TSU88

Hofstra always has great guards. Even with JWF gone, they’ll still have Pemberton, Ray (who really came on at the end of the year) & whoever they have coming in as a freshman. NE is always tough; I’m sure Coen will have a post-Puscia plan. JMU has Lewis & Banks; Drexel has all kinds of talent on O.... At the risk of stating the obvious, the other teams in the conference aren’t going to be be stagnant. We desperately need to bring in impact players with our remaining scholarships

They also have a transfer from High Point (Mutts) & another from Villanova (a big who didn’t get many minutes at Nova). I agree; Delaware is another preseason favorite.

Just looked it up; this is Coen’s 13th year at NE, so Skerry is the 3rd most tenured coach in the conference

Another year of futility under Shavers. He’s got to be the longest tenured coach in the conference. Is Skerry 2nd? The only one who I can think of that might have more time at his current school is Coen at NE. W&M may be too pretty, but our play is too ugly. I will say this: With all of their starters (presumably) coming back, I would make W&M the preseason favorites for next season

2nd memo to Skerry: watch Hofstra-JMU replay, where Hofstra’s 4 guards (JWF, Buie, Pemberton & Ray) scored 53 of their 76 points. Go get us some guards like Hofstra’s!!!

Memo to Skerry: watch replay of UD W today & go get us some guards like UD has!!!

So the record is clear, I’m not a W&M fan; I simply wish we’d recruit shooters, like they do. Here’s the real takeaway for us from the game-UD’s 3 guards (Allen, Anderson & Horton) went off for 64 of UD’s 85 points. WE NEED GUARDS WHO CAN SCORE

W&M is out

Well, my point is that he’s really not getting that many W’s. If you threw out year 1. Since year 2, vs D1 teams, our average yearly record is 16-15. Then there’s the 22% winning % in CAA tournament play

We tried 538 3-pointers & hit 177 of them (basically 33%). We took on average 17 3 point shots a game & hit 6 of them. Meanwhile, our opponents took 811 3’s & hit 286 (109 more than us) which is 35%. So, our opponents on average took 26 3’s & hit 9 of them. We had 310 assists to 373 turnovers. Our opponents had 457 assists to 316 turnovers. So, we had 10 assists per game to 12 turnovers. Our opponents had 15 assists per game to 10 turnovers.

I like Gibson, the kid from Sidwell, & Jaylin Hunter, up in Connecticut. Also, Buckley, from NOVA (not Villanova, but N. Virginia). I seem to recall we’re looking at a few others too

I’d say on paper right now our 5 best returning players are Fobbs, Gray, Timberlake, Tunstall & & Solomon. That leaves us really light up front. Our 2 biggest guys will be Sanders, who was “meh” this season, & the freshman Thompson.

100% agree. A JUCO PG will be a major disappointment. It would mean we couldn’t close the deal on even one of the many HS PG’s we’ve offered & would likely continue our history of subpar PG play

I suppose in retrospect it’s better he didn’t burn a year of eligibility this season. Might have been interesting to see if this past season might have turned out any different had Gray & Timberlake played, but we’ll never know.

Maybe the University of Mars has a grad transfer PG we could use Don’t forget Starr in the litany of JUCO PG’s who weren’t the answer

So, here’s the thing; when you look at the pieces returning next season, not counting the 2 or 3 ships yet to be filled, we have 1 really good player (Fobbs) a bunch of role players (Dottin, Howard, Tunstall, Sanders, Drayton) & few unknown entities, who we hope can be more more than role players, but we don’t know for sure (Betrand, Timberlake, Solomon, Thompson & Gray). We’re all hoping Gray can be more than a role player, but that’s really all he was in 2 years at USD (and just because he played at USD, doesn’t mean he’s the next Puscia). I hate to be a gloomy Gus, but the returning group doesn’t fill me with a great deal of confidence, unless several of the returning players take quantum leaps AND Skerry sticks the landing on the remaining scholarships. Is it possible the stars can align & both these things happen? Well, maybe

As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t watch the game. At one point, I did check the score online; we were up 62-54, at which point I said, “we lost.” Isn’t that sad, that I was right?

Mat, you’re right that the Prophete, Ingram, Drayton class was a complete fail. It’s conventional wisdom that the biggest leap a college basketball player makes is beteeen his freshman & sophomore seasons, so we’ll see about this past season’s class of Dottin, Betrand, Timberlake & Solomon. You’re also correct that they need to hit HR’s with the remaining open ships, which doesn’t mean the leading freshman scorer avg 6ppg. While past performance is no guarantee of future results, history has taught us that PS does not bring in freshman who are capable of stepping right in and avg 10+ppg. History has also taught us that PS has never recruited a quality PG (unless you count Frank Mason, who never played a game here, or Hairston’s freshman year). So, if history repeats itself, I would not expect a significant improvement next season.

The problem isn’t people killing the coach and staff this off-season, the problem is that this dreck product extinguishes the enthusiasm for the program of the (few) fans it has, & turns potential new fans off. I consider myself an avid fan, yet I didn’t watch or listen to the game today. When I checked on the final score, my reaction was, “oh, we yakked another 2nd half lead. What’s for dinner.” I doubt either of the open ships will bring in impact players. We might be marginally better next year; perhaps we’ll finish as high as 7th or 8th in the conference. What’s our pitiful record in tournament play now under this coach? I know it’s abysmal. Welcome to the indefinite future of TU basketball.

Well, Will Wade is now available 😆

So, they’ll be missing 16ppg with Banks & Phillips out. But they still have Mosley & Lewis, either one who is capable of dropping 30 or so any given night. In fact, Lewis recently dropped 40 on Hofstra.

Congrats to both young men. Fobbs was a real find by the coaching staff, so they deserve credit too. He was our only real scoring threat this season, so it was quite a feat for him to average 17ppg. Hopefully, the coaches can compliment him next season with some other scoring threats. Tunstall is reminiscent of TPR to me; he’ll give you max effort on D, but he’s limited on O. If he could average 7 & 7 next year, I’d take it.

If we win the tournament then he would deserve COTY

Simpson’s self-help guru, Brad Goodman

Good luck Tribe. I’ve been accused of being a closet Tribe fan; I’d say I have an admiration for the fact that W&M always seems to have guys who are good shooters, which I think we generally lack. I will say I did see something I considered rather endearing at the last TU-W&M game. Play was stopped due to a wet spot on the court. A young lady assigned to clean up such spots came onto the floor, at which point Nathan Knight politely took the mop from her & cleaned the area himself. I couldn’t help but thinking what a nice gesture that was. Sometimes little things mean a lot. I still hope he turns pro after this season though 😆