Quote: Originally posted by kujayhawk on 10/09/2007I think you're slightly overrating me, mizzou77. And I think you're severely underrating Elms. I think Elms can make it to postseason play this year.Johnson State *should* also be ahead of us -- but if texaskaze refuses to play his best team and instead chooses to play four guys who all pass the ball to Koffer, I'm not going to argue too hard that they deserve to be ranked ahead.

Anyway, here are the eagerly anticipated Thomas Predictions:

• We finish non-conference play at 2-8. I think I know where one of the wins is coming from, but I don't want to provide bulletin board material for the other team. No idea where the second win is coming from but I don't see us losing all of the other 9 games.
• 6-10 record in conference play. We're rebuilding, but we're a year ahead of a few teams so we will win a few conference games.
• Michael Scott is selected Confrerence Freshman of the Year.
• Michael Scott is the only Thomas player to make an All-Confrence team (honorable mention).
• Despite my best efforts, neither William Richardson or Brian Trimble will transfer at the end of the season.
• After 3 seasons of 20 minutes of practice for both O/D, Brian Trimble will have improved his freshman year's 'F' in the Flex to a B- and his 'C-' in the Zone to a 'B'.

• We went 0-10 in non-conference play. Oops. We had (at least) two very winnable games and we blew 'em. Losing to Washington and Jefferson after being up 10 with less than 5 to go really hurt.
• Did not expect to go 10-6 this season. Hope I don't offend too much, but as a whole the other 11 teams did not come close to meeting my expectations. I don't think we were nearly as good as we finished ... but a lot of that had to do with underachieving teams throughout the conference.
• Bingo. Didn't really go out on a limb predicting some Freshman "success" for Michael Scott. Due to graduations and poor recruiting, he was my best post player pre-season. You can't say that about most freshmen.
• Nobody made the three teams. That was correct. Scott was joined in honorable mention with a couple of others though.
• To be determined, but this might be a bad prediction. Both players have complained and complained that I ignored their complaints. Obviously Trimble's work ethic didn't get worse, but Richardson's decreased 8 times this season. There may be hope yet.
• Got this one right too. Wow this guy is dcan'umb. And I barely got it right. Trimble didn't make the leap to B in the zone until the third to last practice. How sad that in three full years with 20 minutes of practice, he's only increased four grades.

The non-conference schedule was a complete disaster and I apologize again. I don't think I kept anybody out of the postseason, but if I did I'm truly sorry.

As a whole the season wasn't too bad. 11 wins was a couple more than I expected. Michael Scott and James Lau have a pretty good inside-outside game that I can hopefully exploit for a couple more seasons. And my two true freshmen had fairly promising starts to their Thomas careers.

The slight "shocker" to the season was the vast number of turnovers. I thought I had a decent solution at the point guard spot, but that has to be revisited. I think the PG spot is probably going to be what holds us back next year.

My recruits this season, for the first time in about 4 seasons I'm actually pleased. I needed serious immediate help this year, since I gratuated my fab 5 (all were over 600 at end of season last year). Here's the rundown of my boys during this "rebuilding" year. Most people will notice my team is not weighing on DE that much anymore, because I'm moving out of a M2M this season and most likely to a Press. I feel the speed and ath required in a fastbreak offense compliment the press better. Also recruiting for DE at DIII is a pain.

Lockhart: He took the red shirt, didn't like the idea during recruiting, and it took two tries, but he took it. I see a huge future for this kid, I'm hoping the 74 WE will pay dividends in a couple seasons. With a 36/38 in Ath/Sp and a 63/69/59 in Reb/Blk/LP, I expect big things by his 5th season.

Shadrick: This kid has the highest rebounding (76) I've ever seen out of a freshman. And suprisingly enough, his other stats aren't bad either. 31/30 in Ath/Sp means that it will improve steadily, 60/50 in Blk/Lp are good enough, the 25 WE hurts a bit, but he'll get some immediate PT just to clean up the boards. A solid pick up, in my opinion.

Tuttle: I was really hurting for SF this year, and it seems like that position is always hardest for me to find talent in. I took two this season. Tuttle is going to alternate between SG/SF. His Ath/Sp are great @ 60/47, he's average everywhere else, again I'm hoping the 72 WE will give him some much needed improvement throughout the years.

Cox: A safety pick, the first guy I selected. Needed serious help at SF, I don't know if he will ever start, but he has no glaring weaknesses (ok maybe a lil low at BH). Again, I like the 52 WE.

Chambers: I needed a backup PG. My current PG is a 3rd year Sophmore this season so Chambers won't need major minutes anytime soon. This kid is a solid pick and with a 75 WE, by the time I need him he should be great ball handler.

Overall I'm happy with my recruits. Over the past seasons I've come to the conclusion that WE is a huge stat for a dynasty team. Lamkin was a stud out of high school, but I felt his low WE (currently 28) has held him back over the years. He was always declining during the offseason until this year, where he didn't move at all. I'm hoping the high WE out of this class will make them develop into monsters, and by their Junior and Senior seasons they should be a force to be reckoned with. Also I didn't use the RS option my first two years so I should really start to see the effects of a 5th year senior kick in throughout upcoming years.

mizzou, re: HOF requirements. 700 seems a bit high for a ratings floor. My NAC team in Crum conference has a guy who will graduate as a two time conference player of the year, two time conference defensive player of the year, 3rd team all-american, and the NAC all-time leader in blocks. His final overall rating was 655, so a guy who dominated a conference for 2 seasons and was the leader of the #2 team in the country his senior season would fall short of enshrinement.

I don't think I've ever coached a DIII player that was rated 700 or above. I think my former recruit Zeisler ended up reaching that, but I was gone before he played a game.

I think it needs to be more stat/accomplishment based than ratings based. Who cares if a guy is only rated 500 or 600 overall if he can put up the numbers and win the conference awards? What he does on the court is what will end up dictating where he truly stands among the conferences greats.

Of course, I'm just an interim coach in this fine upstanding conference, so take what I say as you will.