re: So what is realistic for MBB?

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If they stay healthy and Dent & Clark remain eligible

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I was not aware there were still questions about their eligibility. What is the issue?

If they keep the roster intact and no major injuries, this is at least an 8-9 seed NCAA team with Sweet 16 potential.

Very impressed with the top 8 players or so.

Need to see more, Gonzaga in Spokane will be a real test and could expose possible deficiencies. I’d say we’re pretty thin at the true forward spots, only having 2 of them. Perimeter shooting could be an issue depending on how the rotations play out. Ceiling is very high though, lots of talent, just have to put the puzzle together.

I’d say it’s more to matchup with Florida and the general trend in college hoops lately. Dessert was definitely picked up to matchup with Chinyelu at Florida. Can’t wait to see that.

When I saw the backgrounds of the players Wade brought together, I immediately had notions of the 3rd weekend of the tournament. However, watching the top 25 around the country over the last 2 weeks, WOW. Those teams are insane. The most noticeable difference is they have multiple players raining 3s. That is going to be LSUs biggest problem, on both ends of the court.

Dessert isn't quite as good as I thought he would be but he might be able to hold his own against some bigs on ranked teams.

Dent is much better offensively than I thought he would be and will definitely cause problems for even the best defenses but he's a bit lazy defensively. Not sure if he's pacing himself.

Clark and Ugochukwu don't do anything that jumps off the tv screen but are steady on both ends of the court.

Ruzic is great. Skilled and works hard. He'll be as good as any 2nd 5 for games he doesn't start. He and dessert both starting will be challenging even for ranked teams.

Niang's defense came alive last night. Wow. That will be a huge asset in the grind.

Mo brings the effort plays but is a horrible shooter. Not the worst crime in the world depending on the mix on the floor.

I'm curious what Nunez brings to the team.

LSU won't be able to hang with Florida or Arkansas. This team has a ceiling but it's going to be fun to be competitive again. The team hustles. They don't look lost. There is talent even on the bench and there is a good mix of backcourt/frontcourt. Develop some chemistry and this team can go a long way.

I would be more than happy with a top five finish in conference and a place in the tournament. That said, who knows on the basis of one game? Three point shooting was definitely a weakness and I was really amazed that Dioubate and Rujic apparently have the green light to shoot threes. We did a good job of feeding the bigs and having more dunks than I ever remember in an LSU game but the bigs need to hit open guards for open threes more often.

Final four or bust!!! Seriously just glad we came out and played to our level not the competition.

I think 10-8 in the SEC, 20+ wins is reasonable for this team. That would put LSU at probably a 6-8 seed in the NCAAT.

Ceiling Top 4 SEC/ Tourney Double Bye, Top 4 NCAA Tourney Seed.

Very early assessment with a very small sample size, but this team will be as good as its defensive rebounding can be.

Outside of the 2021-22 team, this is Wade's best first shot defensive team. Clark and Ugo are really good on ball defenders. Niang and Mo are very good (if not elite) defenders. Then you add the length of Ruzic (who has shown he can defend without fouling) and Dessert. The only glaring weakness on the defensive end is not closing out possessions with rebounds.

Offensively, I generally don't worry about a Will Wade team's ability to score. Dent is high level college point guard who can score and create. Ruzic looks like he can be a consistent scoring threat. The concern is three-point shooting, but we certainly have good shooters in Clark and Bashir. Also expect this team to try to score a lot in transition with Dent.

If we can become a better rebounding team, I think this is potentially a second weekend team.

I think that meeting those expectations is possible with this team.

And if we get in than anything can happen

Yea, front court matchup is there, Dent has been a proven player vs good competition. I haven’t see Florida yet, I know their returning guys but not sure who’s replacing Lee or how that’s going. Biggest thing for me is our 2guard spot. I think Bashir is the way to go, we’ll see what it looks like vs Gonzaga, Houston and the other upper tier non conf opponents but I just think he’s the more natural 2 and multi level scorer that we’ll need to max out.