TSU88

If anyone is interested in a glimpse of TU class of 24 Darrick Jones, you might want to check out his Instagram page, under the name kingjones23_ (don’t forget the underscore symbol at the end. It’s open to the public. In fact, he has almost 23K followers). If you go there, you’ll see some of his high-flying on display, which you might find interesting.

Flight ✈️ 23 cleared for takeoff

Let’s hope “thin is in”😆 The athleticism of next years team is intriguing. Victor U looks like he can run the court. I don’t know how much he’ll play next year, but Biekeu, the kid from Canada, looks like he could be quite athletic as well.

I’ll take your word. I haven’t put him on a bathroom scale, but he just looks light to me. I concede I’ve only seen him from a distance though

Can’t wait to see all the new Tigers this fall. Mims is another guy who has major hops. One concern I have with him is his weight, or lack thereof. Having seen him on the bench, he just looks really light-like 150-160 lbs. He’s officially listed as 185, so maybe I’m wrong

Can you imagine Gibson out on the break with sky walkers like Timberlake, Mims, & Jones?

If his basketball play is anything close to his athleticism, look out CAA. That of course, remains to be seen, but let’s hope

You’re right-Drexel can’t catch NE. Elon only has a long shot chance of catching NE (they’d have to beat W&M on the road, & NE would have to lose both of their last 2 games). If that happened (highly unlikely) both Elon & NE would be 8-10 (no idea which team would get the tiebreaker). So, throw out us playing Hofstra, W&M, or the 4 PIG teams (Likely Elon, Drexel, UNCW & JMU) in the 1st round. That leaves either DE, C of C or NE, each of whom has a guard who can take over a game single handedly

I know we’re not playing Hofstra in the 1st round, and I’m pretty sure we’re not going to play W&M. So, that leaves DE, C of C or NE as our 1st round opponent. I guess Drexel or Elon could pass NE, but I doubt it. NE seems to be on a roll at this point. I’m curious to see how we do in the season finale vs NE

So, we’re tied with DE for 3rd, at 10-6, while C of C is in 5th, at 9-7. C of C closes at home, with DE & Drexel. I think at worst they split. If so, we would have to split on the road, vs Hofstra & NE, to finish ahead of C of C. If C of C wins both of its last 2 games, they would finish at 11-7. We’d have to win both of our last 2 games in that scenario to finish ahead of C of C. I don’t see that happening. So, who do we want to L the DE vs C of C game this Thursday, seeing as both us and DE are 10-6, while C of C is 9-7?

Final score: UNCW 68 C of C 55 C of C shoots a scintillating 1-21 from 3. C of C players not named Riller scored 36 points

Interesting when you mention the importance of JUCO recruiting. There are a number of CAA basketball schools (W&M, Elon, NE, C of C, DE, Hofstra) who I have no recollection of having JUCO’s (perhaps because of academics). Other than us, the only other schools that recruit JUCO’s are Drexel, UNCW & JMU

I was waiting to comment on the C of C game, but the 🐈 is out of the bag now. Why, rhetorically, can UNCW & Elon beat C of C, and we can’t? (Didn’t they lose to Elon this year?) I get how good Riller is, but I don’t think his supporting cast is necessarily the best, although Miller usually sticks it to us

Look closer home, to the curious case of one Justin Gorham. He’s averaging 3ppg this season at Houston. Maybe his numbers will go up next year, but who knows. Perhaps he also would have been better served if he had set his sights a little lower

The article I read analogized it to non-student athlete undergrad students, who can transfer from 1 school to another, literally from one semester to the next. I think that’s an oversimplification, but I understand the notion that a kid should have freedom of movement. I still don’t like it

I just did a very quick read of an article discussing the possible elimination of the rule that an athlete who transfers has to sit out a year. The article I read suggests it’s not if it’s going to happen, but when. And the when is perhaps as soon as later this year. If/when this goes through, it’ll be terrible, IMHO, for mid-majors (like us), who will become farm teams for the P5. If a talented mid-major kid knows he can transfer to a bigger program without sitting out a year, that will lead to mid-major kids getting poached, even more than they are now

Realize it’s premature to be talking about next season, but, other than Darling at DE, many of the best players in the conference are gone after this season (Buie, Pemberton, Knight, Van Vliet, Riller, Roland, Fobbs, Sheffield). Also, if last off-season is any indication, some talented underclassmen will transfer out of the conference. Could be another wide open season, with DE as the prohibitive favorite, I would think

I agree that all 3 seniors will be missed, to varying degrees. Also agree that there will be a lot of questions regarding the 6 newcomers (really 7, in the sense that Solomon didn’t play this year). Will be interesting to see if any of the guys scheduled to return, bolt. What’s it, like 700 or so D1 kids transferred after last season? I’m guessing that the 1 open ship isn’t used on a sit-one transfer, but that’s strictly a guess. We haven’t gone grad transfer in awhile, and, with the success of Fobbs, I’m guessing the last ship goes to a JUCO, maybe a SG, to try to replace some of the points that leave the building with Fobbs

And his dribbling through multiple Elon defenders, after which he dished to Timberlake for a dunk, was reminiscent of the Globetrotters vs Washington General’s

And a little freshman shall lead them. Got to admit, I had my doubts during that 3-game stretch where he went scoreless, but Gibson has really come on. 19 pts, 5 boards and 4 assists. Yeah, that’ll work. Great crowd today (can’t remember last time I saw so many people in the lower bowl). Nice to send the seniors out with a W, and we are now guaranteed not to be in the play-in games. This offense just is a lot better when Sanders is touching & passing the ball (but please, stop over dribbling). If he could only avoid senseless fouls. Great game by Timberlake; if he becomes more consistent.... Great foul shooting; I’m not sure if we missed the front end of a one-and-one On to Hofstra & NE. I’d be satisfied with a split

I don’t want to get ahead of things, but assuming we finish in the top 6, which team(s) would be a favorable matchup for us?

I’m going to reserve much of what I want to say until after the season. For now, the obvious focus is on tomorrow’s game vs Elon. A W & I believe we clinch a top 6 finish. A L means we remain in jeopardy of falling into a PIG and also the possibility of going into the tournament on a 4-game losing streak. At the risk of stating the obvious, tomorrow should tell us a great deal about this team.

We’ve had 2 late season home games where a W would have been huge (c of c & tonight) and we came up small in both. Is it the players, the coaches, a combo of the two? It’s demoralizing. I’ve become fatalistic about these type of games-I just don’t expect us to win them. Sorry to say that, but until a PS team starts winning some crucial games (oh, I don’t know, like maybe finally winning more than 1 game in the conference tournament) I don’t see any change on the horizon

Is there a way to hypnotize Betrand into believing every game is vs Drexel, on the road?🤣 Seriously, after his 31 pts vs Drexel, he hasn’t looked so good on offense. Too many forced 1-on-1 shots tonight, I thought. In fairness though, it wasn’t like there were a lot of other viable options tonight. We need to get out in transition. Our half court offense often times is impotent, a problem that has plagued us throughout the PS era.

Thompson should only get better, but something needs to be done with his foul shot. Sanders was MIA on offense...again. The year he sat out, I did was by someone very close to the program that the expectation was he would be a 12 & 7 guy. It just never happened. Wish him the best when he’s done playing here, but I won’t miss him once he’s gone. There’s just too many guys on this team who, absent an outlier game, are not going to contribute much in terms of scoring (really, everyone on the team, expect Fobbs, Betrand & occasionally Gibson). I just don’t see this as a recipe to winning 3 straight (assuming we avoid the PIG) in the conference tournament Kudos to Fobbs for joining the 1,000 point club