My friend that is an OSU graduate and watched him play there said that he would be one of their top guys this year if he had stayed.

I love old school, but I'm not sure that would be the best look for a high school team.

I was thinking the same thing about Flemings. I talked to my friend that is an OSU grad and he said that if Flemings had just waited 1 year he would be starting at OSU this year. I still think if we could get him he would have the highest TUP of any player to play at UNT.

For any non Sports Guy readers, TUP is tremendous upside potential.

Personally, I thought that he had several bad plays against Memphis that really hurt the team, and after that I'm not sure if he is going to develop into a player who can be very effective in more than token minutes. I'm actually kind of scared that he is our only back up post with any kind of size. In cases when our starting posts need rest or are in foul trouble, I really hope that JJ goes small with the seeming surplus of good guards we have so Howerton doesn't have to see significant time, especially since the Sun Belt doesn't really have a lot of big posts who we need to keep a body on.

Which home games really got you pumped last season?

BTW, I don't really think they should send out an apology letter. It was kind of a figure of speech and I didn't expect anyone to take it literally. Guess I'll have to start treading as lightly over here as I'm forced to do at gmg.

Are you serious? You are "not advocating" last season's schedule, yet you defend it and tell me to get off my high horse? Also, until we go undefeated in conference and have 2 very close losses to top 10 teams, the Winthrop comparison doesn't work.

This is great that we are playing some top programs next season. Even if we don't win, that is invaluable experience. Now if we drop all the lower division teams from the schedule, then that would be a schedule I might be proud of. Unlike last year's OOC schedule(the AD should have sent apology letters to season ticket holders).

I like that it has several incentives, but I'm still wondering why it was for 5 years?

We definitely need to add a post to this class. Preferably one that will be here after 2 years. The signings so far seem they are geared to winning now, which is fine since the team should be able to compete for a conference championship. But man, is after next season and especially the season after that, we have NO ONE.

Are they only recruiting one player at a time? We lose out on one guy, and we start going after another. There has been no indication that we are actually recruiting multiple players. This is turning into a disaster.

Are the districts the same, which means this will only change the playoffs? How would playoff matchups be decided?

It's hard to pass judgment when there is no class yet. But that's the scary part... it's national signing day and the only news was that our top recruit was going to a team in the bottom of our own conference.

Huge mistake. A long team deal only hurts us. If a big time program wanted JJ, it wouldn't matter what his contract with us is. But if he starts stinking it up, we are stuck with him. I would have given him a 2 year extension past next season that was highly incentive laden, based on wins against D1 opponents, division standing, attendance and a big bonus if made the NCAA tourny again with an equal bonus for each game in that tournament he wins.

Also, we have had a single recruit, who is a JUCO transfer. Shouldn't there have been some excitement regarding our tournament appearance that translated into some highly rated recruits? Now we are at the signing day and just hoping we get some good people? All this after losing Flemings?

Harold Edwards is gone, so that frees another scholarship. I'm still hoping that Flemings comes back.

Not a lot of upsets, but still a few memorable games. I couldn't believe that Ohio State came back and won that game. Them and Wisconsin really showed that the Big Ten isn't all it was cracked up to be. I would be very surprised if Ohio State made the championship game, much less win the whole thing. Texas losing was kind of sad, because it would have been fun to watch Durant go against UNC. I hope he stays for one more year because Texas could be a major power next season, assuming that Barnes decides to give the best player in the nation the ball late in games. It would have been great to see VCU win in the second round, but they really made a good showing and Maynor is only a sophomore, I believe. They could be in there next year and make some noise.

So far I still have 7 of my Elite 8 teams remaining, which isn't saying a lot because I didn't go with too many big upsets. I just didn't see anyone below the bottom 8 or so teams that I thought could make a deep run. The NBA rule that makes players play a college season before coming to the draft really is going to make the top teams that much stronger. I hope that the NCAA goes with that idea to give players 5 years of eligibility that was talked about a while back, which would really help the mid major teams out.