Halloween is time to consider what scares you. The things that make you nervous. The things that make you wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night.
I'm not saying basketball should make me scream like the dream where the wolves have learned how to turn doorknobs and are breaking down my door, but I am saying that sometimes I do have nightmarish feelings about the outcome of the Mocs season.
So here it is- in a nutshell. Injuries are not allowed to be brought up here, because obviously any injury to any player is a nightmarish situation.
1) Farad Cobb takes significantly longer to develop than expected. The Mocs need a point guard. With Dontay Hampton out (sorry- one injury mention), the Mocs are in need of the point guard to step into the role quickly. Cobb is the one that has to step into that role. If he doesn't, this team could really struggle.
2) Early poor performance leads to fan unrest. I've been on the record saying that the Mocs have a set of critical games that could make or break the Mocs. In reality, they are important, but the Mocs should be much better by January and February than they are in November. But last year, the negative feelings around the program seemed like a noose around the team's neck. When the Mocs lost to Kennesaw State, the pressure got ratcheted up another notch, and the team seemed to wilt under that pressure. This is a new group of players. But if they start 2-4, the fans will become uneasy. If the fans become uneasy, the same pressure could take root. If the same pressure takes root, the team may be too young to overcome that pressure. (Basically, this is my plea to the fan base to take a deep breath and relax early in the year. If things go poorly, relax. Brighter days are ahead after New Years. If things go well, relax. There will be ups and downs this year. I think I need to set this to come up on my phone at the conclusion of every game so that I remember it too.)
3) The lack of big men leads to poor rebounding. I love rebounding stats. But, even for the SoCon, the Z Men (Drazen Zlovaric and Z Mason), Lance Stokes, Jared Bryant, and Sam Watson are not overly big. That means that these Mocs could struggle on the boards. Since that is one of the things that Coach John Shulman's teams traditionally do very well, if that goes poorly, the whole thing could fall apart.
4) Team falls in love with the three- forgets to pound it inside. An interesting thought, since the last blurb says they aren't overly big. But the Mocs get in trouble when they fall in love with the three and forget to get the ball to the Z Men, Bryant, and Watson. Last year, this seemed to be a common problem. If they do not get the ball inside this year to open up the outside threes, this offense could be stagnant and struggle. Off balance threes early in the shot clock? Uh-oh. Here we go again.
Overall, this would be a disaster for the Mocs. It's scary. I have visions of no points inside, guys throwing up threes from half court, and Cobb not being anywhere near as good as I think he will be, and the fans turning on this team really early in the year.
I broke out in a sweat just thinking about it.
To make up for it, tomorrow we'll have our best case scenario vision.
GO MOCS!
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