- Coach Boals will try his best and give it everything he’s got

- All the players will try their best and give it everything they’ve got

- The games will unfold and be unpredictable

- The team that scores the most points will win every game

- My nickname is Nostradamus

I'll add to this, I boldly predict that we will win every game that we do not lose.

With all the new faces I would be pleased with a 20 win season.







GO BOBCATS

Some actual predictions:

-- Our leading scorer will average less than 14ppg.

-- Of our top four leading scorers, none will have been on the roster last year

-- Gabe Wiznitzer will play less than 10 minutes per game

-- Despite the appearance of a deep roster, by the MAC tournament Boals will be down to a 7 man rotation

-- Dwight Wilson is our best player this year by a healthy margin

-- We struggle a ton out of conference, get beat by Belmont, Cleveland State, Michigan, Marshall, Florida, Delaware, and lose a game to one of Chicago State, Youngstown State, Alabama State, or Detroit Mercy.

-- Before conference play begins, there's a thread on this board where a coaching change is suggested. One person will suggest DJ Cooper be the next coach, another will suggest Steve Wojciechowski, and somebody else will nominate the guy the Celtics just had to suspend.

-- The team will rally in MAC play, finish second in the East, and lose in the MAC Championship game.

-- Mark Sears will outperform Ben Van Der Plas on their new major conference team, but posts about Mark Sears not being good enough for the SEC will outnumber posts about BVP 5:1. Mark Sears' mom will be insulted, BVP's will not be.

Oh is this the BOLD PREDICTIONS thread?

BOLD player prediction: AJ Clayton will quadruple his scoring average from last year.

BOLD team prediction: Hunter and Wilson are a pick and roll machine from the get go and both earn at least All-MAC second team honors

BOLD conference prediction: At some point after the second week of MAC play, Miami will hold a share of first place in the MAC standings.

BOLD national prediction: Four teams in the Elite 8 come from outside the P5+BE.

Agree on point 1
DW3 was on the roster so you are wrong :)
I hate to say it but I agree
Regular rotation: Baker, Hunter, DW3, Clayton, BRod, Miles, Wiznitzer, AJB which makes 8 (and I'm not convinced Ajay Sheldon won't get regular PT as a backup PG)
We lose to Belmont, CSU, Michigan, Florida and none of the extras you said
Agree but not DJ Cooper--Tommy Freeman
Agree
BVP will OUTPERFORM Sears. BVP will average 8 and 6...Sears 5 pts, 3 rebs, 2 assists per game. Both will go far in NCAA Tourney

1. DW3 and Baker will average 15 ppg bc they’ve both done it before.
2. All 5 starters will average double figures, the remaining 3 being Hunter, AJ Brown, and Clayton.
3. AJ Brown will be on the All MAC Freshman team at a minimum.
4. We beat Florida. Why? New HC + most of its scoring firepower comes from mid-major transfers.
5. Roderick and Miles AJ brown combine for 14 ppg off the bench.
6. Gabe averages more than 10 mpg, making more of an impact defensively.
7. EJ4 and Hadaway average more minutes than IJ.
8. 21 regular season wins. MAC tourney champions.

Hopelessy optimistic.

Gabe Wiznitzer will be more of a factor in some crucial moments in important games than BLSS' projection would seem to imply.

Well, I may be wrong, but I'm basing this statement on what a Louisville friend (actually an in-law) told me. Apparently, there was some friction among teammates that impacted his playing time at U of L, and how much his teamates got him the ball when he was on the court. I don't know for sure if these observations are correct, but I know at OHIO we've had similar situations in the past.

I hope they're right. He was on the court for 31 total minutes though, so even if that friction impacted his rate stats while he was on the floor, the fact that he was 13th in minutes and that only one player in the 12 ahead of him is a true 5 is reason for pause.

I predict that he'll see drastically less minutes this year. I hope that I'm wrong in this prediction.

It doesn't feel like we have a ton of wing depth (in terms of players who can guard both 2s and 3s), so my sense is Roderick gets minutes regardless.

James is big and strong, but a bit short. His size may make him versatile enough to take some of those minutes. I can see him as a sort of Marcus Smart in that sense in that he's super switchable on D. But that's not based on a ton, just a few highlight videos. Take it with a grain of salt.

Presumably Hadaway is a wing given he's only 190 pounds? He seems really talented, but always hard to know what to expect out of true freshmen.

Also didn't see a ton out of Adelodun to suggest he addresses Roderick's shooting issues. He only shot 25% from three last year -- super low volume (8 attempts) so who knows how real that is. I think the scouting report on him out of high school was that he was a solid catch and shoot guy, so hopefully it's not reflective.

All that said, I'm not sure how big opposing wings are in the MAC. Haven't reviewed the rest of the league, honestly. It's entirely possible big, skilled wings are just a rarity at this level and that they get grabbed by high majors, and we can get away with 3 guard lineups consistently on the defensive end. If that's the case, I think there's a good chance Roderick loses his minutes to a rotation of our 5 smaller guards (James, Sheldon, the Browns, Hunter).

I agree, but as BLSS rightly alluded to...Boals has shown that eventually he ends up strongly preferring a tighter rotation.