This team will surprise some

[AE 87]

And having seen them play.......


Tadric couldn't hold any of the players I mentioned jocks..

Not that there's anything wrong with that ...?

 

[awbuzz]

nm...

 

[mstranahan]

I think zero ACC wins is possible. Not likely but possible. More likely is 1-3. I think 5 is absolute max. The conference is loaded again next year. Maybe we beat BC or Pitt or Wake. Possible we steal a game from VPI. Duke, UNC, NCSU, UVA, Louisville , Cuse, FSU, Miami, ND and even Clemson are all way ahead of us talent wise.

 

[gtbync]

Doneal Mack career at 8.2 ppg, Willie Kemp about the same, Elliot Williams career 11 ppg, Wesley Witherspoon career 8.2 ppg. Those numbers are not world beaters.

 

[CuseJacket]

I really don't like to pile on the negative but these are my honest thoughts:

• I can think of 1 ACC team where we might have comparable talent. That is BC, and I am basing that on BC of last year that won 0 ACC games. If BC has 1 player this year who can create their own shot, that may be 1 more than we have.
• We have a roster of back-ups when compared to the starting 5 of the top half of the league. Lammers would probably crack a starting rotation in that tier. To suggest anything beyond that, in my opinion, is entirely wishful thinking and not based on anything we've seen or what I would consider expected progression.
• We have a coach who prefers to play up tempo. We have a roster that is like 5-6 deep. And the coach is not known for in-game adjustments. In other words, a combo of doom. It will be interesting to see if we go CBG mode and intentionally muck things up, contrary to CJP's preferred style of play. Or will we go up tempo to set a vision for future years and ask for a mercy rule at half time.

I think an over/under of 1.5 to 2 ACC wins is fair, if you compare this year's roster with the ACC teams that finished at the bottom last year. We will be hoping for upsets to do better. I don't know that we'll be favored in any ACC games unless we get a bottom feeder at home. Heck, to even verify if we have that opportunity this season, the ticket website on ramblinwreck.com for me to see who is on the home schedule isn't even functional right now: http://basketball.togetherweswarm.com/

 

[GT_B]

I think we have a shot to win 5-6 games If a couple things happen
-tadric can gain some confidence and maybe find his strength in the transistion game. Average around 15 pts a game.
-One of the freshman has a great year and avgs around 10-14pts a game.
-Lammers continues to improve on the defensive end and on the glass. Maybe adds some offense to his game.

If these 3 things happen we might sneak out a few wins. If tadric doesn't step up and become the scoring threat we had hoped, then I don't know if we will win any ACC games.

 

[BeeRBee]

It will be interesting to see if we go CBG mode and intentionally muck things up, contrary to CJP's preferred style of play. Or will we go up tempo to set a vision for future years and ask for a mercy rule at half time.

I'm pretty sure I've heard (or read) Pastner say that he will implement something this year based on the capabilities of the players, rather than his preferred system. IIRC, Gregory made the opposite decision in his first year, on the basis that it was unlikely to gain more than a win or two and it was more important to establish the culture of his desired style. I'm interested to see how the team plays. I think I prefer to give this year's team the best chance to achieve success, even if it is slight.

As for expectations, I have no idea. What I would really like to see is a team that looks like they have been taught a system they can understand and run without the coach yelling out instructions on every offensive possession. However, I may just have an unrealistic hope given today's college game.

 

[forensicbuzz]

I think that some will be pleasantly surprised by the development of some of the key players on this year's team. I think that Lammers, Jackson and Stephens will turn that corner and become leaders, as opposed to role players. I think Jackson, in particular, will flourish with the opportunity to be the "go-to" guy this year. I think the end of last year probably did loads of good for Heath in learning how to play in the ACC. His play was much better once MGH took over the starting role at the point. I expect him to be better this year than last. If we can get solid minutes from Ogbonda and/or Gueye and the freshmen...my biggest question is who's going to play the 3?

All this being said, I think it's going to be a long year regarding wins, but we can be competitive in most of our games.

 

[RamblinRed]

I think Cuse is pretty much spot on in his assessment.
Stephens was a solid 3* prospect.
The 4 Memphis players may not have been great but their stats are better than any returning player we have this season.

I like the pick up of McCormick. Always nice to have NBA bloodlines and he provides something this squad will desperately need - outside shooting and a little size. i think he will play similar minutes to his time at WMU. 12-15 mpg as a guy who comes in to stretch the defense.

I think the most likely starting 5 is Heath, Jackson, one of the FR, Stephens and Lammers. Ogbonda likely gets 20 mpg backing up both 4 and 5, McCormick gets 12-15 mpg at 4. Heyward/Moore likely get 12-14 mpg at PG. Whichever FR doesn't start gets 15 mpg backing up the wings.

 

[Techster]

Tadric has shown some flashes of ability. His problem, IMO, is once he blows by his guy to the basket, the ball can't find its way into the rim. He can get open and create his own shots...those shots just aren't going in. It's going to be a problem if he's "the guy" we're counting on next year. Hopefully, the shots that weren't going in finally go in.

Lammers is probably our best player at this point, and that's because he a pretty good defensive presence. We need some offense next season, not sure he's going to be the answer to that on the offensive end, but at least GT will have a strong defender to protect the rim. Hopefully Reveno's reputation for developing big men adds 5-8 points to Lammer's average per game.

Josh Heath is probably going to have to play a bigger role next year. He's better than most of our fans give him credit for. He's sneaky quick, and has some creativity in his game when he needs it...but I've always thought he deferred more towards the senior guys on the team rather than impose himself on the game. He played hurt towards the back half of last season, so hopefully we get a better version of Heath once he's healthy.

Quintin Stephens has also shown flashes. At this point in his career, I don't foresee him developing any handles and creating mismatches like I thought he would when he was a freshmen. If he can at least dribble his guy down into the post and use his length to create and advantage, I'd take that. I think he lost some confidence last season, but maybe he is who he is.

I've got no clue about any of the freshmen or any of the other guys on the roster. Haven't seen much of them to make a judgement either way. The key to next season will be those 4 guys I mentioned, and our staff "coaching them up". Unfortunately, the ACC is LOADED with talent every year and LOADED with very good to Hall of Fame great coaches as well. I'm optimistic about our program, but not as optimistic about next year. As @kg01 stated elsewhere, we're going to go through some bumps...but anyone who starts the "Fire Pastner" movement next year based just on our record needs to have their GT fan card revoked.

 

[RamblinRed]

Here is our ACC rotation this year for those that are interested.

Georgia Tech: 2016-17
Home/Road: Clemson, Notre Dame, NC State, Syracuse
Home: Florida State, North Carolina, Louisville, Pitt, Boston College
Road: Miami, Duke, Wake Forest, Virginia, Virginia Tech

I think the only game GT will be favored in is against BC since it will be a home game for GT.
BC's roster looks alot like GT. They've brought in a couple of transfers (6'6 245 Tava from WMU who did not play last year due to a broken foot and BYU transfer Chatman who played little) and are rumored to be the destination for Delaware big man Jeffers. They lost Clifford and Carter (who may be addition by subtraction) and had Barnes-Thompkins and Milon transfer out. With the exception of the transfers they will be mostly FR and SO.

 

[ESPNjacket]

3 ACC wins is extreme optimism. I don't know if many GT fans have seen a Pastner team play but if anyone is expecting better organization and floor coaching they should probably skip this season.

 

[YlJacket]

I think I will tune in for that BC game. Looks like it might be the over/under decider.
Next year will be a cluster muck. No way around it. Bunch of players have to step up for us to be a 4 win team. Tadrick IMHO has the most upside to do it but as pointed out he hasn't found the basket consistently yet.

If this team tries to run and out athlete the rest of the ACC things will get ungodly ugly really quick. They are going to have to be really smart about tempo, play defense out of their mind and look for any way they can to score. Eye of the needle comes to mind. That combination of things to do is not CJP's strength from past years but maybe he gets a new approach to the game. We'll see.

Having said that about CJP, I totally agree with the comment that anyone who starts the fire CJP website next year has lost it. John Wooden or K couldn't make lemonade out of this in the ACC this year. Now if we don't have any or many ACC level recruits at this time next year then it may be time to pile on. That is what we hired him for.

 

[JacketFromUGA]

3 ACC wins is extreme optimism. I don't know if many GT fans have seen a Pastner team play but if anyone is expecting better organization and floor coaching they should probably skip this season.

isn't he a yeller?

 

[McCamish Maniacs]

3 ACC wins is extreme optimism. I don't know if many GT fans have seen a Pastner team play but if anyone is expecting better organization and floor coaching they should probably skip this season.

You're not wrong, but one of the requirements from Bobinksi in setting up his staff was getting assistants that could provide him with help, and I think we did a really good job of that

 

[ESPNjacket]

You're not wrong, but one of the requirements from Bobinksi in setting up his staff was getting assistants that could provide him with help, and I think we did a really good job of that

I agree with that. I like the rest of the staff.

 

[RyanS12]

I'll do what I always do. Watch, drink,*****,repeat....

 

[orientalnc]

It is still far too early for predictions, but looking at the OOC schedule I see four games that are probable losses (given what I know about our team right now) out of the eleven currently scheduled. That means we should be slightly above .500 when the ACC games begin. I agree with earlier posts that five conference wins is a stretch goal this year and three may be more likely, and one (or none) possible. As much as I hate the thought, we may be staring down an 8 or 9 win season. Talk of an NIT bid seems foolish at this time.

Maybe. Maybe we will discover that Tadric has found the accuracy he had in HS, Q plays more consistently above the level he played last year, that Heath is good enough at the point, that Lammers continues to improve, that Okogie and Moore and Ogbonda are solid players (instead of projects), and McCormick can contribute 10-12 minutes of quality basketball. If all this happens, maybe we can beat my expectations. But, I am buying a cheap whiskey for this season. There's a bottle of Woodford Reserve in the cabinet that I hope will be emptied during football season celebrations. I am not wasting the good stuff drowning my sorrows.

 

[orientalnc]

I think Cuse is pretty much spot on in his assessment.
Stephens was a solid 3* prospect.
The 4 Memphis players may not have been great but their stats are better than any returning player we have this season.

I like the pick up of McCormick. Always nice to have NBA bloodlines and he provides something this squad will desperately need - outside shooting and a little size. i think he will play similar minutes to his time at WMU. 12-15 mpg as a guy who comes in to stretch the defense.

I think the most likely starting 5 is Heath, Jackson, one of the FR, Stephens and Lammers. Ogbonda likely gets 20 mpg backing up both 4 and 5, McCormick gets 12-15 mpg at 4. Heyward/Moore likely get 12-14 mpg at PG. Whichever FR doesn't start gets 15 mpg backing up the wings.

I agree with this 100%. Would add that I hope the three freshmen are getting more minutes at the end of the season than at the beginning.

 

[gtbync]

When I made the post about the NIT last year, there was doubters, I guess there's doubters again.