Thomas AND Shelley land at SDSU

HA HA you forgot TCU, please be sure you know what your talking about before you ridicule someone else.

As he said before dude, lay off the chronic.

SDfan,

Did elementary school just get out ? Go eat a pb & j sandwich and ask your mom if it's ok for you to be on the computer.

hoop,

Didn't TCU get the coach from Kent St ? If they did then your probably right about the time frame, if not, they looked bad every time out except in the MWC tourney. They do kick the conference around pretty good in football and baseball.

Here's my attempt at the upcoming season with the thinking behind the picks.

1. UNLV

Great blend of experience and new blood, perfectly complimenting the weakness's on a 27-8 team. A large infusion of depth has been added. Each starter will have a quality replacement behind them, pushing them to excell. Then, the Kruger factor. As the man from ESPN said, "Lon Kruger gets as much as any coach can from his players." Barring some big surprises or injuries, this team is now the undisputed favorite.

2. BYU

No new additions of note, and the loss of their big man. This would have been closer had Plaisted stayed, but without him BYU settles into second. In the BYU win over UNLV at Provo, Plaisted had 22 pts, 7 rebs, 2 steals, 1 block, 2 asts, and shot 6 for 8 (75%) of his free throws. He held Darger to 11 pts and 2 rebs, with Darger fouling out of the game guarding him. Against Hamga/Massamba, there is no center that BYU has that will be able to have a game line like that on the UNLV tandem. Defensive help goes from assisting Darger in the paint to the perimeter players, making things tougher on them. This changes this match-up in a major way.

3. SDSU

Aztecs return almost the entire squad. The biggest loss with be Kelvin Davis. However, they add very little via new talent. The biggest question here is the "Fisher Factor". Can Steve Fisher bring back Kyle Spain and develop a winning chemistry on this team? They have plenty of talent. Based on talent alone, one would think they would have competed for the MWC championship last season, not winding up with 8 conference losses. Wade, Spain, Amaroso, White & Williams are a stong unit. Can Fisher get them to get their act together?

4. Utah

Boylen had the Utes coming on at the end of the season. Progress should continue. I just don't think they have strengthened themselves enough across the board to make a serious run at the MWC Championship. They lost Bryant, and improved the most in their depth at center with a 4 star recruit.  

5. UNM

Another wild card. Alford did a great job getting Giddens to buy in last year, and developed a nice team chemistry. If he can take a great recruiting class, mold them and re-build the chemistry, this team can jump up in the standings. I've got them at 5, but if Utah & SDSU disappoint, they can move up.

6. Wyoming

Here comes the lower tier. The Cowboys should be the best of the four team lower tier. Not much hope of them moving into the upper 5.

7. Air Force

The Falcons always manage to play tough defense, especially at Clune. Still, loosing Anderson is a big hit to this team.

8. TCU

Christian will need time to bring this team along. He's a good coach, that enherits a depleted team. They'll be in this bottom four for a few years to come.

9. CSU

This team has only 11 scholarships this year, and needs all the help it can get to rebuild. Another team that has a reservation in the bottom 4 for some years to come.

SDfan-

I know you don't want to hear this, but just as I said in my prediction, IMO, and the opinion of many bb-fans and journalists, Steve Fisher, while being a wonderful human being, a knowledgeable bb-coach, great recruiter and all around good-guy, has just not been able to get the talent he has recruited to produce up to expectations on the court.

Until he produces a team with consistency and a winning chemistry, people will be picking SDSU to underachieve according to their talent level. As said, this is beyond my opinion, and has been stated in bb-articles on multiple websites.

SDSU had more "name" players than UNLV last year. NBA draft declared Wade, Amaroso, FOYear White, one of the national leaders in 3 point shooting Spain,and according to you other talented players. Before the latter part of the season, many people outside of Las Vegas had a hard time naming 3 players from the Rebels. Wink Adams & Curtis Terry, and then .........Corey Baily, Rene Rougeau, Joe Darger, Matt Shaw???? But yet this team winds up with a 27-8 record, going to the NCAA where we got no respect and were rated a 1 point under-dog against Kent State before wiping the floor with them, while holding them to an NCAA record 10 first half points, and loosing to the National Champion Kansas. Thats accomplishing something.

When Fisher shows that he can take the large volume of talent he has been able to recruit and do something special with them, as Kruger has been able to do with lesser rated talent, both he and SDSU will get recognition and respect. Until he does that, most non-SDSU fans and journalists will expect and predict for SDSU to under achieve.

Before last years forced leave, he was in the 40%+ percentile and everyone was raving about him. Now he's chopped liver, heh? If thats the only fault you can find in that post, you must agree with most of it!

BTW, 38.6% is better than any Rebel shot from 3 land. But still we win! Why?