General Basketball Thread for 2024-25

[TuTigers2012 1,071]

11 hours ago, mat1992 said:

I think Towson should do another Zoom meeting about NIL for football and basketball to explain about giving to NIL. What it means and what's the difference between giving to TAF (Tiger Athletic Fund) and the TU Collective for NIL. From my understanding, these sponsors are mainly about giving these kids their products. There is not a ton of $$$ involved, but I don't know the exact details. In other words, we have to, for the current coach and future coach, to buck up and make payments towards NIL. I'm not saying pay something that you can't afford. I give a monthly/yearly fee in NIL for both sports because I want to do and I feel if I'm going to talk the talk, I better walk the walk. My understanding is that not everyone is on board with paying student-athletes. That's not even an assumption. It's the truth and I get it, but it's an arms race. If the few wealthy donors we have and the rest who can afford a modest amount, are not willing to give a nice sum for NIL, we're going to miss out on key transfers and will end up with the "meh" players we've added over the last two seasons (Jones, Tarke, Sulaiman, Sylla, Russell). I think what we have available is good enough to retain most of our young returners.

https://towsontigers.com/feature/TowsonNIL?path=nil

https://gohcollective.com/

https://gohcollective.doubleknot.com/registration/donate.aspx?activitykey=2973795

Agree.  

 

I’m not advocating for fully playing the way Alabama and Charleston play but watching that game and last nights Bama Unc game, the offense is quick and free flowing. Such a breathe of fresh air from what we do.  Of course it’s about the Jimmys and joes too, but should be able to play without running 22 seconds of clock before getting into our offense for an iffy look at best 

[Bay Area Tiger 347]

22 minutes ago, TuTigers2012 said:

Agree.  

 

I’m not advocating for fully playing the way Alabama and Charleston play but watching that game and last nights Bama Unc game, the offense is quick and free flowing. Such a breathe of fresh air from what we do.  Of course it’s about the Jimmys and joes too, but should be able to play without running 22 seconds of clock before getting into our offense for an iffy look at best 

That Bama-UNC game was so much fun to watch last night.  

[Blazer49 186]

STOP!  I am begging you PLEASE STOP!  I used to work for a certain east coast MLB team that during a long stretch of not being successful used a talking point one off season of "We had the 4th best record in the National League last season!"  They still missed the playoffs because this was the mid-2000's and only the division winners and one wild card team made the playoffs.  The link to this post screams the same thing.  "Hey look what we have done."  The answer is NOTHING because you have not made the "playoffs."  Not to mention it is strange who in the DMV they did and did not include.

DMV's Finest

[TuTigers2012 1,071]

1 hour ago, Blazer49 said:

STOP!  I am begging you PLEASE STOP!  I used to work for a certain east coast MLB team that during a long stretch of not being successful used a talking point one off season of "We had the 4th best record in the National League last season!"  They still missed the playoffs because this was the mid-2000's and only the division winners and one wild card team made the playoffs.  The link to this post screams the same thing.  "Hey look what we have done."  The answer is NOTHING because you have not made the "playoffs."  Not to mention it is strange who in the DMV they did and did not include.

DMV's Finest

😂Exactly. That graphic just really shows how bad basketball is around here.

But what do you expect, when people are still talking about what if's from a decade+ ago, and blaming Pat Kennedy still.  Watch, next it'll be "third best record in CAA play last three season (In small print, not including CAAT, when you know it counts), or back to back to back to back 18 wins season (If you don't include covid and any other seasons that arbitrarily don't count!)

[Tiger93 299]

16 minutes ago, TuTigers2012 said:

😂Exactly. That graphic just really shows how bad basketball is around here.

But what do you expect, when people are still talking about what if's from a decade+ ago, and blaming Pat Kennedy still.  Watch, next it'll be "third best record in CAA play last three season (In small print, not including CAAT, when you know it counts), or back to back to back to back 18 wins season (If you don't include covid and any other seasons that arbitrarily don't count!)

I don't think it is a bad graphic to use from the program's standpoint. I doubt very many people realize that we have a better record than Maryland during that span. This is a PR spin, and everyone does it. I agree with you both that it doesn't really amount to much, but you want marketing and PR to do their jobs. This is part of the PR spinning, and I enjoyed this part of job when I did it in my former position. Winning 66 games in three years and going 38-16 in conference play in that timeframe is not nothing. It just doesn't accomplish the ultimate goal of what any of us wants so I get the frustration and I have it too. I do think in general this is worth putting out there. On a sidenote, it really shows me that with Towson as my first team and Georgetown as my 1A team college basketball has not been kind to me as a fan recently. 

[Tiger93 299]

3 hours ago, TuTigers2012 said:

Agree.  

 

I’m not advocating for fully playing the way Alabama and Charleston play but watching that game and last nights Bama Unc game, the offense is quick and free flowing. Such a breathe of fresh air from what we do.  Of course it’s about the Jimmys and joes too, but should be able to play without running 22 seconds of clock before getting into our offense for an iffy look at best 

Yeah, I think there a lot of arguments for what types of styles and pace of play work. However, two I do have a strong feeling about the following concepts.

First, no matter what you want to make it an entertaining style for your fans to enjoy. Second, you have to have some level of competent offense to be able to win tough postseason games/pull off upsets. I think of the shots Yale and Oakland were hitting when much more talented Auburn and Kentucky teams were charging hard and trying to come back to avoid upsets.

I also think of how relentless and confident Alabama was when is probably a better UNC team kept coming back at them. I know the talent level in that game is something that is hard to compare to our level, but I do think that while being mentally tough is important there also has to be players on the team that can make tough shots when there is pressure building. That is something that needs to be cultivated throughout the year. The way I see it is I want a team that not only is capable of getting to the NCAA Tournament, but one that has a style that makes it tough to game-plan for in one-game situations. I know that is asking a lot, but this is my long way of saying I pretty much agree. Although, I also acknowledge this is all easier said then done. Doesn't mean it isn't worth trying. 

[TuTigers2012 1,071]

24 minutes ago, Tiger93 said:

Yeah, I think there a lot of arguments for what types of styles and pace of play work. However, two I do have a strong feeling about the following concepts.

First, no matter what you want to make it an entertaining style for your fans to enjoy. Second, you have to have some level of competent offense to be able to win tough postseason games/pull off upsets. I think of the shots Yale and Oakland were hitting when much more talented Auburn and Kentucky teams were charging hard and trying to come back to avoid upsets.

I also think of how relentless and confident Alabama was when is probably a better UNC team kept coming back at them. I know the talent level in that game is something that is hard to compare to our level, but I do think that while being mentally tough is important there also has to be players on the team that can make tough shots when there is pressure building. That is something that needs to be cultivated throughout the year. The way I see it is I want a team that not only is capable of getting to the NCAA Tournament, but one that has a style that makes it tough to game-plan for in one-game situations. I know that is asking a lot, but this is my long way of saying I pretty much agree. Although, I also acknowledge this is all easier said then done. Doesn't mean it isn't worth trying. 

Obviously the talent level is drastic, but it doesn't even look like the same sport. Very entertaining.

Fun fact, Alabama AVERAGES 6 more points a game, than our highest output on the year!

[Tiger93 299]

7 minutes ago, TuTigers2012 said:

Obviously the talent level is drastic, but it doesn't even look like the same sport. Very entertaining.

Fun fact, Alabama AVERAGES 6 more points a game, than our highest output on the year!

Their 73 possessions a game are 11 more than our 62. Like I said before, I know there are different philosophies about winning at different paces. However, it is a really fun brand of basketball to watch. 

Interestingly enough the remaining teams in the NCAA Tournament heading into last night were all over the map in terms of adjusted tempo. Alabama 10, Arizona 16, UNC 42, Illinois 69, NC State 75, Tennessee 78, Gonzaga 86, Marquette 93, Purdue 173, Iowa State 203, Creighton 227, Duke 245, Clemson 259, San Diego State 268, UConn 319, Houston 346.

Of course, that is apples to orange when you consider 13 of the 16 rank in the top 30 of offensive efficiency and the others are 41, 53 and 64. 

The five double-digit non-power conference teams that advanced out of the first round ranked in the following in adjusted tempo. Grand Canyon 70, James Madison 126, Oakland 248, Duquesne 264 and Yale 315. James Madison (71), Grand Canyon (72) and Yale (90) were all top 100 in offensive efficiency. Oakland was 121 and Duquesne was 158. 

Towson was 358 in tempo and 228 offensive efficiency (I believe were as high as the 170s early in conference play). There are many different ways to do this, but I certainly think having a more efficient and potent offense is an absolute must for this program to get to the next level.

I actually believe Pat Skerry looks at a lot of these things in his attempt to try to get us over the hump. However, as we have talked about his principles are mostly grounded in tough defense (were 90th in defensive efficiency) and offensive rebounding. 

[mat1992 2,237]

Chris Mack to Charleston 

https://x.com/thefieldof68/status/1773946719496986987?s=46&t=nScacl1TWT-KyOwj5stBaw

[Tgr4life 170]

23 hours ago, Tiger93 said:

I don't think it is a bad graphic to use from the program's standpoint. I doubt very many people realize that we have a better record than Maryland during that span. This is a PR spin, and everyone does it. I agree with you both that it doesn't really amount to much, but you want marketing and PR to do their jobs. This is part of the PR spinning, and I enjoyed this part of job when I did it in my former position. Winning 66 games in three years and going 38-16 in conference play in that timeframe is not nothing. It just doesn't accomplish the ultimate goal of what any of us wants so I get the frustration and I have it too. I do think in general this is worth putting out there. On a sidenote, it really shows me that with Towson as my first team and Georgetown as my 1A team college basketball has not been kind to me as a fan recently. 

38-16 is equal to the Orioles dominating Spring Training....just something meaningless to talk about