My observations this far. We are better defensively. We are deeper. Stronger and taller.
Are we a good defensive team?
Do we have enough offense?
Anyone want to make a prediction on how many SEC wins this year?

Honestly, it's difficult to say how we will do in conference. We haven't seen the team at full strength yet. Ingram could add a lot. He was the leading scorer and rebounder last year before his injury. Moncrieffe hasn't played much yet. We still need to cut down our TOs. While we haven't gotten much production offensively from our inside guys, we are rebounding OK so far. We started a smaller lineup in the last game than we have before. We pressed a bit. Will we continue to do that? Don't know. To me, we look like a middle of the conference team so far, but we could get better as we learn to play together. Lindsay and McBride have been pleasant surprises. Are we a good defensive team? No, but better than we were. Are we a good offensive team? Not so far. Inconsistent.

To my eyes, this team goes as Terry Roberts goes. Aside from that

• Bridges led the conference in FG% last year and is struggling to even find shots this season. Bucknell, with their size, was not a great matchup (because he plays small at times), but we need to find more paint touches for him.
• If Oquendo can eliminate the "drive into traffic with no plan" play from his repertoire, we instantly cut 3 TOs per game. I'm not optimistic here.
• As Monkdawg says, if Ingram returns close to form, we are instantly better on both sides of the ball.
• How much does Lindsay improve before he hits the freshman wall?
• Moncrieffe is energetic, but he has 0 touch around the rim. Can this improve?

If everything goes perfectly, I could see us finding 7-8 conference wins. I fear 4 or 5 is more like it...but it's only a gut feel right now.

StevieBuckets said:

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To my eyes, this team goes as Terry Roberts goes. Aside from that

• Bridges led the conference in FG% last year and is struggling to even find shots this season. Bucknell, with their size, was not a great matchup (because he plays small at times), but we need to find more paint touches for him.
• If Oquendo can eliminate the "drive into traffic with no plan" play from his repertoire, we instantly cut 3 TOs per game. I'm not optimistic here.
• As Monkdawg says, if Ingram returns close to form, we are instantly better on both sides of the ball.
• How much does Lindsay improve before he hits the freshman wall?
• Moncrieffe is energetic, but he has 0 touch around the rim. Can this improve?

If everything goes perfectly, I could see us finding 7-8 conference wins. I fear 4 or 5 is more like it...but it's only a gut feel right now.

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I agree with pretty much all of that. We need every point Roberts can muster. Bridges has been invisible to this point. We are getting almost no production in the post. That makes it hard to score consistently because you have to make your jump shots. Oquendo has to do several things differently. Driving into trouble is just one of them. If he doesn't start hustling down the floor and playing defense, he won't be in the game, like the second half of the Miami of Ohio game. Ingram can help us a lot if he can get in shape. I'm a long way from worrying about Lindsay; we're only 4-5 games into the season. He injured his left hand, so that was taped up and hurting him last game, which made it hard for him to hold and shoot the ball. He lost his grip on a dunk and missed it. Moncrieffe's ankle has set him back. I hope he gets to full strength soon.

After seeing the two games in Daytona…. I'll say it is a frigging joy not looking at "Coach 15-57" and CMW will get us to respectability over the next few years but this year 5-13 seems likely.