Originally Posted by
Olympic Fan
Wa-a-a-y too early to do this.
State top 10? You guys are nuts, especially since there's not 1 chance in 100 that Leslie is returning. In fact there is a better chance that Lorenzo Brown goes pro than Leslie returns (although I don't think that happens). They'll have a nice perimeter, but they'll be soft in the post.
Kentucky will be top 10, maybe top 5, if they get Muhammad, Noel and Bennett (the other top 10 guy they have a shot at).
But you know what? Duke will be top 10 if Mason stays and they get Muhammad (a better chance of that happening than State keeping Leslie).
UNC will be good -- borderline top 10 with McAdoo ... second 10 without him.
Syracuse, Indiana and Fllorida will have strong lineups next year. Michigan State will miss Green -- a lot. Kansas will lose a ton.
UCLA will be top 10 if they get Muhammad and maybe Parker. But I'll believe that when I see it. That's a disfunctional program.
As for the UNC love ... I think they will be good, but do you really think Bullock, Hairston, McDonald or Strickland is better than Curry? Do you think Paige is better than Rasheed Suliaman (for the record, I don't). McAdoo is a stud, but if he's gone, UNC's post position becomes filled by veterans Desmond Hubert and (walk-on) Jackson Simmons, plus two recruits that failed to make the McDonald's A-A game. Is that better than senior Ryan Kelly, junior Hosh Hairston and former McDonald's A-A Marshall Plumlee -- not to mention Alex Murphy? Over the course of the season, Carolina was a hair better than us -- one game overall and in the ACC/even head-to-head. Yet, they lost their four most productive players (and that doesn't count McAdoo). We've lost our single most productive player and maybe our second or third most productive (Mason). Do you really think that their outlook is better than ours. Yeah, they're bringing in five guys next year, but we're addiing three -- and I'd argue that Sulaiman, Murphy and MP3 are a better addition than their five-man-class.
Look, everybody is in flux for the next two weeks to a month. Come back to this topic at the end of April and look again. Yeah, if we finish the month with Mason gone and no additions, there might be cause for pessimism. But I'll be surprised if Duke strikes out with Mason, Muhammad, Parker, Jefferson and Ziegler. No, we won't get them all, but two or three are a real possibility.
I'm confident we'll be a top 25 team next year ... maybe a lot better than that.