Thus far, MT has done well vs good "mid-major" teams for a good record and good RPI. Now the stretch of the schedule comes where MT will be tested vs teams recognized on the national stage. For where MT wants to go, these upcoming games will be telling.
While it's good MT won the tournament in Nashville, I'm still not so sure the team has really come together to make a successful run vs these upcoming programs that garner more national attention.
It seems fairly clear that Williams, Upshaw, and Potts are getting into the swing of things close to what would be expected. To this point, the offseason's work on FTs has not yielded any improvements. While the FT % seems to be approaching last season's, there still seems to be a difference. Last year, the players would struggle at the line most of the game, but they would hit the critical FTs down the stretch to close out games. It remains to be seen if this team can do that or improve on FTs overall.
While Giddy struggled in the first few games, he seems to be getting back into the swing of things. Most notably, Giddy finally seems to be settling down and hitting the 3s.
The other big concern is an almost over reliance by the rest of the team on Williams, Upshaw, and Potts for offense. Specifically, Simpson and Habersham need to step up. Those two asserting themselves on the offensive end could very well make the Blue Raiders more potent. They both seem to have good scoring ability. Walters appears to have big potential, but it looks like he needs some time and experience. Gamble has really only shown flashes, hopefully Gamble will start to become a reliable contributor. Dixon seems pretty close to being really good. As a true freshman, it is understandable that Dixon needs a little more time and experience to develop. Foote seems to be hampered by an injury recently, hopefully Foote will be back up to full speed soon.
As good as Williams is at scoring, it would still be nice to see the team better settle into good ball movement and more assists.