Friday, November 6, 2009

This year's Idaho

Coaches Preseason Poll
1. Utah State
2. Nevada
3. New Mexico State
4. Idaho
5. Louisiana Tech
6. Fresno State
7. Boise State
8. San Jose State
9. Hawaii


Idaho was picked dead last in both WAC men's basketball polls last season. The Vandals tied for third and earned the No. 3 seed by winning nine conference games, which was more conference wins than the previous three years combined.
The Vandals started the conference season with a victory at Nevada and went from there, sweeping in-state rival Boise State, earning a split with NMSU and La. Tech.
Hawaii was picked last this season and I don't see the Warriors pulling an Idaho, but there is one team that intrigues me from the bottom half and that team is San Jose State.
People like Fresno State for their frontcourt combination of Paul George and Sylvester Seay and Greg Graham is a good coach at Boise State and his teams are always tough.
I'm looking for the Spartans to turn things around though and maybe sneak up on somebody like the Vandals did last year.
One similarity between the teams is they each possess a guard who transfered from a Pac 10 school. Idaho surrounded Mac Hopson with some good talent and Hopson ended up a first team caliber player.
San Jose State added Adrian Oliver from Washington last year and I think he kind of flew under the radar, partly to the Spartans underachieving again. Oliver was also in and out of the lineup early on as he only played in 18 games. When he was on the court for all 12 WAC games, Oliver poured in 17.6 per game which was second behind NMSU's Jahmar Young.
The Spartans also have returning starters in CJ Webster and Chris Oakes in the post (both tied for fourth in the WAC with 7.4 rpg), point guard Justin Graham (5th in assists with 4.13 apg) and guard Robert Owens, who was a 38 percent 3-point shooter last year.
I have my doubts San Jose State can put it all together though, which is probably why they ended up picked where they are and they were one-and-done in the WAC tournament last year, but it seems like there are some nice pieces there.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Teams like Boise, San Jose State, and Fresno State are the reason that WAC is so solid top to bottom this year. Boise is down but I have a feeling they'll be tough to beat. Fresno and SJSU are both very talented teams that could probably win conferences like SWAC and The Big Sky but will probably finish no higher than 5th or 6th in the WAC. We have a very tough conference this year.

Anonymous said...

Too bad two of our starters are on the bench until mid December. It's a shame they couldn't make academics just a little bit more of a priority.

Anonymous said...

What could have been? Surely we will be competitive, maybe even get a WAC championship if Gillenwater and Big Wen return for the conference season. Lets hope they both return. But imagine how great recordwise this team could have been if they were both here to start the season. I think sweeps against UNM and UTEP were a real possibility, and we would have a much better chance of beating St. Marys and UCLA. We may still get some of these wins, but they would have given us a legitimate shot at 7-0 in the first semester.

Anonymous said...

We keep talking (hoping) that Gillenwater and McKines will return in December but let's be honest. Clearly school is not a priority for either one of them. Not only they didn't take care of business in the spring as far as academics go but also didn't do a whole lot to help themselves during the summer. The whole summer we kept hearing that they are trying and doing the right thing and yet they are still ineligible. At this point, we really got to question whether they will be eligible in December at all and hope that if they are in fact eligible, they will take care of business next spring. Given their track record so far, we can only hope they learned a lesson.

Anonymous said...

Anon 3:47 get the story straight before you say "lets be honest". I know for a fact both are going to be eligible come the end of the first semester.

Anonymous said...

Anon 6:02 " I know for a fact both are going to be eligible come the end of the first semester."

unless you are teaching all the courses that these two are taking, you can't know for sure when and if they will be eligible. bottom line is, until final grades come in at the end of this semester, we can only guess when TG and WM will get to play.

Anonymous said...

Anyone hear anything how we did during the scrimmage?

Anonymous said...

Anon 6:02-

As long as we're being honest, nobody knows with 100% certainty until grades come out at the end of the semester.

Anonymous said...

Anon 9:32 Gillenwater and McKines will be back against UCLA and @UTEP if they become eligible.

Anonymous said...

JG, I saw on twitter than Jahmar scorched Texas Tech for 33 points in their scrimmage. Any other words or info on the team's trip to Lubbock?

Jason Groves said...

Anon, anything I may or may not have heard I can't really say because NMSU folks aren't supposed to talk about it... I'm interested that you saw that JY had 33. I believe you, but I was even told stats weren't being kept....Like I said before though, I think the most valuable thing that could come of the scrimmages (Tech is supposed to come here next year) is a potential series with the Raiders, which both sides seemed interested in establishing

Anonymous said...

I'm anon 6:02....I am not the teacher of all the courses, but there are other ways to know this stuff for a fact. And I know what I'm talking about. Believe it or don't believe; not sweat off my back.

Anonymous said...

Jason Groves, I am pretty sure the coaches keep stats for themselves. They aren't official, but I am positive one of the assistant coaches keep track on the score, and stats.

Anonymous said...

7:49--thanks for the update on the Utep and UCLA games. I did not realize we would play those games with our players back if they are eligible. Thats good to hear.