Expectations for 2024-25

[BlueSince92]

I feel like we’ll most likely be a solid 3 seed if we beat Duke and a 5 seed, maybe a four seed with some luck if we don’t. Not a lot of chances to distinguish ourselves that won’t come very dearly to a team of kids all playing together for the first time. But we have a great coaching staff top to bottom, a lot of skill, and a lot of heart.

Bare minimum I think we win two NCAAT games this year. My sense is we’ll probably end up with an Elite Eight exit although I definitely haven’t written off hope of going further.

 

[Cawood86]

To see team basketball. To see an actual offense. To get past the 1st weekend of the NCAA tourney.

Not sure how things will go, but I do think the fans will feel connected to the team and the team to the fans

 

[Deli owl]

20 wins
Sweet 16

Would be a good season but still dissatisfied.

Have to beat U6 though

 

[AJG-15]

From the small sample of live action I have seen on this team is hard to tell how good or bad we are going to be.

Everyone on the coaching staff is saying that team is going to play great defense and will be amazing behind the 3 pts line. I am not buying that hype until I see it against quality opponents. Beat Duke , which is a very tall and athletic team and might believe you.
Beat Gonzaga , cause as Coach you know the tendencies of Coach Few, and I will start thinking you might have a chance.
Beat Alabama and TN , win the SEC and I will start believing you have are actually chasing number 9… Otherwise this is just hype which we should temper it off cause otherwise we will have a big disappointment on our hands at the end of the season.

Again, Coach Pope needs at least 3 years to rebuild the program.

My opinion so far he made 3 mistakes so far:
-set expectations way to high based solely on his excitement of being selected as coach at Kentucky. Overselling after Kentucky fan base has been constantly lied by John Calipari might not been the best approach.
- didn’t invite more recruits to BBM which has been always used as a recruiting tool
- transformed the BW game that everyone could not wait to see into a closed circuit highly expensive practice.

Of course, I will cheer for him and hope for the best , but nothing great gets build overnight.

 

[Mike-D]

23-8 for the regular season. Just guessing, nobody has any idea until they watch us play.

 

[FitchandMurray29]

Record is so tricky due to the variance of close games, injuries, officiating, etc.

Using an analytic tool such as KenPom for instance. We have to rank better than the preseason ranking he had. This needs to be a top 40 team.

Would be hard to excuse anything worse. The program spent a lot of money on a lot of good experienced college basketball players. They can’t be irrelevant and a non tourney level team IMO. Don’t have to be great, but close enough where you can see the vision of this type of group being supplemented by 4 top 30-40 level freshmen and a group of returners familiar with the system being a threat in 25-26.

 

[jrpross]

How's Sioux Falls? Haven't been up that way in many, many years. One of my favorite transit drivers (Ron Beukelman) passed away not long ago

It’s not bad! Growing quite a bit. The outskirts of town keep expanding. And there are lots of new cool spots popping up; breweries, a jazz club, etc. Oddly enough, that name Ron Beukelman is really familiar. Not sure where but I think I’ve heard it somewhere.

 

[Wildcats1st]

We should have sweet sixteen expectations

 

[ArtLaibsGhost]

Not knowing any of these players it is hard for me to have ANY expectations till I see them play. If Pope makes the NCAA tournament this year I will be impressed considering where he was 5 months ago. We have some solid players but none are yet what you would call high major stars. I hope we get lucky and strike gold, with a couple of the transfers turning into Antonio Reeves kind of players. I hope the 2 KY kids surprise us much like Sheppard did.

 

[RunninRichie]

I'm happy we got a coach who puts the fans first. Hopefully we get some sweet 1990s throwbacks. I expect 22 wins, a sweet 16, and to go deep in the SECT. I don't expect mucn this year, first year for a new coach and staff, new team, culture has to be laid down etc etc.