Is this year's team that bad, or...

I think thompson is important.. but i think they are missing senior leaders like they had last season in GPII, LMW, Gomis

I believe our team speed took a hit with GP II's departure. And especially with Derek Bruce's unexpected departure - he was poised to really take a step forward this season.
Stephen Thompson being out hurts, because he is someone who can consistently hurt you from the outside. With him out teams can more easily clog the paint and make it slower going for Tres and Drew (and others) to operate.

I believe our ball handling took a hit with Duvivier's (and Bruce's) unexpected departure. Our new guards may be competent, but they aren't yet the speedster, scorer or slasher type that we lost. Did I mention ball handling? I think we will really see this when we hit conference play and we are plagued by proto-NBA caliber guards.

Lastly, I contend GPII did share a trait with his father - the ability to make the rest of the team better by his mere presence. We need new (vocal) leadership to emerge. I suspect Gomis helped with his effort and demeanor in that regard as well.

What I can't decide (and why I will continue to tune into the games when I can) is whether these are issues of a team in transition - one that will find existing players to plug those holes created by graduation and unexpected departures, or whether these are fundamental talent gaps that only recruiting can resolve. And at how successful Coach Tinkle is at devising a system that plays to his team's strengths and somehow hides these deficiencies.

(That said, I fear for the fact that walk-ons have played such a large role in this team thus far. I hope Coach Tinkle is sending some sort of effort/PT sort of message to scholarship players, or awaiting Kone/Dew emerging and riding out the injuries, but fear for the alternative explanations :-).

Lucky for me, I started following the Beavers in 1987. I was quickly disabused of the notion that we were a perennial March Madness team starting in the early 90s :-).

Go Beavs!

I don't know if I'd point to defense as the culprit in the Lamar game.  We held them to 28% FG and outrebounded them by 13.  TOs led to us taking about 25 fewer shots than they did.  Hard to score if you can't complete a pass or hang on to the ball long enough to actually shoot it. We're lucky it was "just Lamar" and they were awful or else we would have lost by 40 (as we basically saw a couple nights later when it was a much better opponent).

However, I think you're absolutely on to something with defense.  IMO, I think our perimeter defense has taken a huge hit with GP and Malcolm gone.  And that's going to put tremendous pressure on Drew/N'Diaye/G to provide help all year long - especially once we start P12 play where everyone has a couple guards/wings who can penetrate and get to the hoop.   

Agree with both observations. I forgot about the 28%, guess I fogged over when we couldn't
Even get a shot off and they seemed to have wide open 3's , put backs and successful drives into the lane.
I, like every other Beaver fan, expect this to get better - but don't be looking for another Gary Payton or for Stevie's return.
We have what we have, and it's gotta get better.
Go Beavs !

I get a little nervous that Tres' health may not hold up, especially with Stevie out. There is a danger of him trying to do too much in the absence of any other remotely refined offensive threat. With his history of lower-body injuries and reckless abandon he likes to play with in general, I could see him pushing himself too far in the face of a potential 10 win season. I'm not prognosticating that we will only win 10, but some guys had better find their mojo soon, and we desperately need a healthy Stevie Thompson out there.