re: Tide Hoops | Please Anchor

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Am I underselling this bunch just setting the expectation at a tournament appearance?

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Depending on health/injuries, I think this club has more than enough to return to the S16 or more. The tournament draw is just so important, that it can be difficult to say how far a team should or could go in a vacuum. We have a great roster and a great staff so we should have confidence in making the tournament pretty comfortably.

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I don’t really see us making a run lacking experience especially in terms of bigs.

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Guard play is much more important come tournament time imo and we have a lot of experience in that department with JQ, Shack and Ellis. JD will have 30 games of experience by then as well and I still haven't mentioned Darius Miles who will have around 50 games of experience. Really sucks we've lost Nimari though. Holt will also have a chance to work his way into the rotation or play spot minutes, but I wouldn't expect him to overtake any of the other guys.

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We’ll have to see who emerges out of Bediako, KAH and the Tchikou.

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Everything we've heard so far seems to indicate that Bediako is the real deal. It sounds like Oats expects him to be really strong at rebounding, rim protection and putbacks from day one. KAH should be able to provide solid minutes in a reserve role. I'm hoping/expecting him to play a role somewhat similar to what Gary did last year in a hustle/effort niche spot, but he probably won't be quite as good defensively as Gary is/was. Tchikou is a wild card. The sky is the limit for him, but he's still not completely cleared from a major injury and may be lacking a bit maturity wise in the eyes of the coaches. He could easily be one of our best five or we could get next to nothing out of him - we just don't really know yet. Gurley and Gary (still including him as a "big") are both going to play a ton of minutes in front court type positions.