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Gosh that win had to kill ya ! (“Act like you’ve been there before” ; nice quote on the live chat ; Captain Miserable) congrats to rest ; WHAT A WIN !!!

If you downplay and belittle a win, you either bet on Wilmington or you’re just a miserable person. Like, how can one put asterisks on a buzzer-beating win? It’s a tired act and one that shouldn’t be quoted so others don’t have to see it unless they choose to.

So, I’m driving yesterday when I get a phone call. I recognized the prefix (704) as being associated with TU, so I decide to answer. And who’s on the other end of the line but Charles Thompson, calling to thank me for being a season ticket holder, as part of a campaign where players are calling season ticket holders. We had a brief conversation and I must say he was extremely articulate and personable, and I came away thinking what an excellent ambassador he is not just for the team, but the university as well. I have no doubt he will be a success in whatever endeavors he pursues once he leaves TU

C’mon man, that’s weak. We just went on the road, against a ranked team, in front of the largest crowd in their history, spotted them a 17-point lead, and then ripped their hearts out with a stunning 34-0 run, and this snarky response is the best you can do? Would have been better if you just exercised your right to remain silent 🤫

We have a mutiny after every loss. What else would be new? Some just love the misery. The schadenfreude. Hey, let's give this team kudos for the road win against a team that had won nine straight games and was supposedly down from last season (and wasn't going to match 31 wins). A team that we had chances to beat in all three games last season and couldn't get it done at the end.

Yeah, there was zero reason for an extension. Nothing has been done to earn that and by inferred logic, you could guess that a simple trip to the conference championship game will merit another year on the contract. Sometimes, a little job insecurity gives one a bit of extra incentive to up their production and I agree with you that in this age of the portal and short-term players, a lame duck situation isn't as dire as it used to be.

Why do you conflate two issues? Not a single, solitary post on this board has even remotely tried to rationalize the ridiculous extension he got. That being said, is it the player’s fault that he got it? Should we take no pleasure in beating UNCW? Nobody, I repeat nobody, has any false allusions about this team. I grudgingly defend your right to express your opinions, but you really do at times sap the energy from this forum and I suspect you’ve so worn down some folks that they no longer post, or worse, no longer even read posts on here. We get it, Skerry can’t win close games; can’t win in the conference tournament; can’t recruit a PG; plays a desultory style of basketball and certainly didn’t deserve the 8-year extension, or the last secretive one. I mean, nobody’s disputing any of these things-you’re arguing with phantoms. You’ve made your points, ad nauseum. ENOUGH!!!

Honestly not sure why the university kept it quiet. They also kept the COVID extension quiet, which means that back-to-back one-year extensions were kept quiet. I talked to Pat today and he told me that he isn't interested with the attention that comes with announcing contract extensions. I get that, but students' athletics fees go toward paying salaries for coaches... right? I'd think the public has a right to know when coaches are getting extended. Not announcing it only makes matters worse for them because now it seems like a secretive move where they have no control over the narrative.

Yeah, I don’t get grousing about beating Morgan, Coppin and UMBC. It makes perfect sense to play those schools. I mean, with Coppin and UMBC this year, it’s 2 no cost “road games.” Frankly, we ought to play Loyola too, unless they’re afraid to get their Patriot League asses whipped. So why bitch about beating up on these teams? Not every game can be vs Houston, CU, NTSU, WF or SDSU. You can’t win with some folks. If we beat the locals, it’s “well, they stink.” If we were to lose to the locals it would be “the sky is falling.”

Getting ready to make the 3.5 hour drive from Minneapolis in about an hour. I hope it goes better than my trips to Chicago for the Northern Iowa and to Rhode Island for Bryant games last year. If it could match my experience in Philadelphia during the Penn win last year that would be great.

Putting this nicely, we completely fumbled all the good momentum that was built in the early 2010s over the past 10 years. Coastal Athletic Association will be back at 10 team in a couple years unless add any more crap like Morgan or NJIT: Hampton, NCAT, Campbell, Stony Brook, Drexel, Elon, Monmouth, Hofstra, Northeastern, and us. Can't expect anyone within our institution to react other than do nothing and be happy with whatever hand we're dealt.

Personally very encouraged by Coach Shinnick’s first season. Now knowing what he has to work with in terms of his team’s talent & deficiencies he can better address their needs in the offseason. His energy and enthusiasm seems genuine and that’s refreshing. I’m curious to see if the entire staff comes back in tact or if he makes any changes among his assistants. Go Tigers!

Gibby is now a HS coach https://x.com/towson_mbb/status/1725556448854237280?s=46&t=nScacl1TWT-KyOwj5stBaw

It’s hard to tell when you’re joking vs when you are actively trying to scare away towson fans and call for the football program to be disbanded

Second part Charles Thompson and Radhir Hicks have entered the meeting. Pat Skerry on both players “I meant what I said earlier. These guys have done outstanding jobs as leaders since Memorial Day. We have really good quarterbacking play in Radhir, who has changed his body. He shot really well this weekend. Charles has had as good an off-season as anyone we’ve ever had. These two guys have a big responsibility. They are just outstanding people as well as good players.” Charles on coming back to Towson “I was going to be a football guy at first. Skerry convinced me to play basketball in college. When I was in high school, I remember how Skerry was hitting me up every day. He said, ‘I want you here.’ That played a huge role in my decision. I love the guy. He showed faith in me since Day 1. He told me when I was 17 that I didn’t have to score a basket to play for him as long as I played hard and rebounded. That’s been the truth since today. He hasn’t lied to me since I’ve been here so here I am.” On Canada trip Radhir “We had a great time. We got to travel and get some early games in. We saw a different country and Montreal was a whole new world for us. They speak more French. It was a cool trip.” Charles “Toronto was more like kind of like a New York a bit. Montreal felt like we’re not in America.” How did it help them improve as a team? Charles “It’s hard playing against each other all summer. At one point, we know how we play against each other. We don’t know how other teams play or how we’re going to play together. It was nice being able to see how other guys play off each other. We had lineups with like Me, Messiah, CMay, Radhir and Tyler Tejada. Then we had Tomiwa (Sulaiman) at the 4 and 3. We were able to different things over Canada. It helped us jell early on. We have a bunch of new guys.” Hicks “It’s always nice to get game reps and play against other bodies and react to see how we do.” On 3 pointers Skerry “We led the CAA (Conference play) in three-point shooting last year and we were first or second the year before. From an analytical stand point, what we’d like to do is that 35% of our shots be threes. We’d like to make 35-36% of those shots. We’re trying to get take 10% of our shots from 8 feet to the 3-point line. We want red-zone shots (0-8ft) and 3-pointers.” Skerry on NIT ruling “It’s a bad rule right now. Hopefully, it’s a short-term thing. Heard the rumblings that Fox Sports is trying to take some teams….it’s a terrible rule. You won’t have the best teams in the country playing. If you have teams playing below .500 playing postseason basketball, that’s really bad. I think you’ll see the CBI get a lot stronger moving forward. The negative to that. I’m on the NABC congress, I represent our conference. There was zero talk about that. The customer service from the NCAA was incredibly disappointing.” Richard Kent on NIT “They are going to take the two highest NET teams from the Power 6 conferences who are not in the NCAA Tournament. You can take a 13-19 Penn State team who has a NET of 68 and not take a 28-5 team that has a NET of 75, that lost in the CAA Final. Which I think is unmitigated nonsense.” Charlie and Rad on new guys Charles on Sulaiman “My new guy is Tomiwa. I thought he was more of a 4 or a 5. When he got here, he just shoots the ball really well. If you contest T’s shot and he misses, that’s not because of you, but because of what T did. He’s always shot-ready. He plays defense really hard.” Radhir on Makhi Lowery “Ki is a great defender and great athlete. On offense, he creates a lot of opportunities. He’s a good playmaker and has great size. He’s definitely a player to look out for.” (Datres) What was the No. 1 thing they looked to improve in the offseason? Charlie “Decision-making. I’m going to have the ball in my hands a lot. It’s not a secret. I have to make better decisions with the ball. Less turnovers. Knowing when I want to hit my shots, when to pass out of the post and how I want to get the ball. I’m far along with that and I’ll be ready when the season starts next week.” Radhir “My outside shot. I put a lot of reps this summer. Went to the gym a lot. Put a lot of work in.” What’s the status of Nendah Tarke Skerry “Bullis School. He’s practicing with us. He’s a good player. Terry Porter and Steve are working on it. We’re in the middle of a waiver process. We filed it the day after Labor Day. Very frustrating. We have not had any bad news. I’m guardedly optimistic that the right thing will happen. I’m not going into the details. It’s an interesting story. We certainly need him and we certainly need him. He’ll be able to make an impact. He’s got good size. He’s excellent defensively. Pass it, drive it. Would certainly help us. I wouldn’t be surprised that mid-week on how far the NCAA is behind on waivers. They implemented this transfer rule and they had to think there would be waivers and they must not be staffed well. There are a lot of big non-conference games where teams are waiting on kids.” On deadline for Tarke? “It could drag into the season based on what happened in football. We hope not. I will say Terry and Steve have worked very hard on it and are using every available resource. We haven’t heard any negative news. We’re hopeful that it’s sooner than later.” In the CAA, who is he most concerned about? “All of them. I hope our conference has a really good non-conference run. Those league games will come more meaningful. Those top four teams when they played, those were high-level games. We had a down year that there wasn’t as much parity. It’s way too early, who is going to be great and not being great. One of our things are interesting. I wouldn’t judge a lot from non-conference. There are 3-4 teams that schedule aggressively. There are some teams that are good that don’t schedule aggressively. Now, we had 14 teams. Unbalanced scheduling. Hofstra had a tremendous year. The way it broke for them, it wasn’t as challenging for Charleston, UNCW or Delaware.” Me on what they accomplished in the closed scrimmages “We’re looking for a measure of consistency. What I like about the group is that when we lock in on something, we get better at that. We have to make sure that we don’t slip in other areas. Both games were very, very close. Some of that was good. Some of that was disappointing. Both teams were good. The hope that we could go on the road. Colorado will be on the road. You always have a lot of regrets as a coach. We’ve had a lot of close games in those big opponent games on the road. We have to play at a high level. Energy, toughness and execution. The hope that playing some good teams would helps us get ready for us.” On close games “The entire season. Starting with me, we didn’t do a good enough job in those. I expect this group to be in a lot of close games. We’re built for that. Hopefully, we’ll be successful in that. We’re really committed defensively. It’s a connected group. Starting with Charlie and Rad, the way they talk to each other. We have to make sure that we have that Towson toughness and physically impose our will. I’d like another 30 days of practice. It’s almost go time. We have another week of practice. We have to make some strides in a couple of areas.” On Jaiden Cole “He’s been practicing in and out. It likes he’s grown since he’s gotten here. He can really shoot the ball. There’s a window for him to get in the mix and help us out. Like anything you know, when you try and put him in with the rest of the team, it’s getting him back 100%. We’re behind schedule there. I feel for Jaiden because he’s a gym-rate. I’m disappointed that he’s behind schedule.” On Chase Paar “I’m proud of him. He’s lost about 27 pounds. He’s tried to lean out. He’s been practicing every day. We slowly got him back, He can certainly help us. He’s a high IQ guy and has been through a lot. He’s actually shown a lot of courage this year. He has a slight tear in his knee and has been gutting it out. The fact that he’s lost a lot of weight has helped him.”

Great. He should be first in something

There you go again, Advocating for the shut down of TU Football. Why don't you just shut your pie hole.

The one thing I have really liked to see from this team lately is role players stepping in and contributing effectively in a variety of ways. Messiah Jones is averaging 7.3 ppg, shooting 10-12 (83%) and is a +41 in an average of a little over 17 minutes over the last three games. Toniya Sulaiman had 4 offensive rebounds (8 overall), has contributed 9 offensive rebounds in the last two games and leads the team with 15 offensive rebounds in conference play. Chaase Paar chipped in 6 pts, was 3-4, and was a +9 on the floor in 14 minutes. Dylan Williamson didn't have a great game and only played 18 minutes, but knocked down the last two free throws, which we desperately needed and was a +8 on the floor. Skerry has figured out the Tarke, May and Thompson are the only guys he trusts playing 30 minutes per game. May led the way with 34 minutes, and it was good to see him score 15 points on only nine FGs while also grabbing a team-high 10 rebounds (only one less than Williams). Tarke continues to be our alpha player, and is not scared of any moment. Sometimes that doesn't lead to the greatest shot selection, but he had a couple of great hesitation shot fakes to score over Williams. Even though it took him 14 shots to get 18 points it is helpful to have his aggressiveness, because it opens up offensive rebounding and other opportunities. Charles fouled out in 25 minutes, but I thought he played really well defensively when he is in the game. It might not look like it statistically, but I feel like he gets the better of Williams in these matchups. He scored 12 points in 25 minutes has to be one of most explosive outputs, and he had a couple of key blocks. He is shooting 61.5% from the field in conference play. He does not qualify, but that would be second behind Williams if he did. Charles leads the team in conference play in rebounding, FG%, steals, blocks and is only two behind the lead in assists. One of the interesting things when you look at the conference-only stats is that of the top four teams (Drexel, Charleston, Towson and UNC-W) they only have three players in the top 25 of minutes played. White is 18th, May is 20th, Tarke is 22nd and Charleston and Drexel have no one on that list. The rotations of those teams and how they evolve throughout the year (probably not much) will be interesting to track. Going back to my original point I feel like Skerry has been doing a solid job rotating players and having them understand strengths when they get in the game. This might be the deepest Towson team from an athletic standpoint I can remember, so it is good he is doing that well because it was one of my primary criticism of him heading into conference play. Now it is time to send Delaware off to their new conference with a couple of Ls the next couple of weeks.

We've seen in these last couple of games just how much Tarke solidifies our backcourt. He's the veteran presence that was sorely needed and missed at the beginning of the season. The defense in the middle part of the 2nd half was outstanding and allowed for us to get out to the big lead. But as Mat mentioned, the drought hits and the shot selection was a touch questionable and before you know it, the Dragons are right back in it. Fortunate that DW knocked down those 2 free throws to get it to 3 because there's no doubt that if it had been a 1 or 2-point game, Drexel was going to the rack with it and based on what happened the final 2-3 minutes, they were going to get a good look at the rim. So now we've knocked off the other top 3 teams in the conference, one of them at their place. It would be great if we could treat Delaware on Saturday the way we treated JMU when we booted them out of the conference a couple years ago.

@TuTigers2012 you gotta stop being so negative it’s contagious and infecting others. Don’t give us all depression and high blood pressure with your persnickety comments

I agree with ya here. I said after the Colorado game that DW seemed to be the only player who could create his own shot. After seeing him a few more times, I think he'd be better off trying to get his offense off the dribble and creating for others rather than standing out and taking 3's (unless it's a kick-out situation and he's open). His shot is a little slow to get off (kinda like Holden's was) and with his height, it might be an easier to shot to defend because it is slow. But when he gets into the lane, it opens up a lot of options, especially if he's able to consistently finish. He does make mistakes that a player of his experience tends to make but the last 2 games, he's ironing those out better. Hicks might be a better defender and that's where his niche has been the last couple of years. Plus, he'll be good to spell DW for 10-12 mins per night. But if we want to start establishing a flow, DW needs to be the starter full-time.

https://thetowerlight.com/before-it-was-basketball-at-towson-charles-thompson-almost-played-football-elsewhere/ I published this story this morning on Charles and how he almost played football in college at UNC, but Skerry got through to him and convinced him to play basketball at Towson

All in on Coach Pete! Savior of Towson football!

Winning cures a lot of ills, but it goes deeper than that; a largely apathetic student body; a similarly apathetic alumni body (the number of engaged alum, compared to the number of total alum is minuscule I think); a surrounding community which really isn’t a college town, but more of a suburb, with sports allegiances to professional teams; and a deficient marketing strategy, to the extent a successful strategy is out there somewhere, waiting to be unearthed. Baby steps, I guess. Let’s become a consistent winner (not just outlier seasons here and there) and hopefully get attendance up to near 10K a game. I don’t have the stats in front of me, but what was our highest average attendance during the Ambrose era? I’m highly skeptical we’re ever going to get to a point of 15k or more a game & I’m equally skeptical FBS is viable, but I also don’t believe scrapping the program (or moving down) is the answer. It’s hard for me to imagine a university with 20K students not having a football program, and while I understand the dollars and cents argument, I’d like to think there are intangible benefits to having a football program