Just got my copies of Lindys and Street and Smiths.
Lindys picked us to finish 7th in the conference. Who is Marcus Iti? According to them , he is one of our frontcourt players. Also, they didnt even list Goldwire, our key recruit, on the roster!
Street and Smiths did a much better job, but they still picked us to finish 6th. They have Withers listed as 3rd team all american and have a big picture of him and a caption that talks about how even though the ACC casts a shadow over the area, people outside of Charlotte and even in the city need to learn who he is.
Haha, “Marcus Iti”, that is classic. Maybe it’s just me but it’s hard to respect publications who don’t know the players on our team.
I don’t like seeing us getting poor predictions from magazines that actually know what they are talking about (like Street and Smith’s), but at least I can respect what they are saying.
And it looks like there’s two more people we get to prove wrong this year!
Anybody have a good memory who can tell me what we were predicted to do before last season? I don’t know, but I’m pretty certain not too many people were picking us to split the CUSA title and get 20 wins…just a hunch…can’t read too much into these things, let everybody underestimate us, we’ll just shock them all once they start playing the games…
I think whoever runs Athlon went to UNCC. Every year they hype us up. And lets not forget the year they said Tory Reed was the #2 power forward in the nation comming out of high school! I do love me some Athlon!
As for Lindy’s, they are morons. I think the CHN idiots must cooperate with the publishing of Lindys.
Street and Smith’s seems to be run by very knowledgeable people (my diddy used to do the 49ers write ups for them ), but come on, SIXTH!?!? I like the respect S&S gave to Withers, that was nice.
The Lindy’s report isn’t entirely a shocker, but the Street & Smith undercut is. Usually they tend to OVER-rate us. In 1993 they had us in the top 20 (I think, 17th or 18th, if memory serves). Maybe the present Athlon staff is the former S & S staff.
What the hey, it’s all just the usual pre-season speculation. I’m definitely looking forward to an exciting season. B)
Lindy’s was a little strange - they picked UAB 2nd, after losing three starters? Then the article went on to say that the twins there wouldn’t have it as easy as they had it last year?!? Then, after picking us 7th, they said Lutz would guide us to our best season since '77. HUH?!? Which is it? Great or 7th in CUSA?
It looks like Lindy’s gets their info from the Charlotte Observer. Lindy’s contacted the Observer Sports Editor & he told them to get in touch with a writer named D Poole to get their information.
[b]Anybody have a good memory who can tell me what we were predicted to do before last season? I don't know, but I'm pretty certain not too many people were picking us to split the CUSA title and get 20 wins....just a hunch....can't read too much into these things, let everybody underestimate us, we'll just shock them all once they start playing the games... [/b]
One mag.(Athlon, I think) had us listed 2nd behind Cincy.
[i]Originally posted by pcon[/i]@Sep 19 2004, 08:05 PM
[b]
[b]Anybody have a good memory who can tell me what we were predicted to do before last season? I don't know, but I'm pretty certain not too many people were picking us to split the CUSA title and get 20 wins....just a hunch....can't read too much into these things, let everybody underestimate us, we'll just shock them all once they start playing the games... [/b]
One mag.(Athlon, I think) had us listed 2nd behind Cincy.[/b]
well Athlon loves us for some reason, always ranking our recruiting classes 15-20 spots higher than anybody else. i’m not complaining though, it’s a very widely read national publication so it’s always good for us!!
Athlon is based in Nashville and is an official publication of CSTV, which is affiliated with CollegeSports.com, which, of course, is the provider of Charlotte49ers.com.
I’ll say for clarity purposes, once, again, that if the Niners are only the 7th best team in CUSA, the rest of the nation had better watch out. Name one other #7 ranked team in any other major conference that could hang with us over the course of a season. Use the consensus of the three mags. I’d like to see that comparison to the #7’s from the BE, B10, B12, SEC, ACC, A10, PAC10. Anyone care to post them from Lindy’s & S&S? I can look up Athlon’s sometime today.
ACC - FSU
A10 - (probably) Richmond
BE - Seton Hall
B10 - Northwestern
B12 - Texas Tech
PAC10 - USC
SEC - Vandy or Arkansas
Impressive list, huh? Notice any trend here? Every team on it lost their best player from last season. FSU (probably the best team on this list with their recruiting) lost Tim Pickett (16.5 PPG), Richmond lost scorer Skrocki (16ppg) and Basden-esque do-everything defensive stopper Dobbins (11.1/7.6), Seton Hall lost Andre Barrett (17.3 PPG & 5.9 apg), Northwestern lost some guy named Jitim Young (guard - 17.9/6.0) and only has one double digit scorer back (Vukavic - 14.3), and I’m sorry, but Duke transfer Michael Thompson does not make up for that. Texas Tech lost Andre Emmit’s 20.6 & 6.6 per game, plus 3 other solid contributors, USC plain sucks (Bibby is on the hot seat), and lost the only go to guy they had - Desmon Farmer (19.4/4.6). And finally, Vandy lost Matt Freije (18.4/5.4), and Arkansas… well finally a decent looking team that didnt lose much. But they were pretty awful - just 12-16, 4-12 in the SEC last season.
Another common thread of these teams is that only TT & Vandy made the NCAAs last year, and those two suffered perhaps the worst personnel losses and did the least to replace them. OK - so the basic profile of such a team is a bad or mediocre record last season, losing its top scorer, or an NCAA early round exit from last year losing its heart and soul and failing to replace it.
So do we fit either bill? We were an NCAA team (& conference co-champ) from last season so we don’t match any of the other teams just trying to make it this year or win their leagues. True, we lost our second leading scorer (Demon averaged 12.4 to Plav’s 12.2), but he wasn’t our best player (Withers) so the TT/Vandy comparison doesnt work. And to replace him, we brought in a 6’9 wing who can shoot the 3 and could realistically average 10-11 ppg (EJ), plus two quick talented guards who reportedly play better defense than Demon did
Sorry, I’m just not buying this short selling of our team. Maybe S&S or Lindy’s can convince me otherwise?
It’s amazing how much magazines differ in their opinions. Wonder if there are any stats as to which one is the most accurate in their preseason predictions. I’d like to see one done by the coaches. That would undoubtably be more accurate.
Just got back from a walk up to the BofA Plaza and took a look at Lindy’s while in the magazine shop next to the Starbuck’s. I got the impression that Lindy’s is expecting C-USA to have another strong season and, like last year, send a number of teams to the Big Dance. They did say they expected us to have our best year since 1977. Still not sure why they would pick us 7th under those circumstances, though… :unsure:
), but come on, SIXTH!?!? I like the respect S&S gave to Withers, that was nice.