Men's Basketball - Season Win total

[milldew72]

Nov. 15, a few games in.
What's everybody think now?
All the 18-20 wins guessers still that confident? More confident? Less confident?
Just curious.

[vu72]

Nov. 15, a few games in.
What's everybody think now?
All the 18-20 wins guessers still that confident? More confident? Less confident?
Just curious.

I don't remember what I selected but 20ish sounds good.  Although short handed, a typical rotation sin't much more than 8 so everyone available is getting plenty of minutes.  The development of Bogan and Edwards are a nice plus as we had high hopes but needed to see results.  The point guard spot is solid, Ryan and Kevin are providing the core production,  and if we can hit our 3s we should be good to go for 20+.

[wh]

Like '72, I don't recall how many games I predicted back when the thread first appeared.  That said, I do have 2 concerns at this early stage: 

---After watching Vucic play for an extended period last night, I think he is still a long way from being able to provide any reliable back-up minutes at the 5.  At this point he is strictly "mop up."  That leaves us with only 8 scholarship players and no back-up at the 5. 
---Richie Edwards looks very capable offensively, but he doesn't appear to have a lot of overall quickness plus has a fairly deliberate release on his jump shot.  I hope he is not someone like Sam Haampaa - handcuffed by quicker players face guarding him.

Those are my biggest concerns at this point.   

[valpotx]

I am sticking with my 22 win season.  I believe this is possible given the improvement in just a few games.  I do think Vucic will be able to provide 5-6 minutes/game, which can be enough to spell our bigs enough to stay fresh.  Of course, having Vashil would help a lot here!

[FWalum]

I don't know that I ever really gave a prediction as to the number of victories for this season.  In looking at the first two games I would have to say that Kevin is better than I thought he was.  His performance in the first half of the Arizona game was eye opening.  We need to have another body that can give us capable minutes at the 5 spot. It is a long season and I don't want Kevin to push his luck with the back issue by playing too many minutes especially in the non-conference schedule.  Ryan is capable of scoring the ball but still can be taken out of games by good defenders. Bogan and Harris MUST provide additional scoring to take the pressure off of Kevin and Ryan. Edwards is pretty much how wh described him, I am a little concerned about his apparent lack of explosiveness, but maybe that will improve a bit with some additional confidence. Kenney needs to play smarter and within himself, let his defense bring the game to him and stop pushing on offense. Matt could have a big impact on how things go this season. I think it is still early in the season and anything could happen.... Is Boggs going to play? Will Vashil become eligible in the next couple of weeks? Can Buggs continue to be a credible scoring and free-throw threat? With that being said I think 20 wins is possible.

[justducky]

The individual play of current team members has largely met or exceeded my preseason expectations and because of this my 17 game regular season win total prediction is probably too conservative. But before I can come up with a new one I need to see the rest of the team. If Fernandez can play then I want to know what he can contribute. If Fernadez can not play, then our hand might be forced towards a mid season activation of Ben Boggs which would help this year at the expense of the 13-14 season. The best I can do today is throw out a number of 18.72 wins which is just my way of admitting that I still do not have a clue.

[covufan]

We are already at 20 wins, with at least three more games.  Can we get to 23 wins?