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Kents new guards are very Can't-ish, quick and athletic. Especially pollard, he's gonna be good. They're letting a crummy ysu hang around however

#2 on that list, Raven Lee from Eastern Michigan, was just suspended indefinitely http://www.emueagles.com/news/2015/11/13/MBB_1113153805.aspx Lee may still be back but that means that now #2 and #5 (Tava) are out of action. Obviously he's been gone for a while, but Justin Moss would've definitely been top 5 on this list as well. The MAC sure is losing a lot before the season.

I was tempted to say Jake as well, but I just don't think he's that type of player to go out and have a score first mindset. There's kind of this notion that Jake is more versatile offensively than Reggie but they shoot just about the same percentage of their shots from three and Jake's actually attempted more 3s than Reggie over their careers. Jake's value mostly just comes from being a great leader, rebounder, and defender rather than a top-notch scorer.

Kinda surprised that there aren't any mentions of Reggie. Probably the best pure shooter KD has had at Akron. He's the one guy whose jumpshots you expect to be going in every time they leave his hands. He could very easily be our leading scorer as he as the potential to absolutely fill it up (31 vs CMU). The only things holding him back from being that big time scorer are maybe the minutes situation and the fact that he has a tendency to disappear in some games (6 games with goose eggs last year). But I could still definitely see him as a 12 per night guy this year.

I just mean that schools like WSU or Gonzaga became who they are because they brought in those high-major caliber players who stuck around and built the program. Whereas CSU, when they do snag some high-major quality players, they bolt. Not that Gonzaga or WSU are on that same level now, but they used to be at least somewhat comparable. Although, I agree, the prevalence of transfers then is nowhere near what it is now.

I certainly wouldn't say that CSU "recruits too well", they just seem to have a program culture that is conducive to transfers. I guarantee you that if Grady, Forbes, and Lewis were at Akron they would not have all transferred. If over-recruiting was a common phenomenon at the mid-major level then programs like Gonzaga, Wichita St., etc. wouldn't exist. Schools should recruit the best players possible, but you have to win with them. Great players on mediocre mid-major teams without that positive culture is a formula for transfers. But anyways, this game should be easy for the Zips. Kenpom has CSU 222nd to start the year and they were picked by the media towards the bottom of the Horizon. That being said, we have to come ready to play as you never know what could happen, especially in a local rivalry.

Forsythe and Boothe are so similar: both averaged exactly 10 PPG last year and have really similar rebounding numbers as well. I give the edge to Pat because I think he's a slightly better defender and also slightly more efficient (23 to 19 PER)

Just for reference, the zips checked in last year with Tree at #2 and Kretzer at #20. Which, with Tree's early dismissal basically amounts to only one player on the list. Also goes to show Pat's massive improvement going from unranked to best center in the conference. I'm curious to see the six players supposedly better than Pat (I can think of Fowler, Lee, Hall, maybe Washington)

I think we'll see a lot of dual-PG lineups this year with the depth at that position. I expect the starting 5 to be something like this: PG: Robotham SG: Williams/Antino Jackson SF: Kretzer PF: Cheatham C: Forsythe Reggie will be the first one off the bench and I would expect see him and Jake play anywhere between the 2 and 4 considering the question marks behind Cheatham at PF and the depth we have on the perimeter. I think we also need to see major improvements from Aaron Jackson before he's ready to start/play big-time minutes.