According to Coach Acker. Big West pre-season interview. Not sold yet on Acker as a coach, but he is a good interview.

12 minute interview but here are the takeaways:
-Recruited guys that fit his blue collar smash mouth style. Based on my reviews of individual players, some of them seem to fit that: Payne, Brcic, Vanlaningham, Bahr...plus both returnees Jones and Chaikovsky.
-He doesn't say this exactly but I think he also wanted guys willing to be part of a team concept rather than guys going solo. I think most of the guys appear to fit that
-Last year what was missing was rebounding, closing out games, closing gaps defensively. Agreed. Also 3 pt shooting but that isn't mentioned and the guys coming in are overall way better than the guys going out (last year 33% as a team), at least on paper. Amenhauser the 7-2 260 big was discussed as having shot 40% from 3 a couple years ago, I didn't know that.

If this is truly what Coach Acker has done in year 3 assembling another team from scratch here is what I hope for:
1. Team offense and defense much better
2. Fiery and aggressive team mentality
3. Better 3 pt shooting
4. Better game coaching, substitutions, late game effectiveness

I don't expect anything because under Acker we've done almost nothing. I hope he is instilling a blue collar smash mouth mentality where guys are always on the same page and refuse to surrender. I'd love to see a team that bodies up, takes charges, multiple on-court leaders, knows their roles and sticks to them, and gets the reputation as the toughest mentality in the Big West. Throw in an anticipated ability to hit the 3 from multiple slots and that might be a decent winning recipe.

Don't expect athletic highlight reels from this squad. I think we'll get toasted by any non conference opponent that is very athletic and skilled unless we get very physical and hope they are soft. I'd rather we be known as highly aggressive but not dirty as a team.

I think we will end up again playing a more often half court offense, this is not a team geared for run and gun like SDSU. Would be great if they surprise me on this one, but I expect a lot of grind it out wear down the opponent wins rather than speed fests.

Below is an analysis of how many close wins and close losses we had (6 points or less or two possessions) and OT wins and losses. Overall, 4-11 in close games. This is where coaching decisions are more amplified. Where Acker I think has his biggest coaching problem. I have a feeling this year's team will be better in close games.


Close Losses: 8
Close Wins: 4
OT Losses: 3
OT Wins: 0