The boys will be back!! Rivals article

[Bigflip12]

Basketball Recruiting - Bossi's Best: Ten programs that will rebound in 2020-21

Texas Tech should bounce back in a big way next season.

basketballrecruiting.rivals.com

 

[Ajs120102]

Basketball Recruiting - Bossi's Best: Ten programs that will rebound in 2020-21

Texas Tech should bounce back in a big way next season.

basketballrecruiting.rivals.com

Richie Springs is a really good rebounder and has shown that in practice. Our front court should be greatly improved. Two things:
1) RJ Cole will make an impact. He’s a natural scorer. Even if he produces at 60% of what he what he was doing he’s going to be impactful.
2) Big East outside of Nova and Creighton won’t be as good as this year. UConn could finish in top 6 which is enough for tourney territory.

 

[my2cents]

Between Andre Jackson and Bouknight, we may have our own slam dunk contest every game. Will be fun.

 

[Austin316]

If we stay healthy we are going to be solid. Nervous for BE play but I think we will compete in every single game.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Richie Springs is a really good rebounder and has shown that in practice. Our front court should be greatly improved. Two things:
1) RJ Cole will make an impact. He’s a natural scorer. Even if he produces at 60% of what he what he was doing he’s going to be impactful.
2) Big East outside of Nova and Creighton won’t be as good as this year. UConn could finish in top 6 which is enough for tourney territory.

Top 6? We are in it to win it. People underestimating a team that, if it had next season's roster, all healthy, with the experience of these guys this season in adversity, would be about 26-3 right now, and ranked in the top 10.

 

[HuskyBoi]

If we stay healthy we are going to be solid. Nervous for BE play but I think we will compete in every single game.

we've been competitive for most games this season and i have no doubts that in the big east our level of play/competitiveness will be even greater due to the fact that we will be up against better competition and old rivals.

 

[bendm]

Top 6? We are in it to win it. People underestimating a team that, if it had next season's roster, all healthy, with the experience of these guys this season in adversity, would be about 26-3 right now, and ranked in the top 10.

not sure i follow. this team with next season's roster would be without akok and playing in the aac right?

so even if we were 26-3 or 26-4 our best win would have been against who? 7th place xavier? the 3-4 losses would have probably still been against Nova, @Cincy, @Houston, @Memphis. thats not the resume of a top 10 team

 

[pj]

not sure i follow. this team with next season's roster would be without akok and playing in the aac right?

so even if we were 26-3 or 26-4 our best win would have been against who? 7th place xavier? the 3-4 losses would have probably still been against Nova, @Cincy, @Houston, @Memphis. thats not the resume of a top 10 team

The thought experiment is: Take away Christian Vital and Alterique Gilbert; add RJ Cole, Andre Jackson, Richie Springs, Javonte Brown Ferguson, and 1-2 players to be named later; let the returning players mature a year, esp Bouk and Gaff take the freshman-sophomore jump. (I'm going to take HuskyHawk's "all healthy" to mean Akok Akok comes back for the second half of next season, and gives similar value to what he gave this year.)

I think it's reasonable to suppose that team could have a Dayton-esque year against this year's AAC. CV is the only major loss and the team would be much better overall. Houston is the only team that would possibly be as good as us.

 

[ucawn]

If Akok and Polley were to redshirt, Bouk stays for his junior year, I’d look at 2021 as a potential Final 4 team

 

[CL82]

Things already look to be trending back upward for Dan Hurley’s Huskies. They’ve won six of their last eight and have a blossoming young star in freshman guard James Bouknight. They’ll lose guard Christian Vital, who has lit up scoreboards, and when freshman shot blocker Akok Akok will be able to return from an Achilles tear is unknown, but they get the majority of their best players back and there’s a lot of excitement about the potential of Howard transfer R.J. Cole. Throw in four-star recruits Andre Jackson and Javonte Brown-Ferguson, and UConn’s highly anticipated return to the Big East could be an exciting one.

 

[Ajs120102]

Top 6? We are in it to win it. People underestimating a team that, if it had next season's roster, all healthy, with the experience of these guys this season in adversity, would be about 26-3 right now, and ranked in the top 10.

I’m being on the safe side. I agree the ceiling is higher than that. The adjustment to big east play is going to be grueling. There might be a bit of a hurdle but other than that, sky is the limit

 

[HuskyHawk]

The thought experiment is: Take away Christian Vital and Alterique Gilbert; add RJ Cole, Andre Jackson, Richie Springs, Javonte Brown Ferguson, and 1-2 players to be named later; let the returning players mature a year, esp Bouk and Gaff take the freshman-sophomore jump. (I'm going to take HuskyHawk's "all healthy" to mean Akok Akok comes back for the second half of next season, and gives similar value to what he gave this year.)

I think it's reasonable to suppose that team could have a Dayton-esque year against this year's AAC. CV is the only major loss and the team would be much better overall. Houston is the only team that would possibly be as good as us.

Exactly right. That team would have rampaged across our current schedule. Hell we nearly beat every single good team on our schedule as it is. We certainly would have won at least 2-3 more games just playing the way we are now, earlier in the year.

I think 6th place in the Big East next year is under-selling this team. That's fine. Let them sleep on us. I think we will be pre-season Top 25 or would have been minus the Akok injury.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Things already look to be trending back upward for Dan Hurley’s Huskies. They’ve won six of their last eight and have a blossoming young star in freshman guard James Bouknight. They’ll lose guard Christian Vital, who has lit up scoreboards, and when freshman shot blocker Akok Akok will be able to return from an Achilles tear is unknown, but they get the majority of their best players back and there’s a lot of excitement about the potential of Howard transfer R.J. Cole. Throw in four-star recruits Andre Jackson and Javonte Brown-Ferguson, and UConn’s highly anticipated return to the Big East could be an exciting one.

And even they forgot to consider Springs. They also have not contemplated what will be coming in place of AG and Sid.

 

[August_West]

Between Andre Jackson and Bouknight, we may have our own slam dunk contest every game. Will be fun.

May be fun but Id trade it it for earthbound and a tourney slot.

 

[LIuconn]

I think Bouk has shown enough “earthbound game” to squash this fear. he can do it all.

Not like bouk and Jackson are two Quintins.

 

[husky429]

Since the last Houston game (11 games, just over the last 3rd of the season)

Jalen: 6.2/2.1/3.5, 1.5 TOs, 1.2 steals. 31% FG, 27% from 3. 87% FT. 29 MPG.

Bouk: 18.0/4.9/1.6, 1.6 TOs, 1.0 steals. 44% FG. 40% from 3. 87% FT (on just under 5 attempts per game!) 31 MPG.

Whaley: 10.0/8.0/0.9., 1.5 TOS. 0.9 steals. 2.4 blocks. 63% from the floor. 83% FT. 27 MPG.

Adams: 8.5/2.2/1.5, 1.4 TOs. 0.6 steals. 34% FG. 28% from 3. 72% FT. 25 MPG.

That's a squad I can root for. If Adams and Gaffney can even be close to average putting the ball in the hoop, we could be really, really good.

And that's not even considering the potential return of our best 3 pt shooter. The NBE is also not a very "big" league at the center position. I think Whaley can more than hold his own most nights.

Or Cole, Springs, Jackson, Javonte Brown Ferguson, or the 1-2 other recruits coming in.

 

[August_West]

I think Bouk has shown enough “earthbound game” to squash this fear. he can do it all.

Not like bouk and Jackson are two Quintins.

For sure. Fully agree

I wasnt intimating that its either/or.


Just saying I aint looking for slam dunk fun. Im looking to get back in the national conversation. Bouk is definitely a guy that helps us check both boxes.