Now that practice has begun in earnest, the Hoopstalk blog is off and running. It should be a very interesting season as Coach Gib and the boys try to better last season's 19 win season and make some sort of post season tournament once again.

Both the preseason polls and magazines are out, and UH appears in the top four in most of them. Both the WAC coaches and the Media picked UH 4th, with Zane Johnson picked by both polls all WAC first team. Shaquille Stokes was picked by the media as the Newcomer of the Year. Vander was named to the coaches preseason first team as well.

The magazines look for Nevada to be the clear preseason number 1, while the WAC media selected Utah State. Considering, for example, that USA Today has selected four Nevada players to its first team all WAC, I think Nevada is clearly the class of the league.

The bottom of the WAC, which includes Idaho, Fresno, San Jose, and La Tech, look to be as weak as ever. In fact, the WAC may be as weak a league as its been in recent memory with not a single team getting a single vote in the preseason polls.  But Nevada could surprise some folks.

The Uh schedule is not very strong. Outside of UNLV, Gonzaga, and Xavier ( a possible second round opponent in the Diamond Head Classic), the rest of the non conference schedule is very weak. The non Gonzaga road games, non conference , should be easy wins. Pepperdine is picked last by many in the West Coast Conference and Pacific is picked 7th in the Big West. The non WAC  home schedule is equally weak. Northridge is picked next to last in the Big West, Eastern Washington lost 20 games last season, Auburn is picked 9th in the SEC, you get the picture.

So , how many games do i think UH will win?  I think they could win 20. I think they will finish 3 or 4th in the WAC. There RPI will not be good because of the league and the schedule, so not sure wha their post season changes are. But I look for a very successful year, although there are some holes that need to be filed before opening tip off on Nov 14th.

How many games do you think the Rainbows will win?

Don't forget Hoopstalk, now on weekly on Thursday nights at 6 pm on ESPN 1420. This week's guests will be Coach Arnold and Dana Altman, head coach of the Oregon Ducks