SI AAC Preview

[indianmustang]

https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2 ... e-rob-gray

[Grant Carter]

Sign me up for the over on their projection of SMU wins.

[SMU_Alum11]

I would put money right now on over if there’s a betting line that our conference record is 10-8. They always think we are mid-tier and we come in 1st in the conference. No respect...

[Lebanese4Life]

they've underestimated us for the past 3 years - when will they ever learn

[indianmustang]

would be nice to beat WSU at home

[Pony ^]

DNR. SI is full of [deleted]

[PonyTime]

No SMU on the All Conference team...Won't they be surprised when SMU wins POY for the 4th straight year.

[JasonB]

I think the prediction makes a lot of sense, except I would have UCF lumped in with the others and not a step in front. One of those 5 teams (UConn, Houston, Temple, UCF, SMU) will surprise. No idea which one. 10-8 in conference doesn't sound great, but keep in mind they say that the AAC will be better than the Pac-12 this year. That record is a reflection of the depth of the league. We spent all last season complaining about the bottom half of the conference... well, now the conference got better.

From an outsiders perspective, we are relying on an Arkansas transfer who isn't a known scorer, a USF transfer who dominates the ball, a Georgetown transfer who is always hurt, and 4 frosh. That is a lot of unknowns to place a bet on in a very good conference.

I feel pretty confident that we have 2 above average and 3 average starters at minimum, which would result in 10-8. But if McMurray, Whitt, Gu, or the center can give us a 3rd top-line player, we are that 3rd very good team in conference. Last year Semi went from unknown to stud to propel us to 30 wins. Need a 3rd dominate player to have the same success this season.

[deucetz]

I think the prediction makes a lot of sense, except I would have UCF lumped in with the others and not a step in front. One of those 5 teams (UConn, Houston, Temple, UCF, SMU) will surprise. No idea which one. 10-8 in conference doesn't sound great, but keep in mind they say that the AAC will be better than the Pac-12 this year. That record is a reflection of the depth of the league. We spent all last season complaining about the bottom half of the conference... well, now the conference got better.

From an outsiders perspective, we are relying on an Arkansas transfer who isn't a known scorer, a USF transfer who dominates the ball, a Georgetown transfer who is always hurt, and 4 frosh. That is a lot of unknowns to place a bet on in a very good conference.

I feel pretty confident that we have 2 above average and 3 average starters at minimum, which would result in 10-8. But if McMurray, Whitt, Gu, or the center can give us a 3rd top-line player, we are that 3rd very good team in conference. Last year Semi went from unknown to stud to propel us to 30 wins. Need a 3rd dominate player to have the same success this season.

Are people underselling how important a slasher is for our team. Whitt, McMurray, and to a lesser extent Landrum are all going to be able to get into the paint at will. See the last play against USC on how important that piece will be for the team. As long as our defense stays stout, we will be at the top of the AAC with our depth. I just hope Akoy and give us some good minutes and stays healthy.

[SMU_Alum11]

Call me a crazy drunken fanatic but i see us (13-5) -1 diff (which st) based on below:

Conference Play:

UCF home - W
USF home - W
Tulane away - W
Cincy away - L
Temple home - W
Wich St. away - L
Tulane home - W
UCONN away - W
ECU home - W
Tulsa away - W
Houston away - L
Cincy home - L
Memphis home - W
UCF away - L
ECU away - W
Wich St. home - W (they never experienced it)
Houston home - W
USF away - W

[PonyLawExpress]

I can’t see us being 10-8 in conference. As was broken down above if we lose to UH, UCF, WSU and Cincy on the road you could say those 4. Maybe even add in UConn which I doubt, but for us to be 10-8 we would need to lose 3-4 home conference games or lose to Tulsa or ECU type teams on the road. I think the AAC will be much tougher, but unless you haven’t seen or read about our current players I can’t imagine us going 10-8.

We have really good guard play and Foster can more than hold his own at the 4. This will be a fun team to watch as they build more chemistry and as McMurray gets eligible.

[LA_Mustang]

Sucks to read this....

@JonRothstein
Palpable Buzz at Maryland regarding freshman big man Bruno Fernando. Gives Terps a 3rd legit big alongside Cekovsky/Bender. Starter.

[JasonB]

I just think we have too many unknowns. Last year, I predicted that Semi would be all AAC, and that would carry us to the conference title.

This year, to see us compete at the top, we need someone to be a major player. Jarrey and Shake will both step up and cover some of the gap from the 3 big grads. And the depth will help us make up the gap as well. But we need a third clear scoring option. That might be McMurray, and we just struggle a bit before we get to conference, and he takes it up another level. I have my concerns of whether how he plays will fit into our scheme, so I think he is much better suited to come in with the second group as a lone scoring option. Gu and Whitt aren't going to be consistent scorers. Which means we are counting on the Georgetown grad transfer (not his game) or one of the frosh.

In short, I don't have as much confidence in McMurray or the frosh to add a scorer as I did before last year with Semi.

[PonyFan32]

Your first clue that this prediction is nuts should be that they predict half the conference to finish 10-8. The second red flag is Jalen Adams as all conference first team. Shake will run circles around Jalen when we play.

I think our ceiling is 2nd in conference this year (if everything goes exactly right and Cincy or Wichita State falters... Unlikely) and our floor is 5. They basically admit that Houston relies too much on Rob gray and somehow rank them in conference identical to us.

There's no question we have a lot of unknowns but starters and bench player unknowns are not the same thing. For conference we have 4 known quantities (including McMurray) and 5 spots on the floor. Guys who score 15 as a freshman in our league (even if on bad teams) don't grow on trees.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[skyscraper]

Putting Temple and UCONN ahead of us is crazy talk.
I think we finish third, but could see fourth.