- Joe Scott knows his team is young and the Pioneers are a work in progress, but he is preaching maturity to his team.
- Jon Coffman is pretty damn excited about college basketball and his team.
- Redshirt Freshman John Konchar has apparently put on a ton of muscle, and the ‘Dons are really excited about him and are more prepared to go small ball this year in the Summit
- Brent Calhoun is expected to make a big jump for the ‘Dons, he has lost a bunch of weight and is in the best shape of his life.
- I have realized that after an entire season that I have been spelling “Mastodons” incorrectly.
- Jason Gardner is excited about this program, and thinks his staff will be more comfortable working together this year. He has gained a large amount of respect for the Summit League.
- In his opinion, Mason Archie is his team’s best defender and wants to defend the other team’s best player.
- Marcellus Barksdale had to play four different positions in just about every single game for the Jaguars, he will not have to do that this year and expects Barksdale to benefit from not having to playing too many different roles.
- Barksdale and Archie have both graduated already, and set a great example for the team.
- His 4 transfers are really going to help this team.
- The new arena has really helped the Jaguars in recruiting.
- Dave Richman acknowledges that his team has 11 of his 15 guys as freshman and sophomores, but they are a deeper and more talented team than last year.
- Chris Kading had 3 surgeries in the off season, will probably miss the first couple games of the regular season.
- Lawrence Alexander carried the Bison on his back, he was the winningst most player in Bison history, it is not going to be easy to replace him. They will have to replace him by committee.
- The Bison ended up 12-4 in the league, but many of their games were won by just a possession.
- Derrin Hansen (and Brittany Lange) is excited about the new arena, it has been a huge asset to the program, and they know it will help them catch up to the rest of the league in the next few years. Not to mention it is extremely huge for the community.
- Hansen is expecting more productivity from Tim Smallwood, Hansen is unclear if Smallwood will start or come off the bench yet. Smallwood has a much better feel for the game right now. He was a huge help when Marcus Tyus missed the last 6 games of the season.
- Devin Patterson has become better in his leadership role.
- Marcus Tyus is coming off his knee injury very well.
- Jake White was only healthy for 2 or 3 games last year, he can have a big year if he is healthy.
- Randy Reed is going to have a big role this year.
- The players UNO has brought in bring in a winning culture, with all of them playing in their state championship games. Zach Jackson’s team won the state championship.
- Hansen thinks his new guys can be immediate impacts for his program, but it sounds like minutes may be an issue at this point.
- Scott Sutton says he is excited and optimistic, but he also sounds like he wants to skip the morning and get straight to lunch. He likes his new players, he knows there will be growing pains, but it is a tough group of guys that should be ready by the conference schedule. Their non-conference schedule should really help prepare the Golden Eagles for the Summit League.
- Obi Emegano and Brandon Conley have both been injured throughout the summer and had shoulder surgeries, but are doing very well at this point. The staff is doing the best that they can to protect them.
- Sutton thinks the rule changes in college basketball are going to benefit a guy like Emegano the most. He already led the league last year in free throws attempted per game and he should get even more attempts at the line this season. Sutton also likes how his team plays with a 30 second shot clock.
- Sutton really really likes Jalen Bradley, and will have a hard time keeping him out of the lineup. Bradley got to play a lot on the team’s summer trip, where the team got to play with a 24 second shot clock.
- Sutton could have a year where he is starting a couple freshmen. AJ Owens is their post player, but not as consistent as they would like him to be. Owens could have the biggest jump this year in the league.
- Craig Smith sounds like he came to party. He thinks it is going to be a heck of a year for the Summit League, and his team will be a work in progress. He is glad that his team set a foundation and a culture last year. They lost a lot of scoring, so they have to figure out a way to score the ball.
- Smith really does not know who is going to help take on the scoring yet, but Tre Burnette really caught on toward the end of the season. Casey Kasperbauer is one of the best three point shooters he has ever coached.
- The Coyotes have had a lot of injuries. They have 17 players on the roster, but ended a practice with only 10 players recently. It has been hard to get going and figure out lineups and who plays well together.
- Dan Jech can score in a lot of different ways and is a great rebounder. Smith sounds really excited about Jech.
- Tyler Hagedorn has a great feel for the game and can do a lot of different things.
- Tyler Borchers has been a great surprise for the Coyotes, he doesn’t look pretty with everything that he does, but he does great things.
- Scott Nagy says his team has taken their time getting ready because of the great experience that they have at the guard position. He thinks the Jackrabbits have a lot of depth, which is going to be needed in college basketball with the rule changes.
- He points out that preseason awards mean nothing. No one expected Deondre Parks and George Marshall to be all league picks last year. Some transfers from IUPUI or on other teams could be big time players, and no one knows anything about them yet.
- Jake Bittle and George Marshall both have nagging injuries, nothing that would keep them out, but they will be hurting after games.
- Nagy thinks his team is smaller than he would like it to be. They could even go very small with no true post player in some games.
- Adam Dykman works extremely hard, and down the road will be a tremendous 4 man in the future.
- The biggest question mark for the Jackrabbits is: how will they replace Cody Larson? They are looking at 3 guys to replace him…Connor Devine, Ian Theisen, and Mike Daum. He has no idea who will be their starting center at this point.
- Nagy just seems displeased by rule changes, doesn’t see the need for them, but they have to play with them. He doesn’t think the rule changes will affect how they play though.
- Billy Wright feels his program is headed in the right direction. His team has set a philosophy in how they want to recruit and compete.
- Western Illinois returns 85% of their scoring.
- His freshman are working hard to compete for starting spots and playing time.
- Garret Covington has really worked hard to improve his rebounding
- JC Fuller is one of the most underrated players in the league.
- De’Angelo Brewster and Brandon Gilbeck will have big breakout years as freshmen.
- The Summit League is close in talent, you are an injury or two away from going from the top to the bottom, or a recruit away from going from the bottom to the middle of the pack.
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