Dr. V
PhD Student
Posts: 1554
Reg: 11-21-04
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03-09-05 05:47 PM - Post#5994
It's a little difficult to figure out what happened this year. It's true that the early schdedule was weak, but the team that lost the last 9 did not look like the same team that had stayed with NC State and beat a decent Canisius. The only thing I can figure out is that this was a team that had a very small margin for error and had to play over its collective head to win. In contrast to most of the teams that finished ahead of it, CU did not have an experienced and competent big man who plays inside. This was huge. Preston was a lion, as evidenced by his leading the league in OR's, but a 6'5" "big" man just can't do it all. And although Loscalzo did well as a frosh PG, CU did not have an experienced or athletic PG either. The 1 and the 5 are the most critical positions for a team, and CU had no experienced strength there. That's an awful lot to have to overcome.
Baumann's injury was huge. When he finally recovered from his leg injury enough to play up to his capabilities at the end of the season, he was better than even I had expected, and I had touted him as probably our best frosh back in pre-season.
What can we look to for next year? The Spec's T. Orsher predicted that next year's team will resemble this year's Penn team, i.e., a talented group of sophs (Danley, Jaaber & Zoller) that had acquired valuable experience as frosh and that we can at least hope for a run at the title. That's not likely for two reasons. First, although I'd love to be surprised by Kravic stepping up in a major way, I don't see any senior that can bring what Begley did for Penn, and however good Penn's sophs were, they would not have won without Begley. Second, although Loscalzo looks like he could develop into a very solid PG, we don't have a Jaaber. So it will only be in '06, when this year's frosh are juniors and this year's recruits are sophs that it's realistic to have really big dreams.
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SFlaQuaker
Postdoc
Posts: 2427
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: Postmortem and next year
03-09-05 05:57 PM - Post#5995
In response to Dr. V
'06 will be tough w/ Penn's current sophs as seniors, and the huge incoming class as Sophs.
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Old Bear
Postdoc
Posts: 4068
Reg: 11-23-04
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Re: Postmortem and next year
03-09-05 07:48 PM - Post#5996
In response to Dr. V
Quote:
Baumann's injury was huge. When he finally recovered from his leg injury enough to play up to his capabilities at the end of the season, he was better than even I had expected, and I had touted him as probably our best frosh back in pre-season.
I certainly agree about Baumann, I waa as impressed by him as any Frosh I saw this year.
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