Very Early Pre-Season 2016-17 Team Predictions

[Huskyforlife]

MVP: Adams:
He will be our best player on the floor. The guy who takes the big shot at the end of a tied game. The man who will create opportunities for others. Underrated defender.

Most important player: Purvis:
Making up my own category. His seniority and presence on the court will be huge for this young team. He is capable of defending the other teams best perimeter scorer, knocking down open threes, and hopefully creating when Adams is having a bad day.

Most Improved
Enoch:
He's going to go from 3rd string center last year, to being our starting PF by the tournaments.
Best Defender
Gilbert:
Going out on a limb here. Everything I read about Gilbert remarked at his impressive perimeter defense.

Impact Freshman
Gilbert:
He's gonna play a ton off the bench. His ball handling, defense, and energy will be the difference for this team.
Biggest Disappointment
Larrier:
Just based off his freshman numbers, we should be tempering our expectations.
6th Man
Alterique Gilbert. Gilbert provides excellent defense and ball handling off the bench and scores some as well. He will be seen as the guard in waiting at UConn after this year. He is a lock down on ball defender during his freshman campaign and does some scoring and distributing to make the offense work while spelling Adams. I'm gonna steal this.
This Team Fails If....
We get the same purvis and brimah from last year. Nobody steps up at the forward spots. Adams shows minimal improvement. None of the freshman add anything. We can't replace hamiltons rebounding.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

I think it's fair to be critical. It's very easy to overrate our own players and expect the best out of them. But there's nothing wrong with being critical. After all, it's what we do best. It's not attacking them personally, there's just always at least someone that doesn't live up to expectations, or doesn't fit in.
I love Kentan Facey, and am happy to have him as a Husky, but isn't it fair to say he didn't live up to the billing as the best player coming out of the state of New York in 2013? (there's still time, I suppose) Perhaps it's his fit with this team, or maybe he just hasn't progressed. All I'm saying is that we expect everyone to perform well, but it's realistic that there's someone who doesn't. I'm just pointing out that Larrier was not a great shooter at VCU and hasn't played in a game in a year and a half so he might struggle. Hope he doesn't, but it's something to watch out for.

I don't see criticizing a player's performance and speculating about who is going to be the most disappointing player 4 months before the season even starts as remotely similar.

 

[Palatine]

MVP - Adams, the straw that stirs the drink.

Rookie of the year - Alterique, he will be a bit inconsistent but also have some great games and spectacular moments.

Sixth man - Enoch, he will back up both the 4 and the 5 and provide the toughness the Huskies have been missing lately.

Defensive POY - Amida will also be the conference DPOY, He will change a thousand shots.

Glue guy - Purvis, whatever we need, he will provide, stat stuffer.

Most improved - Adams, that's why he's MVP. But it could be Brimah or Facey or Enoch or anyone.

 

[navery12]

I don't see criticizing a player's performance and speculating about who is going to be the most disappointing player 4 months before the season even starts as remotely similar.

Exactly, it's a little different to say Terry Larrier or someone is disappointing if he loses his starting spot. But to say that now, when nobody has watched him play in over a year is a completely different story

 

[Rico444]

MVP
Rodney Purvis - By just a hair over Jalen. I think he'll be more consistent and hit more big shots.


Most Improved
Jalen Adams - I think he'll follow the progression we've seen from our other great guards: as a Sophomore he'll show flashes of brilliance where he's the best player on the court, and he'll struggle at times with turnovers. Overall he'll still be very good for us.


Best Defender
Amida Brimah - Hard to go in any other direction.


Impact Freshman
Alterique Gilbert - Think when he's on the court our halfcourt offense will really open up. Looking forward to this kid!


Biggest Disappointment
Amida Brimah - He hasn't progressed like we hoped by now, and when you have so much talent it can be really frustrating to see inconsistency. I don't see this changing after three straight years of it.


6th Man
Alterique Gilbert

This team fails if...
...we aren't able to get consistent production out of the 4.

This team succeeds if...
...Terry Larrier is the real deal.

Ultimately,
I see this team being pretty good, but not great. I think cleaning up our schedule by removing the 300+ RPI cupcakes will go a long way towards improving our seed, so I would imagine we end up in the 6-7 seed range, probably finish in the top 2-3 of the league (because every year our league is better at the top than everyone says it will be) and a team that could make the Sweet 16 or maybe even Elite Eight depending on the matchups. Very similar to this year's team.

 

[GuardU]

MVP: Purvis - He's got the keys to car, let's see what he can do with it. Rodney has very much been a streaky player, and if he can manage to be consistent and play like he did down the stretch last year, he will have a breakout year.

6th Man: Gilbert - Assuming his surgery doesn't set him back (yes, I saw the dunk) he'll be our first off the bench and might even make a push to start if KO decides to go small. I'd rather see him play a similar Kemba freshmen role and be our energy off the bench and play lock down D and get in transition.

Most Improved: Facey - There's no doubt his strength is his motor and rebounding ability. He'll have an opportunity to start and I believe rebounding will keep in the games and prove his worth. Defense is the question mark, but a whole off season realizing that should hopefully result in improvement.

Biggest Surprise: Diarra - Physically he's the most ready to step on the court and I think his highly praised motor goes a long with the staff. I think he'll get lots of minutes and be a pleasant surprise.

Team Succeeds If: Freshmen can limit their freshmen mistakes from the get-go. I know it's asking a lot but we need the resume builders on the front end of the schedule.