TSU88

Point duly noted

If a player at a low-to-mid major puts up numbers, nothing posted on this board is going to stop the sharks in the water from trying to poach him (sorry if I’m mixing my metaphors). That’s just the way it is. If a player is performing poorly at a low-to-mid major, nothing posted on this board is going to stop the coach from trying to replace him, or the player looking for a change of scenery. I think more than 1 thing can be true at the same time: one can support the program in a variety of ways (season tickets, TAF and NIL donor) but still offer fair criticism of what is a bad team so far this season, and a coach who is in what, his 13th year & hasn’t gotten to a conference championship game yet. I can’t do the Emporer’s New Clothes thing

I totally forgot about Lowery. Yes, I’d want him back. Thing is, other than Tejada (who might leave on his own volition) the other guys I’d like to see return (again, not counting guys who haven’t played yet this season, or Cole, who’s barely played), Sulaiman,Williamson and Lowery, are all role players. May, I don’t know. I think a lot of us had high hopes for him this season. There’s obviously a long way to go, but if what we’ve seen so far is indicative of the player he is, then I’d shed no tears if he wasn’t back next season. TBH, the fact that I’m already thinking about next season is a bad sign

Who would we even want back, amongst the guys who have played so far? (I’m excluding Cole, Tarke, and Watson). I’d take Sulaiman back, as a role player. I’d take Tejada back, though if he winds up averaging 13ppg, he’ll be a candidate to be poached. I’d take Williamson back. Aside from that…May, I guess, though at the quarter pole he’s been a disaster as far as his shooting.

We’d have to know if there’s even a buyout clause in his contract. I mean, after giving him an 8-year extension, who knows if they even put a buyout provision in his contract? For all we know, it might be the total cost of the remainder of his deal

I agree that the postgame pressers are just empty words in the wind. OTOH, what can he say, “we stink and have an excruciatingly bad offense”? While such candor might be refreshing, I doubt it’ll be forthcoming. My being high on Cole is based on the video I’ve seen of him from when he played in the NBA Academy. I’m intrigued by his combination of height, athleticism and shooting ability. Look, Cole is the least of our problems. Let’s see what the kid does going forward.

Good grief, how could we?

I’d say until at least the end of the 2026-27 season. I mean this dreck we’re seeing now is unwatchable and indefensible, but anyone who thinks there’s going to be a regime change before Skerry’s contract expires is delusional. The buck stops with him, but ain’t no way he’s getting bought out. Even if Tarke comes onboard at some point, he’s not MJ 2.0. It’s not realistic to expect he can fix this mess single-handedly. May’s shooting is beyond dreadful so far, CT is a try hard guy who will always struggle to finish close, and I haven’t a clue what they saw in Jones. I’m still high on Cole, but he’s a work in progress. Maybe come conference play, but time will tell. Watson is about 4 months out from his injury, so it’s hard to imagine he’s riding to the rescue anytime soon. I mean, it is what it is…right now we have one of the most impotent, unwatchable offenses in the country. I doubt any objective observer would suggest otherwise

Wishing the best for Hicks. Excited to see Cole. I think his long term potential is exciting; I don’t except him to set the world on fire tonight, as he’s got some rust to knock off and probably still needs to add some bulk, but given how things have gone with Conway, Watson and Tarke, a little ray of hope is appreciated

If I were Tarke, I’d have a lawsuit in the queue (with the help of TU athletics legal rep) which would include a request for injunctive relief, requiring the NCAA to allow him to play during the pendency of the suit

With our pitiful attendance last season, I don’t think anyone can argue with a straight face that we should be moving up to FBS in football, at least at this point. I’m more concerned about basketball. With DE & JMU gone, who’s next? If C of C and/or Hofstra bolt (no idea if either is planning to, though C of C would be a logical choice to move on) then what’s left would be a really weak conference, although maybe that could work to our advantage

9 of the 16 schools remaining in the FCS playoffs are in Ohio (Youngstown State) or west of Ohio, with a heavy emphasis (6 schools) on Idaho, Montana, & North and South Dakota

That’s correct, though I think there’s also some requirement about having a certain minimum number of student athletes on scholarship. You have a point about the geographical shift in the FCS power structure. With the JMU’s, App State’s, ODU’s and all the other southern schools (Georgia Southern I think is another example) leaving for the FBS (you can now add Delaware to the list) the strength of what’s left of the FCS is in Montana and the Dakotas.

5 million dollar application fee? Even if we wanted to move up to FBS, where’s that money going to come from? Let’s be honest, given last year’s football attendance, paying 5 million (even if we have that kind of money just lying around) would seem absurd. What precisely would that 5 million buy us? The other question that comes to mind is what if the CAA keeps hemorrhaging schools and ceases to exist at some point in the future? Then where are we? Are these issues being discussed in the war room of our athletic department?

Not surprising. My question is where does this leave us? The CAA is devolving into a low rent, “we’ll take anybody” conference, at least as far as basketball. I can’t imagine C of C hanging around, although maybe their strategy is to have a clear yearly path to the dance, by dominating a bunch of weaklings. Do we have any sort of exit strategy, or are we resigned to staying in the CAA?

On this I agree. The success of the team this season was premised to some degree on the belief/hope that May would make the freshmen to sophomore year improvement, such that he would average in the low teens-not seamlessly step into Timberlake’s shoes, but at least be a consistent scoring threat. It’s obviously a small sample size so far, but the early results are not favorable

My point is that, for whatever reason, Cole may never be physically able to play this season. If that’s the case, what other option is there other than to redshirt him? Much rather Jones than Coleman? Well, duh. Again, you miss the point. The question isn’t whether Jones is better than Coleman, as Coleman isn’t a D1 player. The question is how has Jones gone from being modestly productive at Wofford, to being a stiff so far here?

Kudos to Williamson. He’s literally our only guard right now, as inconceivable as that sounds. As “meh” as Hicks is, we sure need him back. If he’s out long term & we don’t get Tarke, well, be prepared for an extraordinary long, cold season. Assistant Coach Bitee said before the game he thinks Cole is still 2 weeks away from playing, in his personal opinion. If the young man isn’t ready to go by the beginning of conference play, they should just redshirt him and be done with it. Paar with the (first) half of his life. Lowery is a work in progress, but you can see glimpses of his talent; thought he did a decent job as backup point guard. Nice to see May drain back-to-back 3’s, but we need a lot more from him than 6 point games. CT plays so hard; nonstop motor, but he misses so many shots close to the rim. I guess you just take the good with the bad and say it is what it is. Thoroughly unimpressed with Jones. I’m hard pressed to identify a single facet of the game he excels at. Tejada might wind up being our leading scorer when all is said and done. Talk about bizarro world-a freshman in the Skerry era as the leading scorer.

Numbers don’t lie. Only 7 D1 teams are averaging fewer ppg than us; only 3 avg fewer assists per game. Small sample size, against some very good teams, but no matter how you spin it, it’s bad

I would assume at this early stage of the season we’re statistically one of the worst offenses in the country, in terms of ppg, shooting %, and pace, but hey, why let stats get in the way of reality. Btw, you conveniently did not quote the passage of my post where I wrote that once we get to conference play, we might keep our heads above water

What is really sobering about this list is that only 11 of the teams behind us fill less of a % of their seating capacity. Using the analysis of % attendance compared to capacity, we’re actually worse than 99th out of 128. We’re practically in the bottom 10. If I’m Eigenbrot, this has to be very worrisome. Granted, the 1st two home games this season were adversely impacted by weather, but there’s more to it than that. In no way am I advocating for disbanding the program, or moving down to D2, but there needs to be some serious improvement, and soon. Am I wrong, or wasn’t it that long ago that we at least averaged 6-7K a game, or thereabouts?

This I agree with. Tarke isn’t a PG, nor is Cole. Williamson is being forced to play the point, but he’s not really a PG. It is infuriating, given how long he’s been here, thst Skerry has been so inept in terms of his inability to bring in a good PG. You would think he’d have stumbled on one by this point, even by accident. The best PG he had, Cam Holden, wasn’t even truly a PG. Does anyone on this board realistically believe, given his track record, that Skerry is going to reverse this trend and bring in a legit PG next season? I don’t

Even Rod Serling couldn’t write a Twilight Zone episode this frightening

Reality check time: he’s got 3 years, after this season, left on his contract and he’s not getting bought out. I don’t know what’s going to happen when we start the real season, i.e., conference play. If the CAA is as weak as some believe, we might be able to hold our heads above water. I don’t have any inside information, but I’m going to assume Tarke’s not going to see the court this season. Without him, we may have one of the worst offenses in the country. And as high as I am on Cole, he’s a completely unknown commodity. The real villain here isn’t Skerry (not his fault on Conway, Tarke, Watson) but rather Tim Leonard, for giving Skerry that insane 8-year extension, which we now wear like an albatross around our necks

Granted, it’s extremely early to be making 2024 predictions, but you’re right. Barring something miraculous, we have 2 automatic L’s on the 24 schedule. That means to make the playoffs, we’d have to go 7-2, if not 8-1, in the rest of the games. It’s unfair to Shinnick that he’s saddled with an OOC schedule made by the former athletic director, but it is what it is.