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If we’re in play for this guy, Skerry needs to go hard for him. As is, we have some decent players (CT, Jones), a guy with potential to be really good (May) and some guys with a lot of upside, on paper (Cole, Williamson….). What we don’t have is a guy who is possibly a difference maker, and that could be Watson. Skerry can play it safe, and bring in a guy like Blakney, who avg’d 6ppg last year, or he can roll the dice 🎲 on Watson. Playing it safe might ensure us a middle of the pack finish in the conference. I for one think he needs to take a more aggressive tact and pull out all the stops to land Watson. If not now, when? C’mon Skerry, just do it!!!

Obviously, I have no idea how the things will go under this new coaching regime but I can't help but feel that for the first time, in a very long time, there's some positive momentum about this program.....that there's a sound strategy in place to improve recruiting and build some buzz about the program.....that we're finally doing some of the things that other programs have been doing for years to help generate awareness and interest among players from all over the map. I feel like we've finally busted out of the isolated bubble of recruiting that we had been trapped in for so many years. I feel good about the future of Towson football.

Who needs Coach Prime? Most importantly I’ll be in Boulder for the game.

I saw the news today that Denny Crum passed away at the age of 86. Condolences to his family and those that knew and loved him. Two things come to mind as a Towson fan. The first is that he is a criminally underrated coach historically having won two national titles at Louisville. https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/37589221/hall-fame-men-basketball-coach-denny-crum-dies-86 Second, and the one we all remember here, is that he gave us the opportunity to have what I would consider a top 5 (if not higher) Towson sports moment on January 30 1995 at the Towson Center. Such a fun game. The only true court-storming at Towson I was every part of and a game that our team played with such a passion in a year where we otherwise underachieved. The Jason Crump free throw line jumper and Deron Robinson's uber-athletic performance off the bench really stand out to me. Ralph Blalock also went for 26 points and five steals that game. Here is the boxscore. https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sidearm.nextgen.sites/towsontigers.com/documents/2020/10/15/Towson_Louisville_Box_Score_1995.pdf I don't mean to turn this into a negative, because I always enjoy looking back and celebrating that day. However, I don't know if our program has experienced a collective day of joy with that many fans since that time. The closest to me in basketball is the 2021-22 regular-season title, but the difference was how much campus was buzzing, how many fans were in attendance and the national attention the victory got. The only comparable thing in any sport was our run to the national title game in the 2013 FCS Playoffs, which was probably the biggest deal of any sport accomplishment in my time associated with Towson. It is funny because the Eastern Washington win was the biggest, but because the Eastern Illinois game was on a Friday and we were not competing with a lot on TV, that felt like the most amount of national attention a sporting event has gotten us since I have been around Towson (since fall 1993). I am sure I am overlooking something else. The off-the-wall one, might have the Oregon State game that Obama attended.

Here’s an interesting factoid, not about Sulaiman, but about IUP basketball. The Crimson Hawks avg’d 2,127 in attendance last season. That’s more than 5 CAA schools and only 125 a game less than us. It’s more than Drexel, Monmouth, NE, Hampton and Elon, and only 6 people less per game than DE. They weren’t far off of Hofstra or Stony Brook, or us. Only C of C, NCAT, UNCW and W&M were substantially ahead of them.

Okay, what specifically makes you feel good about the future of Towson football?

I Admire your research

Schmear shoot out? Blocks for bagels? Possibilities are endless. in all seriousness, we need the NIL site to share what businesses have deals. I’d be more apt to frequent a business if they are supporting Towson and the student athletes

What an awesome run for a five seed! Amazing turnaround to go from 14-33 and 4-16 a year ago to 30-23 and 14-10 and this run. Now we can let the chaos unfold and figured out who we play tomorrow. I am assuming we need to beat whoever emerges from the chaos once while they need to beat us twice. No guarantees, but we are in the driver's seat. I don't think I realized that we have finished as a conference tournament runner-up 11 different times in the ECC, Big South, America East and CAA collectively. I believe in 1999 and 2001 in the America East we were in the same spot where we needed one win and our opponent needed two. This would be cool to get conference tournament title for Coach Costello.

And if you were there that night and stormed the floor, here's your chance to find yourself:

But let me add to my rambling with more positivity. We basically replace Gibson with Williamson,, who is a pretty good shooter in his own right (yes, I've seen him live). We had Gibson for just three games last season and that loss hurt us pretty bad. Conway did a decent job stepping in, but he was more 2 guard than 1. So outside of Timberlake, we had no strong shooter in the starting linuep of Russell, Thompson, Holden and Hicks. Jones is not Holden in terms of being an undersized power/point forward. I expect something similar to his sophomore season (before his Achilles' injury), when he shot 65% from the field and 10.3 points in 21.3 minutes. He averaged just 9.8 points and 5.4 rebounds with Wofford last season, but that was in just 22 minutes. He was their starting center last season and got in a tough of foul trouble. I see him playing at least 28-30mpg this season so expect around 12 and 7. Not great. Not Cam numbers. Better defensively and he's not going to play a lot of center. Jones, Thompson, Watson, May, and Williamson/Hicks is not super ideal for three-point shooting, esp. if Hicks starts. Then we're kind of back to last year with only one consistent 3-point option. If you had add May with Williamson and Conway, you have three on the floor who can shoot it from deep. I'm not getting into Cole yet, but he will be a legit scorer at some point. Maybe this season, maybe next. The thing I love about Watson is that at 6-6, 235, he has the body and athleticism to finish near the rim. He also shot 77.5% from the line last season. The negative part is 100 turnovers, 28.4% from the 3-point line and 42% from the field. Some of his worst games came against us and I think that's where the concern comes in. He shot 3 of 16 from the field in two games against Towson last season. More importantly, he had 12 points and 12 rebounds against Charleston in his only game against them (5-of-17 shooting, 0-2 3pt). He did have some terrible games and great games last season. Kind of goes with the territory of a guy who shot too many threes and didn't use his frame to get to the basket more.

Stand by. I’m cashing in all the assets from my sizable portfolio, consisting entirely of stock in the Baltimore Opera Hat 🎩 Company, and playing those numbers

My first job was at Arthur Treacher’s fish and chips, so maybe he and I can swap stories about British food 😆. We’re going international. UK & Canada 🇨🇦 now.. I also love British accents, though I’m thinking more in terms of Elizabeth Hurley 😉

We have a better chance at winning the conference the next 10 years in a row than landing him

Memo to Skerry: absent breaking some NCAA rule, do whatever it takes to get Watson, if he’s still available. Blackney is entitled to take all the time he wants. I just wouldn’t leave a spot open for him indefinitely. Then again, if we don’t have any other fish on the line (which only Skerry knows). Btw, if anyone cares, it apparently took Jefferson 17 days to draft the Declaration of Independence. That’s Thomas, not George. George was busy at the time moving to a deluxe apartment in the sky. Sorry, it’s just with the lull in transfer news, my mind is wandering

Got to start somewhere. I’m sure there’s a little compensation there somewhere

Comedy gold right there. Good for May, but if he’s not getting paid, that’s not the kind of NIL deal that’s going to help woo transfers here. Baby steps, I suppose; gotta crawl before you walk. Btw, if in fact the quid pro quo is he gets free bagels, I hope he at least gets chocolate chip, blueberry, onion or everything bagels, and not just plain bagels 🥯. Also, I hope he gets fixins to go with them

Great use of “Schmear.” But I prefer “blocks for lox.”

I dunno, seems like there’s a lot of holes in this story. See what I did there?🤔😆

When you haven’t won anything in 30 years at the same job, you make dumb decisions like saving your ace for Game 2. Lost this opportunity in the most Towson way possible.

I’m gonna order some CT gear. Love that guy and he truly is Towson.

I think we need to prepare ourselves that at least one of the remaining 2 openings could very well go to a NAIA, D2 or JUCO. In fact, I don’t think we can rule out the possibility that both openings will go in those directions. Speaking for myself, the “we’re not the only mid-major who doesn’t have NIL money” explanation is wearing thin. I’m not saying it isn’t true, I’m just wondering why we’re so far behind the curve? It’s not like NIL just started last month. I get it, new A.D., but shouldn’t we have been more proactive on this, instead of playing a losing game of catch up ball?

Not sure if it has been mentioned in the past be it on the football or basketball page but I always have to laugh at these kind of post. I know what these kids mean but when you read it like the one above one can only think. "Wow Towson must really like this kid. The sent him 9 offers!"