I remember hearing that he said he’d come back after they lost to Ohio but wasn’t sure if he’d said anything without emotional impact

If Monroe comes back then I totally agree with you, but I just don’t expect to see him at Georgetown next year. As for UW, I love their guards, but there is no one there who can replace the leadership and production of pondexter.

I don’t have alot of faith in Pastner as a coach quite yet. I’m amazed that he’s pulled together the recruiting class that he has, but I don’t see them being truly dangerous for another year or two. And without knowledge of Kentucky’s recruiting situation and the NBA draft, I can’t put them in the top 10 yet. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them in this list near the end of the season though. Also, I think you’re way too high on Temple and Illinois.

I understand where you are coming from with KU and UNC. However, it will be incredibly difficult for KU to replace Aldrich, Henry, and Collins. They will be good, but you don’t just bounce back after losing those three guys. With UNC it will be interesting to see how they rebound. Much like Gonzaga, UNC has issues at the PG position. Plus they lose deon thompson to graduation and likely Ed Davis to the NBA. They will be good, but I wouldn’t put them in the Top 10.

New Mexico State will be a powerhouse next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its amazing how much we ripped bouldin for not shooting, scoring enough or just basically disappearing during games and blame him partially for our losses this past year (especially against cuse) and now we are all of the sudden dumbfounded as to how we can be successful without him. We were in a much worse position last year after losing Daye, Heytvelt, and Pargo and we still managed to go to the tourney and win a game which is more than could be said for quite a few teams on MallonFan’s list. While we may not have the answer to our PG situation right now we just need to relax. Recruiting is not over and this staff has shown that they are capable of developing players . . . oh yeah and its only April.

I am not terribly excited by a back court that has to rely on the leadership abilities of Demetri Goodson and Steven Gray. In addition, someone in our array of guards needs to show that they can score consistently before I will admit that we will be a better team than last year. I am not saying it can’t be done, I am saying it just needs to be done.

As far as your other three aspects are concerned I think that Game Coaching, Defense and Preperation will all be improved as our Freshman get older and with the addition of Coach Daniels. It will take time and we will probably need to grow during the season, but I don’t think they are a top ten team . . . yet.

1) DEFENSE
The 09 team was a bunch of Freshmen and Redshirts that had not played together previously. Harris and Kong in particular hardly had time to unpack before the games started. Gray’s defense improved exponentially last year. Meech wasn’t too bad either. I think the rest of the team can improve too — maybe not to Gray’s level but I think they can improve a lot. Injecting a new player into this mix will not improve things beyond the play of the individual new player. There is work to be done here but yeah — I think 2010 will see a very tough defensive team.

2) GUARD PLAY

Admittedly an area of concern but only on the offensive end. Villarino brings a great offensive game and I think Grant will give the same kind of play you got from Bouldin in many respects. Arop is going to lead the team in rebounding next year and it will be very hard to keep him off the floor. I don’t know where he will play but I know he will play a lot of minutes. Gray will only get better. Bet he spends a lot of time on his offensive game this summer. We are just fine an guard.

3) PREP / MINDSET / MENTAL TOUGHNESS

Guess this is your first swipe at Coach Few. We saw the team fall apart a few times last year and it would be fair to say that the majority of our losses saw the team melt down to a certain degree. You can blame the coach if you want. I blame the players and the inexperience of those players. It appeared to me that they were more than a little susceptible to distractions. For most of them, this was the first time they played opposition of the caliber that beat them and quite often in very hostile venues. I don’t know what the coaching staff could have done to prepare them for this kind of thing other than playing a very tough schedule early in the year (well looks like they did that). The team has been through a rather intense formative period in 09. I don’t think one or two new guys are going to change anything here. Individually and collectively, they guys we have will need to deal with this. Personally I think we will see improvement in this area in ’10.

4) GAME COACHING
Swipe #2 at coach Few and his staff. It appears to me that Coach Few had a lot of confidence in his players and felt he didn’t need to intervene all that often. Indeed if you play an up-tempo game, you don’t want to call any more time outs than you absolutely must. If you prepare your kids well before the game there is no need to draw up a play on the white board during a time out. Guys like Izzo look great when they do stuff like that — if it works.

I’ll only say this, I seriously doubt Coach Few is going anywhere anytime soon. So if Few’s game coaching is a pre-requisite to getting to the final four, I guess we are doomed forever. Personally I don’t agree with that position. But you are entitled to your opinion.

We didn’t lose too many games in the last minute last year. And when we did, I don’t think it had much to do with Few’s game coaching.

mjc