TSU88

I’m a Baltimore native & I feel safer in DC than I do in Baltimore. I’m going to take the glass half full attitude at this point in terms of the new tournament venue. As far as murder rates, I mentioned Baltimore’s only to refute the argument that this new venue is an a bad area; Royal Farms Arena isn’t the safest place to walk around at night, so it seems a tad disingenuous to me to complain about the location of this new venue

Kendall Hinton, Wake Forest starting QB, has been suspended for the 1st 3 games of this coming season. The suspension will include the WFU-Towson game on 9/8/18. I’m not sure what, if any, difference this will make in the final outcome of the game, but we need all the help we can get.

Tournament attendance & lack of tv contract are 2 separate & distinct issues, which I’m afraid you’re conflating. I wholly agree that we need a tv contract. Um, yes, I watch basketball, by virtue of my season tickets to TU, which I’ve had for some time. No need to be condescending. I truly don’t care that this building has no sideline seats, as I don’t sit on the sideline in any event. Finals have averaged over 5K? I’ll research what the attendance was at the finals games at Royal Farms, but, assuming arguendo you’re right, I fail to see the big difference. Fewer people in attendance (though not thousands fewer) in return for less empty seats. Fair trade off to me. The only point I’m willing to perhaps concede is that this arena isn’t in the best neighborhood. Of course, last time I checked, Royal Farms Arena is in Baltimore City, which had what, 340 or so murders last year (far more, I believe than DC had). Call me myopic, but I would like to think DC will have plenty of police presence, to ensure the safety of guests. Well, feel free to excoriate me, but I’m going to go to the tournament (at least TU games) & keep an open mind.

If we win the tournament, I don’t care if we play in an elementary school gym. If we lose, I don’t care if we play in the Verizon Center. No sideline seats? Lets not be prima donnas. We’re the CAA, not the A-10. “Only” 4500 seats? How many people attended the tournament at the 12,000 seat Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore?No bars or restaurants nearby? “Paging Mr Uber. Please report to the white courtesy phone in the lobby.” What’s wrong with 4K people in attendance in an arena that seats 4,500? That makes for a more charged atmosphere if you ask me. What is the positive of having 4K people in an 8-12K seat arena? Some folks are hard to please. Like if you saw a guy walking on water, you’d say, “see, I told you he couldn’t swim!!!”

I wonder if we could play a regular season game there this season or next, just to give the team a feel for the place, before the tournament in spring 2020. Maybe play someone like Richmond, American....

I like it. As previously mentioned, it’s pretty centrally located for many teams in the conference (TU, W&M, JMU, UD, Drexel). Let’s face it, it wouldn’t be fair to constantly have it in Charleston, no matter how hospitable folks are in the low country, & it doesn’t make sense, IMHO, to hold it anyplace north of Philly (Hofstra & NE are just going to have to be the geographic outliers). Furthermore, no one should be heard to gripe it’s a home tournament for TU; after all, having it at the Civic Center for 3 years (sorry, it’ll always be the CC to me) didn’t help us win the tournament even once. DC is a great town (tons to do for out-of-town visitors to the tournament) & a 4K seat arena seems perfect for a tournament that averaged 5,400 for a 4-day tournament played in Charleston (keeping in mind that the 5,400 average was likely inflated by the fact C of C made it to the championship game. This reduces the ratio of fans to empty seats-I’d rather see 4K in a 4K seat arena, then 4-5K in a 7K seat arena.

Yikes. That’s mean...but perhaps true

I wouldn’t think our home opener would be on a Sunday. Also wondering if this game might somehow be tied in to the tournament we’re going to play in the Bahamas 🇧🇸? That tournament starts on Friday 11/16, just a few days after the game vs Wesley

I’ve been clamoring for us to dip our toes in the European pool of players for some time. Seems to have a good skill set & a high character kid.

Good to see this post, about a kid who wants to be here. Time to look forward, not back.

Looks like Loyola Chicago has ditched the Bahamas 🇧🇸 tournament. Guess they’re “too good” for it now. That’s ashame. I was hoping we’d play them, just so we could get a feel for how we stacked up against a team that went to the Final 4 last season

Vermont is a good home game. Interested in hearing more about Atlantic City tournament. One D3 is tolerable. If you look at the home schedules last year of other CAA teams, I believe you’ll find many other schools played a D3 home game

This is not unique to us. By way of example, U Wisconsin-Milwaukee (or maybe it’s just U Milwaukee) lost their top 3 scorers from last season by way of transfers. Yes, these guys were talented, but I for one am not going to pine for them. It’s like being jilted by a woman-there’s always lots of other fish 🐠 in the ocean.

I would hope they’d collectively look at it as a chance at more PT, along with a chance to fill the scoring void that’s been left

Yep, it’s a no win at this level (sometimes. Not all kids do what ZM & JG are doing). In any event, kudos to Skerry for spotting a diamond in the rough in ZM, who I don’t believe was heavily recruited out of HS. As far as I’m concerned, ZM & JG are in the rear view mirror. Wish em the best & time to move on. I like the pieces we have going forward. I’m not sure we would have gotten Timberlake if ZM we’re still here. We lost with ZM & JG, so if we have to take some lumps this coming season, so be it.

Now that’s building a pretty damn good player, Dr Frankenstein 😊

Good point

He’s a winner & was a leader on his team. Looks athletic, shows outside shooting and ball handling skills. I think he could come in & see decent minutes as a freshman. Another in the recent line of Philly Catholic league players-JD, ZM & now Betrand

A few thoughts-this upcoming season is an outlier of sorts, in that in past seasons Skerry hasn’t had to force feed freshman. Simple mathematics suggest this coming season might be different. Besides, it’s not like freshman are genetically incapable of scoring. The last few years in the CAA look at Pemberton, Ryan Daly, Ryan Allen, Kirk Lee, Jr.... So, I’m not ruling out that one of our freshman could average 10-12 ppg. As another poster on a different thread pointed out, Skerry, by virtue of the vast turnover in players, basically gets a pass for whatever the record is this coming season. Realistically, I think a winning record is the ceiling; anything over & above is icing on the cake 🍰

Hard not to be excited about this kids potential. Size, athleticism, shooting ability & high character. As much as last year’s incoming freshman class was a swing & a miss (Prophete gone, Ingram gone & Drayton redshirted) this year’s class, highlighted by Solomon & Timberlake, has the potential to be something special. Would have preferred Gorham to have stayed, but that ship has sailed. Nonetheless, Solomon, Sanders, Tunstall & Selcuk could be a pretty good front court rotation-add in Juwan Gray in fall 2019.

After watching his highlights I would say it looks like he runs the floor well, good ball fakes, not a bad passer & a good finisher around the basket. A little more athletic than what I 1st believed. I liked the one clip where he dribbled behind his back to avoid a defender. Most of the clips are of him scoring close to the basket, but there were a few jump shots mixed in. Skerry could be on to something here

My concern is the quality of the opposition he was playing against at a division II JUCO. But you have to love the improvement in the shooting percentages, especially from 3 & the foul line

From what you saw of him last fall, before he was redshirted, what do you believe were Drayton’s deficiencies & strengths? As I see it, we need a couple guys who can knock down 3’s. Could he & Fobbs (and maybe Howard & Timberlake) be those guys?

Tunstall is a role player, but he can be very productive as such. Didn’t he have a huge block against Morgan that sent the game into OT? I’m also thinking of another game maybe where he had a key block. Point is, a role player like him can potentially steal you a win here & there. McNeill-with Betrand, Fobbs, Drayton & Timberlake I’m hoping he’s capped at about 10 minutes per game

Agree about the returning trio-the only one I hope gets 15 minutes or so is Tunstall. He’s an asset on the press & he can block shots & grab some boards. I would be happy if he averaged 5-6 ppg. He’s limited offensively, but does get the occasional tip in or dunk. Would like to see him put on weight, but I’ve been saying that about him since he arrived. If Thomas and/or McNeill are playing more than 10 minutes a game, that probably means we’re in deep doo Speaking of bigs, I saw where JJ Matthews committed to Arkansas State, where he’ll have 3 years of eligibility. Somewhat ironic in that I believe Ark State is the school Ingram de-committed from before coming here (for 2 months)