Opening tip '09-10: No. 18 Winnipeg Wesmen

posted by on 5 comments
  • Top 100 returnees: PG Nick Lother (94th)
  • Other key returnees: G Mike James, F Peter Lomuro, F Ben Kingdon, F James Horaska
  • Newcomers: C Adam Dobriansky (transfer, Monmouth, NCAA D-1)
  • Coach: Dave Crook (ninth season)
  • Offence and defence: 87, 98 (-11)
  • Last year's results: 7-23, 38th in RPI
  • Looking ahead: This might seem like it's coming out of left field (or is due to the fact sister site Out of Left Field has a UW grad writing for it) but hear us out. Winnipeg returns 92% of its scoring and as Rob notes, has lots of room for improvement after the offensive performance was across-the-board below average. Part of that was also due to injuries. A team may only play with the hand it's dealt by times and if Winnipeg has everyone available, they could surprise. The 6-foot-10 Dobriansky is also expected to help Winnipeg cut the path to the rim better than it has in past years. Lother is a steady hand at point guard, which counts for a lot, especially in the nitty-gritty of conference play after Jan. 1.
Rob's explanation of Top 100 players by Player Efficiency Ratings (see last year's PER) and Net Efficiency may be found in the women's preview.
outofleftfield

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5 comments:

  1. Sean10/30/2009 5:10 pm

    Just so you know, Howard Tsumura had a Canada West coaches poll in his article this week. 7 coaches voted, and Winnipeg came in 3rd last.

    ReplyDelete
  2. sager10/30/2009 5:11 pm

    We saw. We're willing to proven way wrong. Like we said, it's a framework for discussion ...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous10/30/2009 8:52 pm

    Let me get this straight...
    Victoria is ranked #20, Dal 19th and Winnipeg 18th?
    How does THAT compute?
    This is the men's basketball ranking, right?
    Dalhousie are the reigning AUS champs and by all accounts have improved a great deal.
    Victoria might be a shadow of the teams they have had recently and on their worst day still figure to be better than the Wesman.
    Please explain.

    ReplyDelete
  4. sager10/30/2009 8:58 pm

    No, it's not a ranking, Rob already explained it thusly (and there's a link to it in this post: "These preseason rankings are just a quick ordering based on last year's RPI adjusted for returning players. They are used only as a framework for discussion, not to say Team X is the 4th-best in the country."

    We are not, repeat not, saying Winnipeg is 18th-best or UVic is 20th-best. We might get a few right, but we might get a few wrong too.

    Dal lost a lot of scoring, so it's bound to suffer in these rankings. And that is explained in the Dal post — we note Mark W. has them No. 5 in the country and his word is gold on these matters.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Rob Pettapiece10/31/2009 3:52 pm

    What Neate said.

    ReplyDelete