- Top 100 returnees: F Boris Bakovic (1st)
- Other key returnees: G Ryan McNeilly, G Josh Budd, C Joseph Imbrogno
- Newcomers: G-F Scott Wheler, F Matthew Lapointe, F Kris Montague (last played in '06-07)
- Coach: Roy Rana (first season)
- Offence and defence: 97, 100 (-3)
- Last year's results: 14-14 overall, 19th in RPI
- Looking ahead: You can't stop Boris Bakovic, you can only hope to contain him. The 6-foot-7 forward was statistically the country's best player and his 27.3 per game (augmented by a 9.5 rebounding average) makes up a big chunk of the Ryerson's returning scoring (76% of points return). That figure might skew their ranking upward to some extent, admittedly, since you have to scroll through another 112 names before finding the next Ram, the fourth-year guard McNeilly.
Ryerson went winless vs. CIS foes in non-conference play, but it's way too early to get out the jump-to-conclusions mat with a team that just hired its coach in the second week of August. The optimistic take, and let's be honest, a top team in the GTA wouldn't be such a bad thing for the profile of CIS men's basketball is that Rana has two seasons left with Bakovic in the pivot to build a beachhead and get some buzz around the program.
As for this season, Ryerson obviously needs a reliable scorer not named Bakovic or McNeilly. Wheler is a bit of slasher on the wing and could be that player. In the long run, they're going to alter the dynamic of the OUA East, perhaps not all at once.
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.
0 comments:
Post a Comment