I can't say that I have been paying a lot of attention to what the other MAC schools have in their incoming class but I still would have been pretty shocked to find out that we were not ranked 1st with what we have.

Am I looking at this right? These rankings are before the signing of Elliot? I don't see him listed. If so, I would think the ranking is even better.

I think that's the biggest concern. Paveletzke needs to be as good as Hunter in facilitation. Mitchell {and probably Elliot?) is a hybrid guard and Sheldon is an outside shooter. If AJB is healthy we'll replace the scoring we lost and the point probably won't score as much as Hunter did. In terms of facilitation I wouldn't be surprised at all if Paveletzke is better than Hunter but we'll see.

I think Wiznitzer was a better player last year than the year before and wasn't as bad as some say but needless to say he wasn't a particularly good player. If Paveletzke is a quality point guard and AJB is healthy all we really need to contend for MAC, even without any improvement from our returners, is for Searle or Evans to be a backup center. It is easy to think Evans could be better than that and allow Clayton to play some PF where he'd probably be more comfortable. If James's issues last year were health and he's better this year and Burris and Elliot are as good as their ranking then we'll have some real things to figure out as far as playing time. But that's best case scenario. Well, the best case scenario is getting in another quality big on top of that. But I agree, the floor, barring a lot of injuries or a locker room meltdown, is a team that is a little worse that last year. The ceiling is team that can win around 25 or 26 regular season games.

I was mostly agreeing with you. I think Paveletzke being something of a bust and Ohio having to play him at a level much less than we expected or playing a hybrid guard or Sheldon at the point is our most likely way for us to end up near the "floor" we were discussing. I didn't mean that I think that's what will happen. We need a good facilitator and we don't have one returning that proved it in our offense. That is something of a risk even if we should feel pretty confident about it.

How do you figure? He took the biggest leap from year 1 to 2 and averaged 10ppg and 6rpg once he became a starter. He's a lock for the starting 4 role and it isn't even a discussion.

Talked with a casual Ashland fan, who watches most of their games on TV rather than personal attendance, and he thought Searls was ready to make the jump to D1.

I think the best bet on the game 1 starting lineup would be Paveletzke, Mitchell, Brown, Hadaway, Clayton. I suspect that most of the board would guess the same. James started 18 games last year. Ayden Evans was a 4 star recruit. We have two more three star recruits plus one more scholarship to fill......

Judging by how Boals has handled young bigs in the past I don't expect Evans to have minutes right away. I believe Searls will get those minutes. It's pretty easy to determine that Reef, AJ Brown, Clayton and Hadaway will be joined by Paveletzke, who I completely expect to revert back to his Wofford self. That gives us Elliott, EJ4, Searls and Sheldon off the bench? Heck yes. Order me up that rotation and toss in a little Ben Nichol (5 minutes here and there) or Ayden Evans as he progresses.

I have high hopes for Ayden as well. I just don't see anymore than 8-10 per game minutes his freshman year...if we are lucky.

Both Colin Granger and Nolan Foster saw action in 20+ games during their freshman campaigns. As long as Evans can provide some valuable minutes while the other guys get a blow, I think Boals will be happy with that. He doesn't need to be All-MAC from day one. Just be able to do SOMETHING.

Exactly. Just contribute.

I figured and I’m hoping another big is brought in too. It’s officially May 15th and a lot of the guys we may have been tied/in contact with are finding homes.

I know Jeff said Boals is unsure what they’ll do with the last schollie via Cincy caravan. So, in the situation it isn’t used or isn’t used on size, really gotta hope Evans can chip in some meaningful minutes.