This Year's X-Factor

This year's teams will have its share of steady known quantities (KG and Wynn) and a healthy dose of talented but untested newcomers (Hassan, Coblyn, Sullivan). But there's a few veteran players who will dictate how far this BU team can go this year, based on whether or not they are ready to make "the leap" this year.

You could make a case for Matt Wolff or Brian Geffen to be the guy who needs to break out, but based on our biggest losses from last year (Etienne, Rashad), I think whoever steps up needs to be a forward. And the guys who could be the X-Factor this year are Omari and Tony Gaffney. Both showed flashes of brilliance at different times during last season, but both were very inconsistent.

If one (or both) of these two guys vaults into the stratosphere and ends up averaging double-digit points and double-digit rebounds (something I believe both are capable of), this becomes a whole different team. If, however, they show little to no progress made from last year, this team will wallow around the middle of the America East standings.

Early reports out of camp say good things about what Omari is doing, haven't heard as much about Gaffney. I think I'll do my part and find out what their favorite flavor of Powerade is and send a case over (figuratively of course, since I believe that would be against NCAA regulations).