correct has a mind of its own.

 

[caw]

Also, Harrell didnt play against UConn last year, or maybe a few minutes because he had a stomach bug.

 

[James]

Harrel was an absolute beast , he might have one of those dejaun blair games against us. Really high motor ... I think all ville players have a high motor. Behanon gonna have hard time dealing with Daniels' length though. How we match up with them is dependent on how good the juco kid is.

 

[ctchamps]

It's their depth that I'm concerned about and which I have the greatest concerns about losing Wolf, and not know the status of Samuels and Facey. But that Ville team is, on paper, the team to beat with Memphis a close second.

 

[Jaybo]

They also have van treese a 5th year senior as a back up center.that kid goes hard off the bench.