2023 Offseason Grade

[spider23]

D+/C-
Couldn't decide between the two.

Guards
With very little returning known production, we needed some big hits here. Mooney started off with a big one in a smaller package in Jordan King. Looks like a home run, and should give us more scoring than we had at this position, as well as ability to create shots, etc. Great start to portal season. We also added Trevor Smith, who was a pretty highly touted guard out of h.s. I also like the Tyne pick up, another smaller guard, but looks to be able to hit shots. Two solid high school pick ups. We were in the running for Darius Brown, who I think would have formed a super A10 back court with King. That was a big miss. I would have liked to seen one more really productive guard like Brown. I do think between Dji, Roche, transfer add Hunt, and the two promising freshman we should be able to find some production. I think best case scenario is for Dji to be the guy here, cut down TO's and play 25 minutes a game. Hunt and the freshman alongside King makes a very smallish back court. That has worked OK for us in the past, but with no Burton and Quinn not a guy that rebounds outside of his radius, think we need a big athletic guard like Dji to play along with King. As much as we added and have coming back, we really still have a lot of question marks.
Forwards
We had all year to find a replacement for Reed. Did not happen. Mooney seemed to put all his eggs in the Burton returning basket. Big whiff. Tanner coming in is a good pick up, but again in this era of 5 year players it is hard to predict a freshman having a big impact. I love his production at a high level h.s. league. but we could have used another athletic forward to at the very least play defense and rebound. Hopefully Tyler Harris embraces this type of role, though he has been listed as a guard, seems more perimeter oriented. I get that the game has changed and is more perimeter oriented, but when you can't stop people and get out worked and out rebounded badly, it does impact your ability to win. You kind of need to at least be competent in all areas. Noyes fulfilling his promise this year, and being able to guard big forwards and rebound would really cover up this miss. Otherwise this is going to be the area that causes us to be a sub .500 team.

Overall, we brought in King from the portal. And missed or not involved with a lot of other guys we could have used. Likely NIL played a part, but that is part of the the $1.3 Million job description now. Need really big years from Dji, Noyes, and one more player not named King to have a top of the A10 team. I am hoping for it, but a lot of production required from unproven guys up to this point.

 

[spiderman]

I'll assume like everyone that we start Quinn, Bigelow and King.
for the life of me I can't figure out which way we go from there.
the unknown with Roche is a killer. I really think we need his shooting.
I'm leaning towards Dji at one of the spots, like 23. he'll have to make a big jump but I think he has the tools.
whether the 5th is Roche, Noyes, Hunt, Harris or a freshman, I haven't a clue.

 

[Eight Legger]

After reading that, I am picturing the way Mooney gathers his assistasnts during a timeout on the court and spends about 85% of the timeout talking with them and the last 15% quickly telling the players something. That feels like the meme for this offseason -- spending a lot of time trying to figure out what exactly we have and how we are going to cover up the deficiencies of this roster, then quickly putting five guys out there on the court in November and hoping for the best.

 

[97spiderfan]

After reading that, I am picturing the way Mooney gathers his assistasnts during a timeout on the court and spends about 85% of the timeout talking with them and the last 15% quickly telling the players something. That feels like the meme for this offseason -- spending a lot of time trying to figure out what exactly we have and how we are going to cover up the deficiencies of this roster, then quickly putting five guys out there on the court in November and hoping for the best.

Good metaphor for this offseason. We seemed slow to the punch, over reliant on the hope that Tyler would return, meanwhile other programs were out filling voids with the better players in the portal. Either that or we tried really hard to get top tier guys and no one was particularly enamored with what we were selling.

 

[8legs1dream]

Good metaphor for this offseason. We seemed slow to the punch, over reliant on the hope that Tyler would return, meanwhile other programs were out filling voids with the better players in the portal. Either that or we tried really hard to get top tier guys and no one was particularly enamored with what we were selling.

and the thing was, even with TB returning we were likely in a similar spot as last season so there were major upgrades needed across the board basically.

 

[Not-A-Homer]

Without King, this portal performance would be a raging "F".

Thank goodness King is going to be here this year!

 

[97spiderfan]

and the thing was, even with TB returning we were likely in a similar spot as last season so there were major upgrades needed across the board basically.

Yes, this to me was and is the huge issue. Even had TB returned which seemed like was our best case scenario, our roster would have still had holes all over it. We plugged a few but nothing that would have made us a contending team next year.

I have not once heard or sensed any type of urgency from our coaching staff/admin to make us anything better than what we were last year and we weren't very good last year. A whole lot of contentment/acceptance with being mediocre. I just don't know how you run a program like that this but yet we continue to do so.

Look at the baseball team, sub .500 for 10 years, zero NCAA's and we only made that move because the coaches contract expired. It is endemic across our entire athletic program.

 

[spider23]

Yep, that is an issue 97 - it seems like there has been a lack of urgency from the admin and the coaching staff for quite some time. You look down the street and it is the total opposite. They fully expect that Odom will hit the ground running and expectations are sky high.

 

[97spiderfan]

Yep, that is an issue 97 - it seems like there has been a lack of urgency from the admin and the coaching staff for quite some time. You look down the street and it is the total opposite. They fully expect that Odom will hit the ground running and expectations are sky high.

Maybe it shouldn't bother me so much but it does that we can't come out and say again and again and over and over again that we have an urgency to win. Instead we get this NIL is hard, the transfer market is hard, "we are still recruiting" that had to be pulled out. F*cking loser talk, loser mentality. I can't even think of one other serious program or sports operations who talks like we talk.

 

[SpiderGuy]

Maybe it shouldn't bother me so much but it does that we can't come out and say again and again and over and over again that we have an urgency to win. Instead we get this NIL is hard, the transfer market is hard, "we are still recruiting" that had to be pulled out. F*cking loser talk, loser mentality. I can't even think of one other serious program or sports operations who talks like we talk.

Complacency is our norm. If you haven’t come to accept it, there are extension years left to get you over the hump.

 

[Dr. Spidey]

Failing grade for another failing season. The worst has yet to come.

 

[spider23]

I'll move this up to a b minus. Solid upgrade imo with the pickup today. Replaced Reed with a big that could end up having a higher ceiling. Still wanted a Darius Brown impact type of guy, another proven interior contributor and not lose Burton. If Hunt is a top level A10 starter would move this up more, but that is TBD to me still.

 

[spiderman]

I'll move this up to a b minus. Solid upgrade imo with the pickup today. Replaced Reed with a big that could end up having a higher ceiling. Still wanted a Darius Brown impact type of guy, another proven interior contributor and not lose Burton. If Hunt is a top level A10 starter would move this up more, but that is TBD to me still.

tough grader.
time will tell, but if Soulis is an impact big (and he has that look), this could be the greatest class since the greatest class ever.

 

[gcarter52]

I positively hope that this is the case!

 

[spider23]

sman, this class looks pretty darn solid on paper and youtube highlights. We have had some of those in the recent past that never materialized. This class does not though, have that eye popping athlete, ala Burton, Smitty, etc. Even Gilyard's highlights from h.s. - you could see he was going to be a problem stealing the ball and transition. But, yes looks like a solid group. BUT, in today's day and age you have to try to build roster to compete THIS YEAR, because with the portal era, you may never get the best years of a player. So that is why the B-, which I think is a solid grade - and if Tyne, Smith or Hunt are 3rd team A10 types would move this up. But would have loved to get one or two more transfers that look like high impact plug and play types now. Hunt may be one but TBD.

 

[spiderman]

all fair. I prefer landing good looking freshmen though. guys we hope to develop and watch play for 3 or 4 years. I don't want to rely on replacing transfers every year.

 

[spider23]

I tend to agree, even though what I described (roster replacement every year) seems to be the new norm - I think we are going to need to buck that trend a bit and hopefully get 3-4 year guys that like the system, school and coaches and want to stick around. This class is much better with Tyne and Soulis, and has the opportunity to be a really good building block. Graham is a very good PWO, but not sure how much opportunity he will have.

 

[VT4700]

I'll move this up to a b minus. Solid upgrade imo with the pickup today. Replaced Reed with a big that could end up having a higher ceiling. Still wanted a Darius Brown impact type of guy, another proven interior contributor and not lose Burton. If Hunt is a top level A10 starter would move this up more, but that is TBD to me still.

All fair, but I would give a higher grade. No doubt, a big impact guy like Brown would have been huge, but I feel like adding King alone puts us around a C because of how important he will be. Then, factor in another possible starter at guard in Hunt, and I am already at your B- grade. Even though no one should be blamed for losing Tyler, he still did transfer out, so I can see why you would say that hurts the grade, so I will factor that in and put up back at a C. Adding Tyne and Harris moves this back up to a B-. And, with the huge Soulis pick up, my overall grade would be a B+.

But, overall, I think you have been a very fair grader this year and over the years, so I can respect your B- grade.

 

[spiderman]

when factoring in all the changes from last season ...
we graduated Grace, Gustavson, Crabtree
we lost Burton, Nelson, Randolph, Dread, Wilson
we added King, Harris, Hunt, Smith, Tanner, Tyne, Soulis and Graham.

I give a pass on losing Burton. $525k is a lot of scratch.
but including Burton, I still think it looks like a net positive (long term) in talent.
excluing Burton it could be a home run.

 

[UR80sfan]

I would break the grade down into 2 components. High School and Transfers. For high school I would give the coaching staff a solid A, however for transfers (not including Burton leaving) I would give a C-. Not sure how much can be attributable to Mooney being ill at a critical time verse NIL.

 

[VT4700]

when factoring in all the changes from last season ...
we graduated Grace, Gustavson, Crabtree
we lost Burton, Nelson, Randolph, Dread, Wilson
we added King, Harris, Hunt, Smith, Tanner, Tyne, Soulis and Graham.

I give a pass on losing Burton. $525k is a lot of scratch.
but including Burton, I still think it looks like a net positive (long term) in talent.
excluing Burton it could be a home run.

Wilson??

 

[UR80sfan]

Wilson??

When Mooney benched Wilson for poor play, I think a lot of people thought there was a high probability he would move on. The guy I was disappoint who left was Marcus. With that said, we kept everyone else, which is pretty good these days.

 

[GKiller]

This is why u don’t remove old rosters from the website

 

[VT4700]

This is why u don’t remove old rosters from the website

I know, but Wilson left 2 years ago, not this off season.

 

[spiderman]

I know, but Wilson left 2 years ago, not this off season.

lol ... oops!
not used to all the transfers in and out. my spreadsheet has gotten harder to follow!

 

[urmite]

lol ... oops!
not used to all the transfers in and out. my spreadsheet has gotten harder to follow!

I knew it had to 7 out 8 in…

 

[urmite]

So now:

Returning, always UR:
Walz, Noyes, Bailey

Transfer in last season:
Quinn, Bigelow, Roche

Transfer in this season:
Harris, Hunt, King

First year in college:
Soulis, Tanner, Smith, Tyne

Walk on with offers:
Graham

 

[kneepadmckinney]

I never thought Tyler Burton was coming back anyway, given that we did his senior year sendoff at the end of the year. So I put him in with the "graduated" guys.

Transfers: traded Nelson, Randolph, Dread for King, Hunt, and Harris. To me, that's a very big upgrade for Richmond in Year 1. However the upgrade could diminish over time depending upon how good a player JayNel and Randolph become.

Graduated: Grace, Gustavson, Burton, Crabtree for Smith, Tyne, Soulis, Tanner. Can't grade this for 2-3 years. No reason why a junior Soulis can't be a major upgrade over junior Matt Grace. No reason junior Smith and Tyne can't be a major upgrade over Gustavson and Crabtree. I think the big one is whether Tanner develops into a solid A-10 starter. I'm not expecting him to be a first team A-10 guy like Burton.

 

[brooklyn brownstone]

perhaps a fairer breakdown is graduated seniors / transfers in (bc most of our transfers in are experienced) and then transfers out / freshmen in (bc most transfers out are younger and unproven.)

To me you can't compare graduated guys vs incoming freshmen and hope to compare future potential stats of the freshmen vs past years results of the grads. We just have zero info.

 

[spider23]

Brooklyn, that is the issue with trying to bump up this grade too much. As many coaches use this saying now: GET OLD, basically to equate your chances with having a lot experience. I do like this class a lot on paper. BUT, in this day and age with portal and now NIL - I do think the chances of these guys getting OLD here, or at any program, are a lot less likely. If we are not playing the NIL game to the fullest, this may not be a bad strategy. In this case, I will give Moon credit - when our opportunities in the portal seemed to dry up, we brought in Graham, Tyne and Soulis. These were good moves - especially Soulis. With St. John's (predicted to be a top 25 this season, and probably up from there" and St. Mary's (great, succesful program) already offering, one more season may have been very tough to land him. But yes, this class very good - but the impact is likely not immediate - and then have to hope to keep them long term. If Soulis can be a big contributor to winning this year then my offseason grade goes up to A.

 

[brooklyn brownstone]

Yeah I like this class a lot. But they gotta be shooters at the college level. Recruit shooters first and always. Particularly in the UR offensive system.

 

[urmite]

I think 4700 was the coach here

https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2022/12/09/grinnell-basketball-three-pointers-cbb

 

[VT4700]

I think 4700 was the coach here

https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2022/12/09/grinnell-basketball-three-pointers-cbb

LOL. 😀 😀 😀😀

 

[spider23]

Upgrading to B+.
The good: Have to give credit to Mooney - when ran out of options for impact players in the portal, pivoted and was able to pick up two players by offering re-class. This was an excellent move and strategy. In particular with Soulis, he already had two offers from huge programs in St. Mary's (one of the top of the top mid majors - seemingly in position to be a top 25 regular) and St. John's (Pitino will have them on national scene in no time - already preseason ranked by some). Likely the competition would have been even stronger. Tyne, like his game too and he looks to have game that will translate
The really good: '24 Class so far. Both guys look really good on tape. Still have more spots to fill, and again I am working on HS/AAU highlights so I know that is not the most telling. But Jaylen is that 6'7-6'9 stud athlete I am always looking for, and McGlothin really has crazy skill for his size and length.
Reason we are not in the A territory: Still would have liked another really impactful player in the portal. I think Hunt will be a contributor, if he plays like Blake Franchise, this would be an A. I see him helping, but not a guy that can carry us for stretches like Blake, TJ, etc. Also could bump up this grade if we land another highly touted recruit in 24 class.