Down but not out

[TSU88 1,070]

5 minutes ago, TuTigers2012 said:

Not too optimistic I’ll see one and I’m 32. 
Some good caa players can return and others for another final year (Wynter) around the league. Add 5 new teams. 1-9 goes to 1-14 odds..

3-10 CAAT record. 3-5 as a top 3 seed ooof. He does have more wins than speedy and fisher though..😂

5 new teams? Monmouth, NC A&T, Stony Brook, Hampton. Did I get those 4 right? If so, which is the 5th team? 

[TuTigers2012 1,061]

4 minutes ago, TSU88 said:

5 new teams? Monmouth, NC A&T, Stony Brook, Hampton. Did I get those 4 right? If so, which is the 5th team? 

I don’t think they will stay at 13. Other team maybe waiting until spring season to announce. 

[TSU88 1,070]

7 minutes ago, TuTigers2012 said:

I don’t think they will stay at 13. Other team maybe waiting until spring season to announce. 

How do you even do a 14 team tournament? Give a bye to 1 & 2, and then have 6 1st round games, to get down to 8 teams? 

[TuTigers2012 1,061]

12 minutes ago, TSU88 said:

How do you even do a 14 team tournament? Give a bye to 1 & 2, and then have 6 1st round games, to get down to 8 teams? 

14-11. 12-13. Then go like the old 12 team caa. 12-5 11-6 10-7 8-9. Top 4 double bye. A10. Big ten sec. do it that way

[TSU88 1,070]

2 minutes ago, TuTigers2012 said:

14-11. 12-13. Then go like the old 12 team caa. 12-5 11-6 10-7 8-9. Top 4 double bye. A10. Big ten sec. do it that way

So wait, if you finish 11, 12, 13, or 14 you have to win 5 games to win the tournament? 

[Royal Tiger 57]

6 minutes ago, TSU88 said:

So wait, if you finish 11, 12, 13, or 14 you have to win 5 games to win the tournament? 

Yes, it should be deservedly impossible to win tourney if finish 11th through 14th

[TSU88 1,070]

3 minutes ago, Royal Tiger said:

Yes, it should be deservedly impossible to win tourney if finish 11th through 14th

And if you finish 5 through 10 you have to win 4 games, and 1-4 you have to win 3 games? Doesn’t bode well for us, seeing as we’ve never won more than 1 game in any conference tournament under PS. 

[TuTigers2012 1,061]

1 minute ago, TSU88 said:

And if you finish 5 through 10 you have to win 4 games, and 1-4 you have to win 3 games? Doesn’t bode well for us, seeing as we’ve never won more than 1 game in any conference tournament under PS. 

Yup. This was the year for it to happen 

[sr16 158]

2 days till Sunday. Still nice with something to look forward too. 

[Tiger93 299]

On 3/8/2022 at 8:48 PM, TuTigers2012 said:

Yup. This was the year for it to happen 

We'll get there. This past year was a good step forward in what we need to do better in the offseason. Hopefully, Skerry learned some lessons about roster construction and will continue to find shooters. As Mat mentioned several times, we also need an athletic wing that can create and get to the basket (easier said then done).

My hope is that a guy like Hicks is hungry for more after getting a small taste this season and can make a jump in his game. The seasons that Thompson and Timberlake had give me some level of confidence in our player development (although we need to see more success stories) and I hope this carries forward with other players on the roster. The right combination of player development and successful transfers is a must at our level (and pretty much any level at this point). I definitely agree that Stony Brook and Monmouth (who has a good shot to win the MAAC this year) will make this conference tougher in hoops next year. 

It is very important to build off our regular-season success and continue to set the bar high for this program. We can't waste this momentum. If we can keep building off what is going right (which no one can guarantee), we will get more shots to make it to the NCAA Tournament.

Right now, I think the checklist is go have an NIT run that creates a positive experience that will make the returning players hungry for more success, sort out departures, and navigate the transfer portal successfully (Skerry seems to be pretty solid at this). Skerry knows better than we do what he needs, but my offseason homework for him would be study what went right this year, figure out what you can replicate and what you need to adapt (defensively and gameplan wise to get better).

The biggest step (and I think he has referenced this before) is take a look back at the tournament games, tap some of his resources and connections in the coaching fraternity and do a deep dive on why his teams seem so little tightly wound come tournament time. Thompson getting hurt in the first game was an extremely unlucky break, so I make the tightness comment knowing that the combo of his injury and a bad shooting night was as much circumstance as something that the team or Skerry did wrong. Still, it all needs to go under the microscope if we want to accomplish what everyone on this board and the program wants to do.