Musketeer Madness

In the Big East. So far I am not seeing any respect for our players or coach Pitino. If they are correct we are in for a long season. Buckle up boys and girls.

Really hope we don't suck.

drudy23 wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 23, 2025 12:42 pm

Really hope we don't suck.

Me too.

A lot of hope and if's... Dan

I think we’ll like that the team will play hard, will not back down from challenges. We may not have a dominating 4 or 5, but we have plenty of size. I think the intensity on the defensive side will carry over onto offense. I think this team will be able to wear teams down. I’m interested to see how quickly the team will learn to play effective offense together and how long it will take as a team to be able to execute on offense at the end of tight games. I think the defense will keep us in games.

yellow20xd wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 23, 2025 9:44 pm

A lot of hope and if's... Dan

Isn't that for most seasons?

muskieman wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 24, 2025 1:43 pm

yellow20xd wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 23, 2025 9:44 pm

A lot of hope and if's... Dan

Isn't that for most seasons?

Never use to be that way... We used to know 4-6 returning players and how they fit with the current coach... Now with NIL we know player X did this well but we have no idea if that will translate to this coach's style of play... Dan

Other teams are going thru the same roster reconstruction. I can't imagine us finishing 10th, but there are a lot of unknowns. We will be bigger and faster on defense, but will lack outside shooting and scorer. I look forward to the new players. We are young, so we won't have to keep losing as many players hoepfully.

I'm expecting a transition year for X, as I've maintained all along. This team doesn't have an Olivari, Bluiett, or Freemantle, but a roster of several, good 2-3 option scorers and are notably more athletic. It reminds me of the 2019 team with Scruggs, Marshall, and Jones: an athletic team with no true alphas, but they were competitive in the top basketball conference and arguably should have beaten Nova in the tournament if not for a phantom charge call.

Roster-wise, this team is perfectly built for Pitino's style of play, especially considering their athleticism: up-and-down basketball with aggressive defensive pressure. I'm looking forward to seeing a competitive team that develops throughout the season. With the new revenue-sharing arrangement, X should be well-positioned to return to being one of the 15 winningest programs in basketball, which they were statistically from 1985 to 2015.

I wanted to bring this back up...some interesting observations. I think we were duped to believe they could play D.