Not having a "real" game, with the full roster, to provide a benchmark, I'm going to have to go based on the offseason. I have the Salukis going 8-4 in non-conference and 11-7 in conference. My season win total projection is 19-11. I think this team is dangerous enough to make noise in the MVC tourny but don't expect them to win it. As a result, I think they will be invited to one of the lesser tournaments.
Mind you, this is just my likely scenario. If things go the right way, including health, and significant improvement / cohesion on the defensive end, I think this team can make it to the NIT and/or NCAA if they win the MVC tourney.
I'd like to hear other's regular season win total predictions as well.
GO DAWGS !!!
Not having a "real" game, with the full roster, to provide a benchmark, I'm going to have to go based on the offseason. I have the Salukis going 8-4 in non-conference and 11-7 in conference. My season win total projection is 19-11. I think this team is dangerous enough to make noise in the MVC tourny but don't expect them to win it. As a result, I think they will be invited to one of the lesser tournaments.
Mind you, this is just my likely scenario. I do think that if things go the right way, including health, and significant improvement / cohesion on the defensive end, I think this team can make it to the NIT and/or NCAA if they win the MVC tourney.
I'd like to hear other's regular season win total predictions as well.
GO DAWGS !!!
I think with our weak pre-conference schedule 8-4 would be pretty disappointing. I will go with 9-2 pre-conference and 12-6 in the mvc. Unfortunately, 21-8 before the mvc tourney still doesn't get an NIT bid with our weak schedule.
Not having a "real" game, with the full roster, to provide a benchmark, I'm going to have to go based on the offseason. I have the Salukis going 8-4 in non-conference and 11-7 in conference. My season win total projection is 19-11. I think this team is dangerous enough to make noise in the MVC tourny but don't expect them to win it. As a result, I think they will be invited to one of the lesser tournaments.
Mind you, this is just my likely scenario. I do think that if things go the right way, including health, and significant improvement / cohesion on the defensive end, I think this team can make it to the NIT and/or NCAA if they win the MVC tourney.
I'd like to hear other's regular season win total predictions as well.
GO DAWGS !!!
I think with our weak pre-conference schedule 8-4 would be pretty disappointing. I will go with 9-2 pre-conference and 12-6 in the mvc. Unfortunately, 21-8 before the mvc tourney still doesn't get an NIT bid with our weak schedule.
I figured losses to Colorado, Tulsa and San Fran plus another, but I can definitely see 9-3 IF things go the right way. Colorado and At San Fran will be very difficult IMO.
The first few weeks of the season should be somewhat telling. Road games are always tricky, even if Little Rock is a so-so team, and the Paradise Jam is a good field, even beyond Colorado. It won't be easy to go 2-1 there ... beating Colorado would be huge, not only for that win, but for the chance to stay in the winner's bracket and get more quality games.
I guess my benchmark for an impressive non-conference performance would be to go 2-1 at the Paradise Jam (at least competing well vs. Colorado), run the table against the soft home schedule, and win 2/3 of the road games against Little Rock, Tulsa and San Fran. That's a fairly tall order, though.
As for the Valley, I picked them 5th, so I guess that would be something like 10-8. Hoping for better if Mullins can get them going on D and some complementary scorers emerge, but as has been noted a million times, the league is going to be a handful this season.
Tulsa was 9-12 and 134th in NET last year. San Francisco was 11-14, 105th, and finished 8th in the WCC.
Not saying SIU will win these but can we stop trying to pretend these are good programs?
Great question and I can't fathom a good guess. If these guys can gel quickly, 19-20 wins are very possible. Valley is brutal no doubt. Agree that Tulsa and San Fran are doable. Maybe even catch Colorado napping in the sun? As long as they finish strong is my hope. Would be great if Dawgs win MVC Tourney.
March on triumphantly!
9-3 in non-conference
10-8 in conference
19-11 total
That might be good enough for one of the "C" tournaments (CBI or CIT).
Tulsa was 9-12 and 134th in NET last year. San Francisco was 11-14, 105th, and finished 8th in the WCC.
Not saying SIU will win these but can we stop trying to pretend these are good programs?
It's almost like teams can improve during an off-season...
Tulsa was 9-12 and 134th in NET last year. San Francisco was 11-14, 105th, and finished 8th in the WCC.
Not saying SIU will win these but can we stop trying to pretend these are good programs?
It's almost like teams can improve during an off-season...
Tulsa lost 3 of their top 5 scorers including the only two who averaged in double figures off of a very bad team.
San Francisco returns mostly everyone but it's mostly everyone from a team that was really bad and finished in 8th place with a losing record in the WCC.
There is really no reason to think these teams, especially Tulsa, improved.
Tulsa was 9-12 and 134th in NET last year. San Francisco was 11-14, 105th, and finished 8th in the WCC.
Not saying SIU will win these but can we stop trying to pretend these are good programs?
San Francisco is 1 spot ahead of Colorado in KenPom (34) making it the toughest non-conference game we'll have if you trust preseason projections. KenPom has it tagged as a Tier-1 game for SIU.
Tulsa was 9-12 and 134th in NET last year. San Francisco was 11-14, 105th, and finished 8th in the WCC.
Not saying SIU will win these but can we stop trying to pretend these are good programs?
It's almost like teams can improve during an off-season...
Tulsa lost 3 of their top 5 scorers including the only two who averaged in double figures off of a very bad team.
San Francisco returns mostly everyone but it's mostly everyone from a team that was really bad and finished in 8th place with a losing record in the WCC.
There is really no reason to think these teams, especially Tulsa, improved.
Tulsa is bringing in the 62nd ranked class in the nation along with a transfer from Colorado that averaged 10.8 pts and nearly 6 rebounds last year. San Francisco is similar to SIU in the sense that last year they were inexperienced but returned a lot of production while being led by a promising young coach. They added a transfer from Duke, as well as a 6'8 transfer from Nevada that put up 9pts 6rbs last year while shooting nearly 40% from 3. This is basically the same San Francisco team (with reinforcements) that last year had a win over Virginia. So yes, there's a good reason to believe both teams have improved.
Tulsa was 9-12 and 134th in NET last year. San Francisco was 11-14, 105th, and finished 8th in the WCC.
Not saying SIU will win these but can we stop trying to pretend these are good programs?
San Francisco is 1 spot ahead of Colorado in KenPom (34) making it the toughest non-conference game we'll have if you trust preseason projections. KenPom has it tagged as a Tier-1 game for SIU.
Needless to say just like SIU projects to be much better than last season, other teams can also be much better or worse than they were last year, so basing everything off last year's performance is pretty dumb.
Tulsa was 9-12 and 134th in NET last year. San Francisco was 11-14, 105th, and finished 8th in the WCC.
Not saying SIU will win these but can we stop trying to pretend these are good programs?
San Francisco is 1 spot ahead of Colorado in KenPom (34) making it the toughest non-conference game we'll have if you trust preseason projections. KenPom has it tagged as a Tier-1 game for SIU.
Needless to say just like SIU projects to be much better than last season, other teams can also be much better or worse than they were last year, so basing everything off last year's performance is pretty dumb.
Last year was such an odd year for everyone. Some schools completely tanked because of COVID outbreaks much like SIU had. San Francisco beat Virginia early in the season and then had a COVID outbreak in the middle of conference play and ended up finishing 11-14 after a 10-7 start.
Honestly, I'm surprised KenPom loves them so much. When KenPom released the preseason rankings, they were the team that stood out the most where they were ranked because they finished last year as KenPom #93 and they're starting this season at #34 ahead of BYU and Saint Mary's in their conference.
The good news is, we'll know more about them by the time SIU plays them because it's at the end of non-conference season. They have games against Davidson, Nevada, and Arizona State before our game.
People also need to realize that we could very easily have 8 Q1/Q2 games during our conference season. 8!!! 8 conference games plus 3 games in the Paradise Jam equals potentially 11 Q1/2 games on the schedule. The nonconference schedule is terrible, but our overall strength of schedule may still end up being decent. Regardless, we are where we are. Just go out and win.
As far as a prediction goes: I'll be optimistic and say we go 10-2 nonconference and 12-6 conference play. Total of 22-8 I think puts us in a legitimate spot for postseason in this year's MVC. Granted, this is my ultimate "homer" prediction. 🙂
