Phantom Warrior
03-12-2017, 09:37 AM
Last summer and fall, I looked at our roster and felt we could end up anywhere from 8-10 to 10-8 in conference, but I would have gladly taken 9-9. I hoped we would be on the bubble come Selection Sunday, but I knew there were a lot of strong teams in the conference, so I felt it was a long shot to make the Big Dance. I would have been more than happy just to be in the discussion after three years of the team sitting home after the BET.
But most of my predictions/anticipations were based on five of our returning veterans - JJ, Duane, Haanif, Traci, and Luke. I was not counting on Sandy, whom I thought could be 11th man, or Matt, to contribute very much and probably very little or not at all.
The four "newcomers" - Rowsey, Katin, Sam, and Markus - were all pretty much unknowns though I figured at least one or two of the four would contribute. Rowsey was moving up to high-major from mid-major. You never know how that will turn out. Katin was going to be playing at his third school in five years. That meant some potential red flags. Plus, sometimes grad transfers take awhile after switching schools, like Lockett did. He went from averaging in double digits for three years at ASU to something like 7 or 8 ppg.
As for Sam and Markus, I had liked what I'd seen of Sam in high school, but it's still a big step up to high-major, and Markus was only 17 years old.
No, my optimism we'd be better this year than last, despite losing Henry (and Wally), was based on Traci, Duane, JJ, Haanif, and Luke. I was confident all five would show at least moderate improvement relative to last year.
Had anyone told me then that Traci would be gone before the end of non-con games, and that JJ would drop from shooting 51% from the field to 47%, and from 38.5% on treys to 36.7%, and that Haanif would drop from 48.9% from the field to 45.8%, and from 38.7% to 32.5% on treys, and that Duane would drop from 34.6% on treys to 29.2%, and that Luke's rebounding would drop from 6.2 rpg to 5.9 rpg, and that he would have even greater foul trouble than last year - 3.4 fouls per game compared to 2.9 fouls per game - my expectations for this season would have dropped significantly.
Yet that is exactly what happened in terms of our five returning vets that I had been counting on.
But here we are on Selection Sunday - on the bubble (most likely the right side of the bubble) having gone 10-8 in conference. I find that pretty damn amazing. As far as I'm concerned, Rowsey, Katin, Markus, and Sam all exceeded my initial expectations, while JJ, Duane, Haanif, and Luke all fell - to one degree or another - short of meeting my initial expectations, let alone losing Traci, our only true point guard and our best perimeter defender.
But I'll take it!
But most of my predictions/anticipations were based on five of our returning veterans - JJ, Duane, Haanif, Traci, and Luke. I was not counting on Sandy, whom I thought could be 11th man, or Matt, to contribute very much and probably very little or not at all.
The four "newcomers" - Rowsey, Katin, Sam, and Markus - were all pretty much unknowns though I figured at least one or two of the four would contribute. Rowsey was moving up to high-major from mid-major. You never know how that will turn out. Katin was going to be playing at his third school in five years. That meant some potential red flags. Plus, sometimes grad transfers take awhile after switching schools, like Lockett did. He went from averaging in double digits for three years at ASU to something like 7 or 8 ppg.
As for Sam and Markus, I had liked what I'd seen of Sam in high school, but it's still a big step up to high-major, and Markus was only 17 years old.
No, my optimism we'd be better this year than last, despite losing Henry (and Wally), was based on Traci, Duane, JJ, Haanif, and Luke. I was confident all five would show at least moderate improvement relative to last year.
Had anyone told me then that Traci would be gone before the end of non-con games, and that JJ would drop from shooting 51% from the field to 47%, and from 38.5% on treys to 36.7%, and that Haanif would drop from 48.9% from the field to 45.8%, and from 38.7% to 32.5% on treys, and that Duane would drop from 34.6% on treys to 29.2%, and that Luke's rebounding would drop from 6.2 rpg to 5.9 rpg, and that he would have even greater foul trouble than last year - 3.4 fouls per game compared to 2.9 fouls per game - my expectations for this season would have dropped significantly.
Yet that is exactly what happened in terms of our five returning vets that I had been counting on.
But here we are on Selection Sunday - on the bubble (most likely the right side of the bubble) having gone 10-8 in conference. I find that pretty damn amazing. As far as I'm concerned, Rowsey, Katin, Markus, and Sam all exceeded my initial expectations, while JJ, Duane, Haanif, and Luke all fell - to one degree or another - short of meeting my initial expectations, let alone losing Traci, our only true point guard and our best perimeter defender.
But I'll take it!