Most preseason rankings (in any sport) heavily weight returning production, as this is easier to forecast. This team should be better defensively (finally have some rim protection), but there is still so much variance offensively with this team. Also, Hysier Miller has never really been efficient in his career, so all the predictive models for his production are pretty poor. Barttorvik's ORating projection for Miller is 100, which isn't great. However, I am more bullish on Miller, and I think playing in a better system with better spacing and teammates should help his efficiency numbers, he is a talented player. Ultimately for Tech to have a successful season and be around the bubble, they will need Miller to play better than he has in the past (feasible), Schutt to be ready to play meaningful minutes (should be feasible), one of Young/Brown Jr. emerge as a reliable 3/D option (somewhat feasible), Lawal to take another jump and be able to play 20-25 minutes without getting in foul trouble (50/50), and Jones Jr. needs to be able to contribute 15-20 minutes as a freshman (should be feasible). Basically a lot will need to go right for the team this year to have a chance to make the dance, ultimately it feels like another NIT squad, but with a really good outlook for 2025-2026 if they can a decent chunk of the core to stay, which is impossible to forecast in this era. Good comparison is Notre Dame last season, which was a really young team that struggled early, but played great defense and found their stride as the year went on and now have a really good outlook for this season.