KenPom Rankings

[DoctahLexus]

Heh? There is no way they had the the athleticism advantage last year with the dudes they were running out. Not to knock the guy... but Eddie Lampkin vs Kyle/Freeman/ White is a no contest when it comes to athleticism. And the effort was certainly not there.

Eddie's problem was not effort. His total lack of mobility/athleticism, which was made worse by nagging injuries, was the main issue. He was still giving us 110% out there. You do not average 9.6 boards a game without effort.

 

[Niastri]

Lampkin wasn't our problem.

In order, I think having Davis, Carlos and Lucas Taylor as our 7,8,9, guys instead of P4 players, Freeman's injury, and Bell's insane ineffectiveness, along with failing to recruit anybody to play point sank our season. Coaching was bad, but the greatest coach in history couldn't have done much with that mid major lineup after Freeman went down.

I think we win a bunch more games if Freeman was healthy, and Bell shoots like he was supposed to.

C'est la vie.

 

[Orangezoo]

Lampkin wasn't our problem.

In order, I think having Davis, Carlos and Lucas Taylor as our 7,8,9, guys instead of P4 players, Freeman's injury, and Bell's insane ineffectiveness, along with failing to recruit anybody to play point sank our season. Coaching was bad, but the greatest coach in history couldn't have done much with that mid major lineup after Freeman went down.

I think we win a bunch more games if Freeman was healthy, and Bell shoots like he was supposed to.

C'est la vie.

Maybe we win 17-18 but the Carlos situation at PG and the lack of rim protection essentially doomed us to having a low ceiling.

Bell had a couple of his better games against Texas and TTU and that wasn’t enough to find a win in either.

 

[Niastri]

Maybe we win 17-18 but the Carlos situation at PG and the lack of rim protection essentially doomed us to having a low ceiling.

Bell had a couple of his better games against Texas and TTU and that wasn’t enough to find a win in either.

Maybe... But Bell in general played a lot better after Freeman was out. Before Freeman went out after the game on 1/4/25, Bell shot.273 on 3.9 attempts per game. From 1/7/25 on, in the regular season, Bell shot.437 from three, on 4.2 attempts per game.

The two of them playing better together would have definitely made a difference.

Also, Freeman was terrible on defense at first. Having Bell, Lampkin and Freeman as your frontcourt defenders was not great... Having Starling and Carlos as guards made us really really bad defensively. But Freeman was coming around when he was injured... Maybe he would have helped the defensive bleeding a bit?

Either way, with that frontcourt, I think we outscore a few more teams than we did.

 

[jncuse]

Lampkin did some things well, but his weaknesses (particularly mobility) on defence were magnified by many of our high minutes guys being poor or adequate defensively. Lampkin was not the solution based on that.

There was some talent on last year's team, but not that much either. And they did not complement each other, resulting in weaknesses being magnified.

 

[Starman]

I think we win a bunch more games if Freeman was healthy, and Bell shoots like he was supposed to.

Also, I feel like we put a lot of our eggs in the Westry basket. A lot of things just broke the wrong way. Plus, we were on a budget.

 

[Orangezoo]

Maybe... But Bell in general played a lot better after Freeman was out. Before Freeman went out after the game on 1/4/25, Bell shot.273 on 3.9 attempts per game. From 1/7/25 on, in the regular season, Bell shot.437 from three, on 4.2 attempts per game.

The two of them playing better together would have definitely made a difference.

Also, Freeman was terrible on defense at first. Having Bell, Lampkin and Freeman as your frontcourt defenders was not great... Having Starling and Carlos as guards made us really really bad defensively. But Freeman was coming around when he was injured... Maybe he would have helped the defensive bleeding a bit?

Either way, with that frontcourt, I think we outscore a few more teams than we did.

Thats why I said 17-18 wins .. still better but not enough to win much more than that.

 

[Niastri]

Also, I feel like we put a lot of our eggs in the Westry basket. A lot of things just broke the wrong way. Plus, we were on a budget.

Good point, if we had the Westry that seems to be playing for UAB so far, Carlos is a bench player like intended and we are hugely better. It was a glaring Omission in my list of things that went wrong.

His lack of health or preparation or whatever it was that caused him to be unavailable most of the season definitely hurt.

The guy's averaging 20 ppg on 12 fg attempts and shooting.455 on 3.7 attempts from 3... Yeah, we could have been a lot better with healthy, effective Chance Westry.

 

[CardiacCuse]

Saying again what I said in the offseason that I think our scheduling this year has been great.

We have a team that has 5 freshman and sophomores with insanely high ceilings. When that train gets rolling the right direction it can be unstoppable. Starting the season the right way by destroying opponents is the best thing you can do for the confidence of the young guys.

They’ll be drinking the koolaid same as us and let’s be real this is the most confident team we’ve seen in 10 years on both ends. We don’t need to wait to see if they’re afraid, they’re not. I’m afraid for the other team if they get on Sadiq or Donnie or Kyle’s bad side for real.

They will get on the court with #1 Houston and Believe. And if it doesn’t go their way they’ll say we just faced down the best and we can compete with them on both ends.

Let’s see what the 3 point % look like for Drexel after Saturday. Drexel wants to shoot 50 3’s and if we run them off their spots it’s another step in the right direction.

i didnt like the schedule at first because I thought the top teams were too elite and the rest of the cupcakes were too easy. but im with you 100%

if this team can ball out and win some in vegas, skies the limit...but even if not they can still build off that (if they play close but lose)