2016-17 Preseason Discussion Thread

[laker]

Re: 2016-17 Preseason Discussion Thread

Sounds pretty much identical to the Late Show SMSU used to do. Haven't done it in a few years, and I don't miss it much at all.

After conducting hundreds of practices over decades- I have little desire to spend much time watching a glorified one.

[Husky]

Re: 2016-17 Preseason Discussion Thread

Decent attendance?

not really

[MrAugustana]

Re: 2016-17 Preseason Discussion Thread

Curious as to when this year's Preseason Coaches Poll will get released. I would assume it's gotta be coming soon.

[Guest69]

Re: 2016-17 Preseason Discussion Thread

Curious as to when this year's Preseason Coaches Poll will get released. I would assume it's gotta be coming soon.

My sources indicate this week. I've heard Thursday, but have yet to receive confirmation from said source.

[laker]

Re: 2016-17 Preseason Discussion Thread

NSIC preseason poll.

http://northernsun.org/news/2016/10/...025160034.aspx

[MrAugustana]

Re: 2016-17 Preseason Discussion Thread

Doesn't perfectly align with my preseason predictions, but I'm not surprised. On the plus side, I typically wasn't more than 2-3 spots off for most teams. Looks like the biggest differences are:

St. Cloud - Coaches have them tied for 3rd, I predicted 6th.
USF - Coaches have them 6th, I predicted 3rd.
Upper Iowa - Coaches have them 9th, I predicted 12th.

Pretty sure those were the biggest gaps between my predictions and the coaches' predictions.

I was a little bit surprised to see Gage Davis as the North Division Preseason Player of the Year. At the same time, I'm not sure who else from the North I would throw into that mix, so maybe it is a decent fit. With the #10 preseason team, a coaches poll prediction of 3rd and a preseason division player of the year, Coach Reimerthaler and the Huskies might have a little pressure this year. simple mentioned not having faith in the Sporting News preseason ranking. Any other SCSU fans have thoughts on what should be expected of the Huskies this year?

I'll be very pleasantly surprised if the Vikes finish within a spot or two of that 2nd place prediction from the coaches. Frankly, I don't see how any coaches (other than Margenthaler, maybe) voted for Augie as the 1st place team over Mankato. Along those same lines, I'm surprised at how many other teams received a 1st place vote (Moorhead, Winona and USF each receiving one). Maybe I'm just putting too much expectation on the still-unproven shoulders of MSU's incoming D1 guys, but I don't think I am. Barring injuries or some extreme dysfunction, I see the Mavs ending up with a 20-2 type record in conference play this year. But I suppose we'll find out in a few months.

Either way, fun to see the coaches poll get released finally. The season is almost officially upon us. Vikes head to Durham next week. Not sure who else plays before then. The Northern Sun website doesn't really have all of the exhibition games listed on their MBB Schedule page (including the Augie/Duke game), and we don't have the convenient full year's schedule thread this season as we've had in past seasons to check up on non-conference games/dates/times. Not blaming anyone for that though, as I'll readily admit I'm too lazy to make one myself.

[Toucanbird]

Re: 2016-17 Preseason Discussion Thread

The GAC's was released last week. East Central was picked as the overwhelming favorites. Ouachita Baptist and Harding were pretty close in the second and third spots.

My Wonder Boys were picked sixth. To be frank, your guess is as good as mine in regards to where they'll actually finish. There's just two players back from last year's team (that played, four redshirts are back). They brought in five D1 transfers, five JUCO transfers, and four true freshmen.

I'm certainly hoping for a better season than last. Tech beat some very good teams last season and then ran into problems in the latter half of last year as some of their best players were either kicked off the team or were ineligible. It'll certainly be a different kind of team because there are no players that are over 6'7".

[MrAugustana]

Re: 2016-17 Preseason Discussion Thread

The GAC's was released last week. East Central was picked as the overwhelming favorites. Ouachita Baptist and Harding were pretty close in the second and third spots.

My Wonder Boys were picked sixth. To be frank, your guess is as good as mine in regards to where they'll actually finish. There's just two players back from last year's team (that played, four redshirts are back). They brought in five D1 transfers, five JUCO transfers, and four true freshmen.

I'm certainly hoping for a better season than last. Tech beat some very good teams last season and then ran into problems in the latter half of last year as some of their best players were either kicked off the team or were ineligible. It'll certainly be a different kind of team because there are no players that are over 6'7".

Should be interesting to see how Augie fares in the Vikes' early non-conference game against East Central.

[laker]

Re: 2016-17 Preseason Discussion Thread

My Wonder Boys were picked sixth.

I'm wondering if any conference in the country has more unique nicknames than the GAC.

Miss your NSIC basketball analysis, Toucan.

[Stanger86]

Re: 2016-17 Preseason Discussion Thread

The GAC's was released last week. East Central was picked as the overwhelming favorites. Ouachita Baptist and Harding were pretty close in the second and third spots.

My Wonder Boys were picked sixth. To be frank, your guess is as good as mine in regards to where they'll actually finish. There's just two players back from last year's team (that played, four redshirts are back). They brought in five D1 transfers, five JUCO transfers, and four true freshmen.

I'm certainly hoping for a better season than last. Tech beat some very good teams last season and then ran into problems in the latter half of last year as some of their best players were either kicked off the team or were ineligible. It'll certainly be a different kind of team because there are no players that are over 6'7".

Who are you again? lol

[Toucanbird]

Re: 2016-17 Preseason Discussion Thread

I'm wondering if any conference in the country has more unique nicknames than the GAC.

Miss your NSIC basketball analysis, Toucan.

I won't disagree with you there. It's pretty bizarre to go from teams like the Warriors, Vikings, Mavericks to the Boll Weevil, Cotton Blossoms, Wonder Boys, Crimson Storm, Savage Storm, and Muleriders.

[Toucanbird]

Re: 2016-17 Preseason Discussion Thread

Should be interesting to see how Augie fares in the Vikes' early non-conference game against East Central.

I think just seeing how Augie fares early on in the season will be interesting to see. You can as Warrior fans how it feels to lose that much talent off a national championship team.

Considering it's in Weatherford, I think it will be tough for Augie to win. Although, I could be wrong. I have no idea how well their few returning veterans and newcomers will look, but I suppose that is why you play the game.

[MrAugustana]

Re: 2016-17 Preseason Discussion Thread

I think just seeing how Augie fares early on in the season will be interesting to see. You can as Warrior fans how it feels to lose that much talent off a national championship team.

Considering it's in Weatherford, I think it will be tough for Augie to win. Although, I could be wrong. I have no idea how well their few returning veterans and newcomers will look, but I suppose that is why you play the game.

Well hopefully the guys lick their wounds from the Duke game and recover quickly before traveling south to Oklahoma that following weekend. The Vikes take on Southwestern Oklahoma State first, so my hope is that they at least win that one and if East Central takes us down, so be it. Obviously two wins would be ideal though. That's just a pretty long road trip followed by back-to-back games early in the season.

That being said, it'll be fun to see how we match up with the predicted best team from the GAC.

[Toucanbird]

Re: 2016-17 Preseason Discussion Thread

Well hopefully the guys lick their wounds from the Duke game and recover quickly before traveling south to Oklahoma that following weekend. The Vikes take on Southwestern Oklahoma State first, so my hope is that they at least win that one and if East Central takes us down, so be it. Obviously two wins would be ideal though. That's just a pretty long road trip followed by back-to-back games early in the season.

That being said, it'll be fun to see how we match up with the predicted best team from the GAC.

I still think the talent level between the NSIC and the GAC is pretty substantial. Well, actually, let me re-phrase that. I think there's talent in the GAC, but I think the coaching and team-building in the NSIC is substantially better. It seems like a lot of teams down here in the GAC like to do a lot of building through the signing of JUCOs and transfers while it seems like the NSIC mostly builds their teams from the ground up with freshman signees. I think it's much easier to build better basketball teams that way than pick up extremely talented basketball players out of JUCO that have never played together.

[simple as a $3 bill]

Re: 2016-17 Preseason Discussion Thread

I still think the talent level between the NSIC and the GAC is pretty substantial. Well, actually, let me re-phrase that. I think there's talent in the GAC, but I think the coaching and team-building in the NSIC is substantially better. It seems like a lot of teams down here in the GAC like to do a lot of building through the signing of JUCOs and transfers while it seems like the NSIC mostly builds their teams from the ground up with freshman signees. I think it's much easier to build better basketball teams that way than pick up extremely talented basketball players out of JUCO that have never played together.

Don't tell that to Marganthaler.