I know I always catch hell for posts that are TLDR, but just throwing out some thoughts on five programs: baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, soccer and football.
Took a spin by Gene’s page, there is almost more talk about our series with USM there than here. Every Dawg is hoping for two things: a USM win and that we retain Bianco. In some ways, they feel it’s a win/win for them, as long as we don’t win it all, as they want to always have that to hold over our heads. I would say the predictions were slightly slanted to USM, because of their pitching, but pretty close to 50/50. Almost every Ole Miss pick is in two games, they feel if it goes three, USM wins. Strangely enough, that’s one point on which I agree with them.
As I am sure everyone has read, much to my surprise, Ewin has qualified and is on campus. I wanted KD gone this year, but that’s at least one piece for the future. I would assume this news knocks Allen out, since we are now at 14 and he was going to have no role anyway with his injuries and the three forward transfers, who are all seemingly clones of Allen, although maybe slightly better. I still think this team is overmatched and will have a very hard time dancing, there just is not enough shooting, but they could be interesting to watch. IMHO, KD will need massive improvement out of Brakefield to compete in the SEC, as we know the four transfers aren’t scorers.
Noticed Yo picked up a guard from Serbia. It’s really impossible to know how these foreign players will perform until they are here, but it’s certainly a strange looking roster, as we have 8 guards, 2 forwards-one of whom, Collins, was a guard in HS, and one center, who’s the only player over 6’1” on the roster. The center is a transfer from Pitt who averaged about 7 and 7, so quite a step down from Austin. We really have no front-court depth and, unless a lot of these transfers are great 3-point shooters, I have a hard time seeing this as an NCAA team next year. But Yo does still have two open spots, maybe she will bring in two more bigs before the season starts.
I know soccer is not followed much here, but Coach Mott has now landed 6 transfers from Duke, LSU, Memphis, Gonzaga, William & Mary and Arkansas State. The girls from the small schools were all freshmen all conference and a couple were the conference defensive players of the year. The Duke and LSU transfers are grad transfers who started last year. Mott also landed the top HS players in MS and a few out-of State signees who look promising. I am no soccer expert, but Mott at least appears to have a plan and must really be good at slicing and dicing schollies. Still, we lost our top three players in terms of minutes, so I have no idea how good we will be next year. Does anyone know whether the GK, Orkus, is coming back for her COVID year?
Any thoughts on how difficult it would be for the Mich State LB to get a waiver to play immediately? I’m sure if he goes to a blue-blood it will happen, but I just don’t trust the NCAA where we are concerned. He certainly would be a welcome addition to our defense, LB is really my only big concern on that side of the ball. What ever happened to the RB from MTSU who we wanted as a LB, I never saw anything on him after his visit?
Took a spin by Gene’s page, there is almost more talk about our series with USM there than here. Every Dawg is hoping for two things: a USM win and that we retain Bianco. In some ways, they feel it’s a win/win for them, as long as we don’t win it all, as they want to always have that to hold over our heads. I would say the predictions were slightly slanted to USM, because of their pitching, but pretty close to 50/50. Almost every Ole Miss pick is in two games, they feel if it goes three, USM wins. Strangely enough, that’s one point on which I agree with them.
As I am sure everyone has read, much to my surprise, Ewin has qualified and is on campus. I wanted KD gone this year, but that’s at least one piece for the future. I would assume this news knocks Allen out, since we are now at 14 and he was going to have no role anyway with his injuries and the three forward transfers, who are all seemingly clones of Allen, although maybe slightly better. I still think this team is overmatched and will have a very hard time dancing, there just is not enough shooting, but they could be interesting to watch. IMHO, KD will need massive improvement out of Brakefield to compete in the SEC, as we know the four transfers aren’t scorers.
Noticed Yo picked up a guard from Serbia. It’s really impossible to know how these foreign players will perform until they are here, but it’s certainly a strange looking roster, as we have 8 guards, 2 forwards-one of whom, Collins, was a guard in HS, and one center, who’s the only player over 6’1” on the roster. The center is a transfer from Pitt who averaged about 7 and 7, so quite a step down from Austin. We really have no front-court depth and, unless a lot of these transfers are great 3-point shooters, I have a hard time seeing this as an NCAA team next year. But Yo does still have two open spots, maybe she will bring in two more bigs before the season starts.
I know soccer is not followed much here, but Coach Mott has now landed 6 transfers from Duke, LSU, Memphis, Gonzaga, William & Mary and Arkansas State. The girls from the small schools were all freshmen all conference and a couple were the conference defensive players of the year. The Duke and LSU transfers are grad transfers who started last year. Mott also landed the top HS players in MS and a few out-of State signees who look promising. I am no soccer expert, but Mott at least appears to have a plan and must really be good at slicing and dicing schollies. Still, we lost our top three players in terms of minutes, so I have no idea how good we will be next year. Does anyone know whether the GK, Orkus, is coming back for her COVID year?
Any thoughts on how difficult it would be for the Mich State LB to get a waiver to play immediately? I’m sure if he goes to a blue-blood it will happen, but I just don’t trust the NCAA where we are concerned. He certainly would be a welcome addition to our defense, LB is really my only big concern on that side of the ball. What ever happened to the RB from MTSU who we wanted as a LB, I never saw anything on him after his visit?
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