What are your expectations for this year?

[newshock1234]

since its kind of slow, i figure i ask everyone where in the valley the shocks should take in the standings and how many wins?

I got anywhere between 3rd to 5th

18-22 wins

[WuDrWu]

My minimum expectations are as follows:


We will play at least 32 games:


20 wins, 11 in conference. Semi finals in St. Louis, some post season.


Anything less would be extremely dissappointing to me. I expect more.

[SubGod22]

At least 20 wins and post season play. No worse than 4th.

[wufan]

I'm expecting to be picked between 3rd and 5th and I think we'll win 18-24 games. If my life depended on it...3rd place and 22 wins.

[Ashockalypse]

20 + and THE tournament after winning the MVC tournament.

[kcshocker11]

NIT or better

[forevershockerfan]

21 wins---3rd to 4th in the Valley. It is far past our turn to win the Valley Tourney but we could be a year away on that. I am hoping for at least a NIT invitation but always dream that we can find the path to the yellowblack road to the March Dance. Anything more will be gravy and I will NOT be shocked. Let's put it this way. We will again be an improved team over last Season. Our depth and overall talent has improved and our players are working extra hard to be successful.

[forevershockerfan]

bump

reply #7

[capnkirk]

5th place finish in the valley with 9 wins, 18 wins total, and hopefully nit bound. I want more but I think we are still one more year away from being capable of making the ncaa tourney. We have more div 1 experience this season, but still not alot compared to other teams(not that experience means everything).

[Ixiah]

I have been pretty good at guessing team's that will rise and fall. I really do expect WSU to jump up quite a bit in the win totals this year.

20 + wins and at least 3rd in the Valley, I'll bet my avatar on it.
:goshocks:

[shox8498]

After reading both objective (and non-objective, including this board) comments, I pose this question to the group:

Is it unreasonable to "expect" this group of Shockers to win the Valley tourney? It's high time, IMHO.

Coach Marshall's first two Shocker teams improved as the season went along. After looking dead and demoralized near mid-season last year, they beat Creighton handily and almost came back to beat SIU in Carbondale before the Valley tourney. Then they had another victory over CU taken away by an incompetent timekeeper. And that last game should be a huge motivator.

If this year's team picks up where last year's left off (and injuries don't become a major factor), we should all have expectations of nothing less than another NCAA appearance, regardless of the number of W/L's going into it.

[WuDrWu]

After reading both objective (and non-objective, including this board) comments, I pose this question to the group:

Is it unreasonable to "expect" this group of Shockers to win the Valley tourney? It's high time, IMHO.

Coach Marshall's first two Shocker teams improved as the season went along. After looking dead and demoralized near mid-season last year, they beat Creighton handily and almost came back to beat SIU in Carbondale before the Valley tourney. Then they had another victory over CU taken away by an incompetent timekeeper. And that last game should be a huge motivator.

If this year's team picks up where last year's left off (and injuries don't become a major factor), we should all have expectations of nothing less than another NCAA appearance, regardless of the number of W/L's going into it.

You make a fair point, but I think you ignore a factor that we as fans too often ignore. That is the role that "the other guy" plays.

"The other guy" may be starting from a stronger place, maybe working just as hard (or harder), maybe recruiting better etc. It's easy to see why we should be better, but it may be at the expense of fairly identifying the opponent's position.

In the Valley, for instance, I expect only 2 teams to take significant steps back. Evansville and Drake. I think it's very possible that CU and MSU could back up a little. There is no reason to think UNI, Indiana State and SIU won't be improved (along with us). Illinois State and Bradley are tough reads for me.

All I'm saying is that it's easy to discount the other guy's input to the equation.....and like it or not, that is 50% of it.

[shocklight]

The bottom line is how we do on the road. We do have better depth this year, which will help. If we are .500 on road trips then.......

20+ and NIT or better!

[SpanglerFan316]

I have modest expectations. I'll be satisfied with a national championship. ;-) :D

[MikeShox]

Expectations

I expect this team to bring about many exciting moments during the upcoming season. I also expect many moments that we (and the coaching staff) will cringe. Yes, we have some really exciting young freshmen entering the program and I expect great things from them. However, as we all know (or at least we should all know), the best thing about a freshman is that he will someday become a sophomore. My real hope for this group of freshmen is far more related to their careers than to their freshman years. My hope is that Kenny Manigault will provide depth at the PG spot and that he will be a quick learner so that he will provide more cheers than groans by mid February. I really expect many groans through December and especially January, but hope he can overcome “hitting the wall” and overcome his tendencies toward turnovers and inconsistent play in time for the stretch drive and Arch Madness. I also would love to see at least one of the trio of Demetric Williams, Tyler Richardson and Jerome Hamilton provide some solid minutes and depth. As for our redshirt, transfer freshman, Johnny Coy, I don’t really know what to expect. I feel that he will be a very good player by the end of his career, but don’t know how quickly he will really help.

Also, we are pinning a lot of hope on a transfer replacing a senior (Ramon Clemente) who was a major leader and very important cog in last year’s team. While Gabe Blair is obviously a tremendous physical specimen and has been very impressive in practices, I was one of the many people who were told by P.J. Cousinard that A.J. Hawkins would make us forget all about him. Well folks, A.J. did not reach our high expectations at all. He did not come close to scoring as well as he did at St. Bonaventure, especially the 2nd half of his sophomore season there. Gabe’s numbers at his previous school were certainly not eye-popping. I understand that he was playing a position not necessarily conducive to his capabilities and that the game plan there may not have taken advantage of his talents, but I don’t want to get my expectations too high that he will suddenly be a scoring leader and rebounding monster here. I truly hope for 8 - 10 points and 7 – 9 rebounds and solid defense from him. If he does not provide that, I hope someone (Ellis? Coy? Hamilton?), will be able to take up the slack.

I expect a good, solid senior season from Clevin Hannah. I expect Toure’ Murry and Graham Hatch to show continued improvement, especially in their long range shooting touch. I believe J.T. Durley will be a monster offensively and continue his improvements both defensively and on the boards this year.

I have high hopes for major improvement from David Kyles, Aaron Ellis and Garrett Stutz. I can visualize David continuing to show the abilities he demonstrated late last year, and with the added confidence and experience, become a real factor consistently. With the opportunity to concentrate on the athletic side rather than just trying to stay eligible academically, I foresee a tremendous upside in Aaron Ellis (Especially if he has no more Turf Toe issues). I believe Garrett Stutz will be a very solid back up at the center spot this year and will provide a big lift off the bench. Watch out for Garrett the following year. He will be a monster.

So, from that, it is apparent that I expect this team to be improved from last year. How do these improvements apply to wins and loses and what does it mean for post season? Well, it’s like the good doctor says, other teams are improving too. There were a number of teams last year that were very young and depended a great deal on freshmen. Those teams have the opportunity to show very good improvement too and UNI has a very strong veteran team returning everyone. As a result, the Shocker’s improvement does not mean that they run away and hide from the Valley this year. I do feel that the improvement will be enough to result in a better won – loss record. However, I see the improvement to be in the range of 19 – 21 victories with 10 – 12 wins in the Valley. I am hoping that the team will again improve enough during the season (once again, other Valley teams will be doing the same) to be really dangerous come Arch Madness time. I’m even going out on a limb and predicting that they reach the Finals.

As for post season, I really believe this team will play in the NIT. I don’t believe the Valley will send more than 2 teams to the NCAA and possibly only 1. That will change again in the years to come, but probably not this soon. Of course, by the Shockers playing in the Final, if they win (which is certainly possible), that means an NCAA berth and wouldn’t that be sweet.

I really believe that this will be an exciting year, but that the 2010 – 2011 year is the year that I truly look forward to. I can visualize that being a memorable year for Shocker basketball. I expect that to be the kind of year that will cause many BCS schools to be all over Coach Marshall. I don’t mean to say that he’s leaving, just that he will have all the offers he could possibly want. Would he go? Who knows? How many of us would go for an opportunity to greatly improve our financial situation? What I will say is that if he were to accept an offer at that time, he would certainly leave the program in a position of strength when it came to recruiting a new coach. Randy Smithson, in spite of a bad final year, left the program better than he found it. Mark Turgeon (once again in spite of a disappointing final year) certainly left the program in better shape than it has been in decades (thanks Mark). I certainly hope Coach Marshall loves the school and the community enough, and the administration supports him enough, that he will stay until he is ready to retire.

:goshocks: