It’s Exhibition Season!
Exhibition #1: 10/10 – Double secret, closed scrimmage versus ECU at the Dail Center. The buzz is that the Wolfpack won easily (+30), but no legitimate stats have yet been released, and may not.
Fun Facts:
- ECU’s coach Michael Schwartz and Coach Gainey overlapped on the staff at Tennessee in 2021-2022
- That was the last of Schwartz’ five seasons as defensive coordinator
- In 2022 Schwartz got his first head coaching job at ECU
- In 2022 Gainey was promoted to assistant head coach and took over at Tennessee’s defensive coordinator
- After four seasons as defensive coordinator, Coach Gainey got his first head coaching job at NC State
- University of Tennessee – cradle of coaches
Exhibition #2: Sunday 10/18 4:00 – Versus Mississippi State at Greensboro (tickets still available) The value of playing in Greensboro is the Pack will face UNC there in December, and the ACC Tournament will be there as well. Not to mention the guaranteed $1 million per game for the two game series
with UNC.
Exhibition #3: Saturday 10/24 – Versus Lenoir-Rhyne at Lenovo (free admission – but you’ve got to fight NC State Fair traffic)
Mississippi State
It’s time for Coach Gainey’s first public tune-up game, Sunday afternoon at 4:00 in Greensboro versus the Bulldogs of Mississippi State.
This will be Coach Chris Jans’ fifth season at MSU. His first three seasons he was the model of consistency. He finished each season with 21 wins, 8 conference wins, and either 9th or tied for 9th in the SEC and had a cup of coffee in the NCAAT.
Last season did not go as well, they ended up (13-19 / 5-13) ranked 13th in the SEC. This season is not looking like it will live up to those previous standards either.
Hallmark heartwarming angle – Incoming Bulldog freshman Tristan Reed is an ESPN top-100 recruit. His big brother, senior Trevor is transferring to join the Bulldogs with him from (D3) Denison University. Their big brother Tarris played at UConn last season, was 1st team All-Big East and was drafted 26th by Denver and traded to San Antonio the same day. Aw
The Legal Angle
6’8” 255 lb forward Kimani Hamilton (UNLV 12.8 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 2.3 apg) signed with the Bulldogs after the entire 2022 class was granted eligibility by the Colorado court ruling. (he also played for the Bulldogs as a freshman) That eligibility has since been challenged by the NCAA and rescinded. It does not appear that Coach Jans expects to get him, he has filled his 15 roster spots. But he would love to have him. Should his eligibility be restored sometime this season, we may see some shenanigans. But not this week.
What are the experts predicting for the Bulldogs this season?
KenPom has Mississippi State at #69, the Wolfpack at #65. Torvik has MSU at #63, but the Pack at #32.
ESPN has them coming in at 14th in the SEC, just ahead of Ole Miss. (Tennessee 4th, South Cackalacky 16th) Their predicted range of expectations is a ceiling of 20 wins and finishing 11th in the SEC, or a floor of 14 wins and a 15th place finish. No tournament either way.
Evan Miya calls it 15th in the SEC, right behind Ole Miss. (Tenn 4th, USC-East 16th)
Busting Brackets says 13th in the SEC and are a little higher on Ole Miss with them placing 10th. (UT 2nd, USC-Columbia (drum roll …) 16th)
Who’s going to start? Well, there are only seven players on their team that started any games last season, so we’ll roll the dice and pick the best five of them as the likely starters.
- Point Guard: Both Josh Hubbard and RJ Johnson played PG for their respective teams, but Hubbard has been in Starkville three seasons so has the home court advantage and should get the nod. At 6’0” he’s going to want to play PG if he makes the next level.
- Shooting Guard: RJ Johnson (Kennesaw St) shot 42.3% (55-130) from 3PT last season, and as noted above, is a good ball handler, so he’ll start at the 2. But these two give the team a great deal of flexibility. Both score, both can play on or off the ball.
- Wing: Tajuan Simpkins (Seton Hall – the Pack had an embarrassing 1st round loss in Maui to them last season) will probably get the nod because of his experience. He is listed as a senior, but this will be his fifth season. He played two seasons of JUCO ball before one season each at Elon and Seton Hall. He shot 37% (37-100) from the arc last season.
- Forward: Thomas Bassong (FSU – the Pack killed them last season) started 16 ACC games last season, so it would be very surprising if anyone (other than Hamilton?) started in front of him.
- Center: ND Okafor (Wash St) and Hubbard are the only two players that started every game last season, so he too is a lock. He is a very solid player and was a decent shot blocker last season, averaging 1.4 bpg.
