AtlantaTiger

Of all the positives to be taken from this game I think I’m most impressed with going 8 for 9 at the FT line. A little surprised we got to the line so few times, but I’ll take 88% everyday of the week.

Not sure if it was already mentioned earlier this week but our mid-major brethren, UNF, notched ANOTHER win over a “big boy” school this week. In a matter of a week and half they’ve slayed South Carolina and Georgia Tech. Who do they think they are beating all these high-major schools in a single season!?!?

I never lose any sleep when “big brother” loses. #ThankYouMarquette

Let's Go Tigers!!

I completely agree. We will most certainly get our beloved 20 wins......which is the only metric and goal we should ever hope to achieve.

Maybe they can offer coaches who are better at developing talent. I find it very telling that overall his years at Towson and all his coveted 20-win seasons, no other program (that we know of) has ever taken a serious run at hiring him away from Towson. When other jobs come open are no ADs looking at Pat as a prolific program-builder, player-developer......big-game winner? Other schools seem content to look elsewhere for their next head basketball coach.....Pat Skerry need not apply.

I will say this about Pat Skerry; recruiting solid talent at a school like Towson must be extremely difficult. Think about today's high school & college athletes and what they prioritize when choosing a school to play at. I would imagine the following factors are considered in some order. 1. How much NIL money can I make? 2. Will I have a chance to get some NBA/pro consideration? 3. Will I have a realistic chance to play in an NCAA Tournament? 4. Will we be a winning/competitive program? 5. What's the fan/gameday environment like....will I be playing in front of a packed house or an empty arena most nights? 6. Will my overall game improve and develop by playing for this coach & staff? 7. Graduation rate/quality of academics/quality of academic resources & support for athletes 8. Are our games on TV? In the absence of any meaningful NIL budget, our decades long NCAA Tourney drought, our spotty fan support, hardly any history of our players even sniffing the NBA and the CAA's dreadful media deal(s), there's not much for Skerry to pitch to prospects. Yes, we win a lot of regular season games. Yes, Pat graduates his players. However, it's the player development piece that I think is most telling about Pat. If you're never going to land legitimate game-wreckers and alpha dogs, and mostly be working with guys who had few, if any, better choices than Towson, you had better be the type of coach that knows how to really develop a player and maximize what talent(s) they might have. That's just not Pat's strength unfortunately. I don't know that Pat is considered to be a fierce motivator, technical savant, top-tier strategist, etc. He's a really nice guy who loves his players and loves the game pf basketball. As an outside observer it seems as if the players view him as everybody's favorite uncle.

If you think these mid-November losses are frustrating just wait until the late February/early March losses roll around. #Skerryball

It’s a cold business.

Still have more thoughts on the state of our football program and coach Pete but I'll save my football thoughts for the football threads. I 100% agree that last night's loss to Saint Mary's has little or no bearing the rest of this season or what happens in March. However, is it not even a little troubling that after all these seasons that this program has so few marquee/signature wins over top non-conference opponents? Saint Mary's is a significantly more accomplished and storied program than Towson but this specific Saint Mary's squad was not any great shakes. If we're as good as everyone has been saying we are, we win that game. We find a way to scratch, bite, claw, will-ourselves to victory. We see teams in Towson's mid-major peer group take down much larger programs year-after-year....UNF did it last night against South Carolina. What were UNF's prospects coming into this season? I honestly have no clue, maybe they're supposed to be a bunch of killers. If they are, then they found a way to live up to the expectations against an SEC program. Let's not confuse this Saint Mary's team with their teams of the past. Thank goodness for the PSU-Wilkes Barre's of the world.....if not for them Pat's non-conference win record certainly would not be as good.

I happen to think, as some have already pointed out, that keeping perspective is very important in all of this. Perspective with regard to results vs. *EXPECTATIONS*. When you're picked preseason #1 in your conference with a host of national media outlets ranking you among the top 25 mid-major programs and CBS Sports considering you a top 100 overall program in all of college basketball.....and you're being "led" by a coach in his FOURTEENTH season, I happen to think there should be a different perspective and expectation than say a football team picked preseason #9 in its conference being led by a guy one-and-half seasons into his tenure. Are they NOT two very different scenarios?

Worth pointing out that South Carolina lost to University of North Florida last night. My guess is the Gamecocks won’t be taking any mid-major non-conference opportunities lightly moving forward. I doubt we’ll catch them sleeping on us. Our opportunities to notch a meaningful non-conference win are few and far between.

I came here to type this EXACT response and you beat me to it. Couldn’t agree with your assessment more. Still shooting ourselves in the foot with horrific shot selections at crucial moments in the game and dreadful FT shooting.

Towson: 27 Spiders: 24

Towson vs Baylor in the first round of the NCAA TOURNAMENT….as predicted by Jerry Palm. 🤣 https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/bracketology/

I don’t know, I kind of prefer being rationale and pragmatic and NOT being a prisoner of the moment? But you do you.

I’m just here for the comments. Funny how week-to-week opinions and perspectives can change about the team and the coaches. Go Tigers!!

I wanna give a quick shoutout to the local boys down here at Kennesaw State for picking up their first FBS win ever and their first win of the season. It’s a program and a university that I’ve compared very similarly and favorably to Towson on this message board in the past. I applaud them for their leadership’s ambitious approach to building a winning football program and culture in such a relatively short amount of time. Our “leaders” at TU can maybe learn a thing or two from the Owls.

To be clear, the point of referencing the Nova game is to highlight the fact that not all of the issues we’ve had are coaching related. Players need to make plays. The sample size for Shinnick is fairly small. It would be one thing if we had a roster full of studs and he’s been underperforming with a great team. We don’t have much talent at all on the defensive side of the ball and our O-line is depleted. I’m not understanding what the expectation some people have for this team. Should we be 7-0? 5-2? 4-3? How many of our losses are a direct result of coaching incompetence?

Let’s also keep in mind that we are a dropped TD and TWO missed chip shot field goals against Nova from being a 4-3 team. We’d all be having a very different conversation this morning. I don’t know that this is the train wreck some of y’all are making it out to be. Wanting to run Shinnick out of town with pitchforks a season and a half into his Towson career….and yet some of you will defend Skerry’s continued tournament flops year after year after year……

By me, that’s who. 😉 I’m not here to defend today’s performance, by all accounts it sounds like it was an all around disaster. However, Shinnick is less than two full seasons into his Towson career and all of a sudden he’s somehow not meeting the standard and “pedigree” of our program? Let’s not try to tell ourselves that we’re the Alabama of FCS. Winning consistently at Towson hard AF. Dude inherited a mess. Coach Pete, based on resume alone, is objectively the most accomplished football coach Towson has ever had given where he’s coached in the past and what he’s legitimately achieved as a head coach. He literally built a college program from scratch….and then won MULTIPLE national championships with it. His predecessors at Towson were a collection of former TU grads who were gifted the position simply because they were “Towson men”. The program was run largely like a high school team. What had any of them truly accomplished as head coaches?? I’ll wait. The man is in year 2. He still has several holdovers from the Ambrose regime. Does he need to bring in more talent? Absolutely. I don’t know that there’s a bona fide, difference-making player on that defense. Our defense is flat out bad. It’s not a scheme issue, it’s a talent issue. We don’t have any. Offense is a different story. There are some playmakers on offense. You can debate the merits of the starting quarterback. I can see pros and cons of both QBs….but we got guys who can do some dynamic things with the ball in their hands. Unfortunately it sounds like our offensive line is in shambles right now. I’m not sold on Shinnick’s Polly Anna style of no cussing and the Arete mantra….seems like it might be a little corny to sell in this day and age but I think the guy needs to bring in a few more players, ESPECIALLY on defense. Personally, I’m going to withhold judgment until year 3. He will have had enough time to bring in “his” guys by then and will have had enough time to establish some kind of culture. If he continues to struggle next season I think it would be fair to question his approach at this level but as of right now, I believe it’s less of a coaching issue and more of a lack of defensive talent issue.

Towson: 35 SB: 24

Towson made CBS Sports’ Top 100 Programs https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/college-basketball-rankings-cbs-sports-top-100-and-1-best-teams-for-the-2024-25-season/

Oh man, what happened with him? His choice or was he told to leave?

That’s very unfortunate, I think he could be a significant offensive weapon for us. We need all the playmakers available down the stretch.