Honestly, that's about where I thought we would be record-wise. I would like to have looked better in our losses, but young teams often look, well, young. We have had extra time over the holidays to install things, work on our defensive fundamentals and figure out our rotations. Now is the time to start showing improvement. Though the first 3/4 of the GA Southern game was not great, the last quarter was fantastic. Let's hope we can keep the same upward trend. I think Wheeler has earned more playing time and should be starting (he's getting starter's minutes) and Camara is coming into his own. We need to keep getting more front court help from our freshmen bigs to improve as a team. Edwards has been spectacular at times. We just need him to be himself. What a great teammate!

Agreed all the way around. I hate to say it, because he is a senior, but Crump's minutes should be severely reduced and replaced with Harris/Wheeler. His I'll advised pull up threes are basically turn overs.

Seeing Edwards attack the basket more was also refreshing and makes you realize what a talented scorer he really is.

Plenty of room to grow, but it's a fun team to watch, and I'm optimistic they will improve. Enough to get us into the dance?

I think right now Crean is deferring to Gresham and Crump because of seniority; Wheeler is a freshman and Harris has been suspended. That's good for team chemistry I suppose. Jordan and Sahvir are going to force his hand with their play. For this team to reach its potential, Wheeler and Harris will have to get the majority of PT. Edwards is a real treat, and you couldn't ask for a better attitude.

9-3 is a great start, didn't we win only 8 games all of last season?? Just think if we had Clax, but what we do have is a talented group of FR with a few older talents mixed in. What has KILLED us the past two games is our rebounding, allowing so many offensive rebounds has allowed SMU/Ga Southern to stay in games that we actually shot the ball pretty well. Rebounding is the one area that I am concerned about the most and we MUST have more team contributions there. I also think adding Harris back is a huge lift because he is can do so much, he can defend, drive, pass, and rebound-all of which we need in place of Crump-who is like a Vinnie Johnson, just a shooter off the bench. Have to believe Harris takes Crump's spot once he gets back in the good graces with playing shape and earning trust/respect of the coaches. Wheeler is also playing really strong and already getting the minutes of a starting PG without starting, that might change soon enough but I do like Gresham being there and having so much experience-a perfect piece to help Wheeler transition this year. Camara needs to become more consistent on both ends-obviously against GSU he was incredible but didn't do much against SMU. Hammonds is another that needs to step up and help on the rebounding.

Edwards has been off the past two games from 3 point range, and yet we have still found a way to win-which is nice to see. Sometimes I think he settles for the long 3 over driving strong to the basket-I believe this is because he is trying to improve his total game heading to the NBA, and he knows he can drive strong already, but knows he needs to work on his distant shooting.

I still stand my thought this team can and will make the dance. This team is only going to get better and better, and I just don't believe the SEC is as good as last year, and we are much improved over last year-when we played some of the NCAA tourney teams tough late in the season. IF we are close, the NCAA is going to want Edwards in the tourney, you can bank on that. That performance against MSU is one they will look at and want that kid to have a chance. So, I believe if we can go 8-10 to 9-9 in the SEC, after going 10-3 or 9-4 in non conference, we have 18 wins roughly heading to the SEC tourney and get a win there, I can see us getting in at 18/19 wins with 12-13 losses.

Haney said:

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9-3 is a great start, didn't we win only 8 games all of last season?? Just think if we had Clax, but what we do have is a talented group of FR with a few older talents mixed in. What has KILLED us the past two games is our rebounding, allowing so many offensive rebounds has allowed SMU/Ga Southern to stay in games that we actually shot the ball pretty well. Rebounding is the one area that I am concerned about the most and we MUST have more team contributions there. I also think adding Harris back is a huge lift because he is can do so much, he can defend, drive, pass, and rebound-all of which we need in place of Crump-who is like a Vinnie Johnson, just a shooter off the bench. Have to believe Harris takes Crump's spot once he gets back in the good graces with playing shape and earning trust/respect of the coaches. Wheeler is also playing really strong and already getting the minutes of a starting PG without starting, that might change soon enough but I do like Gresham being there and having so much experience-a perfect piece to help Wheeler transition this year. Camara needs to become more consistent on both ends-obviously against GSU he was incredible but didn't do much against SMU. Hammonds is another that needs to step up and help on the rebounding.

Edwards has been off the past two games from 3 point range, and yet we have still found a way to win-which is nice to see. Sometimes I think he settles for the long 3 over driving strong to the basket-I believe this is because he is trying to improve his total game heading to the NBA, and he knows he can drive strong already, but knows he needs to work on his distant shooting.

I still stand my thought this team can and will make the dance. This team is only going to get better and better, and I just don't believe the SEC is as good as last year, and we are much improved over last year-when we played some of the NCAA tourney teams tough late in the season. IF we are close, the NCAA is going to want Edwards in the tourney, you can bank on that. That performance against MSU is one they will look at and want that kid to have a chance. So, I believe if we can go 8-10 to 9-9 in the SEC, after going 10-3 or 9-4 in non conference, we have 18 wins roughly heading to the SEC tourney and get a win there, I can see us getting in at 18/19 wins with 12-13 losses.

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I actually think Hammonds has done a pretty good job rebounding the ball. He has to get more consistent from the foul line. 80% foul shooter last year shooting 67% this year. And he is a good shooter, so he has to get that back up.

Crump needs to come off the bench. 15 or so min/game off the bench is perfect for him. Limits the amount of bad shots he'll take that could kill the team, but also he is capable of being a spark by coming in and hitting 2-3 of those shots.

Hammonds to me is still too inconsistent, the kid can be a star but still doesn't play at a high rate as much as he should. I also should mention, Edwards in both recent games got two early fouls so had to sit and that hurt the team, early fouls is of course a Hammonds specialty as well-but he has done better for the most part there. IF Camarda keeps coming and can help with rebounding, along with Hammonds and Edwards, that helps because we shot a much higher percentage than SMU I know (since I was there) but the rebounding advantage is what kept SMU ahead most of that game.