That's my call, anyways. Strictly as an XO guy, I think he's the best coach in our conference, hands down. He needs to find a special scorer, though (the top-100 wing he signed from Washington gives him at least one solid option)
Malik's stupid decision not to return is an unfortunate blow to SMC's season, obviously. His clear mismatch advantage on Toolson (& really, all our wings) was I think easily the biggest factor in their hanging in there to steal a couple games from us last year. Neither we or they had all that good of depth last season, but on paper I think we clearly shoulda had em.
As for this season, I do believe our talent level & depth will pretty much make us favorites in every game except for those against the Zags (& it'll be interesting whether we'll be able to claim an advantage on them at least at home).