re: What’s The Ceiling For Our Men’s Basketball Team?

To put things in a bit of perspective, Arkansas played a scrimmage vs. a team called "East Central" (which may or may not be a fictional high school on Saved by the Bell) and won by 2...with at least 4 of their projected starters playing significant minutes.

Alabama played (a good) ULL...in Tuscaloosa, and had to come from behind to win by 5. Alabama played several starters significant minutes

LSU played AT a NSU team that is picked to win the Southland Conf....without 3 starters...and won by 12

Good points.
I believe it was 2017 where we lost to Tulane in a similar type of charity scrimmage, then went on to beat Michigan a couple weeks later.
These things don't mean much. Especially when you're missing starters.

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These things don't mean much. Especially when you're missing starters.

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Very true.

But the fact that LSU was able to go on the ROAD and beat what is anticipated to be a decent mid-major team by double-digits, WITHOUT what are likely to be their 3 top scorers is encouraging relative to the fact two teams picked ahead of them in the SEC seem to have struggled...at HOME...with most of their starting line ups playing 30+ minutes.

Does that mean Arkansas and Alabama will suck? Of course not. But it probably gives Wade a little bit of encouragement that he has some other guys on his roster beyond the 3 starters (really 4 if you consider Miller) that can play.

The Chimes, Walk on's, or the old trusty bar at Past time!

Losing Miller is going to throw a wrench into our offensive plans but I’m interested to see how we’ll use Efton Reid and his potential to be one of our top offensive contributors. Reid has a very polished offensive game that includes shooting range, the knock on him is his athleticism and physicality. We could use him the way Wade used Duop Reath his first season as a post presence as well as a pick and pop guy at the top of the key. I don’t believe it’s a reach to think that Reid can replicate Reaths 12ppg number along with being a more productive rebounder and defender. If we can get that out of him, Days maintains or improves his scoring just a bit, Pinson gives us 13-14 ppg with improvements from guys like Gaines, Eason and Wilkerson along with impact from Murray, O’Neal and Fudge the offense won’t backup nearly as much as some think. You couple that with the improved length, and athleticism overall plus defensive minded players like Eason, O’Neal and Wilkerson and the pieces are there for us to have a big year. Like you said it’s about how they gel but I think we surprise people this season.

Depends how well we come together. I could see this team being anywhere from a 1 and done to potentially making a final four run.

I think it really will benefit us in that we have a fairly weak non conference schedule. Wade should get to experiment with a few different rotations. Some of those head scratching early season losses he usually has could end up being ugly wins.

When if gets to league play, I’d still only expect us to play 8 guys. Maybe 9. That 38-1 UK team played two rotations of 5 and Cal said he would never do anything like that again.

I’d expect your starting 5 to be

Pinson
Murray
Days
Eason
Reid

Primary bench players being

Wilkinson
Gaines
Fudge

Maybe he tosses O’Neal a few minutes here and there.


My prediction would be 11-7 in league play finish in a tie for 3rd or 4th. I don’t think you’ll see anyone like Alabama last year or LSU in 2019 that goes 15-3 or 16-2. There are too many good teams. 13-5 will probably win the league in regular season.

Post season wise my prediction would be a Sweet 16 team. We made it in 2019, we nearly beat Michigan last year. I think this team has size and athleticism to match anyone. Michigan gave us size issues, being that all we had post wise was Watford. Question on how far ww get is who will score the ball and will we defend? This team has potential to be really good defensively with their length

He tore his ACL in practice.

I think we had 6 guys sitting out for the scrimmage. Pinson will start probably in front of Gaines and Reid will start also probably with Days maybe Wilkinson and Eason. The guys who played in the scrimmage are mostly subs except for Eason and maybe Murray starts at the 2 instead of Wilkinson.

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Lots of new players I have never seen play so how can we rank them as a high tournament team?

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Agreed. I think people need to temper their EXPECTATIONS, not hopes for the season.

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It seems the three players I do know will be starting, at least based on the first scrimmage and what Wade has said. That would be Wilkinson, an undersized 3 who can jump and hustles, Gaines, a guard who has physical ability but played out of control most of the time, and Darius Dayes who is also undersized but can board and shoot.

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Pinson, Days and Reid are starters. The other two spots are a bit unknown, but I would bet Murray likely starts at the 2 guard spot. A week ago I would have said Wilkinson is the starter at the 3. However (and it was only one scrimmage) Eason may be too good to leave on the bench and you see him start at the 3.

You are going to see some mixing and matching in Nov/December to find the right line up. So other than Pinson, Days and Reid, the starting line up isn't set in stone

Loads of talent but will under achieve. We will probably be 10-8 in the SEC. Probably end up a 10 or 11 seed in the tournament.