kreed5120

I'm hopeful next year, but a lot of that is based off of potential. It's still to be seen how these incoming transfers perform with an expanded role. Either way with the roster turnover, I expect 1-2 ugly losses during OOC as this team will need time to build chemistry.

The reality is rankings shouldn't be published yet, but those advanced metric websites want the ad or subscription revenue so they keep them going. They're not worth your time this time of the year. I wouldn't fret on them.

At the very least we need to wait until January. That way there is a 12-15 game sample size for each team.

If we got UNLV to come to the JAR, that would be a huge get.

I don't know about App State or Arkansas State, but JMU lost their coach and pretty much their entire team. I don't view it as a missed opportunity.

I don't follow the podcast scene so I can't say nor care.

I'm a generous individual. I'm willing to pass the bobblehead onto the next closest individual.

Exactly, I've seen multiple articles from the Cleveland Plain Dealer regarding Freeman.

It's probably more likely that a school like Buffalo will emerge as another contender. They've shown a willingness to spend in the past. They just had their program derailed by a bad coaching hire.

I could be mistaken, but i believe hilltopper said Pat was asked to leave the team and didn't finish the 2016 season with the team.

To be fair, it's a terrible rule and should be changed. If college football players can play in up to four games in a much shorter season, I don't see why college basketball players shouldn't be allowed to play in up to 7-8 games.

College basketball is different than college football. If you play in any game, your redshirt is burned. Freeman played in 7. Here is an article from just this past season that states the rule. https://www.daytondailynews.com/sports/anthony-grant-on-college-basketball-redshirt-rule-its-antiquated-and-needs-to-change/CWFQ245OUVDNPEMHMLUMXOD5UE/ Ali played in half his teams games and the injury wasn't season ending. I don't see anyway he would have gotten approved for a medical redshirt, but we can agree to disagree.

I feel many MAC schools have given up trying to compete in basketball. It will probably just be Akron, Kent, Toledo, and Ohio looking to contend. Everyone else seems to focus only on football.

You only get 4 years of eligibility, not 5. Freeman's freshman wouldn't qualify as a redshirt as he played 7 games. Ali Ali played in more than 30% of Butler's games therefore wouldn't have qualified for a medical redshirt.

Without covid, players like Ali or Freeman would have had 1 less year of eligibility therefore they wouldn't have been on last year's Zips team. It's really hard to predict how things would have been in an alternate reality where covid didn't exist.

This team just didn't have that dynamic guard player that you've seen on Groce best teams (Cooper, LCJ, Castaneda). Even when you have a player as good as Freeman, it's hard to win at the collegiate level without elite guard play.

I'm going #51

Are we playing price is rights rules?

EMU w/ Emoni Bates for more relatable reference.

That's the thing about positionless basketball. It's hard to assign positions to anyone. A guy like Ali might be listed as a guard in the program, but when you're playing a 3 or 4 guard lineup, he's really more functioning as the "SF".

That would be correct. Last year the first leg the MAC hosted. The second leg the SunBelt hosted. It gets alternated each year.

Personally, programs like Rutgers and Maryland are the type of P5 programs that we should try to schedule. The MAC is a dumpster fire. If we can't go 5-3 in MAC play, frankly we don't deserve to go bowling. I'd be more critical of the schedule if we were playing some gauntlet of Ohio State, Alabama, and Penn State.

I don't find the schedule to be all that brutal. If we were a good team by MAC standards we'd be able to compete with both Rutgers and South Carolina. The problem is we're not a good team by MAC standards.

There have been a few players that were projected to be mid to late second rounders that have withdrawn from the draft to return to college. This should further help Freeman's odds of being drafted.

The issue is he would be buried in the G-League since their roster is so loaded.