Tiger93

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.

Yeah, I figured a guy like Martinez is out of our league in terms of what he is looking for. I saw today that Dingle is going to St. John's. The list you posted earlier is great and I have been tracking on my own (I keep waiting for Jeff Goodman to update his list as well because it is good database for what our league looks like with who is in and out). I know the list we have been posting on here is not really accurate any more as guys come and go, but it is helpful for me to track who is in even left even if we are not going after them. I am going to post later today or tomorrow just as a reset from my standpoint. I was looking at our news releases from last year and we announced Nygal a year ago today and Conway the week before. I know the official announcements are usually a week or so after it actually happens. I am sure we are all (as is the coaching staff) getting impatient. I do think the later the process goes the more likely it is that we are getting role guys who can contribute in small ways. I really thought Riley could have been a difference makes, as it seems like Settle could have been as well. I wonder if now that the deadline for declaring and not having to get a waiver is over if some of the players who have been sitting out there for months will start to make their moves.

Still some good players out there, but feels like the top names on our initial wish list are starting to dwindle. Are Watson and Blakney the primary targets at this point, or are there others out there we are refocusing on as we move forward? We know we are probably getting two more players, and it remains the case that I am interested to see who sits on our chair after the transfer portal music stops.

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.

I forgot we played Tennessee that year as well. That was a weird and disappointing year with great highlights. I remember we had Scooter Alexander redshirted and we loaded up for the next year when started in the NAC (America East). We went 12-15 and 6-10, but the season featured the Louisville win and two of the only buzzer beaters I can recall as a Towson fan at West Virginia (I remember listening to the radio to that game) and against Delaware at home. I believe Blalock hit both, the West Virginia I seem to recall was a little inside halfcourt. I know I am probably missing some here and there, but I don't remember very many other buzzer-beaters in my time rooting for Towson (1993-currrent season).

Yeah, they were quite inconsistent as evidenced by beating No. 5 Kentucky on January 1 and less than a month later losing to Towson by 12. They only played 12 games in the Metro Conference so their schedule that year is pretty interesting. https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/louisville/men/1995-schedule.html. Am I remembering correctly that the game got added to our schedule shortly after the season had begun? I remember it not being part of original schedule information and flyers being put it in November and December to let people know.

You are lucky to have stormed in 1991. I arrived freshman year in 1993 and have never experienced what it is like for this program to play in a conference tournament final game. Someday.

It is also a great chance to see some bad mid-90s fashion.

Agree with most of this, but 10 new names seem to pop into the portal every day. Hopefully we can get at least one name by tomorrow (although I believe the graduate player route is still available after tomorrow). I think we are behind and have some catching up to do. I am just waiting to see what we get at the end of this process to judge how much of a blow being behind will be to us. NIL or not Charleston under Kelsey was always going to take this league by storm. It is why not winning the conference tournament in 2022 was such a big blow. Moving forward, no matter how good anyone in this conference is all roads go through Charleston. I do understand a lot of what I type here feels like blind faith with the way the landscape is unfolding. I just want to make sure the whole process plays out (whatever that means) before I judge good or bad.

Yeah, he always seemed a little out of our range.

Who is our next choice after Settle III?

That makes sense. I only picked those three because along with stats and accomplishments of players we had been loosely associated with they seemed like they could bring attributes that could help improve our roster. However, I know it is not quite that simple. Plus, every transfer has a ripple effect either positive or negative on guy on the existing roster. Tarke would be a little redundant, but the other two feel like they would bring some attributes we need. However, like I said at some point you zero on the guys you target for reasons both intangible and tangible, and you can't do that with everybody.

I guess you can only heavily pursue so many players, and my guess is they either were deemed as not fitting or not likely to come. I thought all three of those guys seemed like they could come in and contribute at a solid level. However, as usual I have no sense who else we would be competing with or even if they are out of our range.

I still feel like a lot of low-majors are in our spot of just getting NIL off the ground. I mean all of this stuff really seemed to get rolling right around and after COVID. I do think the ones who did it quickly and well already had things in place had really strong fundraising in place or they might not have been on the up and up before the new NIL rules. No doubt we are way behind the Charleston's of the world and there are probably others who shouldn't be further along than us, but I am confidence we will catch up (not to Charleston, but some of the others). To me this seems like the first year where teams without or with basic NIL collectives are getting left in the dust. There are still enough teams that are just getting started that I feel like there are options. That probably won't be the case if we don't come strong in the future. As you all have mentioned, there are some obvious obstacles to that. I do think we get one more quality transfer out of this (which is one less than I hoped). As you pointed out, Jones seems to be a pretty good get too. We will find out soon enough.

That makes sense. I didn't think we were going to beat out Temple for Riley. However, I was holding out hope they might have someone else they would take instead. This sucks, because he would have been a perfect breakout candidate for us. Fringe top 100 recruit, who was totally misused in two years by Patrick Ewing. I think he could have been a home run for us. TSU88, you may be right but there are still 4-5 more kids we can get before having to go the D-2 or juco route. As Matt has said Settle would be a solid get for us still. Seems like GW is the main competition now that Temple has grabbed Riley, but who knows. I didn't realize Blakney was still out there. I remember when Thompson decided he was coming back someone had said he was pretty solid bet to end up here. I hadn't hear Watson's name much in the mix. Are Rivera, Tarke and Maletic still out there or has someone grabbed them too? They all seemed like solid options as well.

This is probably somewhat inaccurate and I am guessing some of these guys may already be committed somewhere else, but here is the list of guys we talked about earlier with stats and with the all-conference honors (D-1 and D-2) I could find. All-Conference Teams Ray Quawndis Mitchell (UMKC) 6-5, 200 – 2nd-Team All-Summit League, 17.3 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 34.5% (161-467), 79-259 30.5% (79-259) 3pt FG Joshua Rivera (Lafayette) 6-7, 200 – Patriot League All-Rookie Team, 10.6 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 45.3% (134-296) FG, 20-61 3pt FG, 51-64 Asst-TO Nendah Tarke (Coppin) 6-4, 205 – Second-Team All-MEAC & All-Defensive Team - 12.5 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 66-85 Asst-to-TO, 42.6% (141-331) FG, 32.7% (37-113) 3pt FG Kam Woods (NC A&T) 6-2, 185 – Second-Team All CAA – 17.3 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 3.3 apg, 1.6 spg, 101-76 asst-TO, 38.5% (177-460) FG, 83-246 3pt FG/33.7% Steve Settle III (Howard), 6-10, 180 – 2nd Team All-MEAC, 11.1 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 1.2 spg, 35-66 (Asst-TO), 42.2% (116-275) FG, 30.3 (33-109) 3pt FG% D-2 All-Conference John Korte (Wheeling D2) 6-6, 215 – 19.6 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 50.7% (171-337) FG, 28.9% (22-76) 3pt FG (Team was 6-23), First-Team All MEC Khalid Gates (Slippery Rock) 6-7, 215 – 13.9 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 49.5% (159-321) FG, 10-53 3pt FG, 2nd-Team All PSAC (Team Record 17-12) Zayon Marsh (D2 Goldey Beacom) 6-6, 195 – 18.7 ppg, 10.1 rpg, 45.8% (190-415) FG, 10-30 3pt FG, 1.3 spg, 1.3 blpg, Asst-TO – 49-75, Second-Team All CACC (Team Record 10-18) Austin Fadal (Sonoma State) 6-4, 180 – 12.0 ppg, 3.8 rpg, (38-46 Asst-TO), 44.6% (103-231), 13-46 3pt FG, Honorable-Mention All CCAA (Played three season at Eastern Washington 2018-2022)) No All-Conference from what I can tell Kevon Voyles (UMES) 6-3, 180 - 12.9 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 2.0 spg, 15-25 Asst-TO, 49.2% (98-199) FG, 32.6% (28-86) 3pt FG (shot 40.5% previous year) 1.4 3pt per game De'Sean Allen-Eikens (CSNU) 6-6, 215 – 11.1 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 40-55 Asst-TO, 45.4% FG, 31.5% (23-73) 3pt FG Kuany Kuany (Cal) 6-9, 200 – 9.0 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 35.9% (83-231) FG, 29.8% (28-94) 3pt FG Josh LeBlanc (many schools) 6-7, 230 – DNP for Nicholls State, 4.6 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 1.0 blpg, 62.6% Career FG (38-64 (59.4%) for UAB in 2021-22) - ranked No. 117 in nation in 2019 recruiting class Owen McGashen (D2 Saint Anselm) 6-7, 205 – 12.5 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 46.3% (132-285), 40.6% (56-138) 3pt FG, 66-62 Asst-TO (Team was 22-8, Regional Final) Kaine McColley (D2 Nova SE) 6-5, 212 – DNP 2022-23 (36-0 national title) Anthony Morales (Boston U.) 6-8, 195 – 5.1 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 35.2% (45-128) FG, 19-71 3pt FG Bo Montgomery (Holy Cross) 6-5, 193 – 11.3 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 42.7% (140-328), 34.3% (36-105) 3pt FG, 81-66 Asst-TO Daniel Nixon (GW) 6-7, 225 – only played on game for GW in 2022-23 Pavo Pavlidis (Hartford) 6-8, 220 – 8.0 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 56.9% (95-167), 8-33 3pt FG, 1.3 blpg Jasmine Sangha (Texas A&M CC) 6-8, 225 – 2.6 ppg, 1.7 rpg in 14 games Richie Springs (UConn) 6-9,235 – 0.8 ppg, 0.6 rpg in 19 games (ranked 159th recruiting in nation in 2020 class) Brandon Suggs (UCF) 6-6, 185 – 6.6 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 46.8% (66-141) FG, 14-34 3pt FG/41.2% LaTrell Tate (West Florida) 6-0, 165 – 16.5 ppg, 3.5 rpg 44.8% (152-332) FG, 56-127 44.1% (56-127) 3pt FG, 90-52 Asst-TO, Tedrick Wildcox Jr. (St. Francis-NY) 6-6, 185 – 11.3 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 2.1 apg (60-64 asst-TO), 39.9% FG, 55-155 3pt FG/35.5% Jordan Wood (Howard ) 6-9, 200 – 8.6 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 37.2%, 64-173 3pt FG/37% Jordan Riley (Georgetown) – 6-4, 200 – 25 games, 9 starts, 4.6 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 38.7% (41-106), 6-31 3pt FG, three-star (ranked 133 nationally coming out of high school) Kyle Cuffe Jr. (Kansas) – 6-2, 185 – Played two games, four-star (ranked 117 nationally out of high school) Amillion Buggs (Central Missouri State) – 6-4, 180 – Played 10 games for Central Missouri State and averaged 2.3 ppg and 0.8 rpg. Off the Board Justin Amadi (James Madison) 6-7, 225 – returned to James Madison Myles Foster (Monmouth) 6-7, 240 – Illinois State Josh Uduje (Coastal Carolina) 6-5, 175 – Utah State

Yes, we will. I think we may end up with one juco or D2 guy, but I am pretty convinced we will get at least one more solid player (I still feel like we can get two). I have been a little disappointed in some of the guys we have lost out on from the outside looking in but hearsay is really all we have when it comes to knowing who they truly swung and missed on, and who they halfheartedly pursued and lost. I look forward to actually being able to realistically assess what our season could look like in the next 2-3 weeks. This is also feels like the year where no matter how good the guys we get in the portal are Skerry may have to lean into being more patient with freshmen. It sounds like a pretty talented class, and one of the market inefficiencies at our level seems to be actually getting high quality production from freshmen (since everyone is leaning into the portal so hard). I don't know enough about them to know if that is warranted, but it feels like a class that has gotten some solid hype from different places.

Who knows at this point. I just go by the updates I see on Twitter. I have just seen GW pop up for the Howard kid and the LIU player, and Temple also popped up for him, Riley, and I thought I read one other. What that all means? Your guess is as good as mine. I don't mind following this stuff, but it all feels chaotic and random at times.

Interesting how much crossover we are seeing with schools like George Washington and Temple of who we are going after this late in the game.

I suspect there are a fair amount of mid-major schools in our spot (not that it makes it alright). It is not exactly like the NCAA did a good job of laying out what was coming to help programs prepare for it. The whole situation has been a free-for-all, and the most prepared schools are a lot of the ones who were already bending the rules in the previous system. The tough part is there are schools at higher levels that are building stuff up like us, and low-to-mid major schools that already had systems in place to naturally transition to this craziness. I believe the music for non-grad transfers is ending in less than a week, and it will be interesting to see where everyone scatters and who has chairs left to sit in for the upcoming season. I am sure there are players who thought they would cash in who aren't going to do so, and are just looking for good situations. What that looks like feels like a guessing game. The part that amazes me is every time I think it is slowing down 5-10 new guys transfer as a result of roster moves there program made, and things head up again. There are 4-5 guys Matt has posted in the past week that I would be as excited to get as any of the guys we were looking at when we started this nonsense. That is why I won't judge until this process is done. Messiah Jones seems like a solid to good get, but he is somewhat redundant and we need two more solid players with some different skillsets, so at this point our grade would probably be a C-. I do have faith we will have at least one more very solid pickup.

Somewhat stiff competition for Maletic, but seems like the three-point shooter we need. Shot over 7 threes a game last year at a .388 clip and averaged nearly 15.9 ppg. Don't see this one happening, but would be a solid addition. This whole process of trying to find transfers in the crazy world of NIL and new age transfer rules feels like going grocery shopping when there is a weather forecast for 1-2 feet of snow.

Another one off the board, although it always felt like Foster was being mentioned with schools a little above our space.

He feels like he is on the outer reaches of possibilities for us. I would assume if him and Temple really like the fit we are out, but at this stage he feels like someone that has an outside chance to falling into our laps. We can figure out some of the shortcomings and lack of shooting later, but I think he would be a quality get for Towson.

For some reason I thought Riley had already committed. I might be biased, but I think this would actually be a really good get for our program. He was part of a really good freshmen class that just got misused by Patrick Ewing, and the recruited over the next year in an effort for him to save his job. Riley is very athletic and was a three-star player coming out of high school. His three-point shooting numbers were abysmal, but I honestly think he could be a solid shooter who just lost his confidence with how he was being used.

When I was looking at the list last night that one never seemed very realistic for us. Cross another one off the list. Who do we see as our most realistic targets right now? Seems hard to tell with eight days left and a lot of major and high-major rosters still unsettled. I am sure the information was out there, but O'Boyle going to a Big Ten program (I know Penn State isn't the first one you think of in that conference) surprised me. I feel like they must have had some swings and misses to get to O'Boyle. I am always trying to figure out how others people's swings and misses affect our list, and where our next steps take us. I feel like on May 9th, a lot of people are going to be knocking on the D-2 and juco doors to fill out their rosters once the music stops on the D-1 list.