I've looked forward to a number of years of Tulsa basketballl with excitement, some with a little worry, some with hopeful anticipation but this year I haven't got much of a feeling for what this team will be like other than they will give a good effort. I wouldn't bet a lot of money on any single player being a starter for the 1st time in history. McDade and Price may seem like pretty good bets but with a new coach and a new tougher style of basketball, I don't think any player on a team coming off back to back 9 wins seasons should feel very secure!! That in itself should push the very few returning players to really work in this off season and preseason!!! Based on past performances and stats for new guys, I don't believe I have ever seen a weaker rebounding team. Unless the freshman Mitchell is a starter and a freshman sensation at rebounding, it would be hard to imagine this team out rebounding any team on our schedule no matter who they are!! It is very hard to win many games, if you're not at least fairly close in the rebounding battle but maybe on talent alone we should be able to still beat the Gramblings of the world but I can't see us winning any CUSA games just because of our rebounding!!!! I do expect this team will put forth a great effort and look much better coached on the floor. Even though I expect very few wins, less than the last two years, I am looking forward to the Coach Woj era because this will be the start of something good and as he gets more size and muscle signed in Nov and the next year, I think he will put Tulsa back in the NCAA tourney in a big way!!! So if the fans can make it through this year, that could be tough, I think the future is very bright!!!!!!
If we don't have great success this year, maybe the newness of playing in cusa will be enough to tide us fans over for one year. Seeing different teams and all.
I always hope we have a winning record and post season play. I don't know what will happen this next year but I wish we hadn't replaced so many players. I know some of it might have been grades but I would have liked to see Vernel Davis finish his career at TU. He was playing very well before the injury at Nevada. The new guys coming in look good from their media reports and hype but you never know how a player will transition to D1 play. I'm hoping for the best.
I think McDade and Price will both be bright spots this year. I still think McDade will be a star before he is through.
One thing I hate when reading message boards though is the wide swings on how a coach is viewed. JP did not do well his last year and a half with the team but I supported him while he was the coach. Many posters on the various boards have vilified him as a know nothing that didn't do anything while at TU and some even went so far as to say he planned the downfall of the program. I am seeing the opposite reaction now to coach Wojcik. I hope he is the most successful head coach TU has ever had and that the Golden Hurricane is in the final four by 2010. However, there is nothing more than hype and speculation at this point to warrant that view. Coach Wojcik has been annointed by most posters as the next superstar coach before he has ever put a team on the floor. I have to admit that he is very charismatic and I was impressed by how he instructed players during the final four run by Michigan State. However, I am going to be cautiously optimistic until I see what the players can do under his direction.
I like your phrase,"cautiously optimistic", I'll go along with that!!!! I'm just a little worried when people start proclaiming a 17-18 win season, when none of us knows, who will be playing most of the time, what style of ball we will play---who the heck the players on the team are and wouldn't even recognize them if they were introduced to them!!!! :eek: That kind of OVER optimism leads to, what's wrong with this coach, real quick---and the second guessing begins!! Let's have a goal to have a better record than the last two years and look like we knew what we were doing in all the games, win or lose!!!
Am I right in supposing that CUSA will be tougher than the WAC?
richardm Wrote:Am I right in supposing that CUSA will be tougher than the WAC?
I would think so.
Here is what the new C-USA schools did last year:
UTEP, 27-8, NCAA Second Round
UCF, 24-9, NCAA First Round
UAB, 22-11, NCAA Second Round
Memphis, 22-16, NIT Semi-finals
Rice, 19-12, NIT First Round
Houston, 18-14, NIT First Round
And the new WAC:
Nevada 25-7 NCAA 2nd Round
Utah St 24-8 NCAA 1rst Round
I think so too, but it looks like the old WAC is better than the new WAC. Maybe the same is true of the new CUSA vs. the old CUSA.
One thing stands out about our new recruits, besides the fact that they all appear pretty good. Almost all of them come from programs that were in State Championship games or JUCO Championships. They aren't from just winning teams, they are from teams that played championship caliber ball. They played games when it really counted. This seems like a trend already with Coach Woj or maybe just a big coincidence but to have as many as we have recruited have similar backgrounds is a really big coincidence!!! Maybe he wants players that knows what it's like when the pressure is on!!