I really struggled to make the preview as upbeat as possible, given facts and realities. Hope no one blows out their pilot lights.

http://www.ramblermania.net/stories/201 ... l-preview/

Dissent is not only welcome, but encouraged.

I haven't cried so hard since [*spoiler alert*] they shot "Old Yeller".

Let me regain my composure before I attempt to comment on the substance of your excellent preview.

Nicely done, John. It's not a rosy picture but I don't think there's any reason to expect anything more than that. I hope to see improvement in the areas you mention, and hope to see the coaching staff improve in areas where they struggled last year. Hopefully when we're up on other teams this year in the second half, we can keep the pedal down and not let them back into games.

I won't be there Friday, going to be out of town, but anyone who goes have fun and good luck to the guys.

I don't know enough about the other MVC teams to really evaluate our chances against each of them, so I'll restrict my comments to our own team's strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths:

We have high character senior leadership in Crisman, Thomas and Dokubo.

Three point shooting is above average, especially Turk. Richardson is supposed to be a good shooter too. White, Doyle have range as well.

If healthy, Milton is an elite player who can create own shot.

Christian can operate offensively inside against most MVC teams.

We have depth at the wing.

Weaknesses:

Lack of height. Rebounding. If James gets hurt or in foul trouble, we are in BIG trouble. I'm not sure if Rajala is ready to play at this level yet. The wings- Crisman, Ingram, Knuth and Turk- are going to have to help Thomas and James on the boards. I see this as by far our biggest weakness. this, plus defending the post. Maybe the Ramblers will decide to play more zone to protect the paint and take advantage of their wealth of wing players. But, as 08 taught me, it's harder to rebound while playing zone, so this strategy is a two edged sword.

Lack of depth at point guard. Keke is an adequate+ point, but he is somewhat prone to turnovers. And he will be out early in year with a knee. I like London's hustle and defense, but his offense is pretty much nonexistent. Where are the points going to come from if Doyle and White are out with injuries? Maybe Peterson can fill in some at point guard. That would be a big help.

Porter's poor game management. As 08 pointed out, Porter has a tendency to go into the offensive deep freeze trying to protect a lead.

Tallying up the strengths and weaknesses, I have to agree with JCT that they point to a 10th place finish. Bradley lost a home exhibition game against a D 3 opponent recently, so we might edge them out. I suppose that if all the stars align just right, we might slip past Drake and SIU too, but that's a stretch. It may depend on one or more of our freshman developing quickly and becoming solid contributors. I think Donte Ingram is most likely to do so.

Christian Thomas is a great player whose character is also notably high. What more can you say about a guy who performs so well and maintains such a steady demeanor when he's being asked to do more than physically possible? Yet you can clearly see from his numbers how he's faltering offensively under heavy minutes in the grind of MVC play. From January 11, 2013 going into to game on January 11, 2014, he had a string of 31 consecutive games soring double digits. The streak was broken in the 4th MVC game of the season last year, and beginning with that game he had a double in points for only 10 of the remaining 17 games of the season. Loyola was 4-6 in the games where he reached double digits, 0-7 in the games where he didn't. He's going to be asked to do even more this season, with no bigger bodies in the paint.

When White was out of the game, Doyle brought the ball up court a lot last season. It was not often pretty, and contributed to Doyle's high number of turnovers. If White is not able to play early, I'd rather see Dokubo doing that-- but London has got to be at least a plausible threat on offense to keep opposing defenses honest. I have to believe that London was under strict orders last season to not attempt to shoot. He only made five field goal attempts all season, and has taken fewer attempts each year (11 as a freshman, 6 as a sophomore and 5 as a junior). He'll need to take (and hopefully make) some shots if he's the starter in the Rockhurst and McKendree games. He shot 47% from the field in 17 attempts before last season.

I just did a quick run through of the depth chart. I'm assuming CT and Montel start at the two post positions, and then our depth there is Julius. Is that right? If so I hope the Fin is ready to play. I could be wrong but I think Donte is a wing and not a post. Hope we don't have many games with foul trouble.

Donte is 6'5-6'6" and his natural position is 2 or 3, where he played at Simeon. He's a good ball handler and 3 point shooter.

On Loyola's website there's a "Meet Donte Ingram" video where he says that he's willing to help out wherever he's needed, and that Porter is working him more inside at practice. I figure this is for this year only because we get some more height next year with Kirby and Adgei coming in.

JCT - Great preview.

I agree that the starting frontcourt will probably be Thomas and James with Julius, Ingram, and Knuth backing them up. You've essentially got Julius replacing Cody Johnson and Jeremy King. You've also got Donte Ingram and Jay Knuth replacing Osborne and O'Leary. There's the obvious experience factor, but I have a feeling that the new guys will defend and rebound better than what we had.

Injuries are a factor, but we are still deeper at guard. Between London, Earl Peterson, and Ben Richardson, we should be able to cover the point guard position early in the year without Keke. Turk is a great weapon off the bench.

With the season right around the corner, I'm excited.

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ahunte,

I know you were at the open practice and remember you were impressed by Richardson.

Can he play the point? In high school he was a shooting guard playing next to a four star point guard (something like Clayton Custer) who wound up with a scholarship to Iowa State.

He's definitely more of a 2, but I think he could competently handle the point position if there's an injury need. Maybe not a big drive and dish guy, but more like a London/Crisman hybrid with more pure shooting, passing, and dribbling ability. He seems to understand the game well.

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