How many does Rupp have to win?

[Dawg06]

That should be doable based on the strength of the WAC. But USU, NMSU, and SJSU could very easily get Ws in Ruston making us win a few road games too.

The way I see it... We can count on 2 losses to USU... That leaves 14 WAC games... If we split those, that would be a great coaching job... 6 wins would be good considering our situation... 5 wins idk... 4 wins is unacceptable... but I expect Rupp to be able to flip his WAC record to the winning side from 10-11 to 11-12...

I think next season will unfold a lot like the 08-09 season... It'll start rough by losing to some bad teams... but we will gel as the season goes along and pick up some good wins in the 2nd half of the WAC schedule...

[kdaniel72]

I really think he has to have a .500 or better season overall and avoid double digits in the loss column in conference to be given a slight reprieve...

If he can win 15 to 17 games next year overall and 7 or 8 conference games that will be a good year in my book and a better coaching job than this year's 24 win season

A "reprieve" from what? 24 wins?

[colvillea]

How do you even ask this question? He came there and went from 6 wins to 24 in three years.

[Brian96]

Top 4 regular season WAC, WAC tourney semi-finals. Anything less will be a step backward, IMO. Not expecting 24+ wins, but less than 17 would be a disappointment.

[GatorDawg]

How do you even ask this question? He came there and went from 6 wins to 24 in three years.

Because there are still too many people that think Rupp is a failure for 24 wins.

[johnnylightnin]

Because there are still too many people that think Rupp is a failure for 24 wins.

Yep. Seems that by most objective standards, we are headed in a better direction. For those that disagree, I'm asking what needs to happen next year to change their minds.

[Dwayne From Minden]

A "reprieve" from what? 24 wins?

No contract extension after a 24 win season and supposedly the "best" season in 25 years does show a certain lack of confidence by someone in charge...

[Dawg06]

The WAC will be much weaker next season. It's not just Tech. It's everybody except for Utah State...

Nevada is losing 5 of their top 6 scorers. Luke Babbit (21.9 ppg) and Armon Johnson (15.7 ppg) are both entering the draft early, and Brandon Fields (14.5 ppg), Joey Shaw (10.4 ppg), and Ray Kraemer (6.1 ppg) are all graduating. That's 68.6 points per game!!!!

Idaho is losing 5 of their top 6 scorers to graduation: Mac Hopson (14.4 ppg), Kashif Watson (10.7 ppg), Steffan Johnson (9.9 ppg), and Marvin Jefferson (9.2 ppg), and Luciano de Souza (6.9 ppg). That's 51.1 points per game!!!

Hawaii is losing their top scorer Roderick Flemings (16.6 ppg) to graduation along with Brandon Adams (8.0 ppg), Petras Balocka (7.9 ppg), Adhar Mayen (7.2 ppg), and Paul Campbell (4.8 ppg). That's 44.5 points per game!!

New Mexico State is losing their top 2 scorers. Jahmar Young (20.3 ppg) is entering the draft, and Jonathan Gibson (17.5 ppg) is graduating. That's 37.8 points per game!!

Fresno State is losing their top 2 scorers. Paul George (16.8 ppg) is entering the draft early, and they lose Sylvester Seay (14.2 ppg) to graduation. That's 31 points per game!

San Jose State is returning next year' WAC POY Adrien Oliver, but he is losing his supporting cast to graduation: Robert Owens (10.5 ppg), Chris Oakes (10.3 ppg), and Mac Peterson (9.9 ppg). That's 30.7 points per game!

Boise State is losing their top scorer Ike Okoye (12.9 ppg), Kurt Cunningham (7.7 ppg), and Anthony Thomas (7.6 ppg) to graduation. That's 28.2 points per game!

Utah State only loses Jared Quayle (12.4 ppg) to graduation.......

For comparison... Tech will lose 49.7 points per game going into next season... That's less than Idaho and Nevada...

KG (18.4 ppg)
Mag (13.9 ppg)
Guyton (12.0 ppg)
Jackson (5.4 ppg)

[HoDo-Tech70]

USU, NMSU, and SJSU could very easily get Ws in Ruston making us win a few road games too.

I agree with you on these three but Fresno St could also be a top 4 team next year even if Paul George does not return. They will be tough to beat.

[GatorDawg]

I agree with you on these three but Fresno St could also be a top 4 team next year even if Paul George does not return. They will be tough to beat.

I agree on that. And Nevada has a Duke transfer and a player their fans are saying is their best recruit since Babbitt. I just think our expected roster is the kind that can give both of those fits. Maybe NMSU too if Roshell can bang with Rahman and take him out of the game.

[KDawg33]

When Richard coached in the WAC he got us into play in games in the WAC tourney. Rupp has taken us to 2, and our only 2 WAC semi-finals in the last 2 years. You cant hate a guy who is providing us more wins and broadening our program.

[GatorDawg]

When Richard coached in the WAC he got us into play in games in the WAC tourney. Rupp has taken us to 2, and our only 2 WAC semi-finals in the last 2 years. You cant hate a guy who is providing us more wins and broadening our program.

Richard got us to a semifinals with Millsap. Was that his only one? If Rupp can get us to the semifinals this year that will say a lot. But he is still going to need to win the tournament before he wins more people over.

[HoDo-Tech70]

Keith Richard also coached us to ONE WAC semi-final - a loss to Utah State.

[DocMarvin362]

When Richard coached in the WAC he got us into play in games in the WAC tourney. Rupp has taken us to 2, and our only 2 WAC semi-finals in the last 2 years. You cant hate a guy who is providing us more wins and broadening our program.

The "providing us more wins" is a fact. The "broadening our program" comment, is an opinion that is not shared by many people. The fact that we had almost nothing behind the Senior's hurts. Olu is his only HS recruit that's here and making a difference. Darius and Brandon, we'll see. I think that we're all hoping that Darius and Brandon have the second year jump like Olu did, but we've got a relatively weak team so far and are, once again, having to rely heavily on some JUCO's to come here to make us competitive this year. (Yes, I know Juice.... we're signing some HS'ers, but chances are that they WON'T contribute heavily this year.)

The staff has shown that they have a pretty decent eye for JUCO talent. Getting DeAndre, Guyton and Jackson were really good pickups; Oliverson, Cooper, White.... weren't. Now it's time to get a couple guys in here that have 4 years to play.

[KDawg33]

The "providing us more wins" is a fact. The "broadening our program" comment, is an opinion that is not shared by many people. The fact that we had almost nothing behind the Senior's hurts. Olu is his only HS recruit that's here and making a difference. Darius and Brandon, we'll see. I think that we're all hoping that Darius and Brandon have the second year jump like Olu did, but we've got a relatively weak team so far and are, once again, having to rely heavily on some JUCO's to come here to make us competitive this year. (Yes, I know Juice.... we're signing some HS'ers, but chances are that they WON'T contribute heavily this year.)

The staff has shown that they have a pretty decent eye for JUCO talent. Getting DeAndre, Guyton and Jackson were really good pickups; Oliverson, Cooper, White.... weren't. Now it's time to get a couple guys in here that have 4 years to play.

Not just recruits, although we have one from Brazil can get more broaden than that. But we were ncaa bracket talk its been a while since people have talked about that. I know a lot of people that are talking about Tech basketball more now than years ago.