Pre-season picks via supermarket mag research...

[Stonewall]

Lindy's and Athlon (?) had us last, or one position better in the Belt.

[bigdaddyg]

What??

[appchicago]

Nevermind. Deleted.

[proasu89]

I don't doubt it based on last year's record. However, my eye test tells me we will be a game +/- 500 in the conference. 15-17 wins total. Wild *** guess, but I'll stand by it.

[bigdaddyg]

Oh hoops! Thought it was football. Lol

[agentpaul001]

Agree with proasu89 that it's likely based on last years record....

I'm holding out hope we can do a bit more this year. There was such a dropoff within the conference after AR-LR and with them losing some key players I think there could be a bit of a scrum this year.

[appgrouch]

We have seen the last of the "Capel Kids", the ones that came in and bought into his system, graduate.
This year we will see "Foxes Cubs" make up most of the line up. This season will be the test of where we are as a team.

[Stonewall]

Thinking Jim has two years to show substantial improvement ...and will.

[proasu89]

Thinking Jim has two years to show substantial improvement ...and will.

He's bringing in quality kids on and off the court, don't think the statement of he has x amount of years needs to be mentioned.

[appgrouch]

Thinking Jim has two years to show substantial improvement ...and will.

He's bringing in quality kids on and off the court, don't think the statement of he has x amount of years needs to be mentioned.

Of course it does. We are now in the big leagues and don't have the time to wait for someone to build a great program.

[EastHallApp]

From the outside, we're a 9-22 team that lost its leading scorer. I'd say that usually means we're in for a bad year too.

Taking a closer look, though, we're entering year three of a total rebuild. We played a lot of freshmen and sophomores last year in a system that takes time to learn. We were a not-horrific 7-13 in the league, just two games out of sixth place. And we were 2-6 in games decided by 4 points or less, including a couple truly bizarre finishes - which means we either didn't know how to close games, were just unlucky, or a combination of the two.

Taken that way, I think we have a chance to be better.

[EastHallApp]

Thinking Jim has two years to show substantial improvement ...and will.

He's bringing in quality kids on and off the court, don't think the statement of he has x amount of years needs to be mentioned.

Of course it does. We are now in the big leagues and don't have the time to wait for someone to build a great program.

1) Pretty sure his point wasn't that the statement was wrong, but that it unnecessarily implies that Fox is on some sort of hot seat. Every coach who isn't already winning big is on the clock to one degree or another.

2) We are in fact going to wait for the coach to build the program. We aren't UK or Duke, and we can't just bring in a haul of 5* rent-a-players to win immediately.

3) The Sun Belt isn't much more "big league" than the SoCon was. It's a little tougher, but this isn't an FCS-FBS jump. Just moved from one mid-major to another.

[appgrouch]

Thinking Jim has two years to show substantial improvement ...and will.

He's bringing in quality kids on and off the court, don't think the statement of he has x amount of years needs to be mentioned.

Of course it does. We are now in the big leagues and don't have the time to wait for someone to build a great program.

1) Pretty sure his point wasn't that the statement was wrong, but that it unnecessarily implies that Fox is on some sort of hot seat. Every coach who isn't already winning big is on the clock to one degree or another.

2) We are in fact going to wait for the coach to build the program. We aren't UK or Duke, and we can't just bring in a haul of 5* rent-a-players to win immediately.

3) The Sun Belt isn't much more "big league" than the SoCon was. It's a little tougher, but this isn't an FCS-FBS jump. Just moved from one mid-major to another.

I know, but the people that think that FCS-FBS was a D2-D1 jump, don't.
That and now that football is "playing with the big boys", some fans will be less tolerant of sports they never attend bringing the department's image down.

[proasu89]

Thinking Jim has two years to show substantial improvement ...and will.

He's bringing in quality kids on and off the court, don't think the statement of he has x amount of years needs to be mentioned.

Of course it does. We are now in the big leagues and don't have the time to wait for someone to build a great program.

1) Pretty sure his point wasn't that the statement was wrong, but that it unnecessarily implies that Fox is on some sort of hot seat. Every coach who isn't already winning big is on the clock to one degree or another.

2) We are in fact going to wait for the coach to build the program. We aren't UK or Duke, and we can't just bring in a haul of 5* rent-a-players to win immediately.

3) The Sun Belt isn't much more "big league" than the SoCon was. It's a little tougher, but this isn't an FCS-FBS jump. Just moved from one mid-major to another.

Thanks, exactly what I meant.

[agentpaul001]

From the outside, we're a 9-22 team that lost its leading scorer. I'd say that usually means we're in for a bad year too.

Taking a closer look, though, we're entering year three of a total rebuild. We played a lot of freshmen and sophomores last year in a system that takes time to learn. We were a not-horrific 7-13 in the league, just two games out of sixth place. And we were 2-6 in games decided by 4 points or less, including a couple truly bizarre finishes - which means we either didn't know how to close games, were just unlucky, or a combination of the two.

Taken that way, I think we have a chance to be better.

You're exactly right about the 2-6 record in close finishes. We had a few more that slipped away too in the final minutes, particularly a few early season games. Nothing replaces on court experience.

I'm probably far more optimistic then most, but I think we're a top four seed in Sun Belt tourney this year and we finish about .500 (I know break out the Champagne :p)

[Saint3333]

Whatever we have this year is going to be what we have for two years with only one senior on the squad.

But the last two classes have been solid, Shabazz should be an all-conference player as early as this year.

[Saint3333]

I'll take the over.

http://sunbeltsports.org/news/2016/10/1 ... ath=mbball

Preseason Coaches’ Poll
Rank

UT Arlington
Little Rock
Georgia State
Georgia Southern
Coastal Carolina
South Alabama
UL Lafayette
UL Monroe
Troy
Arkansas State
Appalachian State
Texas State

Preseason First Team All-Conference
Devin Carter (Arkansas State, Senior, Guard, Interdisciplinary Studies)
Tookie Brown (Georgia Southern, Sophomore, Guard, Sport Management)
Marcus Johnson Jr. (Little Rock, Senior, Guard, Criminal Justice)
Kevin Hervey (UT Arlington, Junior, Forward, Interdisciplinary Studies)
Erick Neal (UT Arlington, Junior, Guard, Communication Broadcasting)

Preseason Second Team All-Conference
Elijah Wilson (Coastal Carolina, Senior, Guard)
Mike Hughes (Georgia Southern, Junior, Guard, Sport Management)
Jeremy Hollowell (Georgia State, Senior, Forward, Interdisciplinary Studies)
Ken Williams (South Alabama, Senior, Guard, Interdisciplinary Studies)
Wesley Person (Troy, Junior, Guard, Global Business)

Preseason Third Team All-Conference
Ronshad Shabazz (Appalachian State, Sophomore, Guard, Undecided)
Jay Wright (UL Lafayette, Senior, Guard, General Studies)
Nick Coppola (UL Monroe, Senior, Guard, Risk Management and Insurance)
Kavin Gilder-Tilbury (Texas State, Senior, Forward, General Studies)
Jordon Varnado (Troy, Sophomore, Forward, Global Business)

Preseason Player of the Year
Kevin Hervey (UT Arlington, Junior, Forward)

[appaneer1984]

Attended the UNC game last year and while it wasn't really even close, our guys played hard and had some fantastic scoring plays. Hopefully this year we'll be 6-2 in close games

[appgrouch]

For the record, I was not serious earlier about the big league stuff. We know that there are some in the fan base that do think that way. And they only make it to the HCC for BBall if the football team is being honored.

To misquote Collin Raye "I said I was an App fan even through the rotten years"