Pre-Season Polls

[gobears]

As we learned from football season, pre-season polls are often worthless, but here are the two for the upcoming season. Nice to see that UNC is not picked to finish in the basement.

Coaches Poll
1. Weber State (4) 60
2. Montana (4) 57
3. Portland State (1) 52
4. Northern Arizona 44
5. Idaho State 37
6. Montana State 33
7. Northern Colorado 19
8. Eastern Washington 15
9. Sacramento State 12

Media Poll
1. Montana (14) 218
2. Weber State (8) 200
3. Portland State (2) 183
4. Northern Arizona (2) 155
5. Montana State 114
6. Idaho State 111
7. Sacramento State 74
8. Northern Colorado 56
9. Eastern Washington 55

 

[bearsradio]

I'll weigh in here with a thought or three here:

Eastern's picked below us because of Rodney being gone, and some other roster changes.

Sac State's losing at home to us and the fact Arch is back for us probably put us ahead of them, at least in the coaches viewpoint.

 

[Beardown]

I'll weigh in here with a thought or three here:

Eastern's picked below us because of Rodney being gone, and some other roster changes.

Sac State's losing at home to us and the fact Arch is back for us probably put us ahead of them, at least in the coaches viewpoint.

Troy can you confirm or deny reports that Arch as been working on his outside shots and freethrows instead of playing Beer-pong over at Bears during the weekends? :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[bearsradio]

:roll:

You might be better off asking Ursa :lol:

I did note yesterday Athlon's and Sporting News' previews have Arch 1st team All-BSC. Lindy's had him 2nd team.

 

[gobears2010]

I think making the Big Sky tournament is a reasonable and attainable goal for the basketball team. Any thoughts?

 

[bearsfan]

I think the big sky tourny is a vary attainable goal. Get a chance to see our first view of them sunday at 4 against mines.

 

[Blofeld]

How many teams make the Big Sky tournement, 6?

I'd think about 10 wins would be reasonable. I'd be estatic if they could go .500 at home in conference.

 

[bearsradio]

Blofeld, you're correct in that it's 6 teams. Seeds 1 & 2 draw a bye. 3 & 4 host the first round games, then the semi-finals and finals move to the regular season champion's arena.

 

[Blofeld]

I think finishing 6th would be pretty difficult. With a whole new roster can we expct to hear the same "oh we're too young" song and dance that we hear from the football staff? I'm not saying it's not valid, in fact it probably is. But I would guess we'll start:

C - Archibeque - Senior
PF - Banks - Junior
SF - Kaba or Mason - Sophs
SG - Taibi - Senior
PG - Garrett - Freshman

So not all that young, but a new group playing together.

Like I said about 10 wins and to finish 8th in conference would be acceptable to me.

Remember this team finished dead last in RPI last year, that's out of like 325 teams so nowhere to go but up.

 

[Blofeld]

Correction, I'm guessing Palacios will start at the point and if not at the 2 and Taibi will slide to the 3...

But just guessing here.

 

[Beardown]

I am actually excited to see these guys play. Hopefully we can get good crowds at Butler. I will be excited to see Arch and Taibi finish their careers here. They've been very good for the program. If Arch has a good season he might be picked up by an NBA team IMO. Not drafted, but maybe a free-agent.

 

[Blofeld]

Mike Higgins was a cup of coffee NBA player and he was very very dominate at UNC. I don't see Archibeque close to that class. If he went out and went 20 and 10 every night he might get a look in Europe or the D league but he'd have to really step up his game big time.

The Big Sky as a conference puts a guy in the NBA once every 5 years or so, the kid from E Wash being the latest.

 

[gobears2010]

The team actually returns nine players from last year's roster, so only six new guys, two of which are jucos. Arch will start at Center and Taibi and Thanasi will be the guards to start the season, at least. I'm guessing Banks and Mason will be the forwards.

 

[gobears]

How many games do you think the Mens and Womens B-Ball Teams will combine to win this season?

0-10 - 26.4%
15-20 - 21.7%
25-more - 20.9%
10-15 - 20.9%
20-25 - 10.1%

These are the results of the poll at uncbears.com.

Ouch...0-10 in the lead....

 

[Blofeld]

I think that's fair, they need to show some improvement first before people start taking a sip of the kool aid.

There has been a lot of turnover on both teams, especially the women. On paper the women's team is a lot taller which is kind of remarkable to see. I think the shortest chick is 5'9" and there is some freshman that is 6'5" which is kind of scary. So they should be better but with them all that tall they lose points for sex appeal. I'm only 5'10" so I'm not into Amazon chicks that much.

 

[hoel4800]

well after watching the Men look horrid against Mines Sunday afternoon, I'd agree with that poll........Boyle seems hellbent on running, despite the fact that he doesnt have the talent to do that in the Big Sky yet.....6-8 wins for the men.........with two of those being over Johnson and Wales.......Who does the basketball scheduling? Troy you might know I just was curious after hearing all the stuff about how the athletic department is so in debt yet they can afford to have the men's basketball team play J&W twice......

 

[gobears2010]

Against Mines, I think we saw what the men's team is capable of on both the positive and negative side. Sure we got down big early in the second half, but we went on a 27-3 run and ended up winning. Keep in mind, it was an exhibition, weird things happen in exhibitions, Ohio State loses to Findlay, Michigan State loses to Grand Valley, DU takes overtime to beat East Central, and Air Force loses to Brock University.