To see the actual team play and it look like a well-organized group. That’s it right now. Low bar. We have a grand total of 2 players returning from last year’s team who played. It’s crazy.
Preseason thoughts:
1. I think we have good players and options in the 1-3 spots if you look at backgrounds and experience. Yes, even taking into account the jump from mid-major to Big East for some of them.
2. Maybe we have enough at the 4 too depending on where Middleton and Toumi fall into this positionally. Aligbe is the stereotypical power conference player that could improve with the scenery change.
3. Center is a total unknown and looks like Project U. There’s nobody anywhere near what Bediako did at Santa Clara leading up to a breakout 5th season, for example.
4. Holloway hangs his hat on teams getting better (many teams do during the season), biggest question is will we torpedo our NCAAT chances too badly in November/December for it to matter? Putting all these new players into cohesive roles takes time. It’s the opposite issue of last year where we were going to live or die by 6 players and that’s what happened