We'll see. We've got a long way to go simply because we have so many players that can play, and we have to establish roles and a rotation. That said, we look to be further along than I expected at this point, especially in the front court.
In particular, our inside defense has looked a lot better than I expected. Buckner is a shot blocking machine, and he'll get better. I expect him to be a different player by SEC play. Cranston looks much improved as well. I've also been impressed with our offensive rebounding. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that we penetrate a whole lot, forcing the defense out of position, which opens lanes for the offensive rebounds.
Two things I do know are that we're going to be able to get to the bucket against just about anyone, and our defense overall should be fairly tough given the length and athleticism we have this year. The announcers made a good point during our game saying that we have the ability to switch on most picks without ending up in a bad mismatch because the majority of the guys we run out there, outside of Warren and Gaskins, are in the 6-5 to 6-9 range with athleticism. It's harder to break down a defense when you can't create mismatches with the pick and roll game. Instead of having to fight through picks, which can create open looks, we can just switch in most cases. I'm anxious to see how it all plays out, but I like our chances this year.
We'll find out more if we can beat KSU and then take out Dayton or Villanova.