This is a team we should have beat. No excuses. Seattle definitely presented some tough matchups for us. They have some very tall trees down low which is not good for our front line which is not very tall. They also played zone. You need to hit the 3-ball against the zone and we didn't do that well the other day. Only 9 for 29, but I don't think scoring (specifically hitting the 3) is going to be an issue for us this year. This eags team is going to put up some serious points this year and you saw that against Mississippi St. We will be fine on offense. That being said, we need to play better/smarter defense. Foul trouble with some of our key guys is part of the issue. When Blizzard and Venky get in foul trouble, teams are taking it right at them and they can't play as aggressive on D. Bliz an Venky both ended up with 4 fouls.
Although I do agree that our team currently lacks depth, I do not believe that will be the case all season. We have a lot of VERY young guys that need to get their feet wet. Specifically, we have some incredible shooters on our bench. Over the course of this year they will make names for themselves. I also believe that the return of Julian Harrell could be huge for us. He looks like a game changer to me but I still haven't seen him play in our system yet so I could be wrong. I think this eags team is going to be very good by the end of the season. Maybe as good or better than last year's team. We are going to need to ride out some of the growing pains as fans early in the season though. If we don't get better on defense, it's going to be a very bumpy season. I believe D needs to be Hayford's emphasis right now.
I look for the eags to finish top 3 in league this year, even with defensive issues. I believe this because I think we have the best starting five in the Big Sky. If we figure out how to fix our defensive issues, I think we finish #1.
We should average somewhere in the high 70's or low 80's this year on offense which should put us in the top 10 nationally. Combine that with any kind of defense and we have a recipe for success.
We'll see though. Time will tell how this team develops.
go eags!