mikeyvthedon
Will be a tough year for us, that is for sure. I think UCLA should bounce back pretty well, and Washington should still run the league, even with the sting of imagining those two recruits that could have made them national elite. I agree with llperez, Cal should struggle mightily, you can not lose all of that talent and rebuild unless you get the best of the best recruits, and Cal is not Kentucky. But my Ducks man! I just have had the highest hopes for this year, we had some interest, a few nice in-state prospects, and we get none of them! I have wanted Ernie gone for quite a while, and I am glad that we seemed to have found a nice replacement. I hear Altman is well liked amongst AAU circles and has connections, so I hope 2011 will work in our favor. But besides Dunigan, we have nothing CLOSE to a college center on our team. I have a feeling Nared is a super reach as far as playing or contributing for us, but I hope he proves otherwise. John Loyd seems like a tough little dude, in the Porter mold, but to be honest, I was glad Porter was a senior last year. Having a small PG is just so difficult match-up wise, it kills you on defense. The only smaller PG I would want in the Pac-10 as of next year would be Isiaiah Thomas, but that guy is a freak (in a good way). Is Loyd the same? I highly doubt it, but again, hope he proves me wrong. I am thinking we will most likely be running a Dunigan, Catron, Longmire, Singler and Armstead line-up, with Loyd getting some PT along with Jamil Wilson (who was just not what I expected last year), Teondre Williams and Jeremy Jacob getting a lot of time as well. I can only go off of the numbers and the schools that showed interest for Nared, and neither were overly impressive. We might need him, hell, we do need him, but his contributions are just beyond me predicting. EJ Singler seems to be a legit player, like a smaller Kyle, except of course, well, it is unfair to make expectations as high as someone that just won NCAA Final Four MVP. Armstead looked pretty decent. As far as NBA prospects, Dunigan is about it, but than again, you would like him to do more. I think Mike is a legit 6’9, maybe 6’10 in shoes. He has a wingspan I hear in the 7’2-7’3 range, and he was a McDonalds All-American, went to Farragut Academy (of the Ron Fields and KG fame). If he finally gets it together, than he has tools to be a legit first rounder, at least drafted. But, if he does not, than we will be near dead last.
Who are we better than right now? I honestly do not know. Like, I do not think Cal is very special anymore without Randle, Robertson, Christopher et. all leaving. Washington State still seems to be a basement team, though they have Klay Thompson. But Arizona State is legit, UCLA has a big that should totally neutralize anything we could bring their way, Oregon State has nothing incredible, but I have a feeling Robinson will have a strong team for this upcoming year. Stanford’s recruiting class is stacked with big skilled players, UW is still the team to beat and I know Zona has some solid talent. Also, as much as USC has gotten hit with the whole Mayo thing, they seem to be stacking up too. I am honestly looking forward to our 2011 recruits already. It was painful looking at our potential recruits and seeing either A) A player we had a snowballs chance in hell of getting (these are players who at one time had Oregon listed: CJ Leslie, Jelan Kedrick, Josh Selby, Josh Smith and, sigh, Terrence Jones. I never really believed Ross was coming.) or B) Nobody. Just ugly. I just want our basketball team back to normal, and playing at a high level. Is that too much to ask Phil? Make it happen! 🙂