We could right the ship with a win and turn this year into a good one. But unfortunately, it won't happen this game.

TU - 66
WSU - 78

No, they will score more than that.....that might be the number of free throws the teams shoot though.......I kind of figure in another year or two, college basketball will just to be two 5 man teams, shooting free throws, maybe 10 per man, and the one that makes the most wins. In this one, WSU 85, Tulsa 75............and the game will take just over 3 hours to play and there will be more points scored at the free throw line than by baskets made.

This will be a rocky season for the MBB team and three things help to determine that:
1) New NCAA rule change. Refs just don't seem to know how to call games with it yet.

2)Making free throws. Tulsa has been woeful so far this year. Only fix practice, practice, practice.

3) Experienced inside game. Tulsa big men are all freshmen this year and some or all will probably be redshirted. That gives Tulsa realistically no inside game, or at least very little. A fast fix is needed at the position by means of a stud 6'10"-6'11" junior college player. Unfortunately those are in very high demand and seldom go to a team outside the P5. A Memphis maybe.

I suspect that Manning's staff knew after evaluation of what they had to work with coming in, that the program was going to take a min. of 3 years to even get enough bodies and experience to simply be competitive. Much less get to the Big Dance! Tulsa has no Seniors to lead the team that are worth a flip, so it is what it is. Like with the football team without senior leadership you don't have a captain to steer the ship. Without a captain the ship likely will run aground. Essentially that means no NCAA this year and likely none the next either since most of Tulsa's big men will still only be red-shirt freshmen.

A tough near future but in the forth year of Manning's administration things should be better since he will then have an experienced team. A long time but as I said unless you can shortcut with stud junior college players there is no fast solution.

At this point, I'm concerned about our inside game, not because DM can't develope them, but that we don't have enough of them. And we have two recruits signed so far, but one is a true guard and the other is a guard/forward at 6-6. Thats not going to help us inside and negates DM's main coaching quality of bigman producer. He can't make a 6-4 center play big if 6-4 isn't big.

As far as the FT's are concerned, I think its always better to keep the shooters under control and relaxed on the line, but slightly out of control (playing fast with maximum effort) when the clock is moving. I'd like to see more "hard" pressure off the press than the tokin "slow em down" style we are playing. We have to begin forcing the issue with such a small group.