Excited About Next Year

That loss to VT was so horrible that I will try to never speak of it again.

I'm excited about next year. We add a lot of players that we didn't have at the end of this season. Carlwell and Semrau are both recovering from potentially life-threatening conditions, so we might get to see our nice '06 recruits next year. I think Jamar Smith could be back, which along with a healthy Chester Frazier would do a lot to improve the contributions of our '05 class. I'm going to be a jerk and write off CJ Jackson and assume he won't be back next year. Our '05 and '06 classes didn't score a point for us last game, yet we still went 23-12 on the year.
Thankfully, recruiting has improved and the '07 class is promising. Lots of new guys like Demetri McCamey, Quinton Watkins, Bill Cole, and Mike Tisdale. Weber is out looking for someone else too and that should only help. '08 recruiting looks ok and that should give people a boost if we land guys like Iman Shumpert (how can a guy with that name go somewhere else?). We'll get DJ Richardson in '09 and a ton of studs in '10 so that should reassure the skeptics.
I think we will see a better transition game, faster pace of play, improved free throw shooting, consistent defense, and a ton more depth (I forgot to mention Jeremiah Wise and Steve Holdren, who are probably on par with Meacham). I'm also betting that we'll have better health and fewer off-court problems.
Our schedule will be tougher but this will be a punchy team with the guts to finish games. Expect signature wins and another NCAA appearance. RPI and SOS will be our friends, as the Big Ten will dominate next season with a ton of stud recruits. There will be some great battles in Champaign and on the road from Hawaii to Penn State.