Tiger93

I agree with all of the above. The table was set for Holden to have a great year. He really was a unicorn for Towson in the versatility he provided, and there were definitely some games where he willed us to wins. I can't fault these kids anymore for their decisions even when I don't like what they are doing. It is what it is. Mat, I didn't watch the Miami video because when I looked at the boxscore it looked like a game where no one even tried to play any defense. I did watch a decent amount of the video you posted from the regional final where Sylla's team got knocked out. Looked like a physical player who could get to his spot and score. I agree it is hard to judge shooting when it looked like he could get anywhere he wanted within 10-15 feet of the basket and score on most occasions. Feels like he can come in and be pretty good, but definitely would have enjoyed having him play with Cam. Seeing guys transfer in and out makes me appreciate Gibson, Thompson and Timberlake even more. The biggest joy I got out of last season was seeing the amazing evolution of Thompson's game, and I hope he can elevate his game even more. Such an easy player to root for. I also got a lot of joy out of the 4-5 or games when Timberlake was on fire. However, I know we need a lot more with those guys if we have aspirations to be successful. Any thoughts/rumors about what we might do with the last two spots? Seems like it has been pretty quiet since Sylla's addition.

Nothing bad to say about Cam. Loved the one year he gave us. Wish he had been healthy all year, because man did he carry us at times last season. Sylla will be interesting. I was trying to look at precedents of top notch D-2 players (led alone national players of the year) transferring and what they did. The one example I could think of an extremely positive way was Ryan Hawkins last year from Creighton. If we can get 2/3 of what they got out of him we will be in good shape. I watched some of the videos Mat1992 posted, but hard to get a feel for his game other than it seemed like he could impose his physical will at that level to score. Also, for those in the know do we think Skerry knowing that he has been both burned and helped by the Transfer Portal might have had an inkling that Cam might transfer? Or have coaches become so used to the portal that they are starting to overrecruit just in case a player wakes up one day and decides to leave. I don't like the transfer portal in terms of it taking away good cohesive teams that grow together, which is really one of the best parts about college basketball. However, if a coach can leave any time they want I don't see why a player can't have at least some of those options (within reason, because more than once seems excessive and more than twice is bad pattern). I will say the conversation around the transfer portal makes the offseason conversation around college hoops infinitely more interesting, and I do appreciate that after the sad sack of a season we had in 2020-21 that we had the ability to grab some good players immediately and turn our fortunes around. Mat1992, I know you have talked about this plenty, but how many spots do we have left to fill on this roster for 2022-23?

Very cool to see Maryland recognize the caliber of Kubek and bring her into the program. Unfortunately, it is yet another reminder that everything Diane Richardson built up has to start from square one. I think Laura Harper seems like a solid hire, and I will be interested to see how she builds off some the positive program momentum Richardson built. Everyone has to hit reset with the portal these days, but it is important that everyone knows what can be accomplished at Towson in women's hoops and that Harper builds off that. Richardson showed we can be a tournament team, and that should continue to be a goal moving forward. Like the men's team, the women's squad built up a Net ranking that sat in the 60s to 80s because of the early season win over Florida and a strong non-conference performance. I don't expect that this year with a brand new start, but the years that both the men's and women's programs had should be what we strive for in the regular-season, and as has been mentioned repetitively being ready to win in the conference tournament.

The more you post these names the more I get back to what a crapshoot the Transfer Portal is for mid-major schools. The one thing I liked about last year's transfers was that Cam and Rizzuto (although he didn't work out great, I still think he was a good gamble) were all-conference performers. No matter what level of D-1 the conference is I like to know that the players who we are getting were some of the better players in the league. Also Nolan Jr. was a starter at GW and Bradley. I am interested to see if last year was just a lucky and good year for us in the portal, and if Skerry can get similar quality from it this year. If I were to rank it out of 10, I would say last year was an 8 in terms of success in the portal. It is hard to do that every year, but coaches are starting to be more savvy when it comes to philosophies for recruiting the portal and using previous connections to get good players.

This is why as much as I think we need to better players to lift them up, it is easy to root for Charles Thompson, Jason Gibson and Nick Timberlake. They needed higher-level players like Nolan Jr. and Holden to get them to the next step this past year, but they are the character glue to this team (hopefully I don't jinx it and make one of them leave). Those guys have put in their time and developed under Skerry. All three have their limitations, but they all got a lot better once we put guys around them who let them do what they do best. Hopefully we can get our payoff with those guys, because I really appreciate their dedication to the program.

No one on this board will disagree with you on No. 3. However, being good when it counts means you need to develop consistent habits and be peaking at the right time of the season. That requires the element of having a good regular-season, conference team that is consistently getting better. What we are all waiting for is to peak at the right time, and not be tight, injured or have off-shooting game when the chips are down. Hopefully we can figure that out.

Great recap. I agree with everyone who has said that we need a strong physically athletic player that can get to the rim and finish in crunch time to make sure we are not over-relying on three-pointers like we did at times this year (never thought I would say that). I agree an athletic point guard who can shoot enough to keep teams honest would be nice. I do realize getting these types of players are easier said then done. I felt like this year we were at our best when no one player to carry the full burden of scoring. We had a lot of wins where 4 or 5 guys took 8+ shots. This was our best winning formula. As much as Thompson and Timberlake improved, they are not good enough to be go-to players in crunch time. They are good enough to put extreme pressure on teams in crunch time if there are multiple offensive options. I know ultimately it does work better if there is someone who can get a big bucket in crunch time, but it was refreshing to watch when we the ball was moving smoothly throughout the offense, and I hope Skerry can have the personnel to replicate this on a somewhat consistent basis.

Not a great way to end a really positive season (I am referring to the last two games we played). That felt like the first time since the Monmouth game that a team just came out and buried us. To our credit, we never gave up and the Chase Paar missed layup felt like a point where it was early enough in the second half that we could have got it down to nine and made it interesting. We missed a lot of those opportunities, but I am not going to pretend like we ever had a chance of winning this game. Wake was much better than us and ran us off the court in the first half. I am very interesting to see VCU-Wake because Wake's press break was the most pathetic I have seen this year. They struggled with some of that against BC. We talk about this every year, but I really would like to be a team that presses more if possible. It has worked well in spells and we had decent personnel for it this year. I don't think we can do 40 minutes of it, but I would like to use it more if possible. The poor play from Terry Nolan Jr. in the conference tournament carried over to the first half, but he seemed to have a much stronger second half as part of the pressure that we are applying. Still, he took some awful shots and was 3-15 from the field. I get that Skerry wants him to inject energy off the bench, but I have not really understood why Nolan Jr. isn't starting right away when he helps be a better team in so many ways when he is engage and playing well (which he has not been the last three games). Once again, I really liked the way Charles Thompson played but the more I watch the more I think a major goal for us next year would be to continue to get some transfers/players that can take the scoring load off of Thompson and Timberlake. Both guys are at their best when they can score by the chances they get in the offense. We are a worse team, when we forcing it and relying on them to be scorers. Charles' development has been unbelievable, but I think some next steps in his evolution would be quicken up his post moves and improve his handle enough so he is a threat to take it quickly and decisively to the basket in one-on-one matchups. His post moves can take a long time to develop and can sometimes slow down the offense. This was a great season, but two very dissatisfying games to build on and get better from. Time to grind, get some high quality transfers from the portal, and keep moving in a positive directions.

Agreed. I have probably have not watched as many games as I should the last few years, but watched some of the tournament and have seen other assorted games and I love the way the coaches and players on this team represent Towson. Glad they get to play at home in the WNIT. Especially with the bad taste that Delaware game left in everyone with.

Hopefully Wake Forest is more like Xavier, who took 30 minutes before they decided to show up yesterday. Just looked at some of Wake's stats in ACC play, and they were third in rebounding margin, first in field goal percentage and I believe second in field goals percentage defense. Hopefully, our shooting efforts can be closer to resembling the Hofstra games then the Delaware and Northeastern games.

Yep, that is always the question when it comes to the NIT.

Can't argue with any of that. All I am saying is the future has not been written and I am hoping that we can change and build off this. Since this season was somewhat unprecedented, I am employing guarded optimism and hoping we can do a better job this time around. New AD and an improved Skerry (not in the tournament yet). I do think Skerry is learning and adapting. Will he get there? I can't say yes confidently but I am willing to put faith in him a little more after this year. UMBC was probably a bad example. Maybe Loyola would have been a better example. You are right, UMBC has hit the the marks of conference play I laid out. Not really the NET (or KenPom) ranking part, but their conference (other than Vermont) is worst than ours.

Sorry I have dragged us back in the same conversation. Changing topics, I didn't realize until today that Alondes Williams was the ACC Player of the Year. Too much Big Ten and Big East brainwashing going on over here. Looking at it quickly, it will be the first time we have faced a team with the ACC Player of the Year since Joe Smith with the Terps in 1994 (94-95 season). I hope this goes better than that game did.

Of course getting to the tournament is the main goal. I have never suggested anything different. My only point is I want to be closer to Murray State not UMBC. It might be unrealistic, but I think ultimately my ideas area actually more ambitious (some might call then unrealistic) than just getting to the tournament, but it is all part of the process. Focusing on winning three (4, 5 or whatever) games is shortsighted. There is more to being a fan and a great program than just winning those games. So, yes you are right about the ultimate goal and you are right in that sense that we failed, but I do believe if we can build off what this season was and sustain it on a year-in and year-out basis the tournament will come. I bring up the 25 wins, NET rankings and 15-3 conference record because this is unparalleled success for our program, and it is very important for this not to be just be a flash in the pan season. I think Skerry deserves credit for what he did and I hope he has learned and can build from it. It also means we should continue to raise the standards. By standards I don't mean do well in the tournament. By standards, I mean have this team as a Quad 2 quality team every year, finish top three in the conference minimum and win 20 (real D-1 games). I honestly believe the more consistent excellence we establish during the season on a year-in and year-out basis the better culture we will have to make sure when we get to the conference tournament we are not hoping to win but expecting to win.

So should we fire him after wining 25 games and having a great season? My point is we can continue to build off of this and we damn well better. Is Skerry's conference tournament record terrible? Yes. Is he much better than any coach we have had here since Truax? Yes, by a longshot. Could we do better with someone else. Maybe, maybe not. Depends on the decision-making mechanisms in place. I do think with a new AD here, Skerry is going to get the benefit of the doubt if he puts up season 20-win seasons and does well in conference play, and he won't if he struggles. I have the same frustrations as you guys do regarding the tournament, my only point is I would love to use this season as a starting point for longer-term success. What year Skerry is in is completely irrelevant if he can do this going forward and eventually win a conference tournament. People can actually, learn, grow and get better at their jobs. He does have some stuff to fix with the tournament, but I do think it is easier to figure out when you are playing at very high level for most of the year. It is the years where we suck that I worry about where this program is going. I am as hungry as anyone for a tournament appearance, but I would rather have this season than go 11-19 and have a lucky run to get there. The point is to have a good program, not just one flash in the pan season. I think we have some building blocks off of this season and that is all. Those are my main points. That is why NET rankings, conference play, doing well in the non-conference matter more than three games in March in a big-picture program sense. I get that it doesn't in a short-term tangible sense, but to get where we all want to go this program needs to get used to a high standard on a day-to-day basis. Pat Skerry took us from pathetic to solid (and really good this year). Solid is not good enough on a consistent basis. I would like to live in a world where regular-season titles, high NET rankings, good non-conference wins and of course first and foremost NCAA Tournament berths become the norm (this does exist in other mid-major programs). However, it takes a lot of different ingredients to have this. We got halfway there this year and I want to build off that. Please don't mistake that for me not caring about getting to the tournament when I am flying halfway across the country to root for this team in-person in hopes that I might witness a conference tournament performance.

Obviously I agree with the assessment on Skerry's conference tournament resume, but I completely disagree with the narrative that the whole season comes down to the conference tournament or it is a failure. In fact, this season was a perfect template toward what we should be trying to build long-term. I will repeat that 25 d-1 wins, a top 75 NET ranking (top 80ish KenPom ranking) and a 15-3 conference record are much better building blocks to a successful program than winning three games in three days. Of course finding a way to sustain the type of year we had is easier said then done. I know I am putting the cart before the horse here, but we built up a resume this year that could have gotten us to a 13 or 14 seed in the NCAA Tournament, which actually gives you an outside shot to win a game (which is really something to build on). Obviously getting to the tournament is the first step, but building a sustainably good program that can be consistent is more important (we still have a ways to go on that journey as well). Long-term success doesn't just come by magically getting to the NCAA Tournament. I am hoping this year showed us some ways we can build for long-term success, and someday God-winning we can actually figure out a way to get to the tournament. In the meantime, Wednesday is another opportunity to beat a very solid team and add another small step to this journey. I agree that Wake is a very solid team built on high-end transfers (as you said their top three scorers are all transfers from some point). However, they were only 5-7 in quad 1 and quad 2 games so it is not like they beat a lot of high quality teams. Obviously by looking at their roster and the eight-point spread they are pretty clearly better than we are, but there were definitely worse matchups out there in the NIT field.

Late to the party here, but that was a really sucky way to lose in the conference tournament made doubly worse by the fact that it was Delaware who did it to us. I agree with it being flimsy call down the stretch. There was contact and maybe even a push, but that type of contact happens at the end of every game. It sucks that it wiped out what was a really great play by the coaching staff and execution by the players to take the lead on the previous possession. I really love the hard-nosed persona of the team. They didn't play great in either tournament game, but had a bulldog approach and never went away. A lot of fund to watch and a great overall year. Hopefully they can get a couple of wins in the WNIT.

I guess that makes sense. There are also many more fans of Wake Forest than Towson so for every opinion we have on there multiple it by 50-100 times and it will probably be amplified. The more opinions the more arguments and so on. I will put my partially negative hat on here for a second. There are four major things I want to see a head coach do with this program. Beat notable teams in non-conference play to get people excited and boost up our NET (and other pertinent) rankings, have good quality rankings (NET and otherwise), be successful in regular-season conference play and win the conference tournament. We accomplished two out of the four this season. Two things our program has been terrible at since my sophomore year (when we best West Virginia and Lousville, and St. John's my freshman year) has been getting notable wins against power conference teams and obviously the one we all bitch about here, not winning the conference tournament (which we have documented ad nauseum has been even longer). We still have time to get a fairly significant program win with this matchup against Wake Forest. I at least want to see a game where I feel we have a chance to beat them or I will be disappointed. We can argue whether that is unrealistic or not, but this is a second chance to do something noteworthy after missing out on winning the conference tournament (obviously it can't completely make up for it). Hopefully we are up for it and play a good game. There were a lot of frustrating aspects of the Delaware loss, but the worst part was after winning 25 games and having a great season we had one of our three worst performances of the year in our biggest game of the season. Hopefully we can bounce back and get back to the quality level of pay we have shown for most of the season. These players deserve another chance and hopefully they will take it and run with it. Go Tigers!

Did we really go almost the whole first half without scoring a goal?

Kind of interesting that we start off with the same opponent as the men's team with Northeastern in the CAA Tournament, and that if we win Delaware is the likely opponent (only they beat us twice in the season). It has been an incredible season with 23 wins, and we go in off the heels of beating the best team in the league in our final game and having won six of seven. Hopefully we can repeat our 2019 tournament run.

We'll get there. This past year was a good step forward in what we need to do better in the offseason. Hopefully, Skerry learned some lessons about roster construction and will continue to find shooters. As Mat mentioned several times, we also need an athletic wing that can create and get to the basket (easier said then done). My hope is that a guy like Hicks is hungry for more after getting a small taste this season and can make a jump in his game. The seasons that Thompson and Timberlake had give me some level of confidence in our player development (although we need to see more success stories) and I hope this carries forward with other players on the roster. The right combination of player development and successful transfers is a must at our level (and pretty much any level at this point). I definitely agree that Stony Brook and Monmouth (who has a good shot to win the MAAC this year) will make this conference tougher in hoops next year. It is very important to build off our regular-season success and continue to set the bar high for this program. We can't waste this momentum. If we can keep building off what is going right (which no one can guarantee), we will get more shots to make it to the NCAA Tournament. Right now, I think the checklist is go have an NIT run that creates a positive experience that will make the returning players hungry for more success, sort out departures, and navigate the transfer portal successfully (Skerry seems to be pretty solid at this). Skerry knows better than we do what he needs, but my offseason homework for him would be study what went right this year, figure out what you can replicate and what you need to adapt (defensively and gameplan wise to get better). The biggest step (and I think he has referenced this before) is take a look back at the tournament games, tap some of his resources and connections in the coaching fraternity and do a deep dive on why his teams seem so little tightly wound come tournament time. Thompson getting hurt in the first game was an extremely unlucky break, so I make the tightness comment knowing that the combo of his injury and a bad shooting night was as much circumstance as something that the team or Skerry did wrong. Still, it all needs to go under the microscope if we want to accomplish what everyone on this board and the program wants to do.

Went to the tournament last night and it actually stings a little more this morning that we are not playing in the title game than it even did last night. Two notions that I find silly reading this board last night is the amount of blame Skerry gets and notion that the everything but the conference tournament is meaningless. We won 25 games (all D-1), were consistently ranked in the top 75 in the NET rankings for a good part of the year, tied for first in the conference and are going in the NIT. If the loss yesterday flushes that all down the toilet I don't even know why you follow this team during the regular-season. As for Skerry, he did a great job for most of the season. He brought in three impact transfers, incorporated in them into the team, actually had some shooters and still kept some of the good parts of Skerry ball to make this team tough. Here is where I will be critical of him as a coach. In watching tonight's game and the 2014 game that we lost to William & Mary in-person, our players seemed tight and like the they just wanted it so bad that when it went badly they were not sure how to react. It felt that way tonight, and I do agree that mentality trickles from the coach down to the players. Even saying that, I am in complete agreement with a lot of the defenders of Skerry that the shots were not falling. We were 4-23 from three-point land tonight and at least 2/3rds of those were good solid looks that just did not fall. I don't know if you want to call that choking or bad luck, but Timberlake had at least 3 or 4 shots go halfway down and come out (which was very reminiscent of the Northeastern loss in the regular-season). I would start calling people chokers if they were taking awful shots and making dumb decisions. However, that did not start until the last 4 or 5 minutes when we really panicked because we could sense the loss was coming. I give Charles Thompson a ton of credit for fighting through the ankle injury, but he was missing just that extra amount of explosiveness to grab a big rebound (11 in two games) or block a shot (he had one). The lack of that extra lift also made it tough for him to get up high enough on that mini-baby hook that his been so solid this year. Also, I have been the number one person (or at least right there with everyone) driving the Terry Nolan Jr. train, but he was just awful tonight. We can't win against a good team when Nolan Jr. goes 0-6 with 2 points, 1 assist and 4 turnovers. His bad play with Thompson's injury came at the worst time, and I know both are probably crushed that they couldn't give their best when it was truly needed. There are two things I hope we can accomplish right now. One is get a meaningful experience out of the NIT and hopefully beat a good team and use it as a springboard to next season. That has always been the point of that tournament, and the regular-season champ auto-bid is one of my favorite college basketball rules. The other is find out who is coming back and continue to use the transfer portal effectively to fill in some needs. As has been mentioned, the additions of Monmouth and Stony Brook will make this conference more competitive in hoops, and we rally need to raise our level. Going into this year, I was bashing Skerry as well. I think he took a good, honest look in the mirror last year and became a better coach this year. We finally got some good shooters, it felt like we were able to press more effectively, and he made adjustments when things didn't go right more this year than previous ones. I think the next step is taking a look at his defensive principles and seeing if there are some wrinkles he can throw in to make it more difficult to scout from conference teams that see us three times in a year. I am sure he has already done this, but trying to look at some successful programs and possibly even working with sports psychologists to figure out if there is something missing from the mental preparation that is causing his higher seeded teams to come out so tight (seemingly from an untrained eye like mine) in these big games. This was the greatest D-1 regular-season in the history of our program. Rather than criticizing what went wrong with the coaching, we should be asking how do we take what was fun for everyone this year and build off it in the productive manner. We hit the checkboxes for a successful season in two big ways, 15-3 tying for first in the CAA and top 75 NET ranking for most of the year. How do we replicate those accomplishments and figure out a way to overcome our poor tournament performances. People can evolve and get better. Skerry did that in many ways this year, and now he has one more giant step to evolve and figure out why his teams come up short in the tournament. However, with what he accomplished we should have some confidence that he will turn over every rock to try to this offseason.

Seems like the minimum they should do.

This group deserves a tremendous amount of credit. I am not there game-to-game, but this seems like a really selfless group of players. When you get talented players who all buy into the same vision the sky is the limit. It is really impressive how quickly these guys got on the same page considering all of the COVID disruptions and the fact that a good chunk of this group is returning payers being thrown in with accomplished transfers. Sometimes that can get territorial, but Skerry and the players deserve credit for buying in right away. I suppose it is easier when you are trying to erase the bitter taste of last season. I do also think this year Skerry evolved as a coach. I do feel like he has recruited talent players and coached effort at a pretty good level throughout his time here. However, this year the offense has been free-flowing and not overly-reliant on any one player. He has also adjusted, changed tactics and taken the blame when things haven't gone right this year. What struck me in the postgame interview yesterday is how comfortable he seems in his shoes. It really feels like he took some of the past criticism to heart and adjusted this year. Time will tell if that is the case long-term, but this team and Skerry have been really easy to root for and they deserve to make it to tournament to get a chance to show everyone what they can do on a bigger stage.

Flying in from Minnesota for the tournament and meeting some other Towson friends from the area and New Jersey. Looking forward to it. Don't have tickets yet. Hopefully this is the year.