How's Your Optimism?

We're about 48 hours away from NC State's season-opener against Tennessee Tech.  The Golden Eagles have a couple of solid offensive players but aren't very good at that end of the floor, and their defense is spectacularly awful. (More on that in the preview tomorrow morning.)  So it should be a fairly easy introduction to college basketball for the freshmen, and an easy W to kick off what we all hope will be a breakthrough season.

Will this be Lowe's breakthrough into the NCAA tournament, one that takes his program up a level for the foreseeable future?  Or do you expect heavy doses of whistles and sadness?  I wonder what Fake Sidney Lowe thinks about all of this.  I hope he emerges from his bunker and chimes in at some point during this his most pivotal season.

Ken Pomeroy has a new preseason projection system (you can read about it in the new College Hoops Prospectus if you haven't already), and that allows him to predict every game on the schedule.  The system expects NC State to be a top 35 team with a top 40 offense and defense, and finish at 18-10 (8-8).  That doesn't include the as yet undetermined pair of games we'll play in Charleston, so call it 19-11.  Put me down for 21-9 (9-7).