and experienced NM team. We narrowed the margin to 8 points in quasi-garbage time at the end, but we couldn't match up at the point and in the low blocks (excl Bilodeau).
So, what's the implication for this season, after an uncharacteristic drag via last yr's losing season?
None of us attend practice on a daily basis, and it's the practices that will tell the tale as to the allocation of game minutes for a deep (will discuss later) rotation. One example is Harris not playing, which CMC tied to practice (apologies to Allen Iverson).
We generally know that Cronin teams improve as the year cranks on, arguably to a greater extent than other teams who certainly also improve sans key injuries. By my subjective count, we're looking at an overstated rotation pool of 12 players which will be winnowed down. Cronin teams normally hit the 2H of the season with an 8-9 man rotation, with perhaps 1 other body at the ready for injury/foul trouble purposes.
My guess would be: Andrews, Clark, Kobe, Mack & Perry as the 5 on the perimeter; and
Bilodeau, Dailey, Kyle, Mara & Lazar as the 5 up front & at the wings.
Cronin is a D-oriented coach with little in the way of O creativity out of his halfcourt sets, in my opinion. When setting the competitive dial to the Top 25, we do have a deficit at PG, as Dylan is not an ideal orchestrator at the Top 25 level ~ his A/TO ratio was 1.9:1 last yr, albeit on a team with a comparative talent drain. Similarly, Bilodeau has delivered as an anticipated solid contributor on the O end, but when having to go against the tall trees at the Top 25 level, he gives up some mass at 6'9". Keep in mind that TBil was primarily used by Tinkle as a PF at OregSt. Two games in, and Kyle and Aday are coming up notably short in terms of rebounding and D covers.
On the perimeter, Dylan has struggled with his floor game, as has been noted. It just might be that Kobe could prove to be a more efficacious set-up man as he hunts dimes as opposed to Dylan who takes more shots than anyone else not named TBil.
I expect CMC will devote more practice time to the D side, wherein team steals and deflections are notably trailing team TOs. As usually happens with his teams in the early stages of the season, O creativity will take a back seat to solidifying the D, with Harris being a likely casualty of allocated playing minutes.
I expect things to be tightened up, both rotation-wise as well as our floor game, but none of us here are in a position to authoritatively predict where we'll settle in the BIG 18-team moshpit. I anticipate we'll wind up somewhere in the top third of the Conference, but I doubt we're Top 25 material at this juncture out of the approximate 354 Div 1 teams.