My 2 cents in 2025

[mat1992]

I think I wrote a similar headline last season and I believe, I'm tired of it. But I try to think about what can we do better instead of the obvious because that's not happening. So, I still I think I recap the season at some point after people calm down, but I might point out some things that may been bought up about what's missing and others that may have not been.

1)Guard play. and passing Those who watched UNCW/Delaware and the other games not with Towoson involved saw this. We see it over and over. We finally got a really good lead guard in Dylan Williamson (6-1, 180), but even he has flaws due to his lack of size. But let's look at some of the top lead guards in the CAA.

*Jean Anguren, Hofstra (6-3, 190), 

*Cruz Davis, Hofstra (6-3, 170)

*CJ Fulton, Charleston (6-3, 190) leads league in assists with 6.4/Derrin Boyd (6-3, 215)

*Izaiah Pasha, Delaware (6-4, 190), 3.9 apg. Who was fantastic on Tuesday night against UNCW

*Donovan Newby, UNVW (6-1, 185)  (3.5apg) Newby looks like he's 200. Built like a tank.

*Isiaah Mbeng, W&M, (6-2, 170), 3.4apg

*Rashad King, NE (6-6, 204)  3.3 apg

*Madison Durr, Monmouth (6-5, 190), 3.2 apg

You get the point. All these guards were not only bigger than DWill aside from Mbeng, but also dished out more assists. Was that DWill's fault? Not necessarily. Sometimes he threw perfect passes and guys either missed bunnies or wide open shots. The fact that he was a 2nd-team All-Conference player and was used often in the two-man game with a big man who was not a threat to score, is pretty amazing. 

If he returns next season, how good would DWill be if he had a big lead guard like Izaiah Pasha next to him? He was brilliant against UNCW with 21 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Nothing against CMay or Tarke, but there's a reason why this team is near the bottom of the CAA every year in assists. Some of that is poor perimeter shooting. This year, we were last with 10.64 per game and it showed in both games when we went iso and one-on-one in way too many situations. 

2)I said this on the chat throughout the season and in the rare losses and some close wins. This team was flawed and not just at the 5 spot (I'll get to that later) In a lot of ways, PS did his best coaching job before the tournament. I don't care if they played an easy schedule after the first two games, they still won 16 of 18 games and beat the best team in the league UNCW (beat Delaware twice, talented and underachieving Drexel 2x, etc.). 

3)Going16-2 in the regular season was great, but we had to come back in too many games. It didn't feel like your typical top seed. Going on a 30-1 run against W&M was incredible, but we were way down in that one to win by 15. We had to come back to beat Hampton at the end of the season. We played pretty well against Campbell on the road and I thought that was one of the better performances of the year, considering it was in that bandbox after a tough loss at Elon. This was not a dominant team by any means and I think the Timberlake/Cam teams along with the Benimon teams were better. They had dominant rebounders and better defensive squads. But the results were all the same. But this team also didn;t have a JB or a CT in the middle to control the paint.

4)I've been about full-court pressure since the 80s of Georgetown and the 90s of Maryland. Not saying we had the perfect team to press but my favorite game of the season was watching us beat NE 75-65 on Jan. 27 on the road. Got them out of their comfort zone. We forced 17 turnovers and had 10 steals led by five from Tarke, who was used to playing in that manner at Coppin State. Not sure why we stopped doing that especially in the CAAT. Lowery and Tarke are made for pressing, trapping and uptempo basketball. 

5)Centers. I said it in preseason. Who is our five? Can Embeya get better? Can MJ's body hold up? Can Samb be serviceable? I can't blame Messiah for trying. Dude was maybe 6-5 and 235, with a bad shoulder, knees, Diabetes, ertc. He's not even a 25-minute player. Embeya got better defensively, but he was afraid to shoot. Samb was well Samb. He didn't really hurt them much late in the season. Going small was the right thing against Delaware but they probably should have started Lowery at the 5. Or Sulaiman. Not wait until late in the game. Act don't react. Delaware was not the same Delaware we played in the regular season. Maybe our guys never realized it. Then again, we loved to get behind in games and come back all year, At some point, it was going to bite us in the ass and it did.

I'm not every going to jump off the bandwagon. I never did when Jazz, Hunt and PK ran the show (into the ground) and I won't know. Frustrated as shit, no doubt, but I like talk about resolutions and not just grievances. Believe me, if they won, we'd have more people here, more people donating and half the team would have left and we would still be freakin' happy.

Instead of doing a depth chart, I'll just assume that TT will leave and hope that DWill stays. But with Barton, Womack, and Holmes coming in and Ndefo, Coleman and Cole back from redshirts (I assume), here's what we need (assume that Tarke, Hicks, Sulaiman and Jones are all gone).

PG DWill, Barton

SG Cole

SF May/Lowery

PF/Wing Womack, Ndefo

C Embeya, Coleman, Samb, Holmes (rs)

This leaves two players and while I'd love to have another big man, we're desperate for two quality guards, hopefully with some size though Barton (6-3, 210?) is pretty big. Not sure if he'll be ready yet to play in the rotation. He was basically a 4 in high school because they had small guards but was All-WCAC. Womack will be a stud at some point. Might just play the 5 but it's always tough as a freshman. But he'll 100% play right away. Just don't know how long a guy like that will be around so better take advantage and get the cash ready.

The center position will still be a question mark unless they can play Womack at 6-7, 230 ready to play, but too many questions. Still desperately need better passers and shooters assuming Tejada is gone. They are the definition of "fine" right now. Need two impact guys at lead guard and wing. Need more than fine, but at least expectations will be mid at best if DWill returns. If not, they'll have 3 spots and they better spend 75% of that NIL/SAR money on transfers.

Delaware was a bit of fluke but they showed the formula on offense. Shooters everywhere. Big lead guard. Didn't need 10 players. UNCW a dominant rebounding team with two quality big, neither being great, but you don't need great in this league at the 5. Just good. A threat. Charleston was Charleston but they had the guards, the bigs, etc. Coaching wasn't quite as good and maybe chemistry was off after so many losses.

I'd still love to have a down season like Charleston. We know they'll be back because they have Lazar Djokovic. A Xavier transfer who may not be Ante' but he's a force.

Jealous of UNCW for winning and Delaware for getting there. I know that having a strong regular season is not enough. Some changes HAVE to be made. Personnel-wise, schematically to fit the talent on both ends of the floor. I'm not saying 40 minutes of hell next season like Arkansas in the 90s is necessary, but Ndefo, Embeya, May, Womack and Lowery are all athletic and their talents should be used in some sort of trap and pressure. It worked against NE and at the end of the Delaware game. 

Changes are not about helping us go 16-2 in the regular season again and who cares? That probably won't happen next season or ever again. It's about getting a top 4 seed (unless your' Del/Sbrook) and playing your best. Doing whatever it f-ing takes to cut down the nets in March, not February. Take chances.

[Bay Area Tiger]

I’ll say it again..  a big who can shoot the 3 would really help this team.  I see them all over college basketball with odd last names.  Add an Eastern Euro or an Aussie! 
 

And I’m also about solutions.  It is what it is right now.  How can we get better and how can we as a fanbase aside from donating money help get this program to the championship game.  
 

The head coach isn’t going anywhere folks.  All your grievances have been noted.  Can we add an assistant or GM to help him get there!?

Can we land a legit well compensated transfer?   I sure hope so.   
 

Likely going to Eastern Canada next season.  I have to do a better job of supporting my school plain and simple  

 

 

[mat1992]

37 minutes ago, Bay Area Tiger said:

I’ll say it again..  a big who can shoot the 3 would really help this team.  I see them all over college basketball with odd last names.  Add an Eastern Euro or an Aussie! 
 

And I’m also about solutions.  It is what it is right now.  How can we get better and how can we as a fanbase aside from donating money help get this program to the championship game.  
 

The head coach isn’t going anywhere folks.  All your grievances have been noted.  Can we add an assistant or GM to help him get there!?

Can we land a legit well compensated transfer?   I sure hope so.   
 

Likely going to Eastern Canada next season.  I have to do a better job of supporting my school plain and simple  

 

 

Yeah, we’re going to take trips for $$$ reasons and hopefully it pays off in getting quality transfers and retaining your top players. We’d certainly make more money had we won last night and just got to the finals.

[Bay Area Tiger]

1 minute ago, mat1992 said:

Yeah, we’re going to take trips for $$$ reasons and hopefully it pays off in getting quality transfers and retaining your top players. We’d certainly make more money had we won last night and just got to the finals.

I’m actually thinking about traveling to Canada for the tournament.  How many seasons do we have left of the legend Spiro 📻📺 so I want to see the team and him again.  

[tualum]

We’ve all been writing the same grievance posts year after year. As someone said earlier, just copy and paste. Good analysis though 

[TuTigers2012]

Next year will look same as the last 14 or whatever number in purgatory we are in.  The cycle continues,  posters on here are fine with it, AD, President are fine with it. HOPEFULLY any of the few donors out there see this and pull the funds. Season tickets aren't renewed (I know a few that are pulling theirs), until a real change and new vision comes to this program.  

[Chris Datres]

It’s been 14 years.  Do we really think under current management that we’re gonna turn into an up-tempo, pressing team?  I mean, after it not working for this long, maybe he should change his philosophy.  Not likely though.  The dinosaur days of the 2-man post game and running through a big man need to end.  Winning basketball is outside-in and all 5 on the floor have to be shooters in order to space out the floor.  Playing a post offense and a ball screen/PNR offense at the same time only clogs up space and leads to the ball sticking.  Teams that have been successful in the conference tournament have constant and consistent ball movement to open up the floor.  That creates challenges for the defense.  We’re too easy to guard and that’s why we self-destruct in the semis. 
 

It’s a giant pimple on a coaching record to be so resistant to change and fail to adapt to current successful philosophies.  Either there needs to be a totally new voice for the whole program or a voice that can come in to convince current management that he has to change his ways.  Otherwise, we’ll continue to see the same results. 

[Bay Area Tiger]

31 minutes ago, Chris Datres said:

It’s been 14 years.  Do we really think under current management that we’re gonna turn into an up-tempo, pressing team?  I mean, after it not working for this long, maybe he should change his philosophy.  Not likely though.  The dinosaur days of the 2-man post game and running through a big man need to end.  Winning basketball is outside-in and all 5 on the floor have to be shooters in order to space out the floor.  Playing a post offense and a ball screen/PNR offense at the same time only clogs up space and leads to the ball sticking.  Teams that have been successful in the conference tournament have constant and consistent ball movement to open up the floor.  That creates challenges for the defense.  We’re too easy to guard and that’s why we self-destruct in the semis. 
 

It’s a giant pimple on a coaching record to be so resistant to change and fail to adapt to current successful philosophies.  Either there needs to be a totally new voice for the whole program or a voice that can come in to convince current management that he has to change his ways.  Otherwise, we’ll continue to see the same results. 

5 out offense is the standard now.  Hence why I say we need a big who can shoot it from 3 consistently. 
 

[sr16]

36 minutes ago, Chris Datres said:

It’s been 14 years.  Do we really think under current management that we’re gonna turn into an up-tempo, pressing team?  I mean, after it not working for this long, maybe he should change his philosophy.  Not likely though.  The dinosaur days of the 2-man post game and running through a big man need to end.  Winning basketball is outside-in and all 5 on the floor have to be shooters in order to space out the floor.  Playing a post offense and a ball screen/PNR offense at the same time only clogs up space and leads to the ball sticking.  Teams that have been successful in the conference tournament have constant and consistent ball movement to open up the floor.  That creates challenges for the defense.  We’re too easy to guard and that’s why we self-destruct in the semis. 
 

It’s a giant pimple on a coaching record to be so resistant to change and fail to adapt to current successful philosophies.  Either there needs to be a totally new voice for the whole program or a voice that can come in to convince current management that he has to change his ways.  Otherwise, we’ll continue to see the same results. 

This. Watching all the other games. Everyone is moving. Motion constantly. Meanwhile we’re running pick and rolls with 2 guards standing at the corners at the 3 point line. One cut at a time. It just seems so mediocre and slow. It’s fine if we can defend. If not, we just get stagnant and lose. 

[AtlantaTiger]

First, I want to give a shout-out to St. Francis on making the Big Dance for the first time since......wait for it.......wait for it......1991. Good for them for defying the odds and making it despite $0 NIL.

Second, fully understanding that we won't have a new leader on the sidelines anytime soon I do want to propose, or should I say, repropose, a suggestion I made this time last year.  In absolute seriousness, I believe our men's basketball team and Pat Skerry could greatly benefit from having regular access to a sports psychologist.  Yes, there's a physical element as to why we crumble in early March but how can we NOT agree that Pat and his team completely wilt in big games.....that's an issue between the ears that needs to be dealt with.  Poor Pat has got to be shell-shocked and haunted by his March letdowns.  Those demons need to be fully exercised if he's going to take another run at this thing next year. 

There's got to be a credentialed and impactful sports psychologist somewhere in the greater Baltimore-metro who could work with the team on dealing with the pressure of lofty expectations and rising to the occasion in BIG games and critical moments.  

Go Tigers.