GATA

That decision is a big old “yikes” for me. It certainly doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Fun game. Nice win. Let’s do more of that.

Are you really a fierce competitor if you’re de-committing because you don’t think you can beat out players for the early playing time you desire?

And here I am, stupidly thinking we would at least play entertaining basketball under Hoiberg. Sports are dumb. Why do I waste my time with this crap?

Fans shouldn’t be expected to sit through a crap performance like that. That was as ugly of a performance as you could ever imagine. I’m stunned it was this bad. We couldn’t shoot from anywhere on the court. Literally anywhere. There wasn’t a single player on the court who I thought played well or looked good. Yikes.

Good luck fellas. I can’t watch anymore tonight. It’s time for Curse of Oak Island.

These guys for UC Riverside look like they’ve never shot a basketball before and they’re making every shot. It’s so weird.

Washut said Walker has been hurt.

Yeah, he’s not exactly Dominique Wilkins off two feet, that’s for sure.

I think that’s a fair point. Maybe I’m underestimating the jump from 16 year old to 18 year old in terms of leaping ability and explosiveness. The thing that stuck out to me wasn’t open dunks. Almost anyone his size should be able to do that. It was the degree that contact kept him stapled to the ground. I’m exaggerating for effect, but it seemed like you could barely fit the Waverly phone book between his feet and the floor at times. But it like I said, maybe I’m putting too much stock into highlights from when he was 16. I’ll be honest, I’m not used to watching big man highlights at that age.

I’m thinking a shorter, post Achilles and quad tendon tear Boogie Cousins.

I agree on Drago. I’m happy to get any recruit our staff wants, but he doesn’t seem overly athletic or explosive to me. He’s definitely plays below the rim.

The star thing is pretty BS, IMO. As someone mentioned earlier, Petteway and Palmer didn’t come in with “star power.” The thing with having a great coach and system with a bunch of solid players is that that recipe tends to lead to really good teams where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. We’re not pretending to be a blue blood program that expects to compete for national titles (not yet at least). But teams that play with pace and space with multiple ball handlers and can shoot the heck out of the ball are good. We will be good, eventually. In terms of star power, Stevenson has been my favorite addition by far this offseason, with Mack and Green a close second. Stevenson seems like the type of guy who unlocks an offense by being able to play up a position to PF. His shooting will give Mack, Burke and Green room to operate.

I will be excited to watch every single one of those non con games, tbh. Shiny new coach and team, etc.

Maybe I’m just a massive homer, but even with a brand new team that needs name tags for the first month of the season I expect the floor to be something like 16 wins, mostly because the non conference schedule is terrible and we should be much better later in the year.