Welcome to the Hardcore Husky Forums. Folks who are well-known in Cyberland and not that dumb.
ESPN preseason #16
theknowledge
Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 4,874 
I normally dislike ESPN but Borzello GETS IT!!! He says UW loses a lot of senior leadership but recognizes that the talent replacing those guys is superior. He states that Stewart is the most college ready player coming in next year. He also seems to get that Hopkins is a winner and that winners win. We are trending in the right direction even in an east coast rag like ESPN.
Comments
What's next year's standard for success? Sweet Sixteen? Eight? Four? Definitely have the expectation of winning the conference and making the tourney as the lowest bar to clear.
McDaniels could easily go somewhere else, Nowell actually leaves (likely imo), and it turns out Battle isnt ready to contribute.
Maybe Al-Quade isn’t actually all that good, basically just another Gaddy, but is also a quitter?
Wright still used as press break, Losing Thybulle hurts the zone a ton.
Hardy and Naz are primary ball handlers for first half of season, guard play is abysmal, and we tank OOC play. Or worse, Hardy or Naz get injured and some waterboy actually has to play some at PG.
Stewart gets injured and Timmons plays major mins (or until he fouls out with 8 mins left in 1st half)
Pac-12 perception continues to be incredibly low (1 or 2 bid league).
Oregon and Arizona are legitimately good.
Dig hole too deep in preseason play and not good enough to win conference against Zona/Oregon.
The season is almost entirely reliant on a high school superstar, but shorter, true freshman center, a player who isnt even committed, and a PG that quit mid season last year and is sitting the first half of the season.
We could have another season where our best win is Utah State and we are lucky to limp into the tournament or turn out to be a top 10 team depending on how things come together.
Doomed.gif
With how random the tournament is I would say Sweet 16 is probably the medium expectation. Personally I would expect an Elite 8 from Green-Nowell-Naz-McDaniels-Stewart when you have Hardy-Bey-Battle-Wright-Timmins on the bench. Then there are guys like Tsohonis and BPJ. Elite 8 is my expectation but Sweet 16 is probably more reasonable just given how random shit can be (see: Fletcher Magee going 0-12 from three vs Kentucky, Auburn nearly losing to NMSU, Virginia nearly losing to everybody).
Anything less than Sweet 16 I'll be disappointed, anything more than Sweet 16 I'll be thrilled.
If Nowell comes back and we get McDaniels we fill most of the holes on the roster. I think we have a PG in Quade. In the very least he should be an improvement in breaking a press, in transition, decision making, and hopefully distributing, though his Kentucky distributing numbers weren't that impressive. Our offense would be much more dynamic with a Junior Nowell, a college-made player in Stewart, a very tough guard in McDaniels, and a more mature Naz. We'll finally have bigs with some size in BPJ and Roberts (this doesn't count Stewart and his 7'4" wingspan) and even if they are very raw on offense, which I suspect, they can help us be better than 11th in the PAC-12 in RPG. We definitely will be young, but I think we'd actually have the pieces to potentially make a run and I was just happy to make the dance this year. You never know what will happen in March, but that team on paper can problems on both ends of the court.
I've seen a lot of people mention Battle as an instant impact player and I hope that's the case, but I'm not sure it will be. He was rated similarly to Bey coming out of high school and actually had fewer offers. I think he'll be a hell of a player eventually, but it usually takes a year or two for most players to adjust to the college game. I see him as a less talented Terrence Ross.
If he does leave, 25-30 range probably. Without Nowell and McDaniels... no bueno.