Well all I got to say is a lot of bulletin board material here!
I hope this makes all the guys even more hungry!
It's not the pre season ratings that matter it's the post season!
Go Dukes write history!

townsonkid wrote:

Looks like 2 thru 10 could be pulled from a hat to determine ranking.   We will need to be a highly functioning team heading into A10 play.   Gotta win a good % of OOC games.   Get some good vibes going.

Robbie Avila is back?   Seems like he's been around a while.   Guess people can say that about Dixon as well.   

???  Avila has only played one year for the Billikens; he came over after playing two years at Indiana State with Josh Schertz.
With the transfer portal and remake of the rosters on every team, these pre-season polls are pretty much a crapshoot.  The coach(es) who are best able to pull a cohesive team together in the preseason and non-conference play will likely have the inside path to finishing in the top 6.  It takes some significant coaching acumen to establish roles for their players and for those players to understand what is expected from them.  If the coach can do this and have everyone on the same page defensively, you have a shot at a really good season.  I have a lot of trust in Coach Dru that he can accomplish this.  

I feel like Cam, Hugley, Dixon, Guinyard, & Max should be taking this very personally, especially Hugley. For me, if all are healthy, that would be a Top 5 A-10 group of starters. Trade out Dixon for Necas and/or Alex for Max & I would say the same. The biggest weakness for either lineup would be ball handling, but the experience, size, shooting, scoring/penetration, team toughness, & defense these 7 players bring is as solid as any team in the conference.

Unless Hugely & Max return to their early-career form, the program is still lacking top-end A-10 talent. That can easily be overcome by will, toughness, smart play, & outstanding chemistry. We are about to see what Dru is made of.

If it were my job to hand out pre-season rankings, I would pick VCU, St. Louis, Loyola, Dayton, & GMU in front of the Dukes. However, I think the Dukes have a chance to be better than 2 or even 3 of those teams by February.