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Brandon Jennings - 2024 Offer

My daughter is a rising senior at St Catherine's so hoping Brandon is the next Saint that comes to the Spiders. Would be fun to watch some of his games next year. She may apply to UR as well .. but going to college less than 10 minutes from where we live is an interesting complexity .. wonder if Brandon likes the idea of being local or not.
 
Will we need another PG for next year? Are we not a little deep in
that neck of the woods?
 
Will we need another PG for next year? Are we not a little deep in
that neck of the woods?
could be wrong but seems with the King signing that we've moved Dji off the point. I think he's competing for time more as a playmaker at the 2 and 3.
King will graduate next year and Hunt will be a senior.
TSmith has been talked about as a small 2 guard as well as a point.
plus Mooney has a history of playing 2 PG types together.
and there's always transfer possibilities now days.
so with 4 or 5 spots to fill, reasonable to expect one will be a PG.
 
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could be wrong but seems with the King signing that we've moved Dji off the point. I think he's competing for time more as a playmaker at the 2 and 3.
King will graduate next year and Hunt will be a senior.
TSmith has been talked about as a small 2 guard as well as a point.
plus Mooney has a history of playing 2 PG types together.
and there's always transfer possibilities now days.
so with 4 or 5 spots to fill, reasonable to expect one will be a PG.

Tyne too
 
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I feel like to start the season we will see a starting lineup of: King, Dji, Noyes (assuming Roche not able to practice early), Bigelow, and Quinn. I do agree that Mooney has grown fond of the two smaller guards together, so Hunt could be knocking on the door. If Dji can keep the turnovers down and the production up passing and scoring some, I see him staying in the lineup. If he struggles, with Roche coming back and Hunt either Tyne or Simth, there will be a lot of opportunity for the other guards.
 
I feel like to start the season we will see a starting lineup of: King, Dji, Noyes (assuming Roche not able to practice early), Bigelow, and Quinn. I do agree that Mooney has grown fond of the two smaller guards together, so Hunt could be knocking on the door. If Dji can keep the turnovers down and the production up passing and scoring some, I see him staying in the lineup. If he struggles, with Roche coming back and Hunt either Tyne or Simth, there will be a lot of opportunity for the other guards.
23, since you asked me why I felt Hunt would be starting, can I ask why you are so high on Dji? This is year 4 now, and he did get more minutes when he started those 7 games last year, but the result was low impact, so to me we have seen enough to have a good idea of what he brings out there. I still don't see a big minutes guy in him. I don't see him as a PG, and, without an outside shot and little offensive production, I don't see how he could get a lot of time at non PG. Just wondering what you saw or have seen differently than me to make you think this.
 
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Well if you are going to knock his low shooting percentage two years ago on low volume, have to give him some credit for the 40 percent from 3 last year. He came in with a lot of potential but never got a good run in due to injuries. I am hopeful he can finally put it together this year. He has shown flashes of making plays and ability to have an impact. He will need to control turnovers and show some offense to stay on the floor though. Mooney does seem to have the quick yank with him, so the more confidence he can get early will be key.
 
I feel like to start the season we will see a starting lineup of: King, Dji, Noyes (assuming Roche not able to practice early), Bigelow, and Quinn. I do agree that Mooney has grown fond of the two smaller guards together, so Hunt could be knocking on the door. If Dji can keep the turnovers down and the production up passing and scoring some, I see him staying in the lineup. If he struggles, with Roche coming back and Hunt either Tyne or Simth, there will be a lot of opportunity for the other guards.
I'll be surprised if Hunt doesn't start alongside King. Mooney has consistently shown that his comfort level with Bailey is nervous at best. I personally think that Bailey can be successful with King, their skill sets are almost perfectly complimentary. Of course, the same can be said for King / Hunt.

Hunt has played a lot of college minutes. Reminds me very much of the Goose situation. I think that Mooney will play Hunt in a very similar way (likely with similar results).

The good news is that the UR backcourt situation seems to be in pretty good shape. I'm most interested to see what Smith & Tyne can add. Improved guard play should make team play better overall.

I continue to believe that frontcourt performance will determine the altitude of the season. If the frontcourt shows out well, this team could be better than predicted.
 
The concern I would have with the back court - especially with Roche coming along slowly it sounds - is King is only proven shooter at this level (and he only shot 31% from 3 last season) - is shooting and teams being able to put additional focus on King.
Back court does have a lot of options, all of which have the potential to be good - but a lot of unproven.

Front court is much more thin. Basically have to really really hope Bigs and Quinn are iron men, avoid injury and foul trouble. If not will end up being in fairly sizable disadvantage. Hopefully Harris can kind of make that interior transition like Bigs did here. But even so we are probably going to rely on Noyes and even Tanner to slide in there some at 4.
 
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The concern I would have with the back court - especially with Roche coming along slowly it sounds - is King is only proven shooter at this level (and he only shot 31% from 3 last season) - is shooting and teams being able to put additional focus on King.
Back court does have a lot of options, all of which have the potential to be good - but a lot of unproven.

Front court is much more thin. Basically have to really really hope Bigs and Quinn are iron men, avoid injury and foul trouble. If not will end up being in fairly sizable disadvantage. Hopefully Harris can kind of make that interior transition like Bigs did here. But even so we are probably going to rely on Noyes and even Tanner to slide in there some at 4.
I'm always concerned with 3 point shooting because it is so important. If you are not making them, there is a good chance the other team is, so you better be able to keep up.

I know you said you like Dji because he was 40% from 3 last year, but it was only 15 attempts and what I saw was all 15 attempts being flat footed, slow release shots that are just not a recipe for success. So, I am not counting on 3s from him at all. If I am wrong, great, amd I hope I am.

We know what Roche can do when healthy. I hope to see a lot of him. Hunt's shot looks good to me, but you have to make them consistently. If he can be around 35% with good volume, he will be a huge piece for us. Smith could be a factor as well. If he can knock down some 3s, he should get more and more minutes.

Front court does not concern me as much as it does you guys. I think we are in pretty good shape there. Walz should be ready to back up Quinn, and Harris, Noyes, and Tanner can be there with Bigs.
 
curious as to why you are certain Walz is ready - even for a regular backup role? He was a turnover machine last year and seemed like every time he touched the ball needed to think about the proper pass, never comfortable in the offense. Similar to what you state about Dji, that's how I feel about Walz - I need to see solid minutes with no mistakes and some positives before I can say he's a regular rotation guy.
 
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curious as to why you are certain Walz is ready - even for a regular backup role? He was a turnover machine last year and seemed like every time he touched the ball needed to think about the proper pass, never comfortable in the offense. Similar to what you state about Dji, that's how I feel about Walz - I need to see solid minutes with no mistakes and some positives before I can say he's a regular rotation guy.
What movie were you watching? He did fine for the time he was given.
 
no clue what to expect from Walz. he played 47 minutes and looked uncomfortable. had 9 TOs in those 47 minutes. and when Grace was out, we mostly decided to play without a 5 when Quinn sat. but he has size and strength and he's pretty athletic. he's been here long enough now that he should be able to do this.

the guard spot next to King should be a wide open competition. Hunt was ok but not special at lower level Wagner. I'm not handing him anything. but he could win it. VT ... you were a Goose fan so I'm surprised you don't like Dji more. I think they're similar defensively, and if given Goose's 30 mpg I'm confident he'd have at least comparable offensive numbers. Goose had to be the most consistent offensive player over a 5 year career ever. yes, the 3 point shooting percentage improved last year. yet he averaged the lowest points scored per 40 of his career and he was (as always) between 4.4 and 4.9 ppg.

my issue with starting Dji is more with the cast around him. there's no offensive alpha ... exept maybe King. maybe Smith could be a go-to guy? or maybe play King at the 2 if Tyne looks like the guy?
 
curious as to why you are certain Walz is ready - even for a regular backup role? He was a turnover machine last year and seemed like every time he touched the ball needed to think about the proper pass, never comfortable in the offense. Similar to what you state about Dji, that's how I feel about Walz - I need to see solid minutes with no mistakes and some positives before I can say he's a regular rotation guy.
I thought Walz showed some positive things last year. I am only talking 10-12 minutes early in the year, and then if he shows he is ready to be a factor, maybe more as the season goes along. Unless we go real small, he is the clear back up to Quinn, and I think he will be more than good enough to do that. If you don't think he will be a regular rotation guy, you must either expect 40 minutes from Quinn, or us to go really small at times?
 
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no clue what to expect from Walz. he played 47 minutes and looked uncomfortable. had 9 TOs in those 47 minutes. and when Grace was out, we mostly decided to play without a 5 when Quinn sat. but he has size and strength and he's pretty athletic. he's been here long enough now that he should be able to do this.

the guard spot next to King should be a wide open competition. Hunt was ok but not special at lower level Wagner. I'm not handing him anything. but he could win it. VT ... you were a Goose fan so I'm surprised you don't like Dji more. I think they're similar defensively, and if given Goose's 30 mpg I'm confident he'd have at least comparable offensive numbers. Goose had to be the most consistent offensive player over a 5 year career ever. yes, the 3 point shooting percentage improved last year. yet he averaged the lowest points scored per 40 of his career and he was (as always) between 4.4 and 4.9 ppg.

my issue with starting Dji is more with the cast around him. there's no offensive alpha ... exept maybe King. maybe Smith could be a go-to guy? or maybe play King at the 2 if Tyne looks like the guy?
All fair about Goose, and I definitely liked him more and was fine with his minutes when we had Jacob, Blake, and Tyler scoring and making 3s. I did not want him getting so many minutes last year, and many times hoped for more minutes from Roche and Randolph instead.

As for everything else, I just liked Goose's overall game better than Dji's. Just my opinion. And, it's one thing to have little offense from a guy like Goose when you have guys like Jacob, Blake, Nick, Nate, Tyler, and Grant out there, and another totally different thing when there are not as many proven scorers out there beside him. Dji has averaged 1.8, 1.8, and 3 points a game his 3 years here. I just don't see us being successful with this roster if we are expecting him to be a starter, or a big minutes guy. His minutes went up the 7 games he started to 20 a game, including games of 30, 24, and 22, but in those 7 games, he never scored more than 6, and he averaged 4.3 points. 23 mentions he could be a playmaker, but he averaged 1 assist a game those 7 starts, including 3 games with 0 assists. 23 mentioned his 3s last year, but I have not heard anyone else say he might be a 3 point guy. He has 6 made 3s in 3 years, and even SDad has said he is not a 3 point guy. Again, just my opinion, but I just don't see what anyone would expect to change this year if he got decent minutes, and I just think he is clearly behind numerous others in the rotation.
 
The concern I would have with the back court - especially with Roche coming along slowly it sounds - is King is only proven shooter at this level (and he only shot 31% from 3 last season) - is shooting and teams being able to put additional focus on King.
Back court does have a lot of options, all of which have the potential to be good - but a lot of unproven.

Front court is much more thin. Basically have to really really hope Bigs and Quinn are iron men, avoid injury and foul trouble. If not will end up being in fairly sizable disadvantage. Hopefully Harris can kind of make that interior transition like Bigs did here. But even so we are probably going to rely on Noyes and even Tanner to slide in there some at 4.
I think you hit something here Spider23 - this might be a very poor shooting Spider team and that does not mix well with Mooney offense. Roche is a shooter, but may be injured and King seems good at times, but outside of that - not very confident in our ability to make shots.
 
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All fair about Goose, and I definitely liked him more and was fine with his minutes when we had Jacob, Blake, and Tyler scoring and making 3s. I did not want him getting so many minutes last year, and many times hoped for more minutes from Roche and Randolph instead.

As for everything else, I just liked Goose's overall game better than Dji's. Just my opinion. And, it's one thing to have little offense from a guy like Goose when you have guys like Jacob, Blake, Nick, Nate, Tyler, and Grant out there, and another totally different thing when there are not as many proven scorers out there beside him. Dji has averaged 1.8, 1.8, and 3 points a game his 3 years here. I just don't see us being successful with this roster if we are expecting him to be a starter, or a big minutes guy. His minutes went up the 7 games he started to 20 a game, including games of 30, 24, and 22, but in those 7 games, he never scored more than 6, and he averaged 4.3 points. 23 mentions he could be a playmaker, but he averaged 1 assist a game those 7 starts, including 3 games with 0 assists. 23 mentioned his 3s last year, but I have not heard anyone else say he might be a 3 point guy. He has 6 made 3s in 3 years, and even SDad has said he is not a 3 point guy. Again, just my opinion, but I just don't see what anyone would expect to change this year if he got decent minutes, and I just think he is clearly behind numerous others in the rotation.
as for Dji's averages, they're all (ppg, rpg, apg) slightly better than Goose's per 40 minutes played. to me, if you like Goose's game you should like Dji's.

but I agree about the cast around him. just like Goose, Dji would fit better with Jacob, Grant, etc. I like Quinn but I don't think he's a go-to big like Grant was. I hope King is on par with Gilyard but that's a high bar. Bigelow has upside. just has to do it. Roche can shoot. I think Dji fits nicely between King and Roche. I've got high hopes for Tanner and Noyes as shooters too.

let's see how it plays out.
 
I think you hit something here Spider23 - this might be a very poor shooting Spider team and that does not mix well with Mooney offense. Roche is a shooter, but may be injured and King seems good at times, but outside of that - not very confident in our ability to make shots.
Yeah, but Spiders make up for that with air tight defense and dominating rebounding.

Same playbook we have seen for 18 years. 🤔
 
Dji isn't comparable to Goose defensively sman. If he was he would have played more. Goose was one of our best athletes and our best defender. Goose had athletic strength to man up guys chest to chest. Dji is solid defender and I like his effort on D but strength is drawback. His foul rate was high. Like Not a Homer said there seems to be a trust issue with Mooney there.

so like VT4700 I see Hunt starting. Think Moon brought him to start. He's established heavy min guy. Say what u want about that coming from the NEC, but Wagner was actually a good team for 2 of his 3 years. Even won at VCU. Dji should get opportunity to win a spot so possible but more probable I think coming off bench because he could come in for any of 1-3 positions. Flexibility. I do see him having a more consistent role at least. I disagree with VT on Hunt's shot though. To me it looks like he has a hitch, stats bear it out too.

What I don't think we'll see is King Hunt & Dji starting together. We really need Roche or Noyes, otherwise our shooting just can't hang. Would be way too much on King shoulders. Bigs will need to make a big jump shooting too regardless.

Re: Walz I like his physical strength. He probably met whatever very low expectations he had last year. But 10+ mins is a lot. If he can help defensively that's his in, but hard to see giving us much of what we ask our 5 overall. So yeah we could go small, I hope we do sometimes. Like others a big offseason jump for Walz would be great & he strikes me as someone who could make a jump, but part of that is because he started at a very low floor.

It kind of sucks to read Tanner needing to be a frontcourt guy on D. Feel a disservice to him. Only seen tape but he's a big guard. But byproduct of going w 12 and not getting a Reed or Reed replacement. Would be great to have any 1 of the frosh be immediate help, frankly we need it but no idea what to predict there.

Dog days of summer!
 
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I think you hit something here Spider23 - this might be a very poor shooting Spider team and that does not mix well with Mooney offense. Roche is a shooter, but may be injured and King seems good at times, but outside of that - not very confident in our ability to make shots.
A poor shooting team doesn't do well with any offense, and most every team out there has multiple good shooters. So, in addition to much better guard play this year, a key for us will be improved shooting from 3. I will go back to my 3 keys for a successful season: good PG play, good 3 point shooting, and good defense. The better those are, the better year we will have. Turn a couple of those goods into great, and our chances improve dramatically to have a great season.
 
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Dji isn't comparable to Goose defensively sman. If he was he would have played more. Goose was one of our best athletes and our best defender. Goose had athletic strength to man up guys chest to chest. Dji is solid defender and I like his effort on D but strength is drawback. His foul rate was high. Like Not a Homer said there seems to be a trust issue with Mooney there.

so like VT4700 I see Hunt starting. Think Moon brought him to start. He's established heavy min guy. Say what u want about that coming from the NEC, but Wagner was actually a good team for 2 of his 3 years. Even won at VCU. Dji should get opportunity to win a spot so possible but more probable I think coming off bench because he could come in for any of 1-3 positions. Flexibility. I do see him having a more consistent role at least. I disagree with VT on Hunt's shot though. To me it looks like he has a hitch, stats bear it out too.

What I don't think we'll see is King Hunt & Dji starting together. We really need Roche or Noyes, otherwise our shooting just can't hang. Would be way too much on King shoulders. Bigs will need to make a big jump shooting too regardless.

Re: Walz I like his physical strength. He probably met whatever very low expectations he had last year. But 10+ mins is a lot. If he can help defensively that's his in, but hard to see giving us much of what we ask our 5 overall. So yeah we could go small, I hope we do sometimes. Like others a big offseason jump for Walz would be great & he strikes me as someone who could make a jump, but part of that is because he started at a very low floor.

It kind of sucks to read Tanner needing to be a frontcourt guy on D. Feel a disservice to him. Only seen tape but he's a big guard. But byproduct of going w 12 and not getting a Reed or Reed replacement. Would be great to have any 1 of the frosh be immediate help, frankly we need it but no idea what to predict there.

Dog days of summer!
Will check out Hunt's shot more and see what you mean. I feel like he looks ready to shoot when he gets the ball, and gets it and shoots it with little effort. Seems pretty smooth, but will look again and see.

I hear you about Tanner. I have only mentioned him with Noyes, Bigs, and Harris to show we could have him playing with multiple guards out there. As I have said before, I am not as concerned about front court depth. Teams go 3 and 4 guards now, so my point with Tanner was he could do fine at times as our 2nd or 3rd tallest guy out there.
 
Will check out Hunt's shot more and see what you mean. I feel like he looks ready to shoot when he gets the ball, and gets it and shoots it with little effort. Seems pretty smooth, but will look again and see.

I hear you about Tanner. I have only mentioned him with Noyes, Bigs, and Harris to show we could have him playing with multiple guards out there. As I have said before, I am not as concerned about front court depth. Teams go 3 and 4 guards now, so my point with Tanner was he could do fine at times as our 2nd or 3rd tallest guy out there.
I see Tanner as a perfect "3" in our offense. probably not enough handle to be a Mooney off-guard.
whether we call that "3" a forward or a guard doesn't matter to me.
Noyes is probably in the same boat, might be a little longer. may be big enough to defend a bigger forward and stretch him out on the other end. neither will be a Cayo-like post up forward, and that's fine.
 
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A poor shooting team doesn't do well with any offense, and most every team out there has multiple good shooters. So, in addition to much better guard play this year, a key for us will be improved shooting from 3. I will go back to my 3 keys for a successful season: good PG play, good 3 point shooting, and good defense. The better those are, the better year we will have. Turn a couple of those goods into great, and our chances improve dramatically to have a great season.
Agree - in this day of basketball, shooting is a premium that every team needs. But I think some teams are able to "mask" it better than others if they are a strong rebounding team (especially on offensive glass), play tough defense, and maybe have guys that can either get to the rim on penetration or a big guy inside you can feed. Along with that though comes the ability to make free throws - because I would expect if your playing near the rim a lot, you should probably get fouled more.

But most years - we sit here and can say we expect to have a good shooting team. It doesn't always play out that way, but we think we will have a team that can make shots. Look at last year before the season. I think most everyone on here would think we had guys like Roche and Burton who would be top flight shooters, then follow that up with Goose, Grace, Bigelow, and even unknowns like Nelson, Bailey and Randolph - we thought we had guys who would be average or slightly above average shooters. Only guy we really thought was a non-shooter or liability was Quinn.

But this year - I am not sure what we got, we have more unknown in the shooter realm than ever before. Some of that is transfer portal, and the loss of a lot of players - but some is just because I think we got guys who are questionable shooters from deep. And that can really hurt us overall more than other teams because our teams are not very good on defense lately, we don't rebound well, and we generally don't have a group that can beat guys off the dribble (we might have 1 or 2 guys).
 
Agree - in this day of basketball, shooting is a premium that every team needs. But I think some teams are able to "mask" it better than others if they are a strong rebounding team (especially on offensive glass), play tough defense, and maybe have guys that can either get to the rim on penetration
This worked nicely for SDSU last year - and most years. That is the thing that drives me crazy about the mooney apologists - we don't have to be poor in other areas in order to have good players. Yes, it is fun to score and hit 3's - and you have to be able to shoot. But can't we emphasize lock down d and rebounding too. NOT mutually exclusive - though some seem to think so. I do think Boyden's presence is a help in these areas and looking for some continuation in these areas from the start of last year.
 
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Getting back to the original topic of this thread, Jennings has picked up over half a dozen more offers in the week since we offered...Vermont today, plus Wofford, BU, Hofstra, FIU, Penn, and Chatty.
 
Getting back to the original topic of this thread, Jennings has picked up over half a dozen more offers in the week since we offered...Vermont today, plus Wofford, BU, Hofstra, FIU, Penn, and Chatty.
He looks like a good one. I would expect more and more solid offers for him.
 
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Seems like Jennings is close to making a decison, based on this tweet from his mom. No commitment date/short list of schools yet, but seems like we are still in the picture along with VCU, FIU, Winthrop, and Santa Barbara.

 
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