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The 2023-24 Blue Ribbon is out and BG is predicted at 8th ahead of Ball State and all 3 Michigan schools. Akron is the choice for MAC winner with Enrique Freeman as POTY while Ali Ali is named newcomer of the year. I have issue that he is not really a newcomer since he played previously with Akron for 2 or 3 years. Anyway, the BG review centers heavily on Coach Simon, his good record, and his fast paced offense. Starting lineup is predicted to be J. Spurgin, Marcus Hill, Trey Thomas, Agee, and DaShawn Phillip. They expect DJ Smith, Towns, and DaJion Humphrey to be the first group off the bench with Felt being a wild card. Preseason Blue Ribbon Grades are Backcourt C, Frontcourt B-, Bench/Depth c+, and Intangibles B-. We shall see soon.

Agree that Akron should be the favorite for the MAC. No way anyone can give an accurate guess on BG with all of the change. I tend to think they'll be in the top half of the MAC this year with all of the talent, but we'll see.

I'm honestly not sure what to think/expect this year. The last time I kinda felt this way was when we hired Jans. I didn't think we had a ton of talent, but a good coach came in and turns out one of the players we wanted to see more of was a future NBA player.

I don't know enough about the guys we've brought in to know if we have that sort of talent, and we don't have much returning. It is a good sign to me that Agee stuck around just because I thought he was the one kid on last year's team that looked like he could be a piece on a good team...it's telling to me that he was the one rotational player to return.

It's conceivable Simon coaches them to middle of the MAC, and if any of those players break out, maybe better. But I can't imagine projecting them to be much better than where they're at. Gonna have to see it.

I do know that if he plays the brand of basketball he was known for and they start winning games the Stroh will start to fill up and it can get loud in there. If they can build some momentum anything could happen. Akron is a deserved preseason favorite, but I don't think anybody in this conference looks to be so good that they'll run away with it.

My starters

DJ Smith
Marcus Hill
EJay Greer
Rashaun Agee
Jason Spurgin

My gut tells me that while it probably won't be this year...Simon is going to be the guy that gets us back to the NCAA's

BleedOrange wrote: ↑Tue Sep 26, 2023 1:06 pm My starters

DJ Smith
Marcus Hill
EJay Greer
Rashaun Agee
Jason Spurgin

Here's what Blue Ribbon quoted Simon on Trey Thomas "He is who we thought he is... going to be a high level defender. He can really shoot it. He's got another gear on him. Some guys move differently."

Of Smith he said "has a lot of mileage on him (52 starts at UMES) and he's a good player." Really along with Hill they are the 3 pure guards on this team and will all see a lot of minutes.

Flipper wrote: ↑Tue Sep 26, 2023 1:57 pm My gut tells me that while it probably won't be this year...Simon is going to be the guy that gets us back to the NCAA's

Me too. He did a hell of a job at Southern Utah and I love his style of play.

If Simon is a good coach he should be able to get us to Cleveland at least. All the Michigan teams are bad and then we only have to beat one other other team to get there. There's plenty of roster turnover where a rebuild should be quick and this team has some talent. I would be thrilled if the team is starting to gel by January and we make a run for top 6 then compete to win a game in Cleveland

Really this year I want to see a competent team that is improving throughout the year and not imploding the last 10. We should be able to see the vision and the potential of the coach/system

"Not imploding the last 10 games"

God. What a dream.

It's been so long since we were competent.

BG picked 6th in the preseason coaches poll for the MAC.

Diemilkweed wrote: ↑Sat Oct 21, 2023 3:47 pm "Not imploding the last 10 games"

God. What a dream.

It's been so long since we were competent.

Dude it’s been a few years haha. We had really good teams for a couple of years there. Definitely think we’re a strong mid pack MAC team this year