Expectation for Next Year

[SuddenSam]

Recall the anticipation w/ Burton, Du Wilson, JJJ, McKay, that did not all come together as hoped thanks Buzzard.  This can be diff. with these recruits, Wojo & Co., Du Wilson, totally diff. trajectory possible.  If it does, these pages will explode and MU fandom will be a great place.

[HutchwasClutch]

Henry is going to have a Dwyane like impact, next season.  I see a similar season next year to the 2001-02 season, hopefully with a better NCAA result however.     Remember that team was a 5 seed.

[MU82]

Henry is a special player.  Guys like him don't come along very often.  I didn't vote, or even consider national championship, but you bet I checked NCAA.  If Henry were just another top 100 kid, I would have checked NIT.  But he's not just another top 100 kid.  You're talking about a kid who has the NBA's attention already!  

I'm not normally one for boundless optimism either, but sometimes you can just discard conventional wisdom and be bold in your thinking.  And Henry at MU gives me reason to be in that mindset.

I'm just trying to make a case for posters here to break out of their comfort zone, the way they always think and project, and realize what is coming next year with Henry.    And with guys like Luke (especially Luke), Duane, Sandy, and STJ, we know there are several returning guys to support this special player.

I hope you are right about every word of this. I live in N.C. and have not seen one second of Henry Ellenson in live game action. So for me, the proof will be how he performs against college players when the lights go on.

Again, I very much want him to be "Wade special" ... but I reserve the right, 8 months before his Marquette debut, to say, "We'll see." And I don't think exercising that right makes me a defeatist one iota.

[brewcity77]

I hope you are right about every word of this. I live in N.C. and have not seen one second of Henry Ellenson in live game action. So for me, the proof will be how he performs against college players when the lights go on.

Have you watched John Brown from High Point at all? He's my top dream grad transfer for Marquette in the next month.

[The Equalizer]

Henry is a special player.  Guys like him don't come along very often.  I didn't vote, or even consider national championship, but you bet I checked NCAA.  If Henry were just another top 100 kid, I would have checked NIT.  But he's not just another top 100 kid.  You're talking about a kid who has the NBA's attention already!  

I'm not normally one for boundless optimism either, but sometimes you can just discard conventional wisdom and be bold in your thinking.  And Henry at MU gives me reason to be in that mindset.

I'm just trying to make a case for posters here to break out of their comfort zone, the way they always think and project, and realize what is coming next year with Henry.    And with guys like Luke (especially Luke), Duane, Sandy, and STJ, we know there are several returning guys to support this special player.

I think you nailed it.  There is a long history of sandbagging expectations on this board.

Looking at the adds and subtracts across the league next year, barring injury to Henry, there is no reason for next year's MU team to finish in the bottom half of the Big East. Minimum expectation should be top five, and we have the talent to compete for 2nd.  

Any talk about us being an NIT team, which would require a 6 or 7th place finish is not realistic, and based on people setting low expectations to avoid being disappointed.

[HutchwasClutch]

I hope you are right about every word of this. I live in N.C. and have not seen one second of Henry Ellenson in live game action. So for me, the proof will be how he performs against college players when the lights go on.

Again, I very much want him to be "Wade special" ... but I reserve the right, 8 months before his Marquette debut, to say, "We'll see." And I don't think exercising that right makes me a defeatist one iota.

Believe me,  you're not among those my comments were aimed at in my statement about defeatist mentalities around here.   I'm talking about others on the board.  

[MU82]

Have you watched John Brown from High Point at all? He's my top dream grad transfer for Marquette in the next month.

I haven't seen him, no. Sorry.

[goldeneagle91114]

I really hope people on this board will temper their expectations for next year. lets look at some facts:

1 . No senior leadership
2. Two best players (Luke and Duane) are injured. Luke will have surgery.
    2B. - Hard to bulk up when you first need to recover from said injuries.
3. With Steve gone, we are even weaker on the glass then we were before...this year was really really weak
4. Next years roster is pretty sparse in terms of actual college basketball experience. who do we have?.. Duane, Luke, JJJ, Sandy (kinda). Not sure what kind of minutes Wally saw at Minnesota, but i don't think it was all that great.
5. Currently 3 open scholarships....Hard for wojo to pull another rabbit out of the hat like he did with Carter this late in the game.
6. Wojo is still a very young coach. We saw some growing pains this year, and they will continue next year.

Personally, i think next year is going to look a lot like this year. I just hope to see more player development and hope that we see Henry stick around for a second year.

[JakeBarnes]

I haven't seen him, no. Sorry.

It's like watching an NBA jam video. He's a high flyer. He'd be a great energy guy.

[jesmu84]

My expectation for next year? At this point? Last in conference in rebounds.

[willie warrior]

Prediction: Soon one of the sources will announce a commitment of another top 150 kid and we will all gush about how good we will be in the next year or year after--which I sure hope so. But we will forget that Taylor was ranked 73 by Scout and 83 by ESPN and a first team all stater in Illinois coming out of HS and he did not pan out to many. We will forget that JJJ was a top 40 recruit coming out of HS and had a great state tournament, but has been blasted by many here. We will forget that Burton was a top 100 recruit who "wasn't getting it done early his soph season."

We will go gaga over the next recruit who we hope will be the 2nd coming of Butch Lee. That's life in college basketball.

[tower912]

More transfers.   Unsettled expectations.   

[brewcity77]

My expectation for next year? At this point? Last in conference in rebounds.

I'll go out on a limb and say we'll be a much better rebounding team next year.

[jesmu84]

I'll go out on a limb and say we'll be a much better rebounding team next year.

I guess I should have specified with the roster as it is right now. If we get a couple 3/4/5 transfers? Different story.

[dgies9156]

Prediction: Soon one of the sources will announce a commitment of another top 150 kid and we will all gush about how good we will be in the next year or year after--which I sure hope so. But we will forget that Taylor was ranked 73 by Scout and 83 by ESPN and a first team all stater in Illinois coming out of HS and he did not pan out to many. We will forget that JJJ was a top 40 recruit coming out of HS and had a great state tournament, but has been blasted by many here. We will forget that Burton was a top 100 recruit who "wasn't getting it done early his soph season."

We will go gaga over the next recruit who we hope will be the 2nd coming of Butch Lee. That's life in college basketball.

Hey Willie, are you a glass half empty kinda guy? JJJ hasn't gotten there yet and STjr was injured and I admit never was what we hoped he would be. But the incomings are really good and we have the same risk any school with new freshmen do. I think they are talented enough to have us playing a year from now and I would expect Wojo in Year 2 will be a better Coach than Wojo in Year 1.

[willie warrior]

Hey Willie, are you a glass half empty kinda guy? JJJ hasn't gotten there yet and STjr was injured and I admit never was what we hoped he would be. But the incomings are really good and we have the same risk any school with new freshmen do. I think they are talented enough to have us playing a year from now and I would expect Wojo in Year 2 will be a better Coach than Wojo in Year 1.

I guess some just miss the point. The stuff has already begun.