Telfair, Chivichyan Signings Official

[Skippy]

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Waiting only on Ayob's signing. Here's a prospective depth chart, assuming we land Ayob:

Center
Ingram
Topalovic

PF
Ayob
Lennox

SF
Smith
Nicolds

SG
Nwoshu
Faruqbey
Chivichyan
Hall

PG
Wilson
Luzcando
Telfair

I would expect one or more of the SGs to see time at SF, and I would expect to see Smith and Nicolds at PF at times. Originally I thought Lennox would redshirt, but given the lack of "bigs," I would assume he'll have to see some playing time next year.

Roster by class:

Seniors
Hall
Wilson

Juniors
Telfair
Nwoshu
Ayob
Ingram

Sophomores
Luzcando
Faruqbey (RS)
Smith (RS)

Freshmen
Nicolds (RS)
Topalovic (RS)
Chivichyan
Lennox

If Clark Wilkinson returns from his mission and rejoins the team in 2016, ISU will have only one scholarship to give next year, assuming that no one leaves the program early. (Always a dangerous assumption).

On paper, this looks like a nice recruiting class, and that was critical given ISU has gotten very little out of the last two classes. Looks like we improved the shooting (both three-point and Ft, two areas where we lost a lot of games last year). We'll see if the athleticism has improved, which hopefully will allow the Bengals to play more man and better defend the 3.

It will be fun to see how all these new kids mesh, and what kind of growth we'll see from the six returnees. One thing we know for sure: ISU will be in the post-season tournament this season.

 

[bengalmama]

Well, I for one am excited about this upcoming season, even though we will be the bottom or second to bottom in the pre-season picks. I tend not to worry about that too much. Remember, in 2013-2014 SUU went 2-27. This year they improved to 10-19. ISU in 2013-2014 went 11-18 and 7-23 in 2014-2015. How many losses were less than 6 points this season? 12? We do lose some valuable seniors, mainly Solarin and Hansen, however, what I see as the big difference with this upcoming year is more options. We relied heavily on Hansen and Solarin and really only went 8 deep. I think this season, we could use 10-11 guys. We have lots of athleticism, not only with the new recruits, but with Nicolds, Smith, and Toplovac who all red-shirted last year. Look at how Nmadi improved with a red-shirt year. So, in my eyes, these three in particular will be interesting to watch as well as the new recruits. I saw huge strides in Geno by the end of the season. He really improved as well as Ben Wilson. Hopefully, we will have improved fthrow percentages and shooting percentages. I would have the players work a lot on that this summer. If we can go deeper on the bench, we can play man-to-man with our athletic team and have lots of fresh legs. From what I saw this season, that is what helped SUU has some success. They defended well and used lots of players for spurts. I agree with earlier posts that negativity doesn't help any program.

I think that the team this year will look very different from last year's team. We just have to wait and see if the players mesh well, execute, and learn the system. We've gained some size, athleticism, and shooting. Hopefully, we can start making strides towards having a successful winning season. From what I can see in the Big Sky, it looks like an open field with no real top dog. There are several strong players returning but also a lot of newbies.

 

[cscsbballcoach]

Any word on ayob? Also, are all the signed kids at school already? Any insight or knowledge how practices or open runs are playing out? Kids fitting in well?

 

[Skippy]

No Ayob, apparently. Steve Schaack tells me the coaching staff doesn't anticipate any changes to the current roster. So that leaves the Bengals mighty thin up front, but in this era of small-ball, at least ISU appears to have plenty of options at the 1-2-3/3.5.