Originally Posted by Flyer68
I don't know much about the quality of the teams in the tournament: Auburn, Clemson, Dayton, Hofstra, Indiana State, Old Dominion, Ohio and Temple.
However, with our young, inexperienced team, it looks like the competition may be a good way for them to ease into the season and understand the quality of competition we will be playing against.
|
Here's what I would say:
Auburn will be a mid to bottom resident of the SEC by end of year. Bruce Pearl hasn't gotten anything going on the Plains and probably won't this year.
Clemson, everyone was shocked they kept their coach after last season, and their team is appreciably worse this season with the loss of NBA draft pick Jaron Blossomgame. They will be a bottom-third ACC team.
Hofstra will probably be a mid-table contender in the CAA, which is to say not very good.
Indiana St. finished dead last in the Missouri Valley last year, but that whole conference is losing Wichita St. and will not be a top-10 conference any longer.
Old Dominion looks like they can be an upper tier team in C-USA... which isn't saying a whole lot, but expecting a top-100 RPI finish from them is realistic.
Ohio U. is Ohio U... they are usually one of the top-4 MAC teams and should be again next year, although losing Jaaron Simmons hurts.
Temple is now a mid-to-bottom table team in the American.
All things considered, we are probably the best team in this tournament on paper, but Auburn, Clemson, and Old Dominion will be tough outs. I would not expect any of those 3 teams to be matched against each other or us in the first round of Charleston.
