TSU88

The 2 biggest needs for next season, IMHO, were someone who can knockdown 3’s & a PG. I would like to think Fobbs will be able to address, to some degree, the 1st of those 2 needs. If he can shoot, he can shoot. At the risk of oversimplification, hitting an open 3 in JUCO is pretty much the same as hitting an open 3 at TU. I’ve been clamoring for some time for someone who can flat out shoot, in the mode of guys at W&M, for example.

I don’t expect him to come in & drop 25 a game. 8-10 ppg next season would be nice. We lose what, about 38 ppg or so from this past season’s squad. Got to make that up from different sources

So, this new kid has some interesting stats. In his senior year of HS he only averaged 10ppg (thus likely explaining why he went the JUCO route). In his 1st year of JUCO he averaged about 17ppg & shot less than 50%. This year, he exploded, averaging 26ppg. In his 29 games this past season, he shot 50% or better 24 times. 14 times he shot 50% or better from 3 & he shot 87% from the foul line. So, I did a little online research. JUCO is divided into D1, D2, & D3. This kid played at a D2 school. Apparently, 1 of the differences between D1 & D2 JUCO is the former can actually offer full scholarships while the latter can only offer tuition, fees & books (but no room & board). Does this mean D2 is a lesser caliber of competition than D1? Now we need a point guard.

I second that motion!!!

Interesting. His only other D1 offers appear to be Robert Morris & St. Peter’s. Love the shooting %’s; 57% overall & 44% from beyond the arc. Especially impressive since he’s a volume shooter. I wonder what the competition level is that he plays against? When I see a 6’4 player averaging over 12 boards a game it raises the question in my mind of who’s he playing against

Selections for the NIT are not based on merit. NIT is looking primarily for P5 schools for purposes of attendance and tv 📺 ratings. Also, NIT is locked into taking any regular season conference champion that didn’t win its conference tournament

Sort of like “the good, the bad & the ugly.”’ The track record overall is pretty good on transfers, though using your rating system out of a total of the 4 middling to bad gets, 2 were PG’s. I know that Skerry knows this, but we really need 1 of these remaining ships to be a good PG

It’s ok, I didn’t post anything terribly noteworthy, but then again when do I?😊

Mat, have you heard anything you can share on the recruiting front, and/or who some of our OOC opponents will be next season?

Skerry might have been that 2 years & gone guy, if we had been CAA tournament eligible in his 2nd year, but we’ll never know.

Whether or not he’s truly a rising star, image is everything, & I believe some schools are going to see Odom as a rising star. You’re right about his pedigree, he took a scrub school dancing in his 2nd year, & if you called central casting & asked them to send you a young up & coming college basketball coach, Odom would be the guy likely to show up. Isnt it somewhat ironic that UMBC’s short term success might prove to be to its long term detriment. The one thing they’ll have going for them in the new coach search is their new arena. But the new coach isn’t inheriting Lyles, like Odom did.

In retrospect, the Pitt L foreshadowed what was coming. Pitt went 0-18 I think in the ACC. That’s historically lousy, & we yakked against them. My predictions: Odom leaves UMBC & Grant (C of C) gets the Georgia job. I saw a rumor online that Patsos might come back to Loyola, but that seems a bit far fetched

My theory is based on my assumption Ingram’s minutes would have gone up as the season progressed, just as ZM’s did last year, & that Morman would have contributed 8-10 ppg & played D. In any event, this is all irrelevant at this point. What’s relevant is how these last 2 scholarships get filled

I couldn’t agree more. If Ingram didn’t quit on us, & if Morman doesn’t get himself kicked off, I firmly believe our chances of having won the tournament would have been very good. I also agree we’re close. Said it before & I’ll say it again, IF Skerry nails these last 2 open scholarships we’re going to be a force to contend with next season. We’ve already got some very nice pieces in place

Jarius Lyles put UMBC on his back. He literally scored almost 1/2 their points & hit the clutch game winner. If ZM wants to take the next step, this is the kind of thing he needs to do (he really needs to improve his foul shooting). In any event, this W likely ends the Ryan Odom era in Catonsville. He’s young, makes a good appearance & took a bottom feeder program to the dance in just 2 years. My guess is he’ll jump to a bigger school after the tournament is over. He really had a horseshoe up his butt-Lyles transferred to UMBC before Odom got the job. Now would be the optimum time for Odom to cash in, with Lyles not being back next year. He better strike while the iron is hot.

I wonder if some school, particularly one in the New England region, would take a run at Coen? His record at NE is quite impressive. Also, Matheny at Elon could be on the hot seat & presumably schools will come sniffing around Grant at C of C. Shaver is probably safe at W&M, after they exceeded expectations this year, but they do have a new AD & we all know their history of futility when it comes to never having gotten to the dance.

Lyles definitely fell in Odom’s lap. He transferred in under Odom’s predecessor. Would have loved to have had Lyles here. Now that Lyles is done after this season, it’ll be interesting to see how they do without him next year, though he does have a transfer next year from Providence, who was highly touted out of HS. My guess-If Odom gets UMBC in the tournament anytime soon, he’ll use them as a lily pad & jump to a higher program at the 1st opportunity. That would be a nice problem for us to have-Skerry being coveted because he took us dancing

Your reference to Prophete brings up an interesting question in my mind-what, if anything, does Skerry do with him? Assuming, as I am, Prophete is not going to be a contributor going forward (not a difficult conclusion to come to, IMHO, given what we saw of him this past season, albeit in a small sample size) does Skerry sit him down and have the “come to Jesus” talk with him, where he tells him that the only significant playing time he’ll get in the next 3 years is in practice (in hopes that he’ll see the writing on the wall & transfer, thus freeing his scholarship) or does Skerry do nothing, knowing that the young man will be an albatross the next 3 years?

I hear ya, & I am far from a Skerry apologist, but I have to wonder if a PG like Maura (UMBC) would be as productive in the CAA as he is in America East. He’s what, 5’8? He played 2X against us, & I don’t recall him being particularly productive. He was a JUCO like Starr. As for Hawkins, I was underwhelmed with him when he was here. Not a great shooting percentage, not many assists & I didn’t think he was anything special on D either. At Murray State, he’s a bench guy. He averaged 7ppg. If you factor out the 28 point game he had against an NAIA team, he actually averaged 6ppg.

I can’t wait to see how Skerry fills the 2 open scholarships. Also can’t wait for the schedule release later this year, as well as the tournament in the Bahamas 🇧🇸, which I will definitely be attending. As I’ve stated before, I’m cautiously optimistic about next season. I believe it’s entirely possible we’ll have the best front court in the CAA. Skerry just needs to infuse some talent into the backcourt

I think everyone agrees that playing D III teams is a losing proposition. It doesn’t count in RPI ratings, it provides no realistic measurement of how good our squad is, & no one comes to the games. Aside from that, they’re great!!!

Well, in the immortal words of many a forlorned fan, such as myself, “waitll next year!!!” Of course, I’ve been saying that since the early 90’s

NE also appears, as best I can tell, to have more commuter students than those who live on campus. Their basketball attendance is likewise awful.

You’re preaching to the choir about the seemingly unimaginative marketing. However, it is interesting to note that the commuter schools (us, Hofstra, Drexel) are all at or near the bottom in attendance

Hofstra outdrew us by 270 a game. Also, I made a mistake-in raw numbers, Elon outdrew us 1,592 to 1,564 a game. UNCW nearly tripled us in attendance, while C of C more than doubled us & W&M did double us. UD & JMU easily surpassed us, by 1,000 a game. We have a beautiful, nearly new arena & a competitive team, but still attendance is woeful