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https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/30167257/the-american-2020-21-predictions-memphis-rebound-wichita-state-dark-cloud

Anonymous AAC coaches size up The American

"SMU's whole deal is gonna be about stops. Can they consistently stop people? Offensively, they are really, really hard to guard. But in the same way, if you play SMU, the game is never over. They got up 20 something on Wichita, but because they struggle to defend, Wichita was still in the game. You can get up 20 something on SMU, but because of the way they can score, they're never out of it."

Nice to see we are consensus top 3/4 pre-season pick. I hope we manage to live up to the modest expectations. The talent is there, especially if Yor Anei is granted immediate eligibility. Can Jankovich get this team to play a fluid offense with crisp passing to drain the shot clock and find the open man? Can Jankovich get this poor collection of individual defenders to play solid to good team defense? Did this team learn from their collapse down the stretch last season and keep a fire burning to make amends for their epic collapse? It will be interesting to see.

An eligible transfer would help that stop rate.

In a very dramatic fashion. Any word on timeline from the NCAA? Never mind, it's the NCAA...

If we can reduce the rate of chucking up 3s the first 10 seconds into the shot clock by 33% or more I would venture to say this team is a lock for the NCAA tournament.

Anei becoming eligible might be the key to this team playing better D. We haven't had anyone to protect the lane/rim in a while now and I'm expecting he will be the key to our guys being able to play tighter perimeter D. We've got depth on the perimeter, but I still worry about depth in the low post, even with Anei.

Hopefully our bigs have learned not to dribble or bring the ball low while in the paint.

ponyboy wrote:In a very dramatic fashion. Any word on timeline from the NCAA? Never mind, it's the NCAA...

I know this means nothing for SMU, but I noticed today that Michigan's Chaundee Brown (from Wake Forest) was granted immediate eligibility, and Texas Tech's Mac McClung (from G'town) was granted a waiver to play.

Jank makes honorable mention for coaches on the hot seat:

https://www.cbssports.com/college-baske ... d-2020-21/

He could go from hot seat to AAC regular season champion. We shall see.

ponyboy wrote:He could go from hot seat to AAC regular season champion. We shall see.

Would love to see the latter. We need something to jumpstart recruiting

The latest addition in recruiting is perfect for our average rotation player. With the glut of expected transfers expected thanks to the wacky COVID-19 season having open scholarships in the spring could be a real asset if we manage to win big and land in the NCAA tournament. There is a path to success going forward but we will need to catch some lucky breaks. There is also a path for the season and the program to really spiral out of control. Pony Up!