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Next Year Roster

Maybe Iowa is who I was thinking of. Just remembered looking at the lineups for our NCAA opponents and realizing that one played a bunch of guys.
 
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It looks like we prioritized multiple years of remaining eligibility with Quinn and Bigelow, which I don't hate. Or maybe it just worked out that way. Either way, welcome aboard, Isaiah!

Agree. just mentioned that in another thread. I'm catching up from the news today & but it certainly feels that way. & prioritizing 2 years in system over 1 is a valid strategy. I haven't done a deep dive but I think reasonable to value Stephens/Funk over Quinn/Bigelow. If same amount of eligibility. Idk it could be close but the first duo's stats in basically equal comp r really good and hard to overlook. But the extra year does change the evaluation.
 
This leaves us with one open scholarship, correct? Curious if we're going to look at bringing one more guy in or if this is it.

I think we're in market for 1 more transfer. We should definitely fill the open ship. with the portal the way it is u have to maximize the roster, it's a numbers game in so many ways, and there's even less worry you won't have a ship to give a hs recruit, bc attrition will eventually be coming.
 
Seeing Bigelow's rebounding numbers, it does seem like he could work nicely at times alongside Burton at Forward, with either Grace or Quinn at 5. Still want another PF, but I do think we have some options. Hoping the make up of the team this year will be better defensively, with quickness and length to guard the three point line much better than past season.
 
Bigelow actually gives us depth from 3-5 since it allows Quinn at 5 to be subbed by Grace
until Waltz matures. His length also allows us to press more which in fact with the whole team depth, we have the ability to create more turnovers and easy transition, especially if we are struggling from outside. Back during the NIT last year, I really liked our press defense and results from it.
 
We are good at the 3/4 now. I don’t think we need another big that will get significant minutes. Maybe a Darrius Garett type; but doubt that will happen.

Agree with other posters saying true “4s” are hard to define and come by these days. Burton and bigelow fill those spots perfectly
 
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I think we're in market for 1 more transfer. We should definitely fill the open ship. with the portal the way it is u have to maximize the roster, it's a numbers game in so many ways, and there's even less worry you won't have a ship to give a hs recruit, bc attrition will eventually be coming.
I hear you, but it has to make sense for the transfer too. We have a pretty solid 8 man rotation now. Not many transfers will be excited to go somewhere so the team can maximize its roster.
 
We do have a solid 1-8 right now VT, I agree there completely. What I’m wondering though is do we have a set in stone starting lineup right now and do we have set in stone lineups throughout the game as guys get rest. I think anybody coming it, at any position, sees our depth chart and bets on themselves that they can crack that starting lineup. Now let’s just hope we have some guys who seize the opportunity and step up
 
We do have a solid 1-8 right now VT, I agree there completely. What I’m wondering though is do we have a set in stone starting lineup right now and do we have set in stone lineups throughout the game as guys get rest. I think anybody coming it, at any position, sees our depth chart and bets on themselves that they can crack that starting lineup. Now let’s just hope we have some guys who seize the opportunity and step up
we're solid 1-8 plus I like what little we've seen from Marcus. that's 9.
and while we don't have to count on a lot from the other freshmen, they can always push their way up.
 
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We are good at the 3/4 now. I don’t think we need another big that will get significant minutes. Maybe a Darrius Garett type; but doubt that will happen.

Agree with other posters saying true “4s” are hard to define and come by these days. Burton and bigelow fill those spots perfectly
In your opinion - or anyone's opinion really - as our team is currently constructed, what team would you put on the floor to beat that Providence team that we got smoked by in the tourney? And would we win or even do better than last year's team? What addition(s) might you think we'd need to improve on that outcome? I contend that that we would have to try and outscore them (again). And because we couldn't stop them inside we'd (again) be relying on them to shoot poorly rather than beating them with our defense. If we have an opportunity to add some interior size with skill, CM owes that to all the players as a whole even at the expense of 1 or 2 of those players who may feel slighted... he himself has said this before. Our 4/5 is Quinn and Grace, not Burton or anyone else. My understanding is Walz is not ready. If Quinn or Grace is unavailable then there's 75 teams that'll beat the crap out of us inside and we'll again be relying on outscoring them. We are not OK at the 4. We have alot of talent at the 2/3 and enough talent between Quinn and Grace at the 5, and are probably better than average at the 1, but we have a significant hole which should be filled if possible if we're to be looking at Top 5 in the A10.
 
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There are a lot of quality players still left in the transfer portal and I expects us to land one more, who potentially might start. With that said, I think the only 2 guaranteed starters are:

1. Burton who is going to take his play to a higher level next year. He should shoot more consistently from the 3 and also drive more effectively to the basket. I would not be surprised if he leads the league in scoring.

2. Quinn, not only will he start, but I also think he has a good chance of joining Burton on the all conference team.

Outside of those 2 it is hard to forecast, because of how much talent this team has. I would not be surprised if at least one other red shirted freshman besides Nelson makes a meaningful contributions to the team. I see us playing a lot of guys equal time the first half of the season and not sure it matters who starts. If I had to guess on the other 3 based on my limited knowledge of the players, I would pick:

3. Grace, he has really improved his skills and will be a valuable member of the team regardless of starting.

4. Nelson, for Mooney to let Wilson transfer he has to have a very high opinion of Nelson and others on the team to back him up

5. Goose, no more needs to be said about Goose. He brings a 100% every game.

I look at this as our worst case starting line-up, which is pretty darn good and includes a very high quality deep bench. With that said, I would not be surprised if 2 of these guys were not starting at some point this upcoming season.

What is even more exciting is most of this team will be together for the next 2 years.

Go Spiders!
 
4. Nelson, for Mooney to let Wilson transfer he has to have a very high opinion of Nelson and others on the team to back him up
Let him? Mooney had no control over that, other than trying to convince Zay that UR was the best place for him.
 
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Let him? Mooney had no control over that, other than trying to convince Zay that UR was the best place for him.
You can substitute "let" for any word you like, but if the coach had encourage him to stay, I don't think he would have transferred. Coaches have to have difficult discussions with players that often leads to them transferring to find better opportunities.
 
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You can substitute "let" for any word you like, but if the coach had encourage him to stay, I don't think he would have transferred. Coaches have to have difficult discussions with players that often leads to them transferring to find better opportunities.
Who knows what the discussion was and what went down. IMHO the message was sent when Mooney took Zay out of the starting lineup, & he got minimal mins the rest of the year. Does that portend for the next year - maybe?
 
In your opinion - or anyone's opinion really - as our team is currently constructed, what team would you put on the floor to beat that Providence team that we got smoked by in the tourney? And would we win or even do better than last year's team? What addition(s) might you think we'd need to improve on that outcome? I contend that that we would have to try and outscore them (again). And because we couldn't stop them inside we'd (again) be relying on them to shoot poorly rather than beating them with our defense. If we have an opportunity to add some interior size with skill, CM owes that to all the players as a whole even at the expense of 1 or 2 of those players who may feel slighted... he himself has said this before. Our 4/5 is Quinn and Grace, not Burton or anyone else. My understanding is Walz is not ready. If Quinn or Grace is unavailable then there's 75 teams that'll beat the crap out of us inside and we'll again be relying on outscoring them. We are not OK at the 4. We have alot of talent at the 2/3 and enough talent between Quinn and Grace at the 5, and are probably better than average at the 1, but we have a significant hole which should be filled if possible if we're to be looking at Top 5 in the A10.
Very few teams beat Providence the way they played that day.. And if our super seniors got killed by them, it's probably not realistic to think next year's team would do any better. But anyway, that's a problem I'll be glad to ponder every off-season if we can.
 
Nice Walz update in here to get to know him a little better.

 
Nice Walz update in here to get to know him a little better.

Thanks for posting
 
Very few teams beat Providence the way they played that day.. And if our super seniors got killed by them, it's probably not realistic to think next year's team would do any better. But anyway, that's a problem I'll be glad to ponder every off-season if we can.
I disagree with this... this was a GOOD Providence team who we made look like Kansas because of our inability to effectively defend the paint without double teaming.
 
LOL. Okay. Whatever you say. How about the 51 points we scored and the 1-22 from 3? Was that also because we couldn't defend the paint?
 
No, that's because we shot poorly duh... What's your point?
I guess my point is I'm not sure how to keep going back and forth with someone that sees 16-32 from 2 and 12-22 from 3 for team A, and sees 20-31 from 2 and 1-22 from 3 for team B, and says it was the 2s that decided the game, and Team B lost the game because they couldn't defend the 2s inside. No worries. We can just disagree on this one.
 
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I guess my point is I'm not sure how to keep going back and forth with someone that sees 16-32 from 2 and 12-22 from 3 for team A, and sees 20-31 from 2 and 1-22 from 3 for team B, and says it was the 2s that decided the game, and Team B lost the game because they couldn't defend the 2s inside. No worries. We can just disagree on this one.
I'll try again... (my disclaimer: I could only bear to watch the first half, but it was essentially over then), but I think that may also be why your statistics are misleading you. Eye test was best.
And I'll try for simplicity... why did Providence have absolutely WIDE open three point shots the first half... WIDE effin'! open!!??
 
I'll try again... (my disclaimer: I could only bear to watch the first half, but it was essentially over then), but I think that may also be why your statistics are misleading you. Eye test was best.
And I'll try for simplicity... why did Providence have absolutely WIDE open three point shots the first half... WIDE effin'! open!!??
Because we scratched back to protect the inside game and gave them the shot. To their credit they knocked them down at a rate far greater than their season average. Mooney gambled and lost. Strategy was good, sometimes the other team just has one of those days.
 
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We only scored 51 points. As well as Providence shot from 3, our offense was the biggest issue that day. We were 1-22 from 3! We trailed 39-24 at halftime, and were 1-11 from 3. It's not like they scored every trip and scored 100 points on us. Sure, their 12-22 hurt us, but good teams with good players can get hot and do that. We saw players make 3 after 3 throughout the tournament. It happens. You just need to come close to matching it when they do. 1-22 is all you need to know about that game.
 
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Why are we focusing on the Providence game? I think we lost because we were exhausted from winning 5 straight games against quality teams including the Big Ten Champ Iowa that was just as good as Providence.
 
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Who knows what the discussion was and what went down. IMHO the message was sent when Mooney took Zay out of the starting lineup, & he got minimal mins the rest of the year. Does that portend for the next year - maybe?
Wilson getting benched mid season after starting the first half of the season, you could see portal written all over the ending of his time here.

I think the lesson learned with Wilson is that you can get away with one really hyper quick but small guard, but not 2, unless both are knock down shooters (ala Francis and Gilly). Wilson was not that, we got Nelson coming in this year, taking over Gilly's role, so Wilson saw that writing on the wall. His minutes next year if he remained were going to be like his minutes the second half of the year, not the first.

Wilson has the talent to go down a level and be a 30 plus minute starter, that wasn't going to be his role here.
 
Because we scratched back to protect the inside game and gave them the shot. To their credit they knocked them down at a rate far greater than their season average. Mooney gambled and lost. Strategy was good, sometimes the other team just has one of those days.
Exactly. 100% agree. Strategy was absolutely sound, but we had NOTHING available to us (defensively speaking VT!) when it was obvious it wasn't working. We were helpless.
 
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Why are we focusing on the Providence game? I think we lost because we were exhausted from winning 5 straight games against quality teams including the Big Ten Champ Iowa that was just as good as Providence.
I'm focusing on the Providence game because it exposes and focuses a big hole in the makeup of our team going forward.
 
We only scored 51 points. As well as Providence shot from 3, our offense was the biggest issue that day. We were 1-22 from 3! We trailed 39-24 at halftime, and were 1-11 from 3. It's not like they scored every trip and scored 100 points on us. Sure, their 12-22 hurt us, but good teams with good players can get hot and do that. We saw players make 3 after 3 throughout the tournament. It happens. You just need to come close to matching it when they do. 1-22 is all you need to know about that game.
I'll let you have the last word after this, but I will tell you that any offense is under extraordinary pressure to score when we have no defense to stop the other team.
 
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I have no idea what this roster will shoot from three as a team but this past season
36% 55th in NCAA
35% 91st
34% 160th
33% 220th
 
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I'll let you have the last word after this, but I will tell you that any offense is under extraordinary pressure to score when we have no defense to stop the other team.
Not worried about having the last word here. All good if we disagree. I just know when we were down 39-24 at halftime, I was more concerned with our offense than our defense. 24 1st half points? We certainly weren't going to beat Providence with the final score in the high 40s or 50s. It might not have seemed like it, but we did get some good stops in the 1st half. It is just not accurate to say we had too much pressure to score because we couldn't stop them. There were too many times we did stop them, and didn't take advantage offensively. After they went up 10-2, their next 4 possessions were missed 3, missed 3, missed 2, and turnover. Then, they got hot again, and we stayed cold. But, they only scored 9 points the final 9 minutes of the 1st half. The problem is we only scored 10. So, you can't blame our defense during that 9 minute stretch when we held them to 9 points, including only 6 points from over the 9 minute mark to under the 30 second mark. From the 9 minute to 5 minute mark, we stopped them on 5 straight possessions, but only scored 4 points. Then, with the score 34-22, our final possessions of the 1st half were turnover, missed 2, missed 3, made 2, missed 3, missed 3. But, If you disagree, cool. We don't have to agree on everything. All good.
 
having been at the game, yes I remember looking up and Prov having 30 points at the 9m mark and being like wtf? Then next few minutes opportunity arose with stops but the offense never clicked. That was the chance to cut way into the lead and make it a game. I kept hoping for like a 10-2 run to cut it to 6 or 7 but it never materialized. We went as Gilly went, which was the case much of the season.
 
having been at the game, yes I remember looking up and Prov having 30 points at the 9m mark and being like wtf? Then next few minutes opportunity arose with stops but the offense never clicked. That was the chance to cut way into the lead and make it a game. I kept hoping for like a 10-2 run to cut it to 6 or 7 but it never materialized. We went as Gilly went, which was the case much of the season.
well said .. that sure wasn't my favorite game to be at this season ..
 
I have no idea what this roster will shoot from three as a team but this past season
36% 55th in NCAA
35% 91st
34% 160th
33% 220th
Give me 35% with 3 good 3 point shooters (35% or better) and we will win a lot of games. Also, consistency would be good. Jacob and Tyler were 36+% last year, but Jacob finished hot and Tyler cold, and Tyler started hot and Jacob cold, meaning several games we really only had 1 guy knocking them down.

Jacob's 1st 16 games: 32-104 (30.7%). Last 21 games: 62-157 (39.4%).

Tyler's 1st 16 games: 35-83 (42.1%). Last 21 games: 22-73 (30.1%).

There were too many games where we really only had 1 guy knocking them down, and that is not a recipe for success.
 
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having been at the game, yes I remember looking up and Prov having 30 points at the 9m mark and being like wtf? Then next few minutes opportunity arose with stops but the offense never clicked. That was the chance to cut way into the lead and make it a game. I kept hoping for like a 10-2 run to cut it to 6 or 7 but it never materialized. We went as Gilly went, which was the case much of the season.
I said the same thing.....wtf! Lol. No doubt, 30 points thru 11 minutes is really really bad. So, no, I am not saying our defense was acceptable all game. I just expected a whole lot more offensively. I kept waiting for the same run as well. Shoot, if we just go 4-11 on our 1st half 3s, we can go into halftime only down 6 saying we survived a few stretches where they shot the lights out. Just never happened for us offensively. They took everything away, and when we had some good looks, we missed.
 
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I said the same thing.....wtf! Lol. No doubt, 30 points thru 11 minutes is really really bad. So, no, I am not saying our defense was acceptable all game. I just expected a whole lot more offensively. I kept waiting for the same run as well. Shoot, if we just go 4-11 on our 1st half 3s, we can go into halftime only down 6 saying we survived a few stretches where they shot the lights out. Just never happened for us offensively. They took everything away, and when we had some good looks, we missed.
Mooney should have called 3 timeouts in the first 10 minutes. No need to save them for a 30 point loss.
 
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