We went 10-8 IC last year because we did not shoot the 3 ball well. Tyler started the year red hot, but only shot 31% in A-10 play. When he wasn't making them, Jacob was our only threat. I look for Tyler to be more consistent from 3 this year, and Roche and Bigelow should give us multiple guys out there who can make the 3. And, if Nelson can make enough to keep the defense honest, we should be a lot better from 3. It's pretty simple for me. We shoot the 3 better this year, we win more conference games.
2022–23 Schedule Updates
- Thread starter SFspidur
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The team was stale the last two years during the regular season but fortunately put together a great run at the end last year. Sometimes what appears to be really good individual talent on paper doesn't always translate into good team play. We have a different type of team this year, and I think it's much more athletic and skilled in ways last year's wasn't.
Agree also that having some more three point shooting can make a big difference. Feel really good about Roche and Burton. Have a good feeling that Bigelow two years post ACL is going to be a strong contributor, including shooting the three. I feel like we should be able to field another solid to good three point shooter between Nelson, Dji, Goose, Crab. Wildcards: Can Noyes or Randolph get some minutes and hit some 3's. Also, looking at Quinn's video - I think he could be good for a couple a game. I know we generally want him doing damage from mid post and down low. But on tape he looks good shooting from top of key, and that really can open up passing/cutting lanes. All these 3's are easier said than actually done in games - but feel like we could have a really good 3 shooting team
at which positions do you see more athleticism and skill?
I'd say it's a wash at best. better perimeter shooting at the 4 spot, but that's about it.
I'm not saying we can't fit well and be a very good team, of course.
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I don't know but here is my idea of a roster recap...
Gone:
Golden
Gilyard
Cayo
Sherod
Wilson
Kouressi
Remaining:
Burton
Gustavson
Grace
Crabtree
Bailey
Randolph
First time on our court:
Quinn
Roche
Bigelow
Nelson
Noyes
Dread
Walz
I probably should have said "potentially" skilled. But in general, I just see the roster top to bottom being more athletic overall, meaning more guys have the theoretic ability to do more varied things. The "skill" for some of them is unknown but I think the ceiling is higher 1 through 13 for these guys than it was for last year's 13.
Cayo for instance was able to do two things well – score from within 5 feet and rebound. Grace/Bigelow have the abilities to do both of those things AND score from the perimeter, as you noted.
Sherod was very limited athletically because of his injuries. Whoever takes his minutes will be be more athletic.
All three of our transfers are excellent from the line. That's a skill most of our team lacked last year.
Roche is athletic and more skilled from deep than anyone we had at the 2 last year. Bailey will see more time this year than last year, and he's athletic and gives us a different look.
Dread/Noyes/Walz/Randolph probably won't see a ton of action, but what I have seen of all of them makes me feel like their ceilings are higher than our normal last 4-5 guys on the bench.
that's a good breakdown.
I just look at main rotational guys and don't see an increase in athleticism/skill.
Gilyard > Nelson/Bailey
Burton = Burton
Golden = Quinn (though I doubt Quinn runs the floor like Golden)
Goose = Goose
Cayo = Bigelow (with more shooting)
Grace = Grace
Sherod < Roche athletically ... likely = in skills
hopefully we get a healthy Crabtree
I just look at main rotational guys and don't see an increase in athleticism/skill.
Gilyard > Nelson/Bailey
Burton = Burton
Golden = Quinn (though I doubt Quinn runs the floor like Golden)
Goose = Goose
Cayo = Bigelow (with more shooting)
Grace = Grace
Sherod < Roche athletically ... likely = in skills
hopefully we get a healthy Crabtree
We will be a good team it Quinn = Golden, but very hard to say right now. Would think you have to assume Quinn will be a step down.
agreed. I'm saying athletically they're comparable. even skill wise. I think expecting Golden production from Quinn is asking a lot, but it's possible.
It might be hard to say now, but I think Quinn at 7 feet can provide some post ups on offense, some shot blocking and maybe some better defense than Grant just based on his size. Offensively, we will see. Grant did a lot for us on the offensive end, and when our offense was clicking, he was a big part of it. If Quinn can come close to matching Grant offensively, we will be in great shape.
Correct, and SpiderK DEFINITELY took me up on my bet, with loser never posting again.I thought I heard somewhere in March that we would be 7-24 to 10-21?
Big question to me is Quinn a better defender than Golden. While, I think it will be tough for Quinn to equal Golden's production on the offensive end of things, the bar is considerably lower on the defensive end of things.
bc Golden did? Not my memory. I thought one of Goldens strength was his ball handling for a big man, especially up top where he got lot of touches.
Golden had a decent amount of turnovers on back door pass attempts. Golden and Quinn had basically identical tunover rates last year, Quinn had the better assist rate.
3 or 4 on back doors? For as much as we ran our O thru the big, Golden avg 2 turnovers total. Quinn is a good passer but I wouldn’t be surprised if his TO’s go up here.
No question about it. As often as Grant had the ball (pretty much every trip down), and as many passes as he threaded between the defense, he had to have some turnovers. I would rather him do what he did with a few turnovers than never make the tough pass because he might get a turnover.
Hey we actually agree here 🫣😀
Golden had a flair for the dramatic with his passing, sometimes trying to often to make the highlight pass versus the good basketball pass, that to me resulted in a few too many unnecessary turnovers.
This would probably qualify him to play in the NBA cause they are always trying to make the highlight play.
the offense requires him to attempt some risky backdoor passes. that's the Princeton part of Mooney's offense. Quinn will make the same ones. neither is a hot dog.
I expect a good year from Grace. I think its a matter of opportunity, he didn't get a chance to play much behind Golden and confidence with him. When he got rolling in the A10 tourney - you could see his confidence rising, and that resulted in better play. Is he an all A10 performer, likely not. But if he plays 25-30 minutes a night, I don't see any reason why he can't give us 10+ points and 5+ rebounds. Now does Quinn give us more - maybe. He was a 14-7-4, but in the Patriot League and I would love for him to just give us the same in the A10 in his first year. HIs foot injury concerns me - I hate "foot injury" with "7 footer", so lets see how that shakes out for him. But I think if Grace gets his confidence going - he is better than we think.
I never saw confidence as a problem. he's quick to take the shot when open.
Grace made big plays for us and was huge in the Dayton game. but he was playing pretty substantial minutes and scored over 4 points once in our 6 post season games.
I think 10 and 5 is aggressive but I hope you're right.
Grace made big plays for us and was huge in the Dayton game. but he was playing pretty substantial minutes and scored over 4 points once in our 6 post season games.
I think 10 and 5 is aggressive but I hope you're right.
exactly that's part of the O. Of course Golden had some on those passes, and he had a few games where he struggled on TO's. But overall lack of turnovers is a strength of ours and that included Grant. I mean he averaged just 2 a game. Includes all other game situations. In reality I bet less than 1 a game actually game from his back door passes.
Some game from the back door passes, which are at least plausibly excusable, but he had others that were of the no look variety or trying to thread some really difficult needle. I realize what his stats says, but my eyes saw careless turnovers and if Quinn can avoid those type of careless turnover, we will be better for it.
Also, Grace is a much improved player. If you think we have a chance at the NCAA next year though, than Quinn has to be your starter. Grace is gonna give us good minutes, I have no doubt in that, but we are not an NCAA team if is our starting center (particularly, since we are starting a freshman PG). We absolutely need Quinn to be the same player he was with Lafeyette and probably to make some improvements on that if we want to be dancing in March.
Also, Grace is a much improved player. If you think we have a chance at the NCAA next year though, than Quinn has to be your starter. Grace is gonna give us good minutes, I have no doubt in that, but we are not an NCAA team if is our starting center (particularly, since we are starting a freshman PG). We absolutely need Quinn to be the same player he was with Lafeyette and probably to make some improvements on that if we want to be dancing in March.
Agree on Quinn production and agree that Grace doesn't need to be a 10/5 guy for the team to be successful bc hopefully Quinn provides good numbers, but Grace does have to improve his numbers by a decent amount, at least in comparison to his numbers from last year.
I understand the Grant turnovers argument both ways - mainly bc to me I loved the backdoors and got frustrated when he would wave off the guards, bring the ball up and you knew he wanted to thread a pass...when one of those went awry it felt like we could see it coming, as opposed to him not forcing it. But overall, yeah, he made lots of plays, you take some turnovers with them.
I understand the Grant turnovers argument both ways - mainly bc to me I loved the backdoors and got frustrated when he would wave off the guards, bring the ball up and you knew he wanted to thread a pass...when one of those went awry it felt like we could see it coming, as opposed to him not forcing it. But overall, yeah, he made lots of plays, you take some turnovers with them.
The one that was near automatic was when Golden got frisky and brought the ball up the court and then tried to force the backdoor pass for the guy cutting from the right wing. That was a turnover A LOT.
But in the flow of the offense, he was terrific.
Clemson game confirmed for 12/17 as part of the Greenville Classic.
Make that two away games I will be seeing in SC this year … thankfully a touch easier to get to than Iowa
We had pretty much heard all of the pieces before, but looks like a nice event.
Given that we already know dates for 11 of our 13 OOC games, plus Coppin State with no date known yet, I was just trying to fill in the blanks a little bit.
1. We have a gap between Charleston on 11/14 and the Empire Classic starting on 11/21, so I suspect we'll have a game around the midpoint of that gap.
2. There's another potential spot for a game the weekend after Thanksgiving, but I don't know if we want to do that. The Empire Classic is on Mon/Tues before Thanksgiving, and then we don't play again until Wed 11/30 at Toledo, so something on the weekend of 11/26–27 might work if the guys don't go home for Thanksgiving.
3. Probably the final possible spot for a game would be after Christmas. We have Bucknell as our getaway game on 12/21, and while I'm not sure what date A-10 play will start on, there's probably room to fit in one more OOC game after returning from Christmas.
Glancing at known Coppin State games, I don't think we'll be hosting them in option 1, because they're supposed to be participating in a three-game campus-based MTE squeezed between their games against Navy on 11/14 and Towson on 11/22.
Option 2 is a possibility, especially if it's Sunday 11/27, as they play at Maryland on 11/25.
Option 3 is also a possibility, although they're at Rutgers on 12/30, so ours would probably have be like 12/27 or 12/28.
Very curious to find out who our final opponent is.
1. We have a gap between Charleston on 11/14 and the Empire Classic starting on 11/21, so I suspect we'll have a game around the midpoint of that gap.
2. There's another potential spot for a game the weekend after Thanksgiving, but I don't know if we want to do that. The Empire Classic is on Mon/Tues before Thanksgiving, and then we don't play again until Wed 11/30 at Toledo, so something on the weekend of 11/26–27 might work if the guys don't go home for Thanksgiving.
3. Probably the final possible spot for a game would be after Christmas. We have Bucknell as our getaway game on 12/21, and while I'm not sure what date A-10 play will start on, there's probably room to fit in one more OOC game after returning from Christmas.
Glancing at known Coppin State games, I don't think we'll be hosting them in option 1, because they're supposed to be participating in a three-game campus-based MTE squeezed between their games against Navy on 11/14 and Towson on 11/22.
Option 2 is a possibility, especially if it's Sunday 11/27, as they play at Maryland on 11/25.
Option 3 is also a possibility, although they're at Rutgers on 12/30, so ours would probably have be like 12/27 or 12/28.
Very curious to find out who our final opponent is.
