More Espn.com Love

[Pony ^]

http://espn.go.com/ncb/notebook/_/page/ ... ick-n-roll

5 More Teams That Impressed Us

"SMU: Larry Brown took over what was supposed to be a major rebuilding job. But it's three games into the season (two on the road), and the Mustangs haven't lost. This young SMU team has really defended well, giving up only 61 points to rival TCU and 58 to Loyola Marymount. It's hard not to credit Brown with the turnaround. It's a long season, and some struggles are still likely, but this is a promising start."

[jimhagle]

It's a promising start against 3 very mediocre teams like us but alas we did win all 3 something Doh wouldn't have accomplished.

[The PonyGrad]

It's a promising start against 3 very mediocre teams like us but alas we did win all 3 something Doh wouldn't have accomplished.

At this point it looks like one slightly above avg team (LMU) one average team (TCU) and one slightly below average team (Tx St).
While not high profile, these were not cream-puffs.
What did you project the record to be at this point?

This is a great start and better than expected. The LB and staff effect for sure.

[Pony ^]

we are about 1/4th of the way to our total wins ALL last year. I'll take it for sure.

[Navy Mustang]

I completely disagree. Layola M. was ranked in the top 100 before they lost to us. TCU was then also ranked in the top 100 before us. WE were ranked #260 or so depending on the source. Texas St was right near us in ranking. It is a huge upset to beat the folks that are over 100 away from us in rankings. There was a 20% chance of us beating TCU before the game - according to the Massey predictions of our team. Texas State is a very good team also.

Each one of these teams have only 1 loss to date for all three teams - US! That is a huge reason why we are at the top of the RPI index (not a poll). I've watched all three of these games (TV or internet or internet score feed) and we have really been ahead for most of the time since the beginning of the season. I think we were behind 3-2 in the Texas State game but after that we never looked back. We are doing very well and I personally think people will start to notice us more as we begin to pick up more victories.

I think LB is a great coach (understatement) when he can take almost any player and make them good. There is a lot of good talent in our current team and he (and staff) know how to develop them properly. Jalen Jones and Nick Russell are great players. Canen Cunningham and Shawn Williams are almost there and will be after a few more games. Our current problem is depth. We are sooooo young that if we have someone foul out or get hurt then our season will be short lived.

NEXT YEAR and beyond are going to be incredible. Just based on the recruiting in the top 30 for next year is great. Coupled with the young players LB is developing now we will do extremely well in the BE (or whatever is left of it next year).

I'm less worried about the BB program than the football program. BB is going to do very well. Whoever decided to hire LB was a genius to do so.

We need the same thing on the Football side to get back into the competition. We need to finish in the top 25 in football at least 1 year to be relevant again. I think that can happen in BB soon.