Bag time! It’s Friday. You know the rest. This week’s mailbag features conference bragitude, preseason expectations, coaching contests and twisted games.
Remember: If your question wasn’t answered, or you’re just hearing about this and want to get in on the fun, you can submit your questions here or on Twitter.
Dan (@dan_ray7) asks: Has the American actually improved as a conference since its creation?
Let’s not include Rutgers and Louisville in this answer because they were only here for a season.
Yes, the American has improved. Vastly. UConn, SMU and Cincinnati are still strong. Here’s what everyone else has done:
Temple: Came back from a horrific 2013-14 to reach the NIT semifinals last year
Tulsa: Went to the NIT in its first year in the league, but returns nearly everyone from a year ago and should be an NCAA Tournament team
UCF: Their biggest improvement has come on the recruiting trail. They locked up Tacko Fall (four stars) along with a couple three-star guys for this year and already have a commitment from Bracken Hazen (three stars) for next year.
Tulane: The Green Wave have a solid recruiting class coming in, led by Melvin Frazier, who also had offers from LSU and Oklahoma. Something encouraging: three out of their five incoming freshmen are from Louisiana, which means the Green Wave are suddenly more appealing to local products.
Houston: Worse on paper last year than the year before, but the Cougars bring in a four-star recruit this season with a quartet of JuCos.
East Carolina: Another team with a solid 2015 recruiting class. Four-star freshman center Deng Riak is the one to watch for the Pirates.
Memphis: They’re actually a mess. Josh Pastner is on the hotseat.
USF: They continue their long-standing tradition of existing.
And a quick note about scheduling: SMU, Houston, Tulane, UCF and USF have all made an effort to schedule tougher teams this year. A few big out of conference wins will be huge for the perception of the league.
Keep an eye on the following games: UCF at Davidson, USF at Seton Hall, Gonzaga at SMU, Tulane vs. Stephen F. Austin, Houston at Rhode Island
Wondering about women’s basketball? Look at the improvement from USF over the last couple of years. It’s not much, but it’s something.
Football? UConn is going to win out and play in a major bowl game*
*probably what Bob Diaco would tell you.
Luke (@L_Swanny) asks: What are realistic expectations for the Men’s Basketball this year? I’ve heard a lot of hype around campus, just wondering if it’s unfounded or not.
This UConn team does seem to be garnering a lot of fan excitement. An offseason full of fun recruiting news has helped keep interest high during what is usually a long, slow summer. Now that real basketball is drawing closer, you can definitely feel the energy ramping up.
That excitement, and the corresponding high expectations you’re experiencing on campus, haven’t extended too far beyond Storrs yet. ESPN’s Eamonn Brennan did not put UConn on his top-25 list back in August. Athlon Sports (?) has the Huskies at number 18. Blue Ribbon pegged the Huskies at number 23. Clearly, most meaningful voices haven’t weighed in yet.
If you’re into preseason rankings, in the Calhoun/Ollie era, UConn has had 14 teams reach the Sweet Sixteen. Five of those teams weren’t ranked in the preseason (AP), including the 2011 team that won the national championship. The remaining nine averaged a preseason rank of 8th or 9th.
I’d expect this UConn team to begin the season ranked somewhere in the 14-19 range, and a fair expectation is that they will reach the Sweet Sixteen, based on where their talent level stands at the moment. Of course, we’ve seen that a team with reasonable talent can exceed all expectations at UConn. When you’re one of the best 16 or so teams in the country, the rest comes down to cohesion, in-season development, and luck.
Note: we’ll have more firm predictions from the whole staff in our annual preseason roundtable next month.
Penfeld (@BpenfieldJ) asks: F-M-K – Boeheim, K, Pitino. Go:
Kill Boeheim because fuck that guy.
And marry Coach K because he’s ridiculously rich and also probably not a terrible person. THEN you spend the next several months slowly leaking his playbook so he can no longer win any national championships, followed by a divorce in which you take half his trophies to UConn. Obviously.
Mark asks: Which former UConn player (other than Ollie) has become the best coach?
With apologies to Steve Pikiell for the tidy job he’s done at Stony Brook, the answer is Karl Hobbs. At his best, Hobbs built GW into the Atlantic 10’s best program before player departures led to a rebuild that school administrators fired him before he could complete. He was never a star, but he went to three straight NCAA tournaments and won two regular season titles and two conference tournament championships in a league with some legitimate programs, like Xavier, Dayton, and Temple. Pikiell may yet surpass him, but he needs to get the Seawolves over the hump and into their first ever Big Dance.
