[MV72018]

I used to think that we played marshmallow pre-conference schedules in the Dawkins and Haase eras. But the softness of this season's pre-conf schedule is quite impressive. Result: we're 5-0 and have no clue whether this is a mediocre, decent, good, or excellent team. Kyle needs to book some high-quality opponents for pre-conf games next year. Looks to me like Santa Clara will be the least unchallenging opponent we will face this pre-conf season. Meh.

I agree that we don't have a great idea yet of how good this team is.
But can we at least agree that Coach Smith has clearly moved it in the right direction of better defense and ball control?
The question remaining being how far?
As to the opponents, I assume Coach Smith had no say in this year's schedule, and would he have any in next year's or is it booked already?
Also I think UCD and Norfolk State were not patsys by any means, as they have a couple really good guards: Johnson, and Moore, respectively.
Looked to me that Moore might be a starter on most any Power conf school.

I agree that Kyle is doing a good job so far. In fact it's patently obvious.

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I used to think that we played marshmallow pre-conference schedules in the Dawkins and Haase eras. But the softness of this season's pre-conf schedule is quite impressive. Result: we're 5-0 and have no clue whether this is a mediocre, decent, good, or excellent team. Kyle needs to book some high-quality opponents for pre-conf games next year. Looks to me like Santa Clara will be the least unchallenging opponent we will face this pre-conf season. Meh.

Oregon

While Oregon will surely provide a challenge, I'd say the first semi-challenging game on this year's schedule is game 10 against Cal. That is our first official ACC men's basketball game and should be the first meaningful challenge. I regard this year's pre-conf schedule as the 9 games before we play the first conference game. Of those 9, Santa Clara (away) is probably our least unchallenging game. For the record, here's an ordered list of our first 9 opponents this pre-conf season (about a third of our season): 

Denver
Cal State Fullerton
Northern Arizona
U.C. Davis
Norfolk State
Santa Clara
Grand Canyon
Cal Poly
Utah Valley

Not exactly murderers' row or anything close to that. Doesn't help prep us for tough opponents downstream.

[MV72018]

I used to think that we played marshmallow pre-conference schedules in the Dawkins and Haase eras. But the softness of this season's pre-conf schedule is quite impressive. Result: we're 5-0 and have no clue whether this is a mediocre, decent, good, or excellent team. Kyle needs to book some high-quality opponents for pre-conf games next year. Looks to me like Santa Clara will be the least unchallenging opponent we will face this pre-conf season. Meh.

I agree that we don't have a great idea yet of how good this team is.
But can we at least agree that Coach Smith has clearly moved it in the right direction of better defense and ball control?
The question remaining being how far?
As to the opponents, I assume Coach Smith had no say in this year's schedule, and would he have any in next year's or is it booked already?
Also I think UCD and Norfolk State were not patsys by any means, as they have a couple really good guards: Johnson, and Moore, respectively.
Looked to me that Moore might be a starter on most any Power conf school.

I agree that Kyle is doing a good job so far. In fact it's patently obvious.

---

I used to think that we played marshmallow pre-conference schedules in the Dawkins and Haase eras. But the softness of this season's pre-conf schedule is quite impressive. Result: we're 5-0 and have no clue whether this is a mediocre, decent, good, or excellent team. Kyle needs to book some high-quality opponents for pre-conf games next year. Looks to me like Santa Clara will be the least unchallenging opponent we will face this pre-conf season. Meh.

Oregon

While Oregon will surely provide a challenge, I'd say the first semi-challenging game on this year's schedule is game 10 against Cal. That is our first official ACC men's basketball game and should be the first meaningful challenge. I regard this year's pre-conf schedule as the 9 games before we play the first conference game. Of those 9, Santa Clara (away) is probably our least unchallenging game. For the record, here's an ordered list of our first 9 opponents this pre-conf season (about a third of our season): 

Denver
Cal State Fullerton
Northern Arizona
U.C. Davis
Norfolk State
Santa Clara
Grand Canyon
Cal Poly
Utah Valley

Not exactly murderers' row or anything close to that. Doesn't help prep us for tough opponents downstream.