(07-09-2014 01:15 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 10:25 AM)ECUGrad07 Wrote:  Yeah, I just don't see how Terry Whisnant & Lance Tejada were left off the "Impact Transfer" and "Impact Freshman" lists, respectively.

Terry Whisnant
SG - 6'3" 180lbs
Avg 5.2 PPG in 17 MPG for a very good FSU team back in '12-'13.


Lance Tejada
PG - 6'1" 175lbs
Offers from: ECU, Alabama, Butler, FIU, Florida State, George Mason, Miami, Murray State, Rider, South Florida, UCF, Virginia
2013 Avg 23.3 PPG, 4.5 APG, 2.9 RPG


Oh well. The American will find out soon enough.

WE haven't even found out yet. The kid hasn't played a D1 game yet and some ECU fans have anointed him savior. Fact is other schools in the conference are getting like that on the regular.

OMG!!! They exist? A rational ECU fan. Praise the Lord....

(07-09-2014 01:15 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 10:25 AM)ECUGrad07 Wrote:  Yeah, I just don't see how Terry Whisnant & Lance Tejada were left off the "Impact Transfer" and "Impact Freshman" lists, respectively.

Terry Whisnant
SG - 6'3" 180lbs
Avg 5.2 PPG in 17 MPG for a very good FSU team back in '12-'13.


Lance Tejada
PG - 6'1" 175lbs
Offers from: ECU, Alabama, Butler, FIU, Florida State, George Mason, Miami, Murray State, Rider, South Florida, UCF, Virginia
2013 Avg 23.3 PPG, 4.5 APG, 2.9 RPG



Oh well. The American will find out soon enough.

WE haven't even found out yet. The kid hasn't played a D1 game yet and some ECU fans have anointed him savior. Fact is other schools in the conference are getting like that on the regular.

I have only said he should be on the "Impact Freshman" list. Nowhere did I list him as an All-American or a savior. Please read more carefully.

(07-09-2014 01:02 PM)BigHouston Wrote:  I see many are disapointed to be at bottom of the standings in the AAC... Let me remind a few, this isn't your normal basketball conference... This is gonna be one tough cookie of a league, if not already... I mean, most coaches in the AAC are some of the best the basketball college world has to offer, this coaches have outstanding backgrounds, they are masters at coaching and can spot talent miles away... You literally will have to bring your A game to almost every basketball arena to earn a W, it wont be easy... Heck, even the last place team could potentially be a top 7 at another conference, IMO.

What you state will be good for the league. Like the OBE. Must win tough OOC games with strong RPI to get the good rep and squeeze more teams in to the NCAA tourney.

(07-09-2014 01:15 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 10:25 AM)ECUGrad07 Wrote:  Yeah, I just don't see how Terry Whisnant & Lance Tejada were left off the "Impact Transfer" and "Impact Freshman" lists, respectively.

Terry Whisnant
SG - 6'3" 180lbs
Avg 5.2 PPG in 17 MPG for a very good FSU team back in '12-'13.


Lance Tejada
PG - 6'1" 175lbs
Offers from: ECU, Alabama, Butler, FIU, Florida State, George Mason, Miami, Murray State, Rider, South Florida, UCF, Virginia
2013 Avg 23.3 PPG, 4.5 APG, 2.9 RPG



Oh well. The American will find out soon enough.

WE haven't even found out yet. The kid hasn't played a D1 game yet and some ECU fans have anointed him savior. Fact is other schools in the conference are getting like that on the regular.

To be fair though; the whole league is basically rebuilding, we don't even know if any of these kids on any of these teams will be any good. How do we know that the Memphis or Cincinnati kids will be the studs that their posters say that they will be?

How do we know how UConn will play without Napier? How do we know that an ECU with a full roster is not better than Tulsa with a full roster? How do we know that Temple will be better? Why do we assume that Houston and USF will not finish 10th and 11th? How do we know any of these thing until the season starts? So why assume that a healthy ECU club will not be able to compete against UConn, Memphis, Cincinnati and SMU the same why that ECU competed against UNC, NC State and Duke? I can't wait until the season starts, because the game doesn't lie.

(07-09-2014 01:24 PM)ECUGrad07 Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 01:15 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 10:25 AM)ECUGrad07 Wrote:  Yeah, I just don't see how Terry Whisnant & Lance Tejada were left off the "Impact Transfer" and "Impact Freshman" lists, respectively.

Terry Whisnant
SG - 6'3" 180lbs
Avg 5.2 PPG in 17 MPG for a very good FSU team back in '12-'13.


Lance Tejada
PG - 6'1" 175lbs
Offers from: ECU, Alabama, Butler, FIU, Florida State, George Mason, Miami, Murray State, Rider, South Florida, UCF, Virginia
2013 Avg 23.3 PPG, 4.5 APG, 2.9 RPG



Oh well. The American will find out soon enough.

WE haven't even found out yet. The kid hasn't played a D1 game yet and some ECU fans have anointed him savior. Fact is other schools in the conference are getting like that on the regular.

I have only said he should be on the "Impact Freshman" list. Nowhere did I list him as an All-American or a savior. Please read more carefully.

Like I said, "some ECU fans". Nobody knows what this kid is capable of yet and the fact is there are only so many "impact freshmen" spots available.

(07-09-2014 01:24 PM)ECUGrad07 Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 01:15 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 10:25 AM)ECUGrad07 Wrote:  Yeah, I just don't see how Terry Whisnant & Lance Tejada were left off the "Impact Transfer" and "Impact Freshman" lists, respectively.

Terry Whisnant
SG - 6'3" 180lbs
Avg 5.2 PPG in 17 MPG for a very good FSU team back in '12-'13.


Lance Tejada
PG - 6'1" 175lbs
Offers from: ECU, Alabama, Butler, FIU, Florida State, George Mason, Miami, Murray State, Rider, South Florida, UCF, Virginia
2013 Avg 23.3 PPG, 4.5 APG, 2.9 RPG



Oh well. The American will find out soon enough.

WE haven't even found out yet. The kid hasn't played a D1 game yet and some ECU fans have anointed him savior. Fact is other schools in the conference are getting like that on the regular.

I have only said he should be on the "Impact Freshman" list. Nowhere did I list him as an All-American or a savior. Please read more carefully.

Maybe you are right, but in all fairness at places like UConn, Memphis, Cinci, now SMU and previously Temple, Tejada would just be another recruit. He probably just missed the list. I mean we have a kid named Pickney coming in with offers from Miami (FL), Harvard, Xavier and Clemson, but he would just be another body for the top half of the league.

(07-09-2014 01:02 PM)BigHouston Wrote:  I see many are disapointed to be at bottom of the standings in the AAC... Let me remind a few, this isn't your normal basketball conference... This is gonna be one tough cookie of a league, if not already... I mean, most coaches in the AAC are some of the best the basketball college world has to offer, this coaches have outstanding backgrounds, they are masters at coaching and can spot talent miles away... You literally will have to bring your A game to almost every basketball arena to earn a W, it wont be easy... Heck, even the last place team could potentially be a top 7 at another conference, IMO.

Coaches are only as good as the talent on their teams. In 2012 Lars Brown finished 15-17 (5-11) in CUSA. He has more talent now, so he should do pretty well next season. The rest of the league is pretty much rebuilding, so we don't know how good some of these guys on these teams really are. We will know come November.

UConn fans easily could be boasting about Hamilton but they are smart basketball fans. UC fans could be talking about how Clark was the second best player in North Carolina (isn't that where ECU is??) but we know that you don't talk about a guy before they ever play a game...

(07-09-2014 01:13 PM)TIGERCITY Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 12:59 PM)Tigers2B1 Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 12:23 PM)TIGERCITY Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 11:29 AM)Cali_Cat Wrote:  Why do ECU fans keep putting all this pressure on this Tejada kid? You realize basically every player on Memphis, UConn and Cincinnati (possibly SMU too) held better offers than the guy you keep pimping as an 1st Team All-American? Delusion at its finest....

Well you have to factor in that he's being coached by 'Lebo The Great.' Slayer of the D2 league.

Going 15-0 against Division 2 opponents in the last 4 years is nothing to laugh about.

Yes it is.

Show me another D1 coach who has 15 wins against Division 2 schools in four years. You can't. The guy is a Division 2 juggernaut.

(07-09-2014 01:37 PM)wavefan12 Wrote:  Maybe you are right, but in all fairness at places like UConn, Memphis, Cinci, now SMU and previously Temple, Tejada would just be another recruit.

And this is exactly why I'm tempering my expectations for the first few seasons. No way in ECU comes out of the gate and finishes any higher than middle of the pack, and that would probably take a miracle season truth be known. I'm optimistic about the future but I believe the first season in the AAC is going to be really rough.

(07-09-2014 01:38 PM)Tigers2B1 Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 01:13 PM)TIGERCITY Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 12:59 PM)Tigers2B1 Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 12:23 PM)TIGERCITY Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 11:29 AM)Cali_Cat Wrote:  Why do ECU fans keep putting all this pressure on this Tejada kid? You realize basically every player on Memphis, UConn and Cincinnati (possibly SMU too) held better offers than the guy you keep pimping as an 1st Team All-American? Delusion at its finest....

Well you have to factor in that he's being coached by 'Lebo The Great.' Slayer of the D2 league.

Going 15-0 against Division 2 opponents in the last 4 years is nothing to laugh about.

Yes it is.

Show me another D1 coach who has 15 wins against Division 2 schools in four years. You can't. The guy is a Division 2 juggernaut.

That I'll admit to --

(07-09-2014 01:40 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 01:37 PM)wavefan12 Wrote:  Maybe you are right, but in all fairness at places like UConn, Memphis, Cinci, now SMU and previously Temple, Tejada would just be another recruit.

And this is exactly why I'm tempering my expectations for the first few seasons. No way in ECU comes out of the gate and finishes any higher than middle of the pack, and that would probably take a miracle season truth be known. I'm optimistic about the future but I believe the first season in the AAC is going to be really rough.

What you are saying is reasonable, but how do you know that? Every team in the AAC is literally rebuilding; how do you know that some of these other guys on some of these other AAC teams are not overrated? What are you basing you thoughts on? Pastner has a whole new crew in Memphis. Does Pastner strike you as the type of coach that is going to be able to form a pack of freshmen and sophomores into a juggernaut?

Were you impressed by UCF's Donnie Jones' coaching chops? Antigua has never coached before, so why do you assume that USF will be better than ECU? Lebo beat Houston when Dickey was the coach with a bunch of stud on Houston's roster; Sampson has less than Dickey had, so why are you assuming that a rebuilding Houston is going to be better? Frank Haith at Tulsa is completely overrated, so how do you know if Tulsa will be any good? We could go on and on, but I am asking how do you know?

(07-09-2014 09:32 AM)ECUGrad07 Wrote:  Interesting that Lance Tejada isn't listed as an "Impact Freshman."

Well, being projected dead last should piss off our players, and I look forward to ECU proving them wrong.

nah, its just rothsteins twitter, wgaf

(07-09-2014 01:47 PM)PirateMarv Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 01:40 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 01:37 PM)wavefan12 Wrote:  Maybe you are right, but in all fairness at places like UConn, Memphis, Cinci, now SMU and previously Temple, Tejada would just be another recruit.

And this is exactly why I'm tempering my expectations for the first few seasons. No way in ECU comes out of the gate and finishes any higher than middle of the pack, and that would probably take a miracle season truth be known. I'm optimistic about the future but I believe the first season in the AAC is going to be really rough.

What you are saying is reasonable, but how do you know that? Every team in the AAC is literally rebuilding; how do you know that some of these other guys on some of these other AAC teams are not overrated? What are you basing you thoughts on? Pastner has a whole new crew in Memphis. Does Pastner strike you as the type of coach that is going to be able to form a pack of freshmen and sophomores into a juggernaut?

Were you impressed by UCF's Donnie Jones' coaching chops? Antigua has never coached before, so why do you assume that USF will be better than ECU? Lebo beat Houston when Dickey was the coach with a bunch of stud on Houston's roster; Sampson has less than Dickey had, so why are you assuming that a rebuilding Houston is going to be better? We could go on and on, but I am asking how do you know?

Everybody in this league will have good players but winning basketball games in a top level basketball conference is a whole another thing. Cincinnati, UConn, and SMU will defend like crazy. Winning conference games usually comes down to getting key stops and making free throws in the last part of the game. I thought Houston had more talent than teams in the NCAA tournament but they hardly resembled a basketball. Sampson should improve their record even if the talent level is a bit down from the previous season. Temple was shorthanded all season and still was in just about every game last year. They gave UC all they could handle last season.

I expect ECU to pick up some conference wins at home but I can't see them winning more than three road conference games. Road games at Cincinnati, UConn, SMU, Memphis, Tulsa, Temple, and Houston are not going to be easy. They are going to have win one of those games and beat both of the Florida schools just to get to three conference road victories.

(07-09-2014 10:42 AM)uccheese Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 10:34 AM)Wilkie01 Wrote:  I do not buy the claim that SMU will be better than UConn, Cincinnati and Memphis. I will have to see it happen to believe it!

I have no problem with them being the favorite today given the rosters of the 4 teams, but at the end of the day I trust the other teams more simply because they have proven it more (and a good amount of the guys who did the proving are still around).

not sure what to think yet....

I know UC will have a ton of talent, will be deeper than we have been, and have more scorers and big men than Mick has had but...big but....they have to figure out the starting line up, some new comers will need to adjust to the college game, we need to figure out who the new go to guy is, etc etc etc.

all in all, I see UC sputtering first couple of months, but the depth and talent is there and Mick can coach so I see us getting it together by March and making the ncaa

now...where we end up in the AAC is anybody's guess

(07-09-2014 01:47 PM)PirateMarv Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 01:40 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 01:37 PM)wavefan12 Wrote:  Maybe you are right, but in all fairness at places like UConn, Memphis, Cinci, now SMU and previously Temple, Tejada would just be another recruit.

And this is exactly why I'm tempering my expectations for the first few seasons. No way in ECU comes out of the gate and finishes any higher than middle of the pack, and that would probably take a miracle season truth be known. I'm optimistic about the future but I believe the first season in the AAC is going to be really rough.

What you are saying is reasonable, but how do you know that? Every team in the AAC is literally rebuilding; how do you know that some of these other guys on some of these other AAC teams are not overrated? What are you basing you thoughts on? Pastner has a whole new crew in Memphis. Does Pastner strike you as the type of coach that is going to be able to form a pack of freshmen and sophomores into a juggernaut?

Were you impressed by UCF's Donnie Jones' coaching chops? Antigua has never coached before, so why do you assume that USF will be better than ECU? Lebo beat Houston when Dickey was the coach with a bunch of stud on Houston's roster; Sampson has less than Dickey had, so why are you assuming that a rebuilding Houston is going to be better? Frank Haith at Tulsa is completely overrated, so how do you know if Tulsa will be any good? We could go on and on, but I am asking how do you know?

Lebo's TEAM beat Houston. ECU just doesn't have the horses to hang around with the big guns this year. The additions you guys made are great, but you also had some big losses. The other teams didn't.

(07-09-2014 01:59 PM)bearcatlawjd Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 01:47 PM)PirateMarv Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 01:40 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 01:37 PM)wavefan12 Wrote:  Maybe you are right, but in all fairness at places like UConn, Memphis, Cinci, now SMU and previously Temple, Tejada would just be another recruit.

And this is exactly why I'm tempering my expectations for the first few seasons. No way in ECU comes out of the gate and finishes any higher than middle of the pack, and that would probably take a miracle season truth be known. I'm optimistic about the future but I believe the first season in the AAC is going to be really rough.

What you are saying is reasonable, but how do you know that? Every team in the AAC is literally rebuilding; how do you know that some of these other guys on some of these other AAC teams are not overrated? What are you basing you thoughts on? Pastner has a whole new crew in Memphis. Does Pastner strike you as the type of coach that is going to be able to form a pack of freshmen and sophomores into a juggernaut?

Were you impressed by UCF's Donnie Jones' coaching chops? Antigua has never coached before, so why do you assume that USF will be better than ECU? Lebo beat Houston when Dickey was the coach with a bunch of stud on Houston's roster; Sampson has less than Dickey had, so why are you assuming that a rebuilding Houston is going to be better? We could go on and on, but I am asking how do you know?

Everybody in this league will have good players but winning basketball games in a top level basketball conference is a whole another thing. Cincinnati, UConn, and SMU will defend like crazy. Winning conference games usually comes down to getting key stops and making free throws in the last part of the game. I thought Houston had more talent than teams in the NCAA tournament but they hardly resembled a basketball. Sampson should improve their record even if the talent level is a bit down from the previous season. Temple was shorthanded all season and still was in just about every game last year. They gave UC all they could handle last season.

I expect ECU to pick up some conference wins at home but I can't see them winning more than three road conference games. Road games at Cincinnati, UConn, SMU, Memphis, Tulsa, Temple, and Houston are not going to be easy. They are going to have win one of those games and beat both of the Florida schools just to get to three conference road victories.

Thanks for answering the questions. You at at least attempted to review the issues objectively, without assuming that all of the players on all of these teams are going to pan out the way that the posters in these threads suggest. There is no way in Hell that all of these guys are going to pan out. There are just too many moving parts and too much rebuilding going on in the league for me to believe that all of these teams are going to end up being where people think.

Before the NCAA tournament last year I picked UConn to win it all, because I thought that they were well coached and the players played hard; and all of their players looked like they enjoyed playing together. When I see that in teams; regardless of the talent level, I always believe that teams like that will have a lot of success. ECU looked that way to me last year, but they just didn't have enough bodies after all of the transfers and injuries.

Fwiw, I don't know what ECU will look like next year; but my hunch is that if Lebo's club is at full strength then ECU is going to be a handful. I have seen too many games where it took every thing that Duke, UNC, NC State and Memphis had in order to beat ECU; and all of those games except for 1 were on those other teams courts.

(07-09-2014 11:29 AM)Cali_Cat Wrote:  Why do ECU fans keep putting all this pressure on this Tejada kid? You realize basically every player on Memphis, UConn and Cincinnati (possibly SMU too) held better offers than the guy you keep pimping as an 1st Team All-American? Delusion at its finest....

Because ESPN once listed him as a 4* and dropped him once they realized no one else had him close to that. I've followed recruiting for a long time and I'm not sure I've seen a recruit so laughably overrated by their own fanbase. The guy is fine and could be a good player, but ECU fans are acting like they have Mudiay coming in.

(07-09-2014 01:47 PM)PirateMarv Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 01:40 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 01:37 PM)wavefan12 Wrote:  Maybe you are right, but in all fairness at places like UConn, Memphis, Cinci, now SMU and previously Temple, Tejada would just be another recruit.

And this is exactly why I'm tempering my expectations for the first few seasons. No way in ECU comes out of the gate and finishes any higher than middle of the pack, and that would probably take a miracle season truth be known. I'm optimistic about the future but I believe the first season in the AAC is going to be really rough.

What you are saying is reasonable, but how do you know that? Every team in the AAC is literally rebuilding; how do you know that some of these other guys on some of these other AAC teams are not overrated? What are you basing you thoughts on? Pastner has a whole new crew in Memphis. Does Pastner strike you as the type of coach that is going to be able to form a pack of freshmen and sophomores into a juggernaut?

Were you impressed by UCF's Donnie Jones' coaching chops? Antigua has never coached before, so why do you assume that USF will be better than ECU? Lebo beat Houston when Dickey was the coach with a bunch of stud on Houston's roster; Sampson has less than Dickey had, so why are you assuming that a rebuilding Houston is going to be better? Frank Haith at Tulsa is completely overrated, so how do you know if Tulsa will be any good? We could go on and on, but I am asking how do you know?

The talent level alone at a lot of the other schools will be enough to overwhelm ECU. Theoretical bad coaching or not at other places. Look at Houston, SMU, UConn, Cincy, Temple and Memphis (that's over half of the conference) recruiting classes compared to ours. They're just getting flat out better players. JMHO we're going to struggle a lot. I really, really hope that I'm proven wrong.

(07-09-2014 02:11 PM)invisiblehand Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 01:47 PM)PirateMarv Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 01:40 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(07-09-2014 01:37 PM)wavefan12 Wrote:  Maybe you are right, but in all fairness at places like UConn, Memphis, Cinci, now SMU and previously Temple, Tejada would just be another recruit.

And this is exactly why I'm tempering my expectations for the first few seasons. No way in ECU comes out of the gate and finishes any higher than middle of the pack, and that would probably take a miracle season truth be known. I'm optimistic about the future but I believe the first season in the AAC is going to be really rough.

What you are saying is reasonable, but how do you know that? Every team in the AAC is literally rebuilding; how do you know that some of these other guys on some of these other AAC teams are not overrated? What are you basing you thoughts on? Pastner has a whole new crew in Memphis. Does Pastner strike you as the type of coach that is going to be able to form a pack of freshmen and sophomores into a juggernaut?

Were you impressed by UCF's Donnie Jones' coaching chops? Antigua has never coached before, so why do you assume that USF will be better than ECU? Lebo beat Houston when Dickey was the coach with a bunch of stud on Houston's roster; Sampson has less than Dickey had, so why are you assuming that a rebuilding Houston is going to be better? Frank Haith at Tulsa is completely overrated, so how do you know if Tulsa will be any good? We could go on and on, but I am asking how do you know?

Lebo's TEAM beat Houston. ECU just doesn't have the horses to hang around with the big guns this year. The additions you guys made are great, but you also had some big losses. The other teams didn't.

The only big gun is UConn. SMU still has to prove it. Memphis and Cincinnati are rebuilding. Temple may or may not be good. Tulsa got hot last year at the right time in a really bad league; so I am not all that sure if Tulsa was really that good. USF, UCF, Houston, ECU and Tulane are presumed to be the bottom teams, but until the games start we really don't know. Assuming that no injuries occur and everyone suits up on all of these teams then I think that there maybe some surprises, because coaching means a lot in college basketball.