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Post by OscarWildeCat, Admin on Nov 19, 2020 11:51:59 GMT -6
I was just looking at CBS Sports preseason ranking for all D1 basketball teams. The Gulf Coast showcase will be a challenge. There are some very good mid majors involved. 94. Austin Peay 130. Indiana State 140. East Tennessee 141. Akron 177. East Carolina 187. Omaha 194. ACU 250. Middle Tennessee |
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Post by acutrackfan on Nov 19, 2020 16:27:30 GMT -6
I love seeing ACU getting to play in a quality preseason tourney like this one. No Power-5 conference teams, just a slate of solid mid-majors. If ACU can pull out a win or 2, it would be huge for our rankings for most of the rest of the season. ETSU is a team that is very beatable this year -- they won 30 games last year and probably would have thumped us, but they graduated all 5 starters and only return 3 players off the entire squad from last year.
If ACU can find 1-2 outside scorers to make up some of Payten Ricks' points, our front line is pretty salty.
The NCAA has 357 teams playing D-1 basketball, although that number will be lower with the Ivy League already opting out of winter sports. The bottom ranked team in the country is Bethune Cookman, which has already announced they will not play this year at all. The next to last ranked team? Chicago State in the WAC.
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Post by OscarWildeCat, Admin on Nov 22, 2020 5:18:06 GMT -6
ETSU fans take basketball seriously. They have already started an official ACU game thread. Here is their scouting report on the Wildcats: csnbbs.com/thread-911080.htmlBlue Ribbon picks Abilene Christian to finish 2nd in the Southland Conference, behind Stephen F. Austin in first. They finished 3rd in the Southland last year (20-11 and 15-5). This is Abiliene’s 3rd year in D1. They won 27 games and 20 games in their 1st 2 years. KenPom rates them #156 (#185 in offense and #139 in defense) to ETSU’s #167 (#197 in offense and # 154 in defense). They are a 1 point favorite in KP – FWIW, since in this first game of the season KenPom doesn’t yet have the statistical basis which makes their rankings so useful. They lose their top scorer in 6-2 guard Payten Ricks (14.3 ppg). But they return their next 7 best after him. So a huge edge in experience to Abilene. Their strength is in the front court which Blue Ribbon rates 1st in conference. 6-8 220 Jr. Forward Joe Pleasant (11.0 ppg, 4.2 rpg) is picked for all conference. Their center is 7-0 240 Sr. Kolton Kohl (9.6 ppg, 4.3 rpg). 6-6 220 Jr. F Clay Gayman averages 9.5 ppg and 3.8 rpg. 6-5 265 So. F Airion Simmons has 5.4 ppg and 4.1 rpg. It’s a strong, experienced front court. Guards are led by 6-0 Sr Coryon Mason (8.8 ppg with 1.2 steals). Point was split between 5-7 Jr. Damien Daniels (5.2 ppg, 3.1 apg and 1.1 steals) and 6-0 Sr. Reggie Miller (3.0, 2.1 apg, 1.0 steals). 6-3 Sr. Makhi Morris adds 3.8 ppg, but missed the last half of the season to injury. 6-5 Jr Tobias Cameron was a bit player (1.0 ppg). Help may come from 6-4 Rs-So Immanuel Allen (12.2 ppg in JUCO 2018-19) – he is said to have been their best defender and best athlete in practice. They only shot.309 from 3 last year with 6.7 makes per game. But their defense held opponents to an even worse .298 with 5.0 makes. They held opponents to 65.3 ppg. Their scoring seems to come from in close, where they were .532 from 2, 52nd in D1. They grab 9.5 steals, 6th in D1. Rebounding was even (-0.2 margin). Turnover margin was an excellent +5.8, second in D1 to UNCG's 6.4. Their strength has been defense from the big front court. Quick 6-5 Ledarrius might be an interesting matchup for them! But that big, experienced front court will certainly be a challenge for the Bucs. These guys made the NCAA’s 2 years ago and came close last year. They expect to contend again. But KP only has them a 1 point favorite. This is step one in a long journey. Anybody watching the NCAA struggle with football games knows that there will be a lot of ups and downs. Clemson vs Florida St was postponed at the last minute. Some teams (Wisconsin) have missed half their games. We'll have have to be in it for the long haul, with the patience and toughness to work through the rough spots. A team doesn't get built overnight. |
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Post by OscarWildeCat, Admin on Nov 22, 2020 5:30:15 GMT -6
I love seeing ACU getting to play in a quality preseason tourney like this one. No Power-5 conference teams, just a slate of solid mid-majors. If ACU can pull out a win or 2, it would be huge for our rankings for most of the rest of the season. ETSU is a team that is very beatable this year -- they won 30 games last year and probably would have thumped us, but they graduated all 5 starters and only return 3 players off the entire squad from last year. If ACU can find 1-2 outside scorers to make up some of Payten Ricks' points, our front line is pretty salty. The NCAA has 357 teams playing D-1 basketball, although that number will be lower with the Ivy League already opting out of winter sports. The bottom ranked team in the country is Bethune Cookman, which has already announced they will not play this year at all. The next to last ranked team? Chicago State in the WAC. ETSU also lost their head coach, TF. New players, including lots of transfers. New coach. First game. Who knows how good they are and how to prepare for them? I really like the team line up for this tournament. There are no teams here that ACU can’t beat and no teams that aren’t just as capable of beating ACU. It’s nice to occasionally play a top tier P5 team even if we only have a 1% chance of winning. And occasional home court “scrimmage’ against a weak NAIA team is a good way to get everyone some court time, but a tournament against true peer programs from other conferences is more exciting to me than either of these. |
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Post by Outsider on Nov 22, 2020 9:43:50 GMT -6
I love seeing ACU getting to play in a quality preseason tourney like this one. No Power-5 conference teams, just a slate of solid mid-majors. If ACU can pull out a win or 2, it would be huge for our rankings for most of the rest of the season. ETSU is a team that is very beatable this year -- they won 30 games last year and probably would have thumped us, but they graduated all 5 starters and only return 3 players off the entire squad from last year. If ACU can find 1-2 outside scorers to make up some of Payten Ricks' points, our front line is pretty salty. The NCAA has 357 teams playing D-1 basketball, although that number will be lower with the Ivy League already opting out of winter sports. The bottom ranked team in the country is Bethune Cookman, which has already announced they will not play this year at all. The next to last ranked team? Chicago State in the WAC. ETSU also lost their head coach, TF. New players, including lots of transfers. New coach. First game. Who knows how good they are and how to prepare for them? I really like the team line up for this tournament. There are no teams here that ACU can’t beat and no teams that aren’t just as capable of beating ACU. It’s nice to occasionally play a top tier P5 team even if we only have a 1% chance of winning. And occasional home court “scrimmage’ against a weak NAIA team is a good way to get everyone some court time, but a tournament against true peer programs from other conferences is more exciting to me than either of these. I like us getting out there and getting exposure with good peer programs. I think it will help us in more ways than one. I hope we win more than we lose, but I like the planning either way. |
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Post by SportsWizard15 on Nov 22, 2020 21:56:28 GMT -6
It appears that Indiana State, East Carolina, and Akron aren't making the trip to the Gulf Coast Showcase this week due to Covid.
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Post by OscarWildeCat, Admin on Nov 23, 2020 4:18:25 GMT -6
It appears that Indiana State, East Carolina, and Akron aren't making the trip to the Gulf Coast Showcase this week due to Covid. I wonder if they will change the brackets around as a result of cancellations? |
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Post by bogeyman on Nov 23, 2020 17:11:01 GMT -6
Getting excited about the prospects for our men's basketball team. We bring back about 59 pts per game, with Pleasant (11), Kohl (10) Gayman (9.5), Mason (9) and Simmons and Daniels (another 10+) making up the bulk of those points (Ricks 14 per game has to be made up). Of those players I see Simmons making the largest jump in playing time and points scored and hoping that the big 3 (Pleasant, Kohl and Gayman) can improve at least slightly. If Allen and maybe a freshman (or a combo of 2 or 3 others) can consistently contribute, then we ought to be fine on the offensive end. Defensively the loss of Ricks will hurt but the abilities of Mason, Miller and Daniels out front to ball hawk should be a plus. I hope we have games early that will allow the two big freshmen to get some court time. I'm really excited to see how Immanuel Allen fits into this lineup. Lots of possibilities and our bench will be as good as we've had for a while (both offensively and with good height/rebounding ability). Fun, fun, fun. Let's go Cats. Ready for 10 a.m. Wednesday tip off.
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Post by Evan from KTXS on Nov 23, 2020 17:44:20 GMT -6
We talked with Joe and Julie today. Y'all should probably see the video from the press conferences on ACU sites soon. We also got a look inside at the Teague court and where media will be allowed during games. The set-up is better than I expected.
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Post by acumedic on Nov 23, 2020 17:51:30 GMT -6
We talked with Joe and Julie today. Y'all should probably see the video from the press conferences on ACU sites soon. We also got a look inside at the Teague court and where media will be allowed during games. The set-up is better than I expected.
That looks pretty great, I didn’t realize there were stands on both sides by the pics posted earlier. |
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Post by bogeyman on Nov 24, 2020 12:55:34 GMT -6
Do we know if our whole men's basketball team got off to Florida or do we have any Covid casualties (sick or in quarantine)?
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Post by bogeyman on Nov 24, 2020 12:58:29 GMT -6
By the way, I thought the Optimist reporters did a great job on their previews of the coming season. The only omission to the men's write ups was the lack of mention for the impact of Immanuel Allen. Completely understandable because of his RS year.
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Post by mavsman53 on Nov 24, 2020 13:08:28 GMT -6
Bogey, I was told, again, not sure if accurate, that the entire team has already had COVID. Again, that was what was told to me. So, we should be good for the entire season. That being said, it will be very difficult for all the games to be played this year. As we have seen with football, many teams have already had to cancel their opening game(s)
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Post by Cap'n on Nov 24, 2020 16:48:46 GMT -6
On the COVID front, SFA flew all the way to Connecticut for a holiday tournament only to find out that one member of their travel party has COVID so they literally had to turn around and go home.
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Post by rc on Nov 24, 2020 18:23:45 GMT -6
On the COVID front, SFA flew all the way to Connecticut for a holiday tournament only to find out that one member of their travel party has COVID so they literally had to turn around and go home. Had not heard about that but what a tough trip that must have been. Let's hope we go to Florida and get to play some basketball. |
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