Like to hear your thoughts...here's mine:

- Go to the NCAA tournament
- Earn no less than a 14 seed
- Look respectable in all non-conference games vs. Power 5 conference team

Given its only Keller's 2nd year and many new pieces coming in, as of this moment....I'll say just make the tourney.

Win the conference regular season, the conference tournament, and make the Big Dance. (Giving some Power Five team a scare or an upset at the Big Dance would be icing on the cake.)

We have a healthy mix of veteran experience and youthful talent. Outside of Lamar and maybe Southeastern, the Southland is down this year. I want to see a regular season and tournament championship. That is the standard for this year. Don't care too much about non-conference.

Just win the two conference titles.

Same as every year. Go dancing.

Winning cures all ills. With the talent he has on this team and if they can stay healthy I would be very disappointed in not winning the conference and tournament. A good showing in the dance would start bringing us back to where Brad had us.

ljax1979 said:

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Like to hear your thoughts...here's mine:

- Go to the NCAA tournament
- Earn no less than a 14 seed
- Look respectable in all non-conference games vs. Power 5 conference team

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I would agree with these three. There is nothing wrong with having high expectations. I just with we had those same expectations on the football field. Haha!

I expect us to beat the teams that we are clearly better than in non-conference. For example : North Dakota, ULM, Rice and Lousiana Tech. I will take an "okay" performance against the P5 schools (just avoid losing by 25 plus and anything else is icing on the cake)

-conference title.
-Conference tournamnet
-14,13, or 12 seed

Ljacks&Longnecks said:

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Not to hear "fire Keller" after each or any loss to a D1 opponent.

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We have better chance at wining the NCAA title than this not happening.

Yeah, Kaspar had half of his seasons end up significantly worse than Keller's first, but truth be told Keller has more talent than Danny ever did this season.

Taking care of the Southland has to be a successful season. Last year we essentially lost the conference in the last two games. Made the semis in Katy. Went to a lesser postseason tournament. All those things need to be improved to be a success. Expectations are high and should be. I expect us to dominate and will be disappointed if we don't, but if we take the regular season title, lose in the SLC Finals and go to the NIT...I'll be ok. I'll hate it, but it will be progress.

Actually, if we come out of this season with a better grasp that Keller is right for us, then that's a success.

BigJack85 said:

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I'm probably the anomaly on Keller. Just not real sure on him.... Danny could go 18 - 12 and I was still 100% behind him.. I'm sure a couple good wins and a nice run in conference and I'll change my mind.

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Same. I wasn't 100% impressed with the coaching last year, but I was highly impressed with the recruiting he's done so far. Of course, we'll need to continue to win to sustain that.

But we're asking him to follow the best coach/coaching staff we've ever had. Within 2 years, both the HC and lead assistant are Major D1 head coaches. That's unheard of.

That said, success is making the NCAA tourney.

It will be interesting to see how Mike Boynton does as a head coach as his hat was in the ring when we hired Keller.

tangerito said:

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It will be interesting to see how Mike Boynton does as a head coach as his hat was in the ring when we hired Keller.

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I'm not sure how he'll do, but missing out on the SFA job has worked out incredibly well for him. SFA Assistant to OK State head coach in a year. Unbelievable.

I have to say we should expect a SLC title and tournament win. I want to see SFA back in march madness, preferably with a minimum of a 15 or 14 seed. But the reality is we just need to get back in it.

The fact that we even talk about seeding is pretty cool to me. 6 years ago we'd jusy be considering the possibility of being in the dance.

SfaTke596 said:

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Welcome to the forums! We love hearing ideas and opinions of new folks.

And don't forget that many SFA sports, including MBB and WBB, are shown via ESPN3.

There is no reason why we shouldn't dominate. If the coaches know what they are doing, we have all the pieces. I pray they allow the boys to play and not try and keep them in a systematic zone. You have speed, athleticism and a high IQ PG...Lets goooo!!

https://kenpom.com/

Systematically moving up this list through the season with a tournament win. I think this year speaks to if we are a nice mid-major or someone that is regularly in the discussion nationally. No pressure.

The biggest problem last year was not talent. I think last year, outside of the point guard position, we had the talent to win the SLC and win several non conference games. We appeared to be very unorganized last year though.

If Keller can have this team, which is may be more athletically gifted than any SFA team before, play like a team and play organized, smart, and aggressive basketball, I think there should be no question who we are.

I agree with literally everyone that this is the year Kyle Keller shows who he is as a coach.

SFA_03 said:

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I agree with literally everyone that this is the year Kyle Keller shows who he is as a coach.

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Not to be a negative nelly, with basketball season right around the corner, but I feel like he only gets one shot at this.

He's such a good recruiter though, I sure hope he can show us he's a great coach too.

One shot?!? This season would have to be in the tank (like 6th or lower) to even begin to think Keller wouldn't get a third season. The worst thing would be Keller having a great season and another team stealing him away. But it's just about inconceivable that coming in year one - with hardly any playing returners and still almost winning the conference plus a postseason berth - that in year two with a stronger class and second year of his system that this team could do so poorly that it would cost Keller his job.

From my vantage point, the conference has not gotten stronger but weaker from last year's mediocre level. I won't predict 18-0, but it would take a serious meltdown to not be competitive to the end. I'm all for pessimistic realism, but one shot? Oh brother.

nacluth said:

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One shot?!? This season would have to be in the tank (like 6th or lower) to even begin to think Keller wouldn't get a third season. The worst thing would be Keller having a great season and another team stealing him away. But it's just about inconceivable that coming in year one - with hardly any playing returners and still almost winning the conference plus a postseason berth - that in year two with a stronger class and second year of his system that this team could do so poorly that it would cost Keller his job.

From my vantage point, the conference has not gotten stronger but weaker from last year's mediocre level. I won't predict 18-0, but it would take a serious meltdown to not be competitive to the end. I'm all for pessimistic realism, but one shot? Oh brother.

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There were times last year that it looked like our coaching staff failed to adjust & utilize the talent we do have & it cost us games. If that continues this year & we're not a high quality team with this talent, I'd say yes, I've seen enough.

Wow, start of season is 1 week away and 3 or 4 of you guys already have a noose halfway around Keller's neck, unbelievable and kinda sad actually. Would think maybe we could watch some BB and see how the early season unfolds before the lynching starts......
I'm not saying that Keller is going to lead us to the promised land or be great, good or mediocre, too early to tell but I will say it's absurd to declare that this, his 2nd season is a line in the sand--do or die year for him as a head coach.
If we lose to a D3 team or finish 12-18, then you got real talking points but neither is likely and yes we should be very successful this year as long as we stay/get healthy.

Scroll back up to Purple Out's 10-31 post ...... sounds sensible and realistic on the outlook for this year.

I have high hopes for this season and I've said all along I want to see how good of a coach Keller is now that he's been able to bring in some talent. Heck, I'm even going to be at an SFA basketball game before most of the rest of you guys.

But I still don't think it's unrealistic to say that if it turns out he's a lackluster coach that we should cut our losses and move on.

He's a nice guy, a great recruiter, and now I want to see it show up on the court. I want Keller to work out, because if he can match the coaching with the recruiting, he might be the guy to stay in Nac for 10 years and be our Gregg Marshall.

A good discussion, but I too can't see Coach K hitting the exit after this year. There's just too much talent on this team for us to not have a good/great season, with at least two (probably more) high caliber players coming on board next year. We'll be very good in 2017-2018, and the sky's the limit for 2018-2019. So, Keller will be here for at least the next couple of years, probably more.

If conque can retain his job for 4 season, than Coach K has nothing to worry about. Our league is so bad that we would have to give the title away. We finished 2nd place and we were one game away from the NCAA. We lost a lot of players too. I think the conference title is as close to guaranteed as possible. We would have to self destruct. But the conference tournament is toss up. Anything can happen in a 1 game elimination.

edstile said:

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A good discussion, but I too can't see Coach K hitting the exit after this year. There's just too much talent on this team for us to not have a good/great season, with at least two (probably more) high caliber players coming on board next year. We'll be very good in 2017-2018, and the sky's the limit for 2018-2019. So, Keller will be here for at least the next couple of years, probably more.

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For the record, I expect us to have a great year. With this talent, a tourney spot is ours to take. But the reason we beat those teams in the Big Dance with Underwood was great talent combined with excellent coaching, and that's been validated by Ok State & Illinois coming after him in just two years.

I'm hoping that in addition to having our talented team run through the Southland, that we get a glimpse of how good of a coach Keller is. Isaac mentioned during last season he could see it in practice, but during some of the games last year we were dealing w/ players out of position & replacing a lot of production, so some of the X & Os can get lost in translation. I hope that with a more talented & experienced team vs weaker competition this year we'll get to see that we did indeed hire a great coach and not just a great recruiter.

I'll skin this cat another way. SFA has proven we have the capacity to be a real player in the tournament. Had Keller come in 7 years ago and gone 18-14 he'd be the talk of the town. Danny and then Brad ruined it for Keller. The expectations are higher and rightly so. We have better facilities than all but one or two Southland schools. We pour more funds into basketball than all but Lamar. We lead the conference in attendance by a large margin (X3) Why shouldn't we expect a top 2-3 finish?

I think it's way early to put the rope around his neck. Besides.... unless he goes 10-20 he ain't losing his job. My observations are largely structural. 1) I don't see the in game adjustments that seemed routine for Brad or Danny to make. 2) We seem out of position early on in games. 3). We start games slow ....

All this could change with Keller 2.0. I hope it does. I want success for Keller and the team as much as anyone!!!! To me it starts with steadiness at the 1,2 and 3 spots. Beyond that we can be plug and play.

A win over a rebuilding Longwood team (by 12 or more) would be a good start. A loss to any of the D2/D3 schools would be a VERY bad sign.

In an earlier post I said my expectations are 9-4 non conference and 16-2 conference. I hope we are there in early March!

BigJack85 said:

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1) I don't see the in game adjustments that seemed routine for Brad or Danny to make. 2) We seem out of position early on in games. 3). We start games slow ....

All this could change with Keller 2.0. I hope it does. I want success for Keller and the team as much as anyone!!!! To me it starts with steadiness at the 1,2 and 3 spots. Beyond that we can be plug and play.

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Number 1 is the most concerning if it doesn't change, which is my biggest concern. That said, it's much easier to have a team make adjustments when you have Thomas Walkup on the court. It's hard with an inexperienced team. However, I think this year we will hopefully see great improvement with this.

The other 2 are definitely fixable.

I'm so looking forward to this season. The level of new talent the Underwood years has brought us is remarkable and getting back to the top of the conference with tourney appearances will let us unlock a whole new level of success.

Unless Walkup and Pinkney are granted a couple more years of eligibility Keller is going to have to do some player development. One of the things you always saw with Danny and Brad was that there "core" players improved year after year after year. We need to see some progression at the point. That's the best way for a coach to execute his plan.... have a point guard that you've helped build.

Long story short ,,,, we are not going to get Chris Paul recruited to SFA. We're going to coach one up!