Prediction?

[theexorcist]

Last year, we were replacing Brandon and Ashanti. The team took half the year to gel.

The plus this year is that we're replacing one starter.

The minus is that the one starter was good enough to declare for the draft.

The plus is that we're bringing in a more highly-rated recruiting class.

The plus is that we don't have the massive concern for forwards that we did last year re: guards.

The minus - MAYBE - is that there's no longer a question of who's the alpha dog on this team. Nothing against Wallace, Sapp, or Summers, but there will be one Hoya on preseason All-America teams. There's no more question of whether Jeff or Roy will need to lead the team.

That, to me, is the first X-factor. Hibbert came back. This is his team. There were games last year where Roy or Jeff had an off game, but the other played well and we still won. The other starters are high-caliber, but in a Big East game, if Hibbert doesn't play well, we're in trouble.

That leads to the second X-factor. How good are our newcomers? If Hibbert has an awful game, good play by three of the other four, plus a solid bench, may allow us to win a few games against teams ranked 15 and below. If Hibbert has a solid game, everybody else playing well will allow us to hang with anyone in the country.

My prediction - we won't struggle against low-level competition as bad as we did last year. We will have a good chance to win each of our nonconference games. By that time, our frosh should be good enough to be dangerous in the Big East.

But this team will be judged on how well they do in the postseason. If Hibbert plays the way he is capable of playing, this team is a national championship contender.

[GIGAFAN99]

Last time we went to the Final Four we lost Bill Martin and Patrick Ewing, replaced them with Horace Broadnax and Ralph Dalton...and still went 24-8. I like Jeff, but think about that for a second when you start picking 8-10 losses.

OK, it could take a "while" to replace Jeff but we replaced three guys (in a six man rotation) in time to go 30-7 and had three freshmen in the top 8.

Talent wins first, experience second. The Hoyas have a lot of both.

[NCHoya]

I am on board with the set that believes we will be better in March than November. I base this on last year's freshmen. It took Summers half the season to really find his rhythm in the offense, Macklin never really got into the rotation and Rivers did not appear comfortable to me most of the season on offense. Given that, and the fact we lost the central cog to the offense, I can see us "struggling" early. Austin and Chris should be huge contributors by the end of the season, but I am giving them 2 months to really understand what is expected from them this season. I expect they will take some ill-advised shots and maybe bog down the offense with few misreads or turnovers, no big deal.

All that said, in NO WAY will we struggle like last year out of the gate, where we have 4 losses in the first 10 games. I could see us losing to any one of the quality teams on our early season schedule - Bama, Memphis, etc. These are teams I would expect to beat by February, it is just the timing that will probably effect us and they are on the road. I feel like this is just the nature of our offense. Roy will have to carry us early against the patsies, but when we play quality we need some of that vintage patience and ball movement which I think will be a struggle until around the new year.

Bottom-line, my prediction - Co-#1 in the Big East at 12-4 with UL and 7 losses before the NCAAs. Consistent Top 25 all year and somewhere around #10 by the tournament.

[daymondmyles]

I predict that there will be a million predictions on this board between now and the start of the season. And I predict that most people won't care one bit and will in fact just be annoyed. C'mon! (That's right, I just threw down a Joel-esque "C'mon!" at you ).

Besides, don't you get enough of this drivel from ESPN, Fox, CNN, etc.? This stuff is about as entertaining as the pre-game predictions threads.

P.S. - I predict that Austin Freeman will baptise Donte Green with a vicious dunk in their first matchup and PEJr. will make Harangody cry on national television.

[Omega]

Last years slow start was somewhat due to the departures of Cook, Bowman and Owens; moreso however, it was due to the fact that Green and Hibbert was reluctant to take over the team. Remember in most of those early losses Green and Hibberts scoring was down. Although it can be blamed on them trying to bring along the new guys, the fact remains that Green and Hibbert were reluctant superstars. This years team will not have that problem. Everyone knows that Hibbert is the star of the team. Summers is a baller and will more than fill Jeff's shoes. The roles for this years team are already defined. Hibbert is option 1. This years team plays a more traditional style Princeton offense with Hibbert in the high post and everyone else cutting and slashing to the basket. Remember in years past JTIII had to revamp the offense to accomidate both Jeff and Roy.

For those who remember, there was a time when Jeff and Roy couldn't play in the floor at the same time because they were both low post players. As Jeff's game evolved so to did the offense. This years team has one true low post player-- Hibbert! The offense will be seamless. I predict 4 losses, BE regular champs, BE tournament champs and a trip[ back to the final four....

[hoyainspirit]

daymondmyles said:

Besides, don't you get enough of this drivel from ESPN, Fox, CNN, etc.? This stuff is about as entertaining as the pre-game predictions threads.

Actually, I love the prediction threads. Highly entertaining. Besides, what else are we to talk about 'till Midnight Madness? To each his own, I guess...

[TC]

By the end of the year, I'm guessing that the offense runs through Hibbert and Chris Wright.

[DudeSlade]

I predict 4-5 losses as well. There is literally nobody in college that can match up with Roy and if he is mentally ready to be the star every game (which him coming back and wanting to be a top 5 pick say he is), he will dominate. He must not get lost when we play smaller, quicker teams like he did against Nova, Cuse, and Oregon last year. Wallace will be an Ed Cota type stalwart with less impact passing and more with long range shooting, but he will be the floor general. And judging by Summers willingness to step up last year when no one else will, I predict him settling into the #2 role quite easily and picking up for Roy when he has an off night. Remember he sprang for 20 in one Tourney game, so he has the cojones to do it.

Edit: prhoya, thanks for the Spanish help. I'm a gringo, clearly. And with the last year learning pidgin in Hawaii, I've nearly lost my Socal spanglish.

[prhoya]

Dude, it's "cojones".

[hoyastrong]

tc said:

By the end of the year, I'm guessing that the offense runs through Hibbert and Chris Wright.

Wow, bold statement! I'll take it though, but I would have to say Freeman has a better chance of the freshman to run the offense with Roy, Wright maybe more of a sharpshooter with jwall.

[lichoya68]

ok somebody out there DO WE PLAY SIXTEEN OR EIGHTEEN CONFERENCE GAMES THIS YEAR I THOUGTH IT CHANGE SO WE PLAY ALL LIKE FIFTEENA AND THEN THREE DOUBLES IS THAT NOT CORRECT OF IS LICHOYA AGAIN OUTA IT GO HOYAS HOW MANY LEAGUE GAMES 2007-2008 ?

[lichoya68]

well hoyasaxa .ocm has 18 league games so i think the league moved to play all once and three twice and thatd be eighteen soooooooo need to keep that in mind for precdictions unless hoyasax and me both wrong go hoyas win all eighteeen league games well at least fourteen or more go hoyas 2008 will be great great greatttttttttttt

[HoyaSinceBirth]

popejohn2 said:

it took a while for last years team to gel and to get its formula right. green was the center of the offense last year and king of the backdoor pass. he had 3 years experience and became the center of the offense. i bet that will have a big impact on the offensive chemistry. hopefully they will adjust quickly. we should be a better outside shooting team and we have a guard that can break the press and penetrate but less deep up front. until i see otherwise im not going to underestimate the impact of green. but 5-8 losses might be high, so ill go with 4-7. now if green stayed, id be saying undefeated.

i think 3 losses is overly optimistic. even kansas lost 4 games last year in a weak big 12 conference.

as for our schedule, we are playing bama, memphis, louisville 2x and marquette maybe 2x. thats 5 games against potential top 10 teams, with memphis and louisville as potential top 5. last year we played pitt which floated in and out of the top 10. throw in a bunch of games against good nova nd cuse and pitt teams which should be between top 10-30. last year we played duke which was really a really bad team. compare last years duke, pitt, marquette to this years memphis, louisville, marquette. each are significant upgrades in level of difficulty. the big east is better this year than last. to say this years is not a much tougher schedule is inaccurate.

Ok memphis is better than anyone we played OOC last year I aknowledged that. I don't see how Lousiville this year is any better than pitt last year. And i don't see how marquette this year is harder than marquette last year.

I honestly think we'll split with lousiville and than lose 2 more games at most to either Nova, cuse, memphis, or pitt. Of course we could still have a good OOC game that would change this prediction.

[lichoya68]

OK ASSUMING ELEVEN NONCONFERCNCE AND EITHTEEN CONFERENCE I PREDICT IN THECONFERENCE WE WIL BE LIKE FOURTEEN AND FOUR AND OUTA CONFERENCE THREE LOSSES SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO THATS22 AND SEVEN BUT HOT AT THE END AND WIN THE BIG EAST TOURNEY AGAIN AND ONTO THE ALAMOO YUP REMEMBER PRETTY SURE ITS EIGHTTENN AND NOT SIXTEEN CONFERENCE GAMES GO HOYAS WE ARE GEORGETOWN AND WILLL TAKE SOME TIME TO ADJUST TO LIFE AFTER JEFF AND WORK IN THE FROSH BUT WATCH OUT FOR THE BIG EAST TOURNEY ADN NCAAS AND TEXAS GO HOYAS UNFINISHED BUSINESS ROY UNFINISHED BUSINESS GO HOYASZ