First Field of 76 Zoom last night with Travis Steele and the coaching staff. Nothing groundbreaking, and truthfully if you watched the recent Rebound Rundown interview with Travis, then you have 90% of the ground covered. As he said in the RR interview, he has used a 9 man rotation in the past, and this year it might be 10. We will start 2 point guards. If you want my guess for the starting lineup and rotation it is this:
Ipsaro (also a captain)
Skaljac (captain)-could see Elam rotate here as well
Kirby-rotation with Waltz and Elam
Atlason (captain)-rotation with Rolf and Horton
Woolfolk-rotation with Robbins and Copeland-could see Horton here as well.
Atlason has remade his body as has Robbins. Waltz has made a tremendous leap. Horton was the #1 target for Travis for a reason. Elam can shoot. This is a very deep and versatile team. Atlason will play his more natural position, the 4. We can easily go 4 deep at the 5. Again, none of this is a great revelation if you listened to RR interview from last week. We are going to see early how this team gels with the new pieces as we take on JMU. High Point to me is the big test of the OOC season as they are going to be very good.
I don’t see this team taking much of a step back at all. Do I expect another 32-0 start? Probably not, but this team is capable of winning 27-30 games and making some significant noise again in the NCAA tournament. Even without Byers and Elmer, I think overall, this team is deeper. Lots to be excited about.
Steele always referred to Suder as a Swiss Army Knife, and last night used that moniker on Waltz. Just something to keep in mind.
He also elaborated on scheduling, showing complete displeasure on how the Vegas tournament fell thru, and discussing Houston and another unnamed major program.
Since this call was open to anyone, it seemed to me Steele was not quite as forthcoming as he’s been when only the Field of 76 members are present.
He answered my question about whether the new arena was helping recruiting… with a definitive “no”. He essentially said that going 31-0 in the regular season was more than enough. Makes sense (and glad to hear that actually) as there’s still no physical structure to show. Highlights from a packed Millett certainly make that building look better than it is as well.
Nope, because of his prior comments. However I think you can say you love Millett and be referring to the games where the atmosphere was like it was late last season. It’s got a funky shooting background. I believe him regarding recruiting and the new arena. NIL probably usurps home arena/locker room somewhat.
We need to beat the living tar out of JMU this year. I have seen already some of “them” talking crap already that Miami doesn’t deserve to be in the AAC.
