Does anyone have anything useful to say about MBB?

Leave for Spain in mid-August,not exactly sure when. Players are on campus. Practice starts in mid-October, but coaches can work individually with players before that.

Our MBB team is going to be significantly better; I seriously think we will have at least 18 wins. And Tres is going to be a real handful.

I really hope Kelley is part of this team because they are still dangerously thin upfront. Big G did make some strides towards the end of the season at least. Also hoping that Kone shows some flashes. He should have been redshirting last year but was forced into action

Some positive news from this morning is that Tres is fully cleared for basketball activities now, so hopefully he can stay healthy.

I am more concerned about the decision to paint faint images of whales on the court, and then cover it with a glossy surface that will make it almost impossible to watch the game on tv - either the glare in their eyes or the laughter from the stands might get to them.

There was a competition to design a background for the basketball court last spring. The winning image was a one of Ralph's burning cigarettes. Great branding. Will be a national story.

I would expect them to be considerably better than last season. I know that almost anything would be better, but last year presented us with a perfect storm for disappointment.

I was talking with one of my friends on the coaching world recently, and he said that he really likes what he sees in our coach, but even WT didn't realize the inevitably tough year ahead. After that great early success, it was easy to lose track of what we were facing.

First, we were losing the best athlete in the west. A guy who made himself into a good basketball player along the way, but whose incredible physical gifts impacted on both ends of the floor in a major way (reminds me of a guy who played in Corvallis from 1986-90 in that regard!)

We also were losing Schaaftenar. Though Olaf was a bit streaky and unpredictable, he could stroke the 3 and spread the floor to allow Tres and GP2 to slash.

In addition to those losses, we lost Langston-Walker and Reid, both of whom could not show up at times or exasperate us. However, they were also seasoned senior kids who were physically mature and contributed intangibles.

We had a strong returning group of Sophomores, but the most prepared to step it up as necessary was Tres. When we lost him early for the season, we were in a world of hurt. He was hands-down our best player. Stevie played out of position a lot, and wasn't ready to carry the lead guard role. Drew has been much-maligned by some for attitude, but he did play hard and improve his skills. It's just a shame that he didn't play this game a lot earlier in his youth. He's got a lot of physical potential, but he should be a lunch pail toter, not be expected to carry the load.

The incoming freshman class last fall - while not as deep and talented as a whole as the preceding class - had some real potential. Jaquori shouldn't have had to do as much as we expected of him out of necessity. With the exception of 15-20 freshmen in the country, not many are ready to make a significant impact until later. Kone's difficulty coming off of that terrible injury in his senior year of high school was just bad luck, and Dew being such a head-case was disappointing to say the least.

On top of all of that, the PAC 12 had 3 great teams, and the league was loaded with more talent than we'd seen recently. Any of those top 3 teams could have won the NCAA title if they stayed on their games.

Tres will be back. The big G appeared to make strides, Drew learned a lot, and Stevie and Jaquori should be much better prepared. Hopefully Kone can get back on track physically and mentally. We add Ethan T. and Zach Reichle. Every account that I've heard pegs Ethan as a much stronger all-around player than big brother, and Zach can flat score it from all over. There are other players that I don't have much info on, but supposedly are capable D1 contributors - the Hollins kid sounds very interesting.

I agree that having shooters who can space the floor and open things up could be huge. It goes without saying that we'll have to get much better on D, and Tres needs to stay healthy. I feel that WT can coach and learn from the humbling year that we had, but I wouldn't want to be him if we're anywhere nearly as bad as last year's team. This could be a very interesting team and season.

Malcolm was a very underrated defender. As for Bruce, his transfer is still bizarre. He isn't even playing high major college basketball anymore yet he was arguably the second best player on the team by the time they went to the tournament