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Message: [QUOTE="Orangezoo, post: 4392318, member: 237"] So now that the season is upon us I started poking around our opponents. While our non conference slate lacks punch it also isn't the pastry filled buffet I thought either. Lehigh- picked third in Patriot league and return their top scorer 6-6 guard Taylor. Quite a few kids coming back this year as they are expected to compete for the Patriot league title. Colgate- again picked to win the Patriot league. Gone are Ferguson and Cummings who lit us up last year. Back is Patriot PS POY 6-5 Richardson. Added some transfers who can shoot it and return solid size and production in the front court. Northeastern- God awful 2-16 in conference last year. That said they return much of their core and are picked to finish 6th in the CAA. Probably weakest of our first 3 games. Richmond- Returns their top scorer and some other key guys. Lost second leading scorer and their all league PG which is a big loss. Picked to finish 5th in the A10 so not a push over. Their two losses cut deep and actually think 5th might be a stretch. Gilyard was a good PG. Temple or St Johns- Temple brings back a finally healthy Khalif Battle who was lights out before he got hurt. This Temple team was 17-12 last year and is predicted 5th in the AAC but could be dangerous with a healthy battle plus other key returnees. Reminds me of another Temple team led by Khalif Wyatt that got us almost a decade ago. The Johnnies lost Champagnie and his 19.2 pts a game. They return defensive dynamo Posh Alexander but are a middle of the BE team. Prefer the Johnnies in the title game for a little revenge. Bryant- likely a favorite to win the NEC. Returning Charles Pride, added a major transfer haul including Earl Timberlake from Miami , Doug Edert from the St Peter's NCAA Cinderella, Gross-Bullock from Lasalle who was 6th man of the year in the A10 in 20-21, Antwan Walker who averaged 7.5 a game at URI, and Chauncey Hawkins second team all NEC at St Francis in 20-21. Hard to say how good with so many new pieces but they have players Illinois- hard to gauge even though they bring in 2 really good transfers and a really strong frosh class. Lots of talent though and they dumped the turnover machine Curbelo to St Johns. Oakland- team has very little size but definite talent in the backcourt including transfer Rocket Watts from Michigan State. Picked to finish top 5 in the Horizon. Gtown- game we can't lose period. Again predicted bottom of the barrel in the BE. Cornell- hard to say here. Some think they will compete for Ivy title others not so much. They return some of last year's team but lost a couple of their top players. Added a big freshman class. Monmouth- easily the tastiest pastry on the schedule as they lost their entire starting lineup. Not expected to do much this year in their new conference, the CAA. This is one of those schedules that bites you hard if you really lose to anyone outside Illinois but can be sneaky good numbers wise given the number of mid and low majors we play that will compete for the auto bid in their leagues. That also means a couple slip ups and you have teams that know how to win and take advantage. [/QUOTE]

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