Turner is a great coach. He recruits high character players who have have high basketball IQ's similar to the players that Les likes to recruit but he will go after more bigs than Les does. He stresses defense like Les does but he has players who are serious offensive threats and create their own shot off the dribble too. We need players who have that kind of offensive ability and consistency. Of course, Shorts was the exception for us this year.
The problem I see now though is that we have no returning players who have demonstrated that they can be consistent on offense on a game to game basis. Mooney and Gonzalez have shown they can score but not with consistency game to game and Neufeld is developing offensively but he has trouble staying out of foul trouble and on the floor. I certainly hope some of new recruits can provide some offensive firepower for us.
I think they can beat Oregon and make it to the Sweet 16. They are a solid team in all aspects of the game. Teams with agile, athletic bigs can make it tough for them but Turner threw an effective zone at K State and that worked well.
Everyone I talked with had Irvine going to the round of 32 if not the Sweet 16. I’d be curious as to the percentages on ESPN, Yahoo, etc. This wasn’t a shocker.