2018-2019 Shox Offseason Predictions and Discussions

[FadedCrown]

Predictions
We lose Landry, keep Lomax
Non-Conference: 10-3, we schedule an "easy" non-con, and I think we lose in the final of the Charleston Shootout? (I believe it is called), drop a difficult road game and a home game we should have won.
Conference: 11-7, still "struggling" against AAC opponents due to not having a good X and O's assistant for Coach Marshall, expect to drop 2 home games and 5 road games.
Conference tourney: Lose in 2nd round: Conference tourney struggles bite the Shocks once again
Postseason: Bubble team, depends on the strength of the bubble next year

[ShockerPrez]

Undefeated non con. Lose 2 games in conference to ECU and... Tulane. Then lose in the semis of the AAC tourney to start our new run of conference tourney disapointments.

Elite 8 run after that because our guys play like they enjoy the game again.

New crowd favorites emerge, new leaders emerge, no expectations, and the Shox start to regain a new perspective on basketball.

As Crash Davis said. Smile!!! This is fun!!! This is a fun game, dammit!!

[FadedCrown]

Or you know just go 31-0, because Super Saiyan Shamet shows up next season, and Lomax is basically FVV on steroids (not literally), excellent guard play makes up for the lack of experience at the 5.

[WuShock Reaper]

2018-19 Predictions: Wins Losses
Non-Conference (w/o Charleston Classic): 8 wins, 2 losses
Charleston Classic: 1-2 (on the Winners side of the Bracket; beat Davidson, lose to Purdue and Alabama) 1 wins, 2 losses
AAC Record: 9-9 (6th); (win 2 on the road, lose 2 at home) 9 wins, 9 losses
AAC Tourney: 1-1 (start on Thursday, lose to Cincinnati on Friday) 1 win, 1 loss
NIT: 4-Seed; (Beat UMBC in the 1st round, lose in the 2nd round on the road to DePaul) 1 win, 1 loss
Overall Record: 20 wins, 15 losses

I'll modify when I know more about Coaches, recruits, and Non-conference schedule and conference schedule.

[ShockerPhi]

My main hope is that Lomax can earn the starting point guard role as soon as possible to let Landry play the 2. ALo probably won't start at point at the beginning of the season. I just hope he can earn it as soon as December. I do think Landry comes back, but I think there's a better chance of him going pro than some people think. Especially if you read this piece posted by pinstripers in the Landry thread: http://www.kansas.com/sports/college...205771519.html

[asiseeit]

This seasons wounds are beginning to heal a little. VERY optimistic about next season especially if
LS returns giving us a dynamic back court of AL and LS. I have a hunch ES is going to be a stud
giving us potent offense at the small forward position, yes small forward. Great PG in AL and very accurate
shooters on BOTH wings. AR obviously in the 1-3 rotation giving us depth. With those four guys no
one will be able to sag on us like they did this season. If MM shoots it well at the stretch four our
offense could be very very good again. Just need AM and Udeze to surprise a little on the upside
which I believe they will. Third place in conference and post season tournament champs gets us
in the dance again. A lot of hungry youthful enthusiasm. Brown and Moore will contribute, as well.

[BostonWu]

Predictions
We lose Landry, keep Lomax
Non-Conference: 10-3, we schedule an "easy" non-con, and I think we lose in the final of the Charleston Shootout? (I believe it is called), drop a difficult road game and a home game we should have won.
Conference: 11-7, still "struggling" against AAC opponents due to not having a good X and O's assistant for Coach Marshall, expect to drop 2 home games and 5 road games.
Conference tourney: Lose in 2nd round: Conference tourney struggles bite the Shocks once again
Postseason: Bubble team, depends on the strength of the bubble next year

As an exception I wouldn't mind easing up on the noncon next season. With a complete roster turnover you don't need murder's row.

[WheatShock]

As an exception I wouldn't mind easing up on the noncon next season. With a complete roster turnover you don't need murder's row.

For noncon we know we have Baylor at home and the Charleston Classic. I seem to recall hearing that the the OU series was extended as well so we will likely play them either in Norman or OKC.

If the pattern from the past holds we are probably looking for one more home and home and will likely start that on the road giving us two noncon road games. The rest of the schedule will likely be filled out with buy games.

[GreatWhiteBuffalo]

OU next year will be good for the team, but bad for the resume...especially if (I know, not a very big 'if') Young bolts to the NBA. They are horrid WITH him and Lon Kruger is more than half retired.

[Shock Top]

They were looking to extend the OSU series as well. They just couldn’t agree on where to start the series this time around.

I’d love to revamp the Seton Hall series again. They have maintained a good level of play for awhile now.

This is just personal anecdote, but when the Shox were down in Orlando in the Fall of 2015, I was speaking with an Xavier gentleman and he said that people in the alumni association were very impressed with the Shox andour fan base and that they were going to talk to the program about setting up a series between the two in the future. The obviously hasn’t happened yet, but it sure would be a good one to have.

Next year is going to be a learning curve for a lot of players anyways. Might as well get them as much experience as possible and hope they are rolling strong by the end of the season.

[Wuzee]

• Landry's stock drops to second-round projection, and he chooses to come back.
• Lomax jumps to Memphis. Marshall does not release him, and he enrolls in prep school. Memphis becomes our No. 1 rival.
• Marshall replaces Lomax with Andres Feliz, a former USF commit and the top-rated PG in the Juco ranks.
• Marcus McDuffie adds 20 pounds in the off-season. Austin Reaves does not.
• Erik Stevenson works his way into the rotation immediately and is on the All-Newcomer team in the American.
• After a rocky start, our young frontcourt figures things out in the spring, the Shockers close strong and advance to the AAC Tournament Conference finals before bowing out to #13 Tulane. The 23-win Shocks sneak in as a 10-seed.
• Judy Garland comes back from the dead and sings the Star Spangled Banner at Shocker Madness. The Sunflower writes a column trashing her high notes.

[ShockTalk]

Losing 6 seniors, it will be interesting how the AAC sets up the unbalanced conference schedule for us. Shamet staying or leaving will also have an impact on that.

[WuShock Reaper]

What we know of as today (03/19/18):
Returners (sorted by Games played and MPG)	Year	Pos.	Gms Plyd.	MPG
Reaves, Austin	Junior	G	33	21.5
Shamet, Landry	Junior	G	32	31.7
Haynes-Jones, Samajae	Senior	G	24	11.0
McDuffie, Markis	Senior	F	22	18.9
Keyser, C.J.	Junior	G	18	7.1
Midtgaard, Asbjorn	Soph.	F	9	5.4
Malone, Kaelen	Senior	G	7	4.0
Barney, Brett	Junior	F	6	2.3
Bush, Brycen	Soph	G	4	2.3
Herrs, Jacob	Soph	G	3	2.7
Brown, Rod	Soph	F	0	0.0

New Recruits	Year	Pos.
Chandler, Isaiah "Poor Bear"	Fresh	C
Echenique, Jaime	Junior	C
Lomax, Alex	Fresh	G
Moore, Chance	Fresh	G
Stevenson, Erik	Fresh	G
Udeze, Morris	Fresh	F

Graduated

Frankamp, Conner - senior, guard

Morris, Shaquille - senior, center

Kelly, Rashard - senior, forward

Willis Jr., Darral - senior, forward

Brown, Zach - senior, forward

Nurger, Rauno - senior, center

[Zubcut]

What we know of as today (03/19/18):
Returners (sorted by Games played and MPG)	Year	Pos.	Gms Plyd.	MPG
Reaves, Austin	Junior	G	33	21.5
Shamet, Landry	Junior	G	32	31.7
Haynes-Jones, Samajae	Senior	G	24	11.0
McDuffie, Markis	Senior	F	22	18.9
Keyser, C.J.	Junior	G	18	7.1
Midtgaard, Asbjorn	Soph.	F	9	5.4
Malone, Kaelen	Senior	G	7	4.0
Barney, Brett	Junior	F	6	2.3
Bush, Brycen	Soph	G	4	2.3
Herrs, Jacob	Soph	G	3	2.7
Brown, Rod	Soph	F	0	0.0

New Recruits	Year	Pos.
Chandler, Isaiah "Poor Bear"	Fresh	C
Echenique, Jaime	Junior	C
Lomax, Alex	Fresh	G
Moore, Chance	Fresh	G
Stevenson, Erik	Fresh	G
Udeze, Morris	Fresh	F

Graduated

Frankamp, Conner - senior, guard

Morris, Shaquille - senior, center

Kelly, Rashard - senior, forward

Willis Jr., Darral - senior, forward

Brown, Zach - senior, forward

Nurger, Rauno - senior, center

Rod Brown will be a redshirt freshman next season.

[WuShock Reaper]

thanks for letting me know.

[GreatWhiteBuffalo]

Does 3G have any more scholarships available, or is he full-up? Just wondering about grad transfers, or transfers in general. Personally would not be surprised to see SHJ transfer out...and maybe Keyser. I wonder if/when we will start to see WSU's 'household name' start to come into effect where transfers are concerned, a la Gonzaga.

[shocks02]

6 seniors graduating, 6 players signed in the fall. Any additional signings in the spring will have to come from roster subtraction, but as we know there are many, many question marks. Expect at least one, possibly two or three.

[Dan]

No scollies available but I think we can all guess where at least 1, possibly 2 will come from. My guess is just 1 and we bring in a JUCO guy.

[shocks02]

This spring recruiting period is going to be about guards, guards, guards. You could argue every potential guard, outside of maybe Reaves, has a question mark next to their name. Midtgaard and the boys have the post filled up and I don't expect any changes there.

[Dan]

Last time we lost this many players was the year we lost stutz Murry, etc., coming off a 1st round loss to VCU. We returned a 1st year senior PG, Armstead, a scrappy undersized 4/5 (Hall) and a potential NBA wing (Early) along with an interesting group of freshmen (Ron and Fred). Tekele was a steady but unremarkable returner at the time.

Next year we may return Shamet, McDuffie and Reaves as our nucleus, along with young but inexperienced Rod Brown and Asbjorn Mitgaard and a group of potential freshmen stars. I don’t want to have unrealistic expectations, but we can still do great things next year if the stars align, part of which requires Shamet to return.

[FadedCrown]

The stars align like they were supposed to this year?

[Dan]

I don't think we needed a star alignment this year, everything was already in place. Our guys just didn't take care of business.