Since we've been eliminated from the tourney (i know we have some NIT teams left) but Just a general look at every team going into next year, ps obviously things will change between now then, early draft, quiting players, dismalls and the recruting season isnt over, obviously a 5star pick would obviuosly change a few opinions ..and its relative to where you are..aka i might say a good team might be worse and a bad team might improved..but i probably still think the good team is better

also i know nothing of transfers beyong UH and dont know a database for that (so add your schools tranfers in the responses)

in order of finish this year

Southern Methodist: around the same or slightly worse, but not by much


with the return of the AAC player of the year moore and star big kennedy look for smu not to lose much of a step next year, they add a espn 100 PG and 2 other solid 3stars, but they also lose a ton of role players. Smu still has 3 scholarships to give so look for them to target some bigs in transfers or recruits

Tulsa: Improved


Tulsa doesnt graduate a single player on the roster. and the players should be much more comfortable in their coaches system year 2 ..recruits arent very touted but thats probably more a concern for the 2017 season...a much improved OOC schedule could have tulsa a tourney team next year

Temple: around the same..maybe


Temple will take a Huge loss with the graduation of Will Cummings & Jesse Morgan but temple brings in 3 4star players including a espn 100 player ... you never know with freshmen but temple on paper has found suitable replacements and have a proven head coach

Cincinnati: Much Improved


The Entire starting lineup returns, and then add 2 4star recruits and a highly rated 3 star, their coach returns aswell, look for next season to be a good year for the bearcats

Uconn: Improved



they lose only 1 significant player unfortunatly for them it was there best player in boatright, but they bring in the highest rated recruit in the league as his replacement aswell as a second espn 100 recruit ...the huskies also seem to be targeting a 3rd recruit to bring in...(and are a finalist for a 5star top 10 recruit, most are thinking he lands in wisconsin but has uconn second behind that)

Memphis: Dramatically improved




they only lose 1 player on the roster and add the lawson brothers who are both consesus top 50 recruits and dedric considered a 5star by 247


Tulane: about the same


they lose 2 starters only 1 being significant. their recruting class doesnt look great compared to the rest of the leagues but this could arguably be their best recruiting class in ages .. in respect to how good they are they should be around there again next year


ECU: Improved



returns all the key players and starters from this season and their 2 best players just joined the team this year so look for better chemistry from them. as far as what they were this year look for them to be much better than that next year


UCF: a bit improved or the most improved in the league



Obviously talking about the giant that is 7'6 tacko joining the knights, who may or may not be a game changer, even beyond tacko, ucf only loses 1 significant player on its roster and has put togeter its best 2 recruting classes in history this year and last.. with ucf's best players true freshmen and the addidtion of more talent next year, look for ucf to be improved to some degree next year

Houston: Much Improved



Houston doesnt lose a single significant player, adds a former espn 100 transfer, a 4star recruit recruit and 2 decently rated 3 stars, look for major improvements from the coogs on the second year of kelvin sampson as coach of the coogs

USF: Much improved



usf losses its best player in corey allen but doesnt lose any other players on its roster, but USF has 3 4star players commited (tho one is rumored to be be differing to the 2016 class) and according to 247 are favorites to land another 4 star JC recruit. they also have a former 4/5star maryland player transfering in who is eligible next season. so look for the bulls to be dramatically improved from what it was next year under year 2 of its new coach


Finale: i dont see any teams being worse next year, the teams that could be worse are the situation where recruits dont live up to the hype..
i dont think we have any draft touted underclassmen that would enter the draft but you never know
and there are about 15-20 touted 4-5 star recruits still out there maybe we land a few more in the league

Someone please recruit #14. He plays basketball in Brazil

(03-21-2015 07:07 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  Someone please recruit #14. He plays basketball in Brazil

Lebo is on him

So it looks like the league was very, very young this year and pretty much everybody should be improved from what was a down year for the conference. So far so good. The two keys will be getting some good OOC wins before conference play begins and getting the bottom half of the conference to schedule better in the first place. It's great that everybody is returning experience and recruiting better, but if the conference has teams with 200+ RPI's because of OOC scheduling it hurts everybody and doesn't matter how improved teams are.

Ucf is going to be a lot better. Hard to even quantify how much having a full roster will help and getting experience across our line up.

(03-21-2015 07:27 PM)KNIGHTTIME Wrote:  Ucf is going to be a lot better. Hard to even quantify how much having a full roster will help and getting experience across our line up.

We'll see . UCF could be better but still not rise in the standings. Still see Cincy, Tulsa, SMU, Temple, UConn and Memphis in the top half of the league. If the bottom half of the league is stronger, maybe the league gets 4 or 5 teams in the tourney rather than the pathetic two that was earned this year.

(03-21-2015 07:41 PM)vabearcat Wrote:  

(03-21-2015 07:27 PM)KNIGHTTIME Wrote:  Ucf is going to be a lot better. Hard to even quantify how much having a full roster will help and getting experience across our line up.

We'll see . UCF could be better but still not rise in the standings. Still see Cincy, Tulsa, SMU, Temple, UConn and Memphis in the top half of the league. If the bottom half of the league is stronger, maybe the league gets 4 or 5 teams in the tourney rather than the pathetic two that was earned this year.

Completely agree with this. UCF should have a better, deeper team, but will still be a long climb from where we are inside the conference.

And our OOC schedule has absolutely got to improve!!

And....Tulane has to get better, right?!?

Seriously, have to improve OOC SoS in the lower half of the league and this has a chance to really be a foundational year for the conference.

Way, way too early to judge Memphis. We are almost certainly losing multiple players, hopefully not Nichols but even that has been floated in the local paper, and it remains to be seen whether we fill our still-pressing PG need, even assuming Johnson chooses to spend the summer getting in shape and working on his game, no give at this point.

You simply cannot overestimate what a disaster this year was to the fanbase as a whole, the lost ticket sales, lost goodwill in the community, etc. Pastner is an awesome man, but his coaching seat is already scorching.

I dont think Morgan is a big loss. IMO he was a huge disappointment. His D was awful, he's the worst finisher at the rim I have ever seen, and he was inconsistent shooting the ball. He didn't really rebound, and his passing was poor. 35% from 3 isn't awful, but it says a lot when your 3pt % is better than your FG%. He didn't have 20 points once all year. If we can pick up Four McGlynn from Towson, it would be a big upgrade over Morgan.

Cummings is obviously a big loss in every way (other than jump shooting). Josh Brown IMO was one of the most improved players in the country. He's a better defender and shooter than Will, but doesn't have the same tenacity and slashing ability. I don't think he'll score as much as Will, but I think he can put up about 11, 4, and 4 a game. In addition, Alston can run the point a bit, and I have a feeling we'll get either a JUCO or 5th year PG.

A lot will depend on Enechionyia's development, and weight and strength gain, Aflakpui's injury recovery, and what happens with 4*/5* C Georgios Papagiannis. I'm hoping Trey Lowe can play minutes as a freshman and give us some of the shooting we lose with Morgan gone, but he really needs to get stronger quickly.

Agreed on your assessment of Morgan and yes, McGlynn would bev a nice pickup. Do we still play Towson next year, or was it just a two- year commitment?
Let's face it the conference HAS to be better.

Yeah agreed not worried about losing Morgan at all... Turned out the be a lesser version of Dalton Pepper. Losing Will is crippling but it depends on how Josh Brown develops. I think the biggest key is can Decosey finally step up and lead this team because if he can there won't be a drop in play.

(03-21-2015 07:53 PM)Puckhead48E Wrote:  And....Tulane has to get better, right?!?

Yes- and so should the 4 teams that finished behind us.
Honestly, are you even familiar with SMU's record in football and basketball over the last 25 years?

Any word on next year's conference schedule? Will we have another pair of teams to only play once (Temple hosted Houston and visited Memphis) or will we just keep those two and flip the game's location?

(03-21-2015 10:31 PM)GLinPa Wrote:  Any word on next year's conference schedule? Will we have another pair of teams to only play once (Temple hosted Houston and visited Memphis) or will we just keep those two and flip the game's location?

We still just play Houston and Memphis once (@ Houston, versus Memphis) everyone else twice

(03-21-2015 10:25 PM)EdisonDoyle Wrote:  

(03-21-2015 07:53 PM)Puckhead48E Wrote:  And....Tulane has to get better, right?!?

Yes- and so should the 4 teams that finished behind us.
Honestly, are you even familiar with SMU's record in football and basketball over the last 25 years?

Let's see... Football has been atrocious until 2008, then went back into the crapper last season but all signs point to that being fixed as we speak. Basketball was one miss after another until we hit the home run and have really turned the corner. Sooo, absent a year or two we have had relatively similar football teams and our basketball team has been better overall. But that wasn't the point. SMU may have failed several times before finding the plot, but the school has spent the money on coaches and facilities and has made strides. Now, let's get back to Tulane. How you gonna fix that dumpster fire?

In all honestly, I was just asking about Tulane because they weren't mentioned in the original post of next year's schools chances.

(03-21-2015 07:23 PM)JP Bearcat Wrote:  So it looks like the league was very, very young this year and pretty much everybody should be improved from what was a down year for the conference.

As I posted somewhere, only five of the Top 30 scorers in the league were seniors. And four of the Top 20 rebounders.

I don't know what's going on at Memphis, but I am bullish on next year.

(03-21-2015 07:07 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  Someone please recruit #14. He plays basketball in Brazil

F uck that! (pay attention closely mods)

(03-21-2015 10:43 PM)Puckhead48E Wrote:  

(03-21-2015 10:25 PM)EdisonDoyle Wrote:  

(03-21-2015 07:53 PM)Puckhead48E Wrote:  And....Tulane has to get better, right?!?

Yes- and so should the 4 teams that finished behind us.
Honestly, are you even familiar with SMU's record in football and basketball over the last 25 years?

Let's see... Football has been atrocious until 2008, then went back into the crapper last season but all signs point to that being fixed as we speak. Basketball was one miss after another until we hit the home run and have really turned the corner. Sooo, absent a year or two we have had relatively similar football teams and our basketball team has been better overall. But that wasn't the point. SMU may have failed several times before finding the plot, but the school has spent the money on coaches and facilities and has made strides. Now, let's get back to Tulane. How you gonna fix that dumpster fire?

In all honestly, I was just asking about Tulane because they weren't mentioned in the original post of next year's schools chances.

Tulane the dumpster? You do realize that SMU was the worst team in all of D1 football last year? Like not even a debate, the absolute worst freaking team in the land, and you bang on Tulane? ******* joke.

(03-22-2015 12:12 AM)CougarRed Wrote:  

(03-21-2015 07:23 PM)JP Bearcat Wrote:  So it looks like the league was very, very young this year and pretty much everybody should be improved from what was a down year for the conference.

As I posted somewhere, only five of the Top 30 scorers in the league were seniors. And four of the Top 20 rebounders.

I don't know what's going on at Memphis, but I am bullish on next year.

What's going on at Memphis?