aphilso1

I was about to post essentially the same comment, so I can I just pretend I typed this up myself?

To do this exercise properly, you can't view last year's roster through the lens of how they actually performed. You have to look at it from how it appeared entering the season. And that roster was full of holes and question marks entering the season. Key returning players: Walker - serviceable but undersized big man Wilcher - high expectations after ending the '21-'22 season with increased efficiency. Probable leading scorer. Key transfers: Sam - big pickup, but still a question mark since he would be playing more of a PG role than he had previously. Not an elite passer or ballhandler Bandoumel - lockdown defender, average offensive player Gary - undersized PF who has elite defending and rebounding abilities for his size. Dennis Rodman Light (before Dennis went crazy). Blaise - questions about his health and ability to make the jump up from JUCO competition, but has potential to be dominant force That's really it. The rest of the roster were freshman and guys who needed to make a monster leap in production compared to the previous season. And looking at this year's roster compared to that isn't even close. We are miles ahead of where we were a year ago.

Considering the teams that are left in the Big 12, they should probably consider changing their name to the Smedium 16.

I am coming around to not completely hating RSL. I live less than an hour from their stadium, and my wife and kids enjoy going to RSL matches for the environment/energy level/concession stand (basically all the stuff that casual fans enjoy). It's just hard to cheer for one of your own team's rivals, even if it is now your local team. I am hoping that the proximity with St Louis will eventually make StLFC the main rivalry for SKC, freeing me up to enjoy RSL matches with the family while not feeling like I need to take a cold shower afterwards.

So SKC is undefeated in games you watch, and winless in games you don't. I hate to break it to you, but you just signed yourself up for the responsibility of watching every single match for the remainder of the season. We're all counting on you. Don't let us down.

If nothing else, this hurts us in practice. Being defended by a 6'10" dude who plays like his hair is on fire can only make you better. That being said, most teams play a rotation of 7-9 guys and WB was not among our current 7-9 best players. Injuries and foul trouble do happen, so he still would have played. But probably not nearly as much as a third-year player would want. I wish him well, and hope he finds success at a lower competition level. He could tear it up as a center in a league like the Summit.

Man am I stoked we got this kid to commit.

Career 3pt%: Hoiberg 41% Williams 40% Keisei 37% Lawrence 37% Wilcher 36% Mast 33% Ulis 31% We likely aren't going to lead the conference in 3pt efficiency, but we do have enough capable shooters to spread the floor. I don't anticipate this year's team playing the brand of Hoiball that we are accustomed to. It's going to look different, and that's OK.

This feels like a complete roster. I don't see any proven players in the mold of a Petteway or JPIII or BMac (maybe Lloyd will be but that is to be determined), but this looks like a roster that should be able to move the ball, shoot, and defend. And I see a stout nine man rotation, with capable players on the outside of that rotation. 5-man backcourt rotation: Ulis, Tominaga, Williams, Lawrence, and Lloyd. Hoiberg, Wilcher, and Rice adding depth. 4-man frontcourt rotation: Keita, Mast, Gary, and Allick. Wilhelm providing depth. With four quality players to man the 4/5, I think we will see a more traditional "positional basketball" mentality. And I don't think we will be abused on the boards this year.

Assuming Allick signs with us, I like the overall intangibles that this transfer class brings with them. Transfers often come with some baggage, expectations, and personal goals that don't show up in their stat lines. We've certainly seen that ourselves in years past while getting burned by guys that made the team worse despite being an individual talent. In contrast, last year's transfer additions were great culture guys. They were leaders. And it appears that this year's crop is built from that same mold. Williams: leading scorer that was willing to come off the bench rather than take the notoriety of being a starter. Our Manu Ginobili. Allick: By all accounts is one of the real good guys in the portal. Great family. Hard worker who has gotten every ounce of success possible out of the amount of talent he was given. Ulis: One of the few Iowa players in recent memory that was actually likeable. Plays with hustle and grit. Smart. Mast: Admittedly I didn't watch any Bradley games over the past few seasons. But the quotes he gave about his reasons for entering the portal, and his coach's comments about him, reflect positively on his character. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt, particularly when the other additions all appear to have been made with their locker room impact in mind.

Found what appears to be an impossible statement in this article. This can't be the first time Fran has had a player transfer out. "He is the first player in coach Fran McCaffery's 13 seasons to leave the Iowa program."

Does anyone know why Ulis left Iowa? None of the usual reasons seem to apply. Closer to home - nope, he's now 7 hours instead of 3.5 hours away from Chicago Playing time - nope, he was a starter at Iowa Role on team - probably a nope, since it appears we recruited him to fill the same role he had at Iowa Increase in competition level - nope, still in same conference Compete for a championship - I really don't want to type a nope here, but... Perhaps he realized that 3 years of Fran is already too much, and it was time for a dramatic change in coaching personality. Other than that (and all the old jokes like "we have better corn in Nebraska"), I really can't make heads or tails of what would cause him to jump across the Missouri River.

I don't know. On one hand it looks like we are more talented than we were at this point last season. But the guys we are losing were the main culture guys, so without them it's possible that things go to hell in a handbasket. I do think we are covered (on paper anyway) at the 2-5 with quality players. PG is the big question mark. Well, that and whether Keita can play a full season without getting injured again.

I really hate it when you post my own analysis but using much better words. Seems like we are often on the same wave length when it comes to evaluating player fit.

It was definitely helpful as a way of getting a bit of mojo back, as well as getting Kinda back on the pitch in a low risk situation. Was happy to see Vermes start his A Team in this match, even though at face value that seemed like overkill.

Did you see the match? Not to rain on the parade, but of those three goals only 1 would've gone in against an average MLS keeper. Maybe none of them. It was another 30+ shot performance with nearly all of those shots ending up off target or straight at the keeper's chest. We dominated possession as expected against a semi-pro side, which created tons of shot chances. But the issue remains that no one seems to be able to put shots on frame that make the keeper actually move his feet. Hopefully seeing a few go in the back of the net will be a confidence boost though.

I must admit that I actually get pretty excited for US Open Cup. Just something about the David vs Goliath aspect that is a lot of fun. Would've been nice for SKC to take care of business quicker against a far lesser foe, but in this season any win is a good win. Also good to see a bit of Ethan Bryant on the pitch, who looks to be a promising young player in the midfield. On the other end of the spectrum, Union Omaha won't be replicating last year's US Open Cup magic. Complete drubbing in St Louis.

Need some good vibes to balance out the impending Sallis commitment to WF. Anyone hearing anything about Dunlap?

To me this one does sting. He's local, he's got 5* potential, he was a proven rotation piece on an NCAA title contender, and his desired role seems to dovetail with what we most need (primary ballhandler and offense initiator). If he was looking to purely increase his shot attempts per game then I would have zero issues with a swing and a miss here, despite all the other considerations. But Sallis was admittedly at the top of my personal wish list given who we already have on the roster, so I am very bummed.

I won't pretend to be an expert on Wake's depth chart, but your analysis of our own depth seems exceptionally optimistic. I don't see a lot of road blocks to Sallis locking down the starting PG spot. -Lawrence has proven to be an adequate rotation piece; maybe he is ready to jump up to starter's minutes, or maybe not. But I highly doubt he is making the giant leap up to something like 32-36 minutes per game. -Williams will likely be a starter, but he also has shown that he is comfortable being a Manu Ginobili off the bench. So there's potentially an extra open starting spot. -KT is a lock to start in our backcourt, but he isn't vying for minutes at point. -Lloyd has played zero college minutes. As much as I think he has potential to be a star, a kid who was in Gonzaga's rotation should not be worried about a redshirt from Nebraska stealing his minutes. -Wilcher? He was close to falling out of the rotation altogether towards the end of the season.

Maui Brewing >>>>> Kona Brewing.

That's a pretty serious accusation. I sincerely hope your source is airtight, because that's not the sort of thing that should be said about a college kid based on hearsay.

#3 ranked player in his class has a family Husker connection and is visiting campus on his own dime. This seems like a story that should be getting more publicity, but perhaps the fact that he is in the 2025 class is dampening excitement levels.

On a scale from 1-10 where 1 is pure speculation and 10 is "coach mentioned it before jumping on a plane," what number would you assign to our chances he is silently committed?