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Way too early 23-24 Big Sky Power Poll

Griz til I die

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Now that the NBA Draft Deadline has passed and we know that Dillon Jones will be returning to Weber, I thought it would be fun to rank the conference 1-10 based off what we know now about everyone. Here we go:

1. Weber State - The core of their team is returning with Dillon Jones, Steven Verplacken, etc. Jones is the only 1st team all conference player returning to the Big Sky this year. They should hands down be the preseason favorites short of injuries getting in their way.

2. Montana- After Weber, we have the most complete team returning. I like the backcourt of Whitney and Giordan Williams who I believe will be a significant upgrade from Martin. We're good on the wings with Moody and DT both back. The loss of Bannan down low hurts, but hopefully they found something with Sawyer and Jones to go along with Oke. Between those three, I think at a minimum we can hold our own down low.

3. Eastern Washington- Eastern will have to replace their starting backcourt of Steele Venters (transferred to Gonzaga) and Angelo Allegri (graduated) but they do still have enough young talent returning that they should be good assuming they get a decent transfer or 2 in the backcourt. Plus they also return both big men in Ethan Price and Dane Erikstrup down low. That alone will still make them a contender next year.

4. Sacramento State- This is where things start to get tough in my mind. Sac State did lose some key pieces from last years team, but they've also done well in the portal this offseason. The one thing I will say is that David Patrick is a hell of a recruiter, but I said the same thing this time last year that I thought they could be a top 3 team and they ended up finishing 6th and being rather disappointing. On paper, I like this team though and they need to contend for one of the top 2 seeds or I think it's fair to start having questions about if David Patrick is all he was cracked up to be.

5. Montana State- Maybe a little bit of a hot take because of so many new faces, but I do think it's possible the cats finish in the top half of the league. I think Matt Logie was an ok hire, I don't think he'll be as good as Sprinkle, but he'll at least have respectable teams every year. It appears to me so far that he's really going hard at adding big time 3 point shooters and they may be a very offense heavy team. So far it doesn't appear to me that he's put a strong emphasis on defense or even good-to-great post players. I don't even know if they've brought in a post player yet. It'll be interesting to see how it shakes out.

6. Northern Arizona- The loss of Jalen Cone definitely hurts, but the late season emergence of Oaklynn Fort should be promising for NAU. They got decent players that I think will be able to pull them out of the gutter and at least make them competitive, but I don't see them doing any major damage next year.

7. Portland State- Similar to NAU, losing Cam Parker definitely hurts and I think Jace Coburn is an overrated coach. You'd be hard pressed to find another D1 team in the country more active in the portal then PSU.

8. Idaho- I like the outside the box hire of Alex Pribble as head coach. I think he will do well, but it will obviously take him some time. He's done decent in the portal using his D2 connections so far. Interesting to see how it shakes out.

9. Northern Colorado- What a fall from grace for UNC. They were extremely disappointing last year and now everyone from last seasons team is gone. I literally don't know how long it will take to get them back to their prior level. It may be a long while before they're relevant again.

10. Idaho State- Poor ISU got crushed by graduation. Brayden Parker is back for ISU, but beyond that there's not much.
 
HelenaHandBasket said:
The BSC is so down in MBB.
Ya I thought the same thing as I was writing this. At least in some past years there's been an influx of talented players transferring in to replace all the outgoing guys, but that has not been the case this year. There hasn't really been any major significant names so far
 
Imo

1a- WSU
1b-EWU

3-UM
4-SAC
5-PSU
6-MSU
7-NAU
8-UI
9-UNC
10-ISU

EWU has size, athleticism and versatility at every position that is a rarity in this league.
 
Here are Bart Torvik’s predictions. And yes, Lucas is not included in Montana’s predictions, but based on his past D-1 contributions, he would not be predicted to move the needle much.

The positive is that the Big Sky as a conference is projected to be pretty bad next year. So
As the saying goes, you “you don’t need to be faster than the bear, just faster than slowest person in the group the bear is chasing.”

https://barttorvik.com/trankpre.php?conlimit=BSky&state=All&year=2023&sort=
 
GrizBall said:
Here are Bart Torvik’s predictions. And yes, Lucas is not included in Montana’s predictions, but based on his past D-1 contributions, he would not be predicted to move the needle much.

The positive is that the Big Sky as a conference is projected to be pretty bad next year. So
As the saying goes, you “you don’t need to be faster than the bear, just faster than slowest person in the group the bear is chasing.”

https://barttorvik.com/trankpre.php?conlimit=BSky&state=All&year=2023&sort=
I would move MSU and Sac down just a bit. I would move UI and ISU up a bit, just judging on how they have recruited. It probably comes down to WSU, EWU, and UM for the regular season title. As was proven this past year, post season is a whole different issue.

I also don't think that the BSC has dropped as much as people are saying. I also think that at least one of the new coaches will come in and surprise us all.

You don't really know much about recruiting classes untill you have seen them play with their new teams for a short while. However, on paper, this is one of the better recruiting classes Weber has had. At least that seems to be true for size and skill level. Time will tell. :thumb:

Weber has all five starters coming back, but there is a real likelyhood that two or more of them will lose their starting spot to an incoming player. Our rotations will change quite a bit.
 
Jeff Goodman @GoodmanHoops
5m
Sacramento State has landed Utah State transfer Zee Hamoda. 6-7 sophomore forward who averaged 4.2 points last season.
 
https://twitter.com/ThePortalReport/status/1666518116795383808?s=20
Ya they've been busy in the portal to say the least
 
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