Green Rice FIG, I don't think any reasonable fan doesn't recognize that there are questions marks about this team. There was a huge roster turnover. How will the pieces fit together? Will the superstar freshman live up to the hype? Will we get any rebounds 🙂? It will take time for those questions to be answered. In my opinion, Pike is a very good coach and I tend to be an optimistic fan, so I believe that ultimately those questions are going to be answered positively. Based on everything I've seen and heard, I certainly don't think Dylan and Ace are going to turn out to be un-coachable prima donnas.
In any case, whether it's a college or NBA team, it takes actual experience playing together to work things out. It isn't reasonable to expect that we'd have a finished product the first time the coaches rolled the ball out on the court to start practice. My biggest issue is simply people putting too much emphasis on an exhibition game played three weeks before the start of the regular season (at a time when not too long ago we'd be holding midnight madness and celebrating the official start of practice) against what I think will turn out to be a pretty damn good power 5 team in a game played at a very fast pace. Were there issues that need to be addressed? Absolutely, that's the advantage of playing an early exhibition game. I also saw a lot of very positive things in that game.
The team is going to be really tested by the end of November. Hopefully they'll have enough time to gel somewhat in the games leading up to ND. No matter how good we're going to be at the end of the day, we may take some lumps in Vegas. Ultimately the season is going to come down to how we do in conference play. I think we're going to have a different team in late January than we had on October 17th. That's the beauty of sports, we're going to play the games and we'll find out exactly who we are as the season progresses.
I understand having some concerns. I've been a season ticket holder for more than 35 years so god knows I've got plenty of reasons to be concerned deeply ingrained in me. But I'm viewing this season in a very positive way right now. I can't wait to see how the team grows and comes together. I'm looking forward to the excitement Dylan and Ace are going to bring and to following their development. I can't wait to see all of the newcomers and returning players and what they all bring to the table. I'm also going to go on the record again and predict that Emanuel is going to contribute more than a lot of people think.
It's going to be a fun and exciting season. Part of the fun for me is seeing how the coaches and players deal with and adapt to adversity. I can't wait for the season to start. Go RU!
