Basketball poll released

[Coach007]

Coaches poll is out.. http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/rankings

No Ms St... in the top 25! No votes at all in fact... Going to shock some people!

[Dallas_Dawg]

You forgot the ***

[RIdog]

Actually looking forward to hoops for the 1st time in years . :)

[Dawg61]

It's still weird to look at these rankings since the 16 team Big East dissolved. No UConn, Syracuse, Georgetown, Pitt, L'Ville, in the top 25. That's got to be the first time in a very long time not one of those teams is ranked.

[BayouDawg]

Do y'all think we go with a small lineup a lot this year? We don't have a ton of depth in the front court but we have a good amount of talented front court players. As of now we have ware, Daniels, Zuppo, and Ndoye in the front court. So that gives us 4. If Strugg plays that'll give us 5 and could really help even if he just gave us a few decent minutes a game. What are your thoughts on what the lineups will look like this year?

[the59dawg]

Do y'all think we go with a small lineup a lot this year? We don't have a ton of depth in the front court but we have a good amount of talented front court players. As of now we have ware, Daniels, Zuppo, and Ndoye in the front court. So that gives us 4. If Strugg plays that'll give us 5 and could really help even if he just gave us a few decent minutes a game. What are your thoughts on what the lineups will look like this year?

I believe we will come up short in the backcourt again. Nothing has improved. No new players to help Ware out. Remains to be seen if Ware will contribute better this year.

[DancingRabbit]

Bleacher Report gave us better chances than some, predicting us at 7th in the SEC.

BR's predicted order of finish:
1. Kentucky Wildcats (Last Season: 18-0)
2. Texas A&M Aggies (Last Season: 11-7)
3. Florida Gators (Last Season: 8-10)
4. Vanderbilt Commodores (Last Season: 9-9)
5. LSU Tigers (Last Season: 11-7)
6. South Carolina Gamecocks (Last Season: 6-12)
7. Mississippi State Bulldogs (Last Season: 6-12)
8. Auburn Tigers (Last Season: 4-14)
9. Georgia Bulldogs (Last Season: 11-7)
10. Arkansas Razorbacks (Last Season: 13-5)
11. Ole Miss Rebels (Last Season: 11-7)
12. Tennessee Volunteers (Last Season: 7-11)
13. Alabama Crimson Tide (Last Season: 8-10)
14. Missouri Tigers (Last Season: 3-15)

[MedDawg]

Coaches poll is out.. http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/rankings

No Ms St... in the top 25! No votes at all in fact... Going to shock some people!


Mark Fox is one of the voters and couldn't even give his own Georgia Bulldogs one vote

[Dawg61]

Do y'all think we go with a small lineup a lot this year? We don't have a ton of depth in the front court but we have a good amount of talented front court players. As of now we have ware, Daniels, Zuppo, and Ndoye in the front court. So that gives us 4. If Strugg plays that'll give us 5 and could really help even if he just gave us a few decent minutes a game. What are your thoughts on what the lineups will look like this year?

Depends on if you think Newman, Sword, Fred, Daniels, Ware is a small lineup cause that's what you'll see mostly.

[shannondawg]

Trust me , he will.


I believe we will come up short in the backcourt again. Nothing has improved. No new players to help Ware out. Remains to be seen if Ware will contribute better this year.

[Saltydog]

significantly better so to say "nothing has changed" is well, STUPID!

[Coach007]

I believe we will come up short in the backcourt again. Nothing has improved. No new players to help Ware out. Remains to be seen if Ware will contribute better this year.

No new players to help him out? Newman... Our perimeter shooting and guards will help set him up. Defense will have to honor that.

[dickiedawg]

context tells me he meant nothing has changed in the front court, not the backcourt.

Obviously the backcourt is leaps and bounds better than last year, barring injury.

[Coach34]

We will be top 6 in the SEC

[smootness]

Bleacher Report gave us better chances than some, predicting us at 7th in the SEC.

BR's predicted order of finish:
1. Kentucky Wildcats (Last Season: 18-0)
2. Texas A&M Aggies (Last Season: 11-7)
3. Florida Gators (Last Season: 8-10)
4. Vanderbilt Commodores (Last Season: 9-9)
5. LSU Tigers (Last Season: 11-7)
6. South Carolina Gamecocks (Last Season: 6-12)
7. Mississippi State Bulldogs (Last Season: 6-12)
8. Auburn Tigers (Last Season: 4-14)
9. Georgia Bulldogs (Last Season: 11-7)
10. Arkansas Razorbacks (Last Season: 13-5)
11. Ole Miss Rebels (Last Season: 11-7)
12. Tennessee Volunteers (Last Season: 7-11)
13. Alabama Crimson Tide (Last Season: 8-10)
14. Missouri Tigers (Last Season: 3-15)

This is on the low end of the range most have us. I've seen us as high as 4. CBS is just dumb.

[smootness]

context tells me he meant nothing has changed in the front court, not the backcourt.

Obviously the backcourt is leaps and bounds better than last year, barring injury.

We lose Roquez, but we add Zuppardo and will add Holman eventually.

[Ifyouonlyknew]

We will run a lot of 3 guard with IJ, Malik, & Chicken. Our starting lineup will be Newman, Sword, Thomas, Daniel, & Ware.

[JoseBrown]

The one HUGE change this year is coaching! Players will improve by that fact alone. Oh, and Malik!

[engie]

When the 3rd best traditional program in the conference arguably is the only pure dumpster fire at this point in time --- you know conference depth has improved...

[Tbonewannabe]

We might have 2 all sec players with Newman and Sword. These guys are going to make Ware a lot better down low.

[lachepas565]

Get a bookie - there should be some very favorable early lines before the world catches up on this team.

[Beaver]

The one HUGE change this year is coaching! Players will improve by that fact alone. Oh, and Malik!

Yep. In college bb if you have an elite player and a great coach big things can happen. State hasn't had either in the past few years.

[tcdog70]

Ware is the one player that will benefit the most from Newman and Howland. The Double teams will vanish. We will finally know how to pick and roll. We will finally have players to shoot our opponents out of a packed in zone. JZ will become a zone buster.

[Coach007]

context tells me he meant nothing has changed in the front court, not the backcourt.

Obviously the backcourt is leaps and bounds better than last year, barring injury.

I think the context was nothing has changed to help ware. It has... Dramatically.

[BulldogBacker]

I think the context was nothing has changed to help ware. It has... Dramatically.

Much depends on Gavin Ware staying healthy. Fallou N'Doye has put on considerable weight, and I assume, muscle, but Gavin is the only SEC level post player. If Gavin get's hurt and misses 3-4 SEC games, it will hurt. It is interesting that I.J. Ready was quoted as saying Quin Weatherspoon is a "more complete player than Malik." That tells me that Malik needs work on his defense. I think that also means that Quin Weatherspoon gets considerable PT, giving us 5 legitimate perimeter players. I.J. Ready, Malik, Chicken, Fred, and Quin. Coach is also talking "wings" instead of 2 guards or 3 forwards. Aric Hohman likely redshirts, so plugging him into potential lineups may not be possible. That leaves Gavin, Fallou, Travis, and Joe Strugg as the only posts, meaning Houston may also play there. With the exception of Gavin, we have a very quick, fast team. I think we are much, much better this year than last. I see us undervalued down at 7th.

[Ifyouonlyknew]

Much depends on Gavin Ware staying healthy. Fallou N'Doye has put on considerable weight, and I assume, muscle, but Gavin is the only SEC level post player. If Gavin get's hurt and misses 3-4 SEC games, it will hurt. It is interesting that I.J. Ready was quoted as saying Quin Weatherspoon is a "more complete player than Malik." That tells me that Malik needs work on his defense. I think that also means that Quin Weatherspoon gets considerable PT, giving us 5 legitimate perimeter players. I.J. Ready, Malik, Chicken, Fred, and Quin. Coach is also talking "wings" instead of 2 guards or 3 forwards. Aric Hohman likely redshirts, so plugging him into potential lineups may not be possible. That leaves Gavin, Fallou, Travis, and Joe Strugg as the only posts, meaning Houston may also play there. With the exception of Gavin, we have a very quick, fast team. I think we are much, much better this year than last. I see us undervalued down at 7th.

The backcourt will rotate with IJ, Malik, & Chicken including all 3 on the court together. Q is the backup for Fred at the 3 & could play the 2 if need be. Holman is expected back in late December so he won't be redshirting. Aric was pushing Daniel for the starting 4 spot before he was hurt. He's a real talent. Strugg will almost assuredly redshirt. With him having surgery plus needing to add weight it only makes sense. I don't see Demetrius getting much playing time. He may not be long for the program. Hopefully Zuppardo can give us some quality minutes until Holman gets back.

[Dawg61]

The backcourt will rotate with IJ, Malik, & Chicken including all 3 on the court together. Q is the backup for Fred at the 3 & could play the 2 if need be. Holman is expected back in late December so he won't be redshirting. Aric was pushing Daniel for the starting 4 spot before he was hurt. He's a real talent. Strugg will almost assuredly redshirt. With him having surgery plus needing to add weight it only makes sense. I don't see Demetrius getting much playing time. He may not be long for the program. Hopefully Zuppardo can give us some quality minutes until Holman gets back.

Pretty amazing that Ndoye keeps surviving the forced turnover and Houston appears to be the next victim. I would of bet a lot of money in February that Houston was poised to start this year and Ndoye would be the first to go.

[Ifyouonlyknew]

Pretty amazing that Ndoye keeps surviving the forced turnover and Houston appears to be the next victim. I would of bet a lot of money in February that Houston was poised to start this year and Ndoye would be the first to go.

Howland loves Fallou. He's the ultimate teammate. Plays hard, very coachable, & does whatever the coaches ask of him giving 100%. He's also added about 20-25lbs of mass since last year so he won't be so easily pushed around. Nobody is going to mistake Fallou for Tim Duncan but he will be able to give us 10-15min/game to rest Gavin.

[smootness]

Howland loves Fallou. He's the ultimate teammate. Plays hard, very coachable, & does whatever the coaches ask of him giving 100%. He's also added about 20-25lbs of mass since last year so he won't be so easily pushed around. Nobody is going to mistake Fallou for Tim Duncan but he will be able to give us 10-15min/game to rest Gavin.

As long as he can play defense and box out in spurts, that's all we really need from him. Block a shot or two, get a garbage basket off an offensive rebound, and let Ware back in the game.

[TopDog58]

Howland loves Fallou. He's the ultimate teammate. Plays hard, very coachable, & does whatever the coaches ask of him giving 100%. He's also added about 20-25lbs of mass since last year so he won't be so easily pushed around. Nobody is going to mistake Fallou for Tim Duncan but he will be able to give us 10-15min/game to rest Gavin.

Significant weight gain and development. Whoda thunk those were possible with a MSU hoops player.

[Ifyouonlyknew]

As long as he can play defense and box out in spurts, that's all we really need from him. Block a shot or two, get a garbage basket off an offensive rebound, and let Ware back in the game.

Yep. We have 2 great p&r guys in Chicken & Malik. When Fallou is in the game all he should be doing is set screens & roll to the goal. If they can teach him to catch, gather, & go up in 1 smooth motion then we'll be fine.

[Dawg61]

As long as he can play defense and box out in spurts, that's all we really need from him. Block a shot or two, get a garbage basket off an offensive rebound, and let Ware back in the game.

Just please don't fumble the ball. Nothing worse than watching an uncoordinated big fumbling it everywhere when all he has to do is catch and dunk to score yet still can't.