2018-2019 Season Thread

[CappinHard]

Re: 2018-2019 Season Thread

I would take last year's team without any hesitation. I love the way Arians has developed, but senior Telly >>> freshman Arians. And I would take last year's bench of Severyn, Theisen and Key over a group of freshmen who have zero minutes of post-season action. That being said, I still see the Jacks as a strong favorite, but I don't see it being any easier than in past years.

Idk... Daum, Jenkins, and T. King are the same (technically Daum and Jenkins have had better years statistically). Skyler is filling the role Telly had (even more so with 16 ppg compared to Telly's 12). Plus I think I'd take 2018 Arians and O. King over 2017 Skyler, Key, and Severyn. The nice thing is we were basically 1 guy deeper. Besides that, I'll take this year's team.

[GopherHole]

Re: 2018-2019 Season Thread

The big difference in my opinion is the competition. Omaha has way overachieved this year. I'd pick their squad from two years ago over this one. Last year's Coyote team was their best ever and Mooney was a mismatch for any team in the Summit. I'll grant that several teams are peaking at the right time this season, but talentwise, this year's Jackrabbit team has no peers in the league.

[MontanaRabbit]

Re: 2018-2019 Season Thread

The big difference in my opinion is the competition. Omaha has way overachieved this year. I'd pick their squad from two years ago over this one. Last year's Coyote team was their best ever and Mooney was a mismatch for any team in the Summit. I'll grant that several teams are peaking at the right time this season, but talentwise, this year's Jackrabbit team has no peers in the league.

Has Omaha overachieved or were they underrated? They are senior heavy and have two really really good players in Hahn and Jackson.

[CappinHard]

Re: 2018-2019 Season Thread

Has Omaha overachieved or were they underrated? They are senior heavy and have two really really good players in Hahn and Jackson.

Underrated, but there ability to win close games has inflated their record.

[GopherHole]

Re: 2018-2019 Season Thread

While expectations were probably short for UNO going into this season, I still believe that Jacks have a large advantage talentwise over any team in the Summit and the difference is probably larger this year than any team has had in recent memory.

If you look at the standings, we had a one game lead over UNO. Take a look at the stats and you will see a bigger advantage. Listed below are the point differential for each team in league games only and place in order based on final league standings. This is really telling over the full season. It doesn't mean that the Jacks should win every game, just shows over the season how much better we were than the rest of the league.

SDSU: +11.4 pts/game
UNO: +5.3
PFW: +3.4

NDSU: -0.2

USD: -0.1
ORU: -2.7
UND: -2.6
WI: -7.7
Den: -6.9

Last year the top two teams blew away the field both in the standings and with stats. SDSU was +10.0 and USD was +9.5. Those two were close and there was a significant drop-off after that.

In 2016-17, the league had lots of parity. SDSU was the #4 seed, but was tied with Denver and FW for 4th in the league standings. #3 seed UNO lost to the Jacks in the final. USD had the biggest point spread at +5.3, with NDSU at +3.9 and SDSU at +2.4.

In 2015-16 we had more parity. SDSU and IPFW tied for the regular season title, yet #2 SDSU beat #5 seed NDSU in the final. SDSU led the league in point differential with +7.0 and IPFW was at +4.4.

The last year that SDSU did not represent the Summit in the NCAA's was in 2014-15. NDSU and SDSU tied for the regular season championship and the Bison won the tourney with a 1 pt. victory over the Jacks. SDSU led the Summit with a +6.5 and NDSU was +2.2.

This year's team had a HUGE target on our backs. Daum may have been the biggest difference maker and the most prominent player in the league since Bryce Drew hit some key shots for Valpo in the Big Dance many years ago. Yet we still outscored our opponents in league play by 11.4 points per game. This team has been so dominant the last two years. It took USD's best team ever to really challenge them last year. Kudos to UNO for putting an excellent team together this year and nearly pulling off a regulars season championship. They still are not as talented in my opinion as their team from two years ago.

[da_coach]

Re: 2018-2019 Season Thread

While expectations were probably short for UNO going into this season, I still believe that Jacks have a large advantage talentwise over any team in the Summit and the difference is probably larger this year than any team has had in recent memory.

If you look at the standings, we had a one game lead over UNO. Take a look at the stats and you will see a bigger advantage. Listed below are the point differential for each team in league games only and place in order based on final league standings. This is really telling over the full season. It doesn't mean that the Jacks should win every game, just shows over the season how much better we were than the rest of the league.

SDSU: +11.4 pts/game
UNO: +5.3
PFW: +3.4

NDSU: -0.2

USD: -0.1
ORU: -2.7
UND: -2.6
WI: -7.7
Den: -6.9

Last year the top two teams blew away the field both in the standings and with stats. SDSU was +10.0 and USD was +9.5. Those two were close and there was a significant drop-off after that.

In 2016-17, the league had lots of parity. SDSU was the #4 seed, but was tied with Denver and FW for 4th in the league standings. #3 seed UNO lost to the Jacks in the final. USD had the biggest point spread at +5.3, with NDSU at +3.9 and SDSU at +2.4.

In 2015-16 we had more parity. SDSU and IPFW tied for the regular season title, yet #2 SDSU beat #5 seed NDSU in the final. SDSU led the league in point differential with +7.0 and IPFW was at +4.4.

The last year that SDSU did not represent the Summit in the NCAA's was in 2014-15. NDSU and SDSU tied for the regular season championship and the Bison won the tourney with a 1 pt. victory over the Jacks. SDSU led the Summit with a +6.5 and NDSU was +2.2.

This year's team had a HUGE target on our backs. Daum may have been the biggest difference maker and the most prominent player in the league since Bryce Drew hit some key shots for Valpo in the Big Dance many years ago. Yet we still outscored our opponents in league play by 11.4 points per game. This team has been so dominant the last two years. It took USD's best team ever to really challenge them last year. Kudos to UNO for putting an excellent team together this year and nearly pulling off a regulars season championship. They still are not as talented in my opinion as their team from two years ago.

When you put it like this, it just makes me so proud of our school's mens basketball program.

That point differential thing, is a good indicator of how good you are over the course of a season. We have been very spoiled the last several years.

The problem with a 1 and done conference tournament, is that it only takes that one game.