Won’t be a gimme. They are better than unlv from what I’ve seen/read.
Won't be a gimme because this team isn't very good yet.
Personally, I'm looking for measurable improvement, as well as the eye test. A couple games ago, we were around 90 in KenPom, and have been dropping (currently down to 106).
Another metric you I look at, is how we're trending against the spread, since presumably Vegas would have the smart money view of whether we should be winning/losing, and by how much. We're currently 2-6 vs the spread at home, which is lousy. Trent's injury is an issue, but I also think we're just not that good, and not being coached up, at least thus far.
Subjectively, we're not passing the eye test IMHO, but being young, I expect a lot of freshman mistakes. I don't expect those to go away, but as we get further into the season, I would expect us to get tougher mentally, improve our execution, and have better decision-making. Not night and day improvement, but improvement.
This game and Missouri are roughly toss-ups. Then we have Floridad Atlantic which we'll be favored for, maybe even double-digit. Then it's trial by fire in the BIG, with the only Rutgers below us. Eek!