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I put the over and under on wins this year at 17 and I am taking the over. Who's with me or agin me..............

I will tell you what, setting the over under for wins at higher than last year's win total is pretty bold considering the losses we have and the lack of additions we have made. My head tells me 10-11 wins in our OOC schedule and 6 wins in CUSA for 16-17 wins in our 30 games, which would already be an improvement over last season. Thing is Doherty is a salesman like no other and if he has sold this team on their abilities like he has sold me and other SMU hoops fans they might just be able to get to 17 W's. As of now, I see us finishing .500 or so and just below what we would need to win to take the over.

friarwolf wrote:I put the over and under on wins this year at 17 and I am taking the over. Who's with me or agin me..............

I hope you are right, but I'd have to take the under, and that doesn't necessarily mean a disappointing season. A great coaching job could still win only 12-15 games with this group it seeems to me.

If 17 is the over/under, then you take the under. This was a sub .500 team last year that lost its best player and added virtually nobody. Doherty has me optimistic, but to me that translates into a .500 record.

Lots of unknown non-conference opponents but I can't see how this team wins more than 15 games. I am taking the under. Lack of depth hurts us big time. Unless Roberts can break out of his Ishamness, we are a .500 team.

I just hope we can beat that Paul guy. Anyone know who he is bringing with him to play?

With Doherty behind the helm and our CAKE nonconference schedule I say over, but not by much.

GO PONIES!!!

Under. Look at last year's team, take away our best scorer and distributor, and add extra games against Memphis and Houston. We can beat up on all the NAIA schools we want, but just making .500 this year will be a major accomplishment.

BringBackThePonies03 wrote:With Doherty behind the helm and our CAKE nonconference schedule I say over, but not by much.

GO PONIES!!!

With that non-conference schedule, I could see us going anywhere from 10-4 to 12-2 and then maybe 6-10--8-8 in CUSA and maybe throw in a win at the post-season tournament if we get the right draw. The losses would be to Oklahoma and Florida State. TCU at Daniel-Meyer is tricky.

Anywhere between 16-20 wins. If it's 18, the NIT will take us because of Doherty's name. That tournament always wants the names in its tournament. Book that.

MustangStealth wrote:Under. Look at last year's team, take away our best scorer and distributor, and add extra games against Memphis and Houston. We can beat up on all the NAIA schools we want, but just making .500 this year will be a major accomplishment.

That could not be more concise and accurate. You have hit the nail on the head...

We had a cupcake schedule last year and what happened? Fall got hurt and BHop was ineligible. We have no depth to speak of. On the good side, I noticed that when Hopkins got hurt at the end of the year we played better without him. Every team in CUSA with the exception of possibly Memphis has gotten better and they're still much better than us. We didn't add any immediate impact players. We have a glaring hole at power forward. Fall's offensive skills are still marginal. Our outside shooting is spotty. Teams can man up on us with impunity because we have no inside offense to make them pay. We had a solid defensive team last year and hopefully that will continue because if it doesn't this season could get ugly early. I'll take the under because we don't have the depth necessary to go 30 games without losing a starter to injury for a significant period of time and having a suitable replacement. Add in foul trouble and you've got some problems.

Foul trouble is an interesting point. Is it possible that we run out of bench at some point?

The PonyGrad wrote:Foul trouble is an interesting point. Is it possible that we run out of bench at some point?

The bench is the same size. The problems is the players on it.

I am picking over 17, but before every season I am always an optimist.

Doh's offense has much more motion in it and gets everyone involved.
Our half-court offense last year stunk. Also - I believe the team actually played better in games without Bhop last year. With him they tended to stand around waiting for him to do something.

We have a soft non-conf schedule and I believe we will win a majority
of our conf home games.

The main reason for my optimism of "over" is I believe most of the players have improved and will make even more improvement as the season goes on. I believe the following to be true:

Much Improved:
Ofoegbu Killen Rack Fall
Some Improvement:
Dez Pearson Ritter
Possible Injuries Impacting them:
Epps Roberts
Unknown: Any talent in Spencer or Walkons.

Roberts & Epps could be two of our better players if they can get well.
Not sure if it is Robert's back or leg. Epps has ham string problems again.

Can anyone in the know please list the names and some comments about our walk-on players?? They are not listed on the roster.

The largest negative for this team will be injuries as others have mentioned above. If we can stay healthy I believe we win more than 17.

Just talking to Doh, I don't know how anyone can not be excited about the season......even if it could be a long one.

Falcon (or whoever knows) - what is wrong with Roberts and Epps?

Hope Epps can get healthy, felt like we never go to see him get in a rythm last year and shoot the ball. Always got pulled after his first missed couple of shots. Roberts has shown promise since he walked on the court, hope doh can bring him out of his shell.