After three 20 win seasons in the past four years, back to back third place WCC league finishes, two straight N.I.T. bids, and two consecutive NBA first round draft picks, we're unbelievable. Few (including Mark Few) believe in our chances in 2023-24. I guess that's what the hangover of 25+ years with no bids to a post season tourney that begins with an "N" buys you.
Add to that, all last year's starters are gone along with 80% of your scoring and, well, you can see why we are unbelievable. The past two years was a fluke, right? Hold on.
I last wrote about "Who are These Guys." Let me tell you these guys have the potential to be unbelievable - as in great.
Our roster is big and deep. Six players are 6'9" or taller including three 7'0" bigs that can actually catch and make shots, not only in the paint, but from distance. No more fumble-rusky down low. Christoph Tilly and 7'1" 245 lb transfer Francisco Caffaro from Virginia can defend and score. Freshman Bukky Oboye and Luke McEldon will add much needed depth. 6'10" shooting forward Johnny O'Neil is a potential breakout player who can do it all. Shoot it from deep and defend. Last year he led American University with 51 blocks as a forward.
Our other shooting wings bring a lot of size and firepower. Jake Ensminger 6'9", Cam Tongue 6'7", Carlos Marshall 6'6" and Kozy Akametu 6'5" return along with Arizona transfer 6'7" Adama Bal and 6'5" Tyree Bryan will all make defenses pay when getting an open look.
Wait there's more. Our Guards Brenton Knapper, 6'4" Freshman Christian Hammond, and 5'11" Grad transfer Jalen Benjamin will bring needed scoring and speed. Benjamin lead his team in scoring last year. He's cat quick and will open the floor for our up tempo game.
Everyone can play. In prior seasons, when we had to go deep into the bench, there were a lot of cringes from the season ticket holders and fans as the drop off was sizeable. Not now.
The Sendek model is you practice as you would play in a real game. With so much better talent, the battle for minutes is intense. It's so physical, that Coach Sendek has to remind the players that they would be on the bench with 2 or 3 early fouls unless they clean up their defensive approaches. The good news is we have players to go to when a starter is having an off game.
The competition heats up this week as we scrimmage UCLA in Westwood and UCSB at SCU early next week. The Bruins are as usual, young and talented - picked third in the Pac-12. These are important minutes for our guys to experience game flow ahead of our home opener November 8th against Utah Tech.
No matter what, we'll be unbelievable. Unbelievably great or bad. I'm taking the over on this one and choose to believe in the unbelievably great. Believe me, you won't want to miss this action. We'll get a good look in 17 days.
Next Up: The 2023-24 schedule breakdown.
