So far great backcourt .....
- Thread starter IronKaz1
- Start date
Joey Klings,
Your negativity is tiresome! You cannot be a Hall fan.
Your negativity is tiresome! You cannot be a Hall fan.
If you looked at our Portal rankings from this past season’s team, I don’t think anyone would have come close to projecting us as a top 4 to 5 team in the conference. If we can at least match the Guard play/production from last season, we’ll be ok. Hard to think Shaheen is going to be able to find the kind of production we had from our 5 spot, but let’s see what plays out the next few days.
Agreed -- we can replace Budd in the aggregate? Did we do it? Who knows. I don't think it is "negative" to not label our current backcourt as "great". But I think all the free agents we've acquired can perhaps match what we had last year production-wise -- to your point -- or at least come close. Maybe with some better shooting but without having a floor general like Clark playing 30 minutes every night.
I wish some of these “fans” just transfer out of our program already! The negativity is exhausting. Bleed blue or say bye already!
Maybe on paper. Same as many, me included, said before last season.
The only thing that matters is the record come next March.
Wow. Surprised to hear a negative word from you.
I like this shooter from Dartmouth, but it’s hard to get excited when we’re expected to rely on players from Radford, Dartmouth, etc to be high level starters in the BE
Kind of. Our record this year was good, but all our wins were against trash sub .500 teams other than nc state. We have to beat good teams next year. It’s not exciting to win 20 games and have our best win be against a last 4 in team. Students knew this past years team wasn’t good and it seemed to have worse attendance than the 7 win team.
Agreed but still better than projected.
On paper my a** what are you a swami? How did you think this past season would turn out
While the record was better than projected our level of play was not. It just so happened a lot of teams were worse than any of us could have imagined. Thankfully teams were bad enough they couldn’t handle our press and were able to blow 15 point leads.
the key is to be 4th place in a good big east not the worst big east in 45 years. Hopefully we play to level where we can beat ncaa tournament teams.
Our level of play was everything I thought it would be. I didn’t think teams would blow 15 point leads on us like it was the cool thing to do.
Northwestern was heavily recruiting Thomas and others and Indiana our new PG. I trust Sha and this group of coaches. Finished 4th in BE, COY, and knows talent.
Check out Jerry Carino's article on Thomas - haven't had this good of a 3-point shooter since Dawes more recently and Dehere, Leahy and Karnishovas. And Thomas' numbers better than all especially since 3-point line moved farther out since the older group.
Fascinating stuff - he's only a sophomore and just scratching the surface. Hoping Aiken gives him a call from one Ivy to
Hall transfer to another.
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Probably about as expected. If we played Xavier, Providence, & Butler at full strength we likely lose two of those three and finish 8-12
I like the mix Sha has brought in so far. I’ve always really liked Wilcher and was hoping we’d get him years ago. I think he could be an upgrade over Simpkins, who I also liked. Can he really breakout and replace what Staton-McCray provided? I’m also high on Thomas, he could be a sleeper.
Idk if Jones and Parker can hold down PG/lead guard but we’ll see. Anderson is a reliable depth piece and better than Mike Williams.
Payday Moore the wildcard.
Idk if Jones and Parker can hold down PG/lead guard but we’ll see. Anderson is a reliable depth piece and better than Mike Williams.
Payday Moore the wildcard.
Hear a lot of complaining about our coach being a value dollar guy but we have no other choice. He seems to have a template for assembling teams finding guys who have produced but still have an upside to go like Wilcher. In the past we always waited for kids to break out as juniors and seniors, now we need to find them on the portal. We are never going to win out bidding for known guys, but finding value guys on the rise from places like Dartmouth is a great strategy by our coach. Value can bring prosperity. Spending all our money on 3 guys makes no sense, one injury and the season is over. Finding guys with chips on their shoulders makes winning fun. I have no doubt Holloway can win this way.
He certainly as a template now, because this year seems to mimic what we did last year. Which worked better than 24-25.
is it the better approach? Time will tell. We are 0-4 in making the dance after living there for a half decade + in an era when rebuilds happen quicker than ever because it is open free agency every year.
The last time we were good/decent we had Richmond (Cuse), Dawes (Clemson), Davis (Louisville), not Dartmouth, Radford, and a bad bad Xavier team. Again I like Thomas, I just don’t like this strategy.
Btw I think it is an open question on whether it is better to spend big on 3 guys versus spend the budget across 10. There are two camps here. The group that defends everything Sha does will go with however the wind is blowing, but I think those that wanted to just overpay for Hines, Clark and one other have plenty of legitimacy to that argument as well.
As far as “what makes winning fun” - I think players who win games make winning fun. Everyone had plenty of fun in 19-20 when we had a deep and talented roster on paper, among other past rosters that fit that mold.
Plus, some of the funnest to watch, hardest working, hardest playing teams in college basketball last year were talented on paper. So I don’t get that distinction at all beyond trying to rationalize what Sha is doing after another year when it seems guys didn’t want to come back to play for him.
Thomas is going to be the combination of Dawes, Dehere, and Powell in about 2 days - if Carino doesn’t have him there yet - something just shy of that kid who went to lesser known Davidson and burst out one NCAA tourney.
Think of it like a science experiment, eventually he’s going to get the mix right. Holloway is the best guy for this job right now, he would not want to coach kids making 3 to 5 million. Conflict of interest to his personality. Making the dance regularly this way is a tough task, we are a small market team. I can see kids wanting to play for him going forward, a lot players out there with a chip on their shoulder. Our calling card is Sha ‘s calling card, if anyone wants it to be different I suggest being a St.Johns or UConn fan.
Much more P5 experience than last year - St John's and Texas, Xavier, Radford by way of Clemson. Guys that played big minutes at a good level of competition. As opposed to Elon, Fordham, Jax and Rice. Only Parker, Williams and Fisher were from larger programs.
Simpkins, Parker and Dar really had only played 1 year of D1 basketball before last year.
All good points, I can’t help but think maybe our coach did not want some of these kids to return or maybe he realizes that nothing he does or says can change what’s going to happen. Ultimately he’s responsible for winning. Sign Hines and Clark and then what? Hines gets hurt and we win 7 games coach loses his job. They are playing for money not coaches. Winning requires a strategy, we do not have the money for strategy one so we use strategy 2. Why keep anyone from a team that did not make the tournament.
You were not a fan of Clark. But to me, Budd Clark was the team last year. Yes he had holes in his game but he was so impactful on both sides of the ball. No one player is going to replace a real point guard.
So until I see it, we take a step back back in terms of the backcourt because we can’t replace Clark.
You’re right I wasn’t high on Clark but he did do a good job of running the team and defense altho fouled at a high rate. For the record I would’ve brought him back.
That's fair. We are not happy with the way the Clark NIL situation went down. But with that said he was by far our best player last season. So until otherwise a wait and see approach is understandable.
But to date I like what we have done and now we have to add quality size which will be difficult but not impossible with the money left.
The transfer portal will tell you Hines was our best player. Did you see the list of schools that contacted him?
Also I saw on X that Simpkins could be headed to Miss St. I thought he would’ve went down a level
Also I saw on X that Simpkins could be headed to Miss St. I thought he would’ve went down a level
Again, this past season was Simpkins first season of P5 basketball. Until he hit a wall, he was if not out best player, in the top 3. He will develop off this season. Wish he stayed.
That has nothing to do with last season. It's about potential, which Hines has in abundance. But there is no way he was our best player last season.
Hines won no awards, not even for the All Freshmen team. While Clark was second team All Big East and first team All Defense.
As cern said, without a true PG last year’s would appear better. But if Sha can get this barrage of combo guards to gel and be better than the sum of the parts?
Why wouldn't he want to coach guys making more NIL? Just because a kid gets paid more $$ doesn't mean he isn't a great kid to coach, doesn't mean he won't play hard, doesn't mean he isn't a coaches dream?
You don't think Sha would have wanted to coach Zuby as one example? That kid was one of the hardest working, easiest to root for players I've seen in college basketball in a long time. Or Karaban, who basically was a coach on the floor for Hurley teams that went to 3 out of 4 title games?