TSU88

Your post piqued my curiosity. Dontea Ayres wound up at Stevenson College, where he rushed for 322 yards in 2016. Greg White wound up at some point at Snow College in Utah. No idea what happened to James Hall.

I like that there’s this back & forth on the board. Truth be told, Skerry isn’t going anywhere, unless he jumps ship. Likely no one is going to try & poach him unless he takes us dancing

I tend to agree, and here’s why-we all know the CAA is a 1-bid league, so even if you have a bad OOC record, it doesn’t matter. To a lesser degree, even the regular season conference record is not the be all & end all, because it all boils down to 3 (or 4) games in the conference tournament. Of course the flaw with minimizing the importance of regular season conference play is that if you stink in regular season conference play, it’s unlikely you’re suddenly going to run the table in the conference tournament, but that logic does not hold true, in my opinion, when it comes to your OOC record

The party line is (and I believe it’s true) is that no P5 school is coming here, & that mid-majors in the region want too much money. I was told that when we played Sacred Heart (freaking Sacred Heart) a few years ago at SECU, we had to pay them 75K!! If that’s what the Sacred Heart’s of the world are getting, imagine what the asking price of a legit mid-major is!! There appears to be an unwillingness on our part to do “2 for 1” deals, where we play the opponent 2X at their place, in return for them playing 1X at SECU. I say if the opponent is a good draw, do a 2-for-1. Like I’ve said before, I hope we don’t play anymore D III’s. Look at our home schedule this year-did we play a non-conference home game against a team from outside Baltimore? I concede we probably had fewer non/conference home games this year (due to the 2 neutral site tournaments) but still, when Morgan & UMBC are your flagship OOC home games, that ain’t good

You’re preaching to the choir, TU2012

Kudo’s to Skerry (as I’ve said many times before) for graduating kids & turning around a woeful program to the point where we are winning 20 games in a season. But call me greedy...I won’t be fully satisfied until we go dancing, & I bet Skerry would say the same thing. This, “I remember when we were crappy, so I’m satisfied that we’re above average” mindset is lost on me. Accept being average to above average & that’s what you’ll get. I’d rather demand being the best. Doesn’t mean we’ll get it every year, but i want it in my lifetime. It’s been over a quarter century. Enough is enough. Clearly, most of that wasn’t on Skerry’s watch, but it’s high time he recruit a good point guard, & let’s win more than 1 damn game in the conference tournament

Galling

Good analysis, TU2012. Poor Starr, I'm assuming his confidence level in terms of shooting is around 0. ZM needs to reduce the TO's & the technical fouls, but 24 ppg is quite impressive (even though we've lost 3 of the last 5 games I believe) Even though his assists are virtually nil, and he's not getting to the line much, I'll gladly take 20 ppg & 5 boards from Mike Keep in mind, EK shot 9-11 from the field vs Drexel. So, in the other 4 games covered by your analysis, he's shooting 8-26 from the field, which is pretty horrid. His FT shooting is also horrid, but the boards are good. Justin averaging almost a double double, and I think he'll be better next year, with inside help from Sanders, and maybe Solomon U, the Florida recruit. McNeill is...well, um, hold on a sec, wait a minute, see, its like this, its kinda complicated, hmmm.... Well, it is what it is.

I was screaming yesterday, “somebody’s got to be open” when I think it was Morsell forced a shot when he was double teamed. In fairness, I don’t think Morsell was the only one guilty of that yesterday. I agree with you about Gorham being too methodical/hesitant at times. I remember yelling “just go up” (I guess I yelled a lot yesterday) when he had the ball down low & tried pump faking, with no success. So, to summarize: Starr has been completely ineffectual lately, Gorham is struggling, EK throws up fadeaways that miss, or does his bull in a china shop drives, Thomas is a non-factor on offense & Morman is gone. So, it’s no wonder Mike & Zane sometimes force shots. Who else is there? I bet if you got Skerry off-the-record he’d tell you this is his least favorite team he’s had here, & that he’s looking forward to the end of the season, & the departure of this senior class.

Me personally, I hope Zane shoots 25X a game. Who else, other than Morsell, is a consistent threat to score?

(1) The better team won today. Nuff said. Their #4 is a star & their ball movement was a thing to envy; (2) We didn’t underachieve today. See #1 (they are the better team); (3) We have 2 consistent scorers. And for some inexplicable reason, ZM can’t score in the 1st half of many games; (4) We are generally undisciplined & have a low basketball IQ. Some of Starr’s passing today was breathtakingly bad. Same though for EK & ZM; (5) Gorham is undersized & outmanned inside. We got zip from Thomas; (6) If today is was the best we could do, at home, coming off a big W, in an important game, then our best isn’t good enough; (7) We ain’t beating NE on the road. Debatable whether we’re beating Hofstra on the road. 9-9 conference finish is my guess. Appropriate for an average team; (8) Factors 1-7 above suggest a quick exit from the conference tournament

Drexel has a good player from Turkey. NE has the Serbian kid. Remember the French grad transfer big we had from Dayton? He didn’t work out. Unless Drayton pans out next year (and unless Prophete has a startling transformation) this past recruiting class will be a complete flop, although I guess Sanders, the Duquesne transfer counts as part of this class). We can’t afford a lackluster recruiting class for this coming fall, I know that. There are still 2 ships open. We desperately need a PG (which Skerry has been abysmal at recruiting) & a big guard/small forward type. Right now, as things stand, the PG’s next season are Prophete & Dottin, the incoming freshman. That doesn’t fill me with great optimism

I think Kevin Clark has been here w/ Skerry the whole time. From my casual observations from the stands, he seems like the father figure type who puts his arm around a kid after Skerry chews him out. O’Connell-wasn’t he here & then went to USC, & came back? McDonald is in his first year. Wasnt Adrian Dantley an assistant here back in the 90’s? The guy I think would eventually make a good assistant is John Davis

Given the benefit of calm reflection today, after yesterday’s debacle, I agree with the thesis of your post-that we have no leadership on this team. I do think Zane has the potential to be that leader next year, when he’ll be a junior & clearly the centerpiece of the team. At the end of the day, Skerry has brought in some good players on this team (ZM, Morsell, Gorham. And EK & Tunstall to a lesser degree). He’s also missed on guys like Thomas, McNeill, Morman (now that he’s gone) & perhaps Prophete. Starr is a “meh.” Obviously every coach hits on some kids & misses on others, I get that. But, if there’s no leader on the team, & there’s a culture of bickering and squabbling, some of that blame is on the CEO, Skerry. In the interest of stimulating conversation on this board (because Skerry isn’t going anywhere) I also think it’s fair to point out that since Skerry has been here, every other team in the conference (with the exception of Elon) has at least been to the championship game of the conference tournament. While it’s highly improbable in my opinion, maybe this year’s team will achieve that accomplishment. But if not, the monkey remains on Skerry’s back, like it or not. Obviously he gets a pass for his 1st year & the 2nd (when we weren’t even permitted to play in the conference tournament). One of the measuring sticks of the job, in addition to graduating kids, is either winning the regular season crown, and/or winning the conference tournament. I’m actually cautiously optimistic about next year (pretty much given up on this season), PROVIDED he brings in a decent point guard, which has been a huge Achilles heel of Skerry’s.

I’m thinking he’d be a better defender than McNeill. And even if he only scores 5-6 ppg, we’d be better off with him over McNeill. Keeping my fingers crossed that between Betrand & one of the 2 open ships, that McNeill spends the bulk of his senior season as an observer on the bench

Shot 10-29 from the field. McNeil is a shooter who can’t shoot. Prophete got yanked from the game after badly missing a 3 from the corner. Albeit a very small sample size this season, but I see nothing to suggest he will be a contributor next season.

Um, there’s an addage that goes “the buck stops here.” If it’s not Skerry’s shortcoming, who’s is it?

TU would be a desirable job; nice arena, we’re in a quality mid-major conference, & we’re located in a target rich environment for recruiting. Beyond that, the question is moot because I believe Skerry signed a contract extension earlier during the season.

Thanks for the correction. I don’t know about the rest of you, but this is a depressing stat. We are the ONLY team in the conference, excluding recent addition Elon, not to make it to the tournament championship game in the Skerry era.

Love that gym with the stage & the windows. Mat, thanks for posting that. He’s 6’4, from Philly (a la Davis, ZM) & he looks athletic. I’d play him over McNeill

Let him stay & get his degree, which is the most important thing anyway. Just shouldn’t play more than a few minutes a game next year

I’ve never seen Betrand play, but I’d play him over McNeill sight unseen

To where, Dundalk Community College?

I don’t have a crystal ball of course, but there are 2 open ships. One of them damn well better be a PG, otherwise Prophete and/or incoming freshman Dottin are running the show, & the other one damn well better be a 3, to keep McNeil where he belongs, on the bench. I would find it hard to believe Skerry doesn’t realize the implications of McNeil playing 20-25 minutes a game next year

Seems like he’s been around forever, owing to the fact he redshirted his 1st year. I kept hoping he’d transfer out. Now he’ll be a senior next year. If he gets more than 5-10 minutes a game next year, we’re in deep doo