-I don't anticipate Dwight Wilson returning this year. Peyton Guice from the women's team tore her ACL almost a year ago and is not dressing. Joe Burrow was essentially held out of the Bengals preseason due to an ACL. With the injury occurring in May, do we really need to bring him in for the back third or so of the season. There's really no huge physical presence in the MAC this year, so I don't anticipate being mismatched there. If Dwight still has work to do on his Master's Degree after this academic year, I think it's probably in his best interest as well as the team's to sit this year and return next year when there appears to be only one rotation front court player returning next year. I don't know if we're committed to honoring only 13 scholarships, but Dwight's return could require someone unanticipated to leave.

-I hope Mcday returns soon. I wrote my thoughts about his situation in his thread, but his absence means poor guard depth in the interim. I'm not thrilled with the idea of Sears on Schmock on the floor at the same time. I'm also not keen on the two of them on the floor together with Miles Brown. It's begging to get mismatched hard at some point. I wonder if we would try packages with Roderick as the second guard to go with one of the point guards to help give the others more breathers.

-I like Sam Towns. After the first few rounds of transfers happened last year, I saw an opportunity for he and/or Jalen White to command a spot in the rotation. When White left, it meant more of an opportunity for Towns. I like Sam Towns. Keep that player dev going.

-If Mcday returns and there is no other unanticipated attrition from guards, the guard depth next year will be tremendous. You're trading Schmock for Ajay Sheldon, AJ Brown, and Elmore James - a guy who could be a typical MAC freshman guard, but also an all-Ohio first teamer as well as the highest rated recruit since DJ Cooper.

-Some people are discouraged that Ezuma isn't part of the rotation. It's perfectly fine that AJ Clayton is the better player, and if Carter and BVP are staying out of foul trouble and not getting too fatigued, it's also perfectly fine if the front court rotation is to always keep two of BVP, Carter, and Clayton on the floor.

Granger seems to be the enigma to me. He really wasn't horrible in his 5 to 7 minutes last year behind Dwight. I like Clayton but he's not an enforcer type like Granger was. If Colin is ok with a redshirt I sure hope he stays. These days it seems like guys who get that redshirt tend to realize they need to move onto greener pastures. I love his energy. Towns is much improved and isn't afraid to get into the lane to rebound and play D. His offense will come. I feel like we really miss Jalen White. I said it last year -- all he did was score when he did play. And dude could shoot. We're missing that with Roderick in a slump. And as far as Ezuma, he missed some time but remember, Sears was only getting 7 minutes per game when Preston was healthy and then BAM, dude is a key cog. Ezuma may become that. If not, we get a redshirt and another year out of him. This rotation is fine. Schmock is a perfect MAC guard and so is Miles Brown. We may give up size to Buffalo but I don't see anyone else killing us with the smaller guards together.

You can play 4 games this season and still redshirt.

General thoughts?

Decent, but not good enough. Lack of depth is killing us.

My two cents (which is worth far less than that): Whatever "it" is, I don't see it on the court. I don't see fire in their bellies and I see too many holes. Also, the team plays sloppy/lazy during quite a few stretches within a given game. These are all things that can be fixed, but need to be fixed if we want to have a chance down the stretch.

Here's what is interesting: If Wilson was healthy, and McDay hadn't missed any game time, we probably wouldn't be talking about depth. Both situations obviously weren't predictable.

I'm encouraged by our defense thus far. Missing McDay and Wilson hurt there, but we've played great team defense so far IMO. Without McDay, we held LSU to their lowest scoring output of the season, and I suspect we were tired down the stretch.

I agree with this statement. Every game we play I compare that team to who we will play in the MAC. If DW3 can't come back I think about big, athletic guys like Freeman at Akron or Williams and Mballa at Buffalo. Are those guys any better than Kentucky or LSU's big men? The big kid from Belmont is a future NBA player and we were able to defend him. Our guards are fine. I think Sears is the best PG in the conference BY FAR. I really look at two things that need to improve for us to win the MAC. We need B-Rod to be B-Rod again. Or at least hit 30 percent from 3!!! We also need McDay back -- or toss Olumide in as a defender with length. I just can't see a trio of Miles (6-1), Schmock (5-10) and Sears (6-1) being our guard rotation for the entire year.

Regarding playing down to St. Francis, I believe that St. Francis is better than their record indicates. I was impressed with their athletic ability and place them in the middle of the MAC if they were in our league. That being said we let them back into the game too easily.

That's a bogus football rule ... does not apply to basketball!!