Tiger93

Yeah, not too exciting of a home slate. I do think there are some pretty good road/neutral games. Getting what could be a solid A-10 team in UMass isn't bad, and I think Nicholls State is a fairly respectable program. However, I do agree that none of those are overly exciting. I don't think it is from lack of trying. There just aren't many options out there, and I do think the fact that we have been pretty good the last two years probably makes it even tougher to get those teams to come to Towson. Still, at some point we have to get a some sort of high major team to come to SECU even if we just take a bath on a 2-for-1 (or even a 3-for-1) type deal. I don't advocate doing this regularly, but would be nice to have some sort of big matchup to getting casual fans excited about.

Looks like most of the non-conference schedule is complete.

Excellent to have another Towson game find its way to my part of the country. Not exactly around the corner from me, but I should be able to find a way to get there. Pretty similar in magnitude to the Baylor-Gonzaga game that was played there around the same time in 2022.

Decent matchup of teams that have deprived their respective fanbases of appearances in the NCAA Tournament this century. They have averaged 18.5 wins the last five years and are 73-31 in the Southland in the timeframe.

Agreed. I think we all knew that, but I was always hoping somehow we would magically end up the mix. Still, I think all of us on here knew that wasn't really a possibility.

It is still weird that Tubby is on there, but I think Dee Barnes is his nephew. Still not sure that fully explains the graphic.

Ian Martinez off the board. Another player we were holding out hope for, but knew we had no shot at getting and probably weren't wasting our time going after.

Barnes fell off our list a long time ago and was probably never seriously on it.

There might have been a time early on where we thought we had a shot at Kam Woods, but it became pretty apparent a while ago that he was going to a high mid-major or big conference program. As was posted on her about a week ago, there are a lot of CAA Players going to big time programs this offseason. Obviously we know that College of Charleston did fine with incoming transfers, but it will be interesting to see how that all shakes out for the rest of the conference. I am waiting for us to fill our last scholarship before digging around to see what everyone else did this offseason.

Interesting database of all of the transfers who have left each D-1 school since 2017. This list actually looks good for Towson because not many have transferred out, and when they have they have gone to pretty good places. I would rather see the opposite version of this list and see who has transferred in to each school. https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/andrew.parrish/viz/NCAATransferTracker/TransferTracker

The guy hit a threes in 21 of their 24 games last year and scored in double figures in 20 of 24 games. He is definitely someone we can use offensively. I have felt all along that him, Tarke, at one point Watson and a few others were our most realistic options. He played a lot of non-competitive garbage time last year, but as much as I hate highlight reels when you watch it the two things that stick out are he has range and can hit some tough shots. Both of these seem like helpful attributes to our offense. He would be a solid get for Towson.

I hate highlight reels because anyone can look good, but looks like Maletic can hit a lot of the shots Nick hit for us last year, and that he has pretty good range. He is a couple of inches taller than Nick, but doesn't seem nearly as athletic. There is also no evidence of defense in this highlights. Also, with all the hand-wringing of getting D-2 guys, Maletic played on what is probably the equivalent of a mediocre D-2 team. Still, as evidenced in these clips LIU did play some good teams. How seriously those teams guarded Maletic is debatable, but he hit some pretty deep shots in these clips. I still feel like Maletic would be a good get for us offensively. I just don't know how good we could be defensively if him and Conway were on the court at the same time (event though they are both good shooters). The last mention him associated with Towson or anyone else that I can find is May 5. As you can tell, I am trying to talk this into existence because I feel like he might be the best option remaining.

Seems like the last scholarship has a good chance to be a D2/JUCO player. Still feels like a lot of options, but more unknowns when it comes to those players. I still wish we would make a place for Maletic, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards. Any specific player thoughts on where we go from here?

Back to the list, which I know has had a few more D-2 guys added to it in the last week or so. I haven't made those updates at this point. I may go back and do that later with the full list I have stored on my computer. Sucks that we could not land Watson. Blakney stands out as the mostly likely on this list. I will still continue to ask what is going on with Marko Maletic, who may not be our type of player but could help open up the offensive a little by filling it up behind the arc. There was some tough competition on the list, but I have heard nothing about him since the initial May 5 tweet saying he had heard from Towson (which I know means pretty little in this process). Austin Williams (FIU/Hartford), 6-4, 200 Kam Woods (NC A&T), 6-2, 185 (point guard who shoots a lot, not likely interested) Jovan Stulic (Arkansas Little Rock) – 6-6, 215 – played four games in 2022-23. 7.8 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 51.4% (76-148) FG, 43.8% (42-96) 3pt FG in 2021-22 Marko Maletic (Long Island) – 6-6, 208 – 15.9 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 43.2% (136-315) FG, 38.8% (69-138) 3pt FG 23-48 (Asst-TO) R.J. Blakney (Dayton) 6-6, 195 – 6.1 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 44.0% (62-141), 24.2% (16-66) 3pt FG, 36-35 (Asst-TO)

No big shock. What is our next move? There are some options left, but they are dwindling.

For some reason a lot of the non-conference road games fell just right for me to go to last year. I feel like the UMass game and Penn game might have been the high water marks when everyone was healthy and the team looked like it could seamlessly build off the previous year. I was at the Penn game, and for about 25 minutes we looked really good. The Gibson injury toward the end of that game was obviously somewhat of a turning point in the season. I was also at the Northern Iowa and Bryant games, and man were those ugly. Those both felt like three losses rolled into one, and I was about as negative as I can be in-season about a team I knew had talent after those games. Of course, that is why it is good that they don't listen to us. I like getting in as part of doubleheaders. I know no one ever cares to watch our games in those neutral sites, and thank goodness for the decent amount of Northern Iowa fans or we might have been playing in front of security and about 15-20 other people in that game. However, it is fun to be rolled into those events and often results in solid competition. Bryant is a good regular opponent as a solid America East team that should always be sniffing around the title below Vermont (although they were pretty disappointing last year), and Skerry seems to be well-connected with them from his Rhode Island ties. I do hope they actually come to Towson at some point. Obviously, there are better teams to schedule but they are a solid foundational program to be part of a regular rotation for us to play in non-conference play.

That seems random. Is that part of a bigger day of multiple basketball games like our trip to Chicago was last year? Also, do we get a return game with Bryant at Towson from last year? I was at that game last year and it felt like one of the low points of the season. Bryant was a solid team, but that game, Northern Iowa and probably the second half of the Navy game were the most disjointed performances of the year and made me think the wheels were going to come off. Credit to the players and Skerry that they regrouped and have a relatively successful season.

Yeah, I was concerned about the last part too. About all that we have going for us is that he has played against us twice in conference games where we looked pretty solid and demonstrated why we were a top 3 team in the league. He has familiarity with our team and probably saw what looked like a pretty solid program. Admittedly, I don't think that can do much for us compared to getting more NIL money, playing for a Big East team or being closer to home. Probably not a whole lot, but I am a glass half-full type of guy so I will hold out hope since Temple took away the other two players I was somewhat excited about getting. I was getting annoyed that we lost out on some of our possible targets to Delaware, Stony Brook and Bryant, but I do have to say since that time the guys I thought we might have a shot at in O'Boyle (went to Penn State), Settle (Temple), Riley (Temple) and now Watson have gone to some pretty good programs. That really won't matter if we can't get a solid to good player with this last transfer scholarship.

I actually don't mind the roller coaster of guys that I think might come here and those that don't. What really drives me nuts is that there are certain players that there is just no visit information or updates around ever. I realize there is small handful of people that care about mid-to-low major college basketball transfers, but guys like Tarke and Maletic seem like they could be solid players for us. They are listed as possible visits, then you don't hear anything for months. Then all of a sudden Tarke is going to Nicholls State and Maletic is still MIA. Watson has no updates for about month, then we are listed with him High Point and Richmond. Then all of a sudden Seton Hall comes out of nowhere. By the way, High Point has reeled a pretty solid transfer class of five guys this year so I am not sure I would completely count them out either (although Seton Hall seems like a slam dunk). The moral of the story as usual, don't get to invested in 18-22 year old kids moves and actions, because they don't even know what they are going to do when they wake up tomorrow. I certainly didn't. Still, I love this program too much not to get invested in the ways we have discussed.

It is amazing that just when you think you have tracked all of the options new ones pop up and old ones are still out there from many months ago that seem like they should be gone. TSU88, I think I remember you mentioning Voyles like two months ago. There is a tweet from schools that were after him from April 14th, and I don't think we have heard much since that point. I know we are stuck with the absurdity of the process, but they need to do something to make this timeline a little more concise if legally possible. I wish they would have two months to declare, a month after that to list their top 5-10 choices and then a hard date that everyone had to make a decision by (I know that this exists to some extent). The one upside of all of this transfer craziness is that it makes the college basketball offseason more fun for fans to track. Why not at least attach some dates to it that would make it easier to follow for the diehards out here and not make everyone have to be Twitter and Instagram detectives. This is probably the old man in me talking, but it feels like there is a way to still do right by the programs and student athletes, while making this process more fan-friendly in general. Then again, maybe I am the only one who cares enough to regularly try to track all of this crap.

I listened to this the other day as well. Not sure how much he will or won't be ready to do the job at a high level coming directly form being a student manager, but good for him to get the opportunity. It will be interesting to follow since Northern Arizona will all of a sudden be Chris Russo's favorite team. He was locked in on UConn the last year-plus. Of course, I think people mostly in our age range listen to him and I can't imagine it doing much for anyone under the age of 25. Even when he is on TV I think it only has a limited effect.

I still find it surprising that there is little to no information on Marko Maletic and his visits. Back on May 5 it was reported that he had heard from us, San Jose State, George Washington, IUPUI and San Diego. It seems like we are all-in on the Watson pursuit, which is fine by me. However, with Seton Hall entering the mix there are still a couple of decent back-up plans out there and Maletic is one. He is not really a Skerry-type player, but with all of these grinders and athletes, it would be nice to have a proven (also bigger at 6'6) three-point shooter/scorer (outside of Conway and May) to open up the offense. San Diego, San Jose State and GW feel like they could be hard to beat out, but I agree with those that think since Seton Hall entered the mix for Watson that it makes it incredibly difficult to see him select Towson.

Looks like Henry, Blakney and who knows else might be (might have been) backup plans to Watson. Henry got taken off the board by Louisiana Tech before he could visit Towson today. Weird to see Richmond fall off Watson's list. Sounds like some of the Seton Hall fans were complaining about where they are in NIL, but I am guessing that is relative to be in a top conference where the money is really flying around. Hard to see us beat out Seton Hall for Watson. Only thing I can think of is Watson viewing it from being more a focal point of the offense and seeing quality efforts from Towson playing against them and envisioning himself with the team (clearly this is somewhat of a reach). Guys like Maletic, Williams (although it seemed like he was getting higher interest) and Stulic still on the board, but hard to find any information on who is going after them or where they are considering.