It's less than 2 weeks from the opening tip of basketball season so in my mind it time to start a discussion.
What do the Owls have going for them this year? It's returning players. Nine return from last season's campaign and they accounted for 86% of the points scored and the lion's share for minutes played.
In alphabetical order, here are there returning players:
Burden, Harris, Jennings, LaRue, Peterson, Robinson, Stroud and Youngblood
Armani Harris appeared in 12 games and Cole LaRue 20 Games last season, while the rest listed played in at least 30 of the 31 games contested.
Going back 2 years to 2020-2021, 8 of these 9 players were Owls for that season. Demond Robinson being the group's newcomer after transferring in last season.
So, we have a team used to playing together. Can we turn that into a successful season? Probably the biggest things going against the Owls are the absence of winning tradition and lackluster fan support. Last year the Owls posted 9 D1 wins, which was frankly a disappointment given the amount of attention given the to the quality of the recruits, most of whom were in their sophomore season. We will need to show significant improvement in the W column to begin a winning basketball tradition at KSU.
As a early barometer of how the team is doing, look at the Appalachian State Touney Nov 18-20. The Owls have 3 mid-major games in 3 days.