I had a full blow by blow recap of each of the WAC tourney games but as I thought about the season ending on the plane ride home I decided I wasn’t going to post it. Water under the bridge. Reality is Tech beat an Idaho team in a toss up game (seeding be damned Vegas had Tech by one in the spread) and then in less than 24 hours played a good Nevada team in their building. Nobody is going to beat Nevada in Reno twice (even Utah State lost the first time they were there this season).
The WAC really needs to find a neutral site to host the conference tourney. Two locations that I keep hearing talk about include Las Vegas (where work incidentally had me for the last week – a nice +$150 on the trip) and Salt Lake City. I would vote for Vegas as nothing against Salt Lake but it is more of a destination city. A conference school hosting the tourney always seems to allow the host school to at least play in the championship if not win it. Also it would stop such nonsense as Nevada being the visiting team in their own gym.
But I digress. Back to the Bulldogs. The final record for this tumultuous season was 15-18. The key stretch that is exciting about the future is that this team won seven out of the last eleven.
It won’t be hard to replace the production of James Loe and Adrian Rogers.
Predicted 2009 roster
Point
*Spring signee – junior college/transfer
*Yonas Behre So.
Thoughts: rumors abound around the program of a big time transfer point coming into this spot. That would be a nice fix. Behre was a late add to the roster (he was still available in October after graduating in 2007) and I just didn’t get the feel that he will ever be a bigtime WAC point. He played 204 minutes and his numbers just don’t give me confidence. I would not be opposed to finding him a nice junior college home and adding another juco point in that slot.
Wings
*Kyle Gibson 6’4 Sr. – did I mention he averaged 20.5 points over the last eleven games of the season.
*Jamel Guyton 6’3 Sr. – streaky shooter (scored 27 twice) has big time firepower.
*David Jackson 6’7 Sr. – He’ll be the first three off the bench and like this season give you a little of everything.
*Darius Redding 6’5 Fr. – phenomenal athleticism will probably play similar role to Brandon Gibson this season.
* Brandon Gibson – medical redshirt. Tore his ACL in the WAC tournament and you can almost guarantee that equals a year to heal (best case scenario for ACL tear is six months which would mean he would miss all offseason conditioning and have to rejoin the team during fall practice. This young man has too bright a future to waste him for a season that he wouldn’t be 100%. He was playing his best basketball at the end of the season and we’ll look forward to seeing him again in uniform in 2010.
Power Forward
*Magnum Rolle 6’11 Sr. – he’ll swing between the four and five again. All-WAC defensive team this past season. If he is consistent on offense he’ll be All-WAC.
*Olu Ashalou 6’7 So. – he’s more comfortable at the four (and so are we watching him) at this point in his career and you would expect him to see the majority of his time there again next season. Really came on strong in the stretch run. Can dominate the boards.
*Kadeem Coleby 6’9 Fr. – the next highly touted Grassroots player to lace it up in Ruston.
Center
*Shawn Oliverson 6’11 Jr. – he’s not going to give you anything offensively outside of four feet but his size and hustle will earn him more playing time
*Juco Big – another true five needed to plug in here (this was cooper’s spot). Rumors of a 7 footer on the way. If he can walk and chew gum offer him.
That’s twelve scholarships and with no new updated information of the APR situation I’m not going to assume the 13th is coming back for next season.
If those two needs are met this team will be capable of winning a good number of basketball games next season. I sure fan expectations will be tempered a bit after this {current} roller coaster season but if Kyle Gibson picks up where he left off and the other players mature as they should I personally can’t wait til next November.
