What's everyone think of the team so far?

I would say the first eight games have, overall, been disappointing, considering this was supposed to be the splash year to finally make some noise with a senior-heavy lineup. The home loss to Buffalo (even without Fletcher) and the egg laid vs. UMass in Vegas are the two games that stand out. The team has played pretty good ball at times in other games, but the bottom line is they have not taken advantage of the improved schedule and shown that they're an NCAA-caliber team. Beating SLU and Murray the next couple weeks would potentially put the team on an NIT-type trajectory, with the road game against Buffalo the last chance for a truly attention-getting win.

In terms of individual play, agree that certain key guys like Cook and Pippen need to bring it more consistently. Bol was really poor the first several games and has made himself more useful of late ... hopefully he can sustain that. McGill has probably been the most pleasant surprise to date and looks like a quality 6th man. I'd like to see Beane earn more minutes as the season moves along and show he's a future impact player.

Agree that the MVC race is quite open, with Southern rating a puncher's chance. Looks like another one-bid year, sadly.

With each game, Bol looks like he's getting his game legs back. That's a big plus for this team.

C-

I agree with the C-.  This team needs to pickup a marquee win to build the resume.  They may only have one or two more shots with games against St. Louis and Buffalo remaining.  The Valley schedule doesn't appear to be strong enough to get more than one team into the tournament, so if the Dawgs can't pull off a non-con marquee win, nothing may matter other than The Valley tournament at the end of the year.  Hinson's got a talented team and he should be expected to win the league and get to either the NIT or NCAA tournament.  Anything short of that is another failure on his part.

I think the team is as mediocre as I expected. 

While I understand people expect a lot out of a senior laden team, but when the talent level is pretty low you have to temper those expectations.

Armon Fletcher can light up the likes of SIU-E but is not particularly good against decent teams. SIU fans love him but at the end of the day he is a pretty average low mid major level guard.

The front court is thin. Pippen has some offensive ability but cant play D. Bol is probably the most one dimensional D1 player I have ever seen. He can block shots, but cant guard without fouling and isn't much of an offensive threat. Stradnieks isn't a D1 level player and Gooch is undersized.

Cook and Lloyd I like. Lloyd is a Tony Young type player. Does the dirty work and is athletic. Cook might be inconsistent at times but shows flashes.

I still don't think Bartley is a Valley level player. He has more to his game than say, a Bol, but is still pretty limited. I don't put much stock in McGills good games against poor teams. 

At the end of the day I think this team will probably finish in the middle of the pack in the Valley. 4th to 6th. Early season struggles from other clubs like UNI and IL State aside, I think their talent level is just much higher overall. And that is my biggest complaint of all Hinson teams. He puts together teams full of guys who you could say would make great backups but none you can say "he would definitely be starting on an NCAA tourney caliber team". 

I like the team, definitely have a chance to win some games in the mvc this year, I really think the schedule was really good this year. Until Hinson proves he can beat a good team, it basically comes down to winning mvc tournament. 

What's everyone think of the team so far?

Hmmm....The mediocrity malaise continues unabated.

I saw something on another website somewhere that the SIU System Acting President sated something to the effect that SIU Carbondale has to "shrink its footprint".  Best I can tell Hinson has received this memo and taken it to heart.

I'd say better than mediocre.  I guess I'm one of the few who really likes Bartley.  I like his confidence and I think he's going to drop 30 on somebody before the season's over.  Always liked Cook and Fletcher.  Big men are serviceable, especially Pippen.  We have more talent and depth than we've seen in awhile.  But like Spike intimates, it's all relative under Hinson.  If you expect too much, you're going to be disappointed.  This is still probably not an NCAA Tourney team.  But this is about as good as it gets with the Little Huckster in charge. 

Posted by: Spike

I think the team is as mediocre as I expected. 

While I understand people expect a lot out of a senior laden team, but when the talent level is pretty low you have to temper those expectations.

Armon Fletcher can light up the likes of SIU-E but is not particularly good against decent teams. SIU fans love him but at the end of the day he is a pretty average low mid major level guard.

The front court is thin. Pippen has some offensive ability but cant play D. Bol is probably the most one dimensional D1 player I have ever seen. He can block shots, but cant guard without fouling and isn't much of an offensive threat. Stradnieks isn't a D1 level player and Gooch is undersized.

Cook and Lloyd I like. Lloyd is a Tony Young type player. Does the dirty work and is athletic. Cook might be inconsistent at times but shows flashes.

I still don't think Bartley is a Valley level player. He has more to his game than say, a Bol, but is still pretty limited. I don't put much stock in McGills good games against poor teams. 

At the end of the day I think this team will probably finish in the middle of the pack in the Valley. 4th to 6th. Early season struggles from other clubs like UNI and IL State aside, I think their talent level is just much higher overall. And that is my biggest complaint of all Hinson teams. He puts together teams full of guys who you could say would make great backups but none you can say "he would definitely be starting on an NCAA tourney caliber team". 

Well said Spike.   I agree with much of what you've written.

One minor exception - I think Bartley is MVC talent level material but very inconsistent and either cannot be coached or is play is in response to the coaching he is receiving.

Posted by: Spike

I think the team is as mediocre as I expected. 

While I understand people expect a lot out of a senior laden team, but when the talent level is pretty low you have to temper those expectations.

Armon Fletcher can light up the likes of SIU-E but is not particularly good against decent teams. SIU fans love him but at the end of the day he is a pretty average low mid major level guard.

The front court is thin. Pippen has some offensive ability but cant play D. Bol is probably the most one dimensional D1 player I have ever seen. He can block shots, but cant guard without fouling and isn't much of an offensive threat. Stradnieks isn't a D1 level player and Gooch is undersized.

Cook and Lloyd I like. Lloyd is a Tony Young type player. Does the dirty work and is athletic. Cook might be inconsistent at times but shows flashes.

I still don't think Bartley is a Valley level player. He has more to his game than say, a Bol, but is still pretty limited. I don't put much stock in McGills good games against poor teams. 

At the end of the day I think this team will probably finish in the middle of the pack in the Valley. 4th to 6th. Early season struggles from other clubs like UNI and IL State aside, I think their talent level is just much higher overall. And that is my biggest complaint of all Hinson teams. He puts together teams full of guys who you could say would make great backups but none you can say "he would definitely be starting on an NCAA tourney caliber team". 

I agree about Rudy - marginal at best. However, Barteley is definitely a Valley level player. Have you seen the other teams? A lot of so so players on them. That IS the Valley.

And UNI has better talent? They're awful - worse than last year without that Koch kid. Getting hammered by everybody. I'll be disappointed if we don't sweep them this year...like we did last year.

Also Beane is a very good looking freshman - as good or better than Tatum his freshman year. I like McGill too. Quick, lots of energy, good shooter off the bench. And Pippen has definitely improved since last year.

That said, we will have to improve to win the MVC (play better D, rebound better, consistent hard effort), but it looks wide open this year. Still think Loyola will win it.

It will be tough to beat SLU unless we play great D and hammer the boards. They look good. They do have one guy (Hasahn French) who shoots FTs at a 28% clip. We should hack-a-Shaq him. Overall, they are not a very good FT shooting team.

I'm less than impressed. Hinson's offense is junk and good teams expose that.

The league appears to be way down this year, so we should finish near the top.

Hinson hasn't stumbled in to a tournament title in 15 years. Even if he manages this year we will pull a 14 seed and it's one and done.

We're ok, not bad, but not good.  We are fortunate the valley is a shell of its former glory

I think we are decent.  I hate that the Buffalo game was without Armon and we had so much foul trouble.  Early on in that game I really thought we looked like the better team.  Side note, that game was horribly officiated... Anyway, we should learn a lot in about a weeks time because SLU and Murray are pretty good.  If you can go 8-3 heading to Buffalo who could be ranked in the top 15 by then you have a chance to make some waves.  You may have wins against the A10 champ, OVC champ, and a top 15 team and 2 of you 3 losses have been without your best player or while he played extremely limited minutes off an injury.  who knows. 10-3 going into the valley and somehow going 15-3 and making it to Sunday could put you on the bubble. likely? no.... but its a thought.

I think the team is pretty good...on an upward trajectory, but the non-con is pretty much over in terms of making any at-large statement.  We will have to win the Valley tournament to be a tourney team.