Based on the youth and talent on this team, mine is almost at an all-time high. The only time I have ever felt better about the future was after the 2007 S16 when I just knew that Billy was going to lead us to a national championship within a few years.

Cautiously very optimistic! On paper love our depth again like last year. Young, hungry team tho. Excited!!!

Depends on status of Corprew and Villa, both will have an impact.

RR

I'm not that concerned about Vila because he's from a first world western country and apparently speaks English well. Would be different if he were from South America or something. Corprew is a question mark but Logan and hop have both intimated that the coaches are confident he will make it

the talent level is very promising

Time to unmanage expectations.

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Time to unmanage expectations.

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I support this message. Fan support is really going to pick up this year too, especially if we do well early in the season.

This season is going to tell us a lot, but for now I'm pretty optimistic.

The last two seasons we've gone:

21-12 (11-7) NIT
28-9 (13-5) SEC Co-Champ, NCAA Sweet Sixteen

Only Kentucky has won more SEC conference games in the last 2 years than Texas A&M.

And looking forward at the roster, the following players are freshman or sophomores ( I've listed them in the order of their 247 sports composite national recruiting ranking out of High School):

DJ Hogg (#29)
Tyler Davis (#31)

Robert Williams (#60, Per his HS coach, Tom Izzo was trying hard to flip this guy the last couple weeks before signing day)
JJ Caldwell (#65)
Admon Gilder (#92)
Deshawn Corprew (#114, Kansas appeared to have sincere interest in this guy)
Kobe Eubanks (#122, Baylor commit, Alabama commit, finally wound up at A&M)
Eric Vila (NR - International, predictions have ranged from Dan Alexander 2.0 to D.J. Hogg 2.0 to a spanish Larry Bird)

Plus a junior Trocha who *maybe* we will keep through his senior year. If he breaks out even further as a junior and continues to progress, I'm a poster who thinks Trocha could find a spot on an NBA roster due his length, mobility, and outside shooting touch.

If we make the NCAA this upcoming year, barring a bunch of early entries to the draft, transfers etc, we should be looking at an NCAA bid the year after next as well.

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If we make the NCAA this upcoming year, barring a bunch of early entries to the draft, transfers etc, we should be looking at an NCAA bid elite eight trip the year after next as well.

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FIFY

For some reason I thought Trocha would be a senior this fall.

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If we make the NCAA this upcoming year, barring a bunch of early entries to the draft, transfers etc, we should be looking at an NCAA bid elite eight trip the year after next as well.

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FIFY

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March Madness is wildly unpredictable. Lots of really good teams don't make the Elite Eight cause a bad day or a bad matchup.

I'd agree though that if a) we make NCAA next season and b) most of the core guys return then c) we could be in a position again like the season that we just witnessed, a really good seeding giving us a solid starting chance in the bracket to at least make it to the second weekend.

Incautiously optimistic......with some managed expectations for this coming year.

In the optimistic camp, but am a bit concerned there's no sign of Caldwell yet.
Love his videos and have been expecting a lot out of him.
Haven't heard there is a reason to worry so trying not to.

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In the optimistic camp, but am a bit concerned there's no sign of Caldwell yet.
Love his videos and have been expecting a lot out of him.
Haven't heard there is a reason to worry so trying not to.

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He's here.

I'm giddy.

Excellent

Considerably more optimistic about basketball than football to be honest.

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Considerably more optimistic about basketball than football to be honest.

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Same here. They are on a different cycle though. This should be a peak year for football and then we lose a lot and have to rebuild whereas this is a rebuilding (reloading) year for basketball but we are sitting real pretty for at least the two following seasons.

Very optimistic based on the talented roster. I'm hoping JJ can come in and play soon as a fish. He should love distributing the ball to all our scorers and shooters. I'm also interested in seeing how quickly the new assistant coaches adapt to our talented roster and how they coach them.

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Considerably more optimistic about basketball than football to be honest.

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Short term, I agree; long term, football will always be king.

Probably too optimistic. I posted something like this prediction on another thread some time ago: I feel like we will finish with around the same SEC record as last year and compete with UK again at the top and finish the season with a 15ish ranking. However, the SEC will be so bad this year that our RPI won't be as high and we get underseeded at like a 5 or 6 seed.

As y'all already pointed out, you can't predict the tourney because of matchups, but I have a feeling this team finds a way to reach the second weekend... then enters the next season with a top 10 preseason ranking because all we lose is Tavario.

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This season is going to tell us a lot, but for now I'm pretty optimistic.

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I'm never optimistic but if we make the tourney this year I will have to convert.

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Considerably more optimistic about basketball than football to be honest.

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Yeah.

I think it's easier, especially in the SEC, to be one of the top 3 teams in conference and make runs to the 2nd-3rd round in the NCAAs every year. Some years you bust in the first round, some years you make elite eight or better, and that's enough to be an exciting team and become a legit power program.

Conversely, being top 2-3 in football and making a New Years 6 or better is really, really hard.

So yeah, I'm cautiously more optimistic about basketball.

It really depends on how well we shoot the 8 inch jumpers.

mikesyracuse1

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It really depends on how well we shoot the 8 inch jumpers.

mikesyracuse1

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Cavs missed a bunch of those last night.

Playing in B/CS this weekend. Saw Tyler Davis and DJ Hogg at Bryan HS tonight. Hogg is about the same height as Davis now. Has he grown??

Last year we were supposed to be good and we were. Everything pretty much led up to a rebuild year this year especially with the loss of 2 good coaches. Kennedy deserves some props for making what looks like from individual standpoints some pretty good hires. Add on top of that landing some really good late commitments to fill some holes in the roster. This team will be really young and the staff is basically new so leadership and chemistry will play a huge role in how we perform this year. If we can get some quality PG play and have good team chemistry we should do pretty well again this year and build to something really good the following 2 years.

I had lunch at the Slocum Nutrition Center before the end of the semester and got behind Hogg. He looks taller than 6'8".

Final Four!!! Book it.....

Well.....in the SEC tourney anyways.

These young guys are going to be fun to watch.

Drinking the koolaid as I post.

Glad we upgraded our seats before this run started.

Lots of variables but lots of potential.

I expect to make the tourney in 16 to make the sweet 16 in 17 and elite 8 in 18
I also expect that it is probable that recruiting momentum will carry us into years 19 and 20

Very optimistic about the talent

Concerned about the lack of seasoned veterans to take over when things are tough (although Gilder showed a lot of that kind of leadership this year)

Very worried about the loss of coaching talent.

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I has lunch at the Slocum Nutrition Center before the end of the semester and got behind Hogg. He looks taller than 6'8".

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Saw him again tonight. He is at LEAST 6'9". Looked trimmer too. I wouldn't be surprised if he has a breakout season.

Fairly optimistic. Kennedy has been cleaning house on the recruiting trail and talent alone can win a lot of games. That said, I have a lot of coaching staff questions. None of us have any idea how much the loss of Stansbury and Keller will affect us. If we drift back toward pre Stansbury levels of offensive motion, that would be not so awesome.