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Next Year Roster

it is kind of a funny statement ... that "Hunt is the kind of PG that can be a team's 2nd leading defensive rebounder".
in 73 games at Wagner he's averaged 32.1 mpg ... and 2.1 defensive rpg.
so yeah, I don't expect him to outrebound Big Neal.
Probably just a way of saying he is athletic and aggressive, and is willing to get in there and go for some tough boards.
 
Probably just a way of saying he is athletic and aggressive, and is willing to get in there and go for some tough boards.
agreed, but for reference Gilly averaged 2.5 defensive rpg in his career vs Hunt's 2.1 drpg.
nobody would make a statement saying Gilly could be our 2nd leading defensive rebounder.
 
I‘m all for Bigelow as #1 rebounder, Hunt as #2, …and Quinn increasing his rebounds.
 
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Nice interview, well done by all 3.

One thing I picked up that causes raised eyebrows; when probed just a bit about the 1 completed scrimmage (I know they are instructed not to give away results), they mentioned a version of we need to keep working on things and keep getting better. That is Mooney speak after a loss. Though it is speculation, that leads me to believe that the scrimmage likely didn't go as well as we would like.

I didn't expect them to say "we won," but I would expect more excited, positive, high expectations type verbiage if the team played really well, and/or was the best team during the competition.
 
Nice interview, well done by all 3.

One thing I picked up that causes raised eyebrows; when probed just a bit about the 1 completed scrimmage (I know they are instructed not to give away results), they mentioned a version of we need to keep working on things and keep getting better. That is Mooney speak after a loss. Though it is speculation, that leads me to believe that the scrimmage likely didn't go as well as we would like.
I listened again, and didn't get a sense of that at all.
you play against each other every day for months. the defense knows what you're doing every time. it's great to play someone else and see how they react. I didn't hear anything from them that things didn't go well. but who knows.
 
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I listened again, and didn't get a sense of that at all.
you play against each other every day for months. the defense knows what you're doing every time. it's great to play someone else and see how they react. I didn't hear anything from them that things didn't go well. but who knows.
I didn’t get that either. Your mind is just poisoned, I will pray for you.
 
LOL, they reuploaded the video. Rather than actually fixing the name/city they awkwardly re-edited with B-roll over the King intro and cropped in on the Hunt intro to remove for both guys.

 
Inserting a clip rather than re rendering a graphic.

It’s kind of like not calling a timeout and waiting for the under 8.
 
Time for some minutes guesses. And, yes, I could probably change this again before opening night. As of now, I think our starting 5 is set:

King 34
Hunt 30
Bigs 30
Quinn 26
Noyes 20

That equals 140. Now, for the bench:

Roche 20. I think he has to get these minutes. I don't see enough solid 35+% volume 3 shooting elsewhere.

Walz/Soulis 14. I will give them Quinn's back up minutes. There might be a few times we go super small without a big, but overall it seems right to put these 3 guys at 40 minutes overall. We need them to be productive backing Quinn up.

Harris 8. I think there is a spot for him every game. His defense and size will be needed. That puts us at 182.

Tanner/Tyne/Dji/Smith 18. We aren't playing 13 guys a night, so I am putting them together here expecting different minutes for each here and there. Some nights Tanner or Dji could get 10+, leaving very little elsewhere. Tyne looks like he could get back up PG minutes. I have no idea about Smith. Highly rated recruit, but haven't heard a lot about him this off season. We should see some separation here as the season moves along, and one guy could step up and average 12 or so minutes.

And, with injuries happening, we could end up with more than 200 minutes here, so there is some room for a few more minutes here and there.
 
I'd give a couple of Big's minutes to Harris, but looks about right as far as we can tell right now.
edit ... Dji was mentioned after the FIU scrimmage. I think he'll get the majority of the 18 grouped minutes.
 
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I'd give a couple of Big's minutes to Harris, but looks about right as far as we can tell right now.
edit ... Dji was mentioned after the FIU scrimmage. I think he'll get the majority of the 18 grouped minutes.
Minutes are there if Dji or anyone wants to separate themselves there. And, I could see Harris playing a few more minutes if he makes a positive impact put there.
 
Nice interview, well done by all 3.

I didn't expect them to say "we won," but I would expect more excited, positive, high expectations type verbiage if the team played really well, and/or was the best team during the competition.
It is a scrimmage and honestly I would rather have players that haven’t played together talking about having to put more work in. We all know it is going to be another work in progress year, but hopefully we see a better team chemistry/identity than we did last year.

The OOC schedule isn’t daunting so there is an outside chance the Spiders can improve on the OOC record this year, but wouldn’t be surprised to see the “expected” 7-6. Regardless, I can’t wait for college basketball season to start.

Go Spiders!
 
We all know it is going to be another work in progress year ...
honestly, I don't know that yet! maybe it's just October optimism, but I'm starting to buy into this King/Hunt backcourt.

I feel good about Quinn at the 5 and I think Walz will be a serviceable backup. I like Bigs and Harris at big forward. and I think there's a great mix on the wing with Noyes, Roche and Dji.

there's a lot to gel and I'm not saying I expect something special, but I don't see any holes. it's a solid lineup.
 
Sman There are a lot of leaps that need to be made. Your points above are fine and may prove to be accurate but even with them, then we have a team of solid guys. No one there has averaged 10 ppg at the A10 level. Many have never played at this level. We need multiple breakout stars. Otherwise, solid, 7-6/17-15/55% seems the ceiling.
 
Sman There are a lot of leaps that need to be made. Your points above are fine and may prove to be accurate but even with them, then we have a team of solid guys. No one there has averaged 10 ppg at the A10 level. Many have never played at this level. We need multiple breakout stars. Otherwise, solid, 7-6/17-15/55% seems the ceiling.
You talk about "this level" as if the A-10 is that great right now. It's not.
 
well, guys that we seem to be banking on leading the way have yet to prove themselves to be stars at this level. That was my point. Doesn't matter if the level is #1, #11 or #35 - this is the league UR plays in and no one on the roster has yet to be a proven star at this very level, even if the league is down. In a down year, Quinn got under 10ppg, Bigs shot 29% from 3 and Roche couldn't get consistent minutes.

We can be optimistic all we want. I predicted 20 wins last year. We have tons of questions and no proven answers yet. So projecting guys at the tops of their ranges for a successful season is fun, but often disappointing.

Stay leafy.
 
well, guys that we seem to be banking on leading the way have yet to prove themselves to be stars at this level. That was my point. Doesn't matter if the level is #1, #11 or #35 - this is the league UR plays in and no one on the roster has yet to be a proven star at this very level, even if the league is down. In a down year, Quinn got under 10ppg, Bigs shot 29% from 3 and Roche couldn't get consistent minutes.

We can be optimistic all we want. I predicted 20 wins last year. We have tons of questions and no proven answers yet. So projecting guys at the tops of their ranges for a successful season is fun, but often disappointing.

Stay leafy.
Hope springs eternal!
 
I am optimistic to start the season. One thing that concerns me as always is defense. Have not heard much if any mention of it via off-season interviews. Hunt's comments indicate that it was much more emphasized at his previous school. Again, playing offense, rebounding, and playing defense do not have to be mutually exclusive, as seems to be the the attitude that prevails. If not explicitly stated , it seems to be implied. Hopefully Noyes can play some D. Hunt and King are quick and can be disruptive. But are shorter, and if Noyes can't get out on shooters, then it could be open season from the 3 point line for our opponents.
 
I am optimistic to start the season. One thing that concerns me as always is defense. Have not heard much if any mention of it via off-season interviews. Hunt's comments indicate that it was much more emphasized at his previous school. Again, playing offense, rebounding, and playing defense do not have to be mutually exclusive, as seems to be the the attitude that prevails. If not explicitly stated , it seems to be implied. Hopefully Noyes can play some D. Hunt and King are quick and can be disruptive. But are shorter, and if Noyes can't get out on shooters, then it could be open season from the 3 point line for our opponents.
Good points, 23, and another reason why I think our own 3 point shooting will be so key. We need to score. Good defensive team or not, our style is not designed to win lower scoring games. The other team will hit some 3s, so we better as well. Also, hitting 3s just opens everything else up on offense for everyone.

That being said, we have had some good defensive teams in the past, so it's not a matter of just not caring as much on defense and focusing everything on offense. I think it comes down to our players. The last 4 years our defensive efficiency was ranked 54, 99, 94, and 117. 94-117 isn't great, but it isn't that bad either, so we have picked it up a little as a program defensively from where we were 5+ years ago. And, if King and Hunt can be close to Jacob and Blake defensively, we should be a pretty good defensive team.
 
agree. team speed has been a major talking point, hopefully it's deployed on both sides of the ball to take best advantage of it. I too would love to see the type of Gilly/Blake on ball defense up top from the lead guards.
 
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Good points, 23, and another reason why I think our own 3 point shooting will be so key. We need to score. Good defensive team or not, our style is not designed to win lower scoring games. The other team will hit some 3s, so we better as well. Also, hitting 3s just opens everything else up on offense for everyone.

That being said, we have had some good defensive teams in the past, so it's not a matter of just not caring as much on defense and focusing everything on offense. I think it comes down to our players. The last 4 years our defensive efficiency was ranked 54, 99, 94, and 117. 94-117 isn't great, but it isn't that bad either, so we have picked it up a little as a program defensively from where we were 5+ years ago. And, if King and Hunt can be close to Jacob and Blake defensively, we should be a pretty good defensive team.
I hear you, but I think it's at the very least a mix. We had some mediocre defenders at baseline, and having guys who are simply better at it naturally will help. However, there are a LOT of places where I believe we have bad fundamentals and it hasn't appeared to me (admittedly just by observation and not knowledge) that having good defensive fundamentals takes priority over having good offensive fundamentals.

Examples include: close outs on threes, boxing out, inconsistent hedging strategy on high ball screens, sometimes just a good defensive stance that isn't so upright. I just don't think Mooney punishes people by taking them out of the game for bad defense like he does for turnovers or improperly running the offense.
 
well, guys that we seem to be banking on leading the way have yet to prove themselves to be stars at this level.
I only worry about the step up in league if a guy isn't athletic enough to handle the step up. and that doesn't seem to be the case here.

think of guys like TJ and Blake. if you can play ... you can play.
 
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Sure but prove that you can consistently excel and star, not just play, in the A10. Quinn’s ppg dipped significantly, as did Roche. Otherwise we just have a slew of league average type guys.
 
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