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Next year

Dusan is a wild card - as Philly alluded we have quite a few wild cards for upcoming year. On one hand he had big games against both Duke and SLU. On other hand a little more pedestrian vs top IVY's Princeton and Yale averaging 13.
 
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I think Dusan's offensive game will translate. Ivy is a good league. he's a scorer with enough size.
no idea what he brings defensively though. that's a question all the newcomers have to answer.
we were unusually strong defensively last year. it's why we won. but many of our best defender have moved on.
 
We saw last year that transfers can come in and immediately perform at an all A10 level. Will be interesting to see if Mooney can keep that up, his system had a reputation on this board for taking years to learn in the past.
I think that reputation was because of the defense we used to employ. It was unique and took time to learn. I think we scrapped that defense a few years back after getting torched on it and we now employ more traditional defensive sets.
 
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Our transfer situation and who will and won't play and how much they can contribute is really very interesting Two distinct groups of transfers. Three guys (Beagle, White, Nescovic) who were solid (but not spectacular) at lower levels and two guys who basically have no track record but come from blue blood programs. I really have no idea what to expect from any of them.

Can the three upward guys even be the same guys they were at last stops (much less pull a King and actually improve?) Can either of the downward two be an impact player at this level after doing zero at the last? No idea on any of it to be honest! And I'd say almost anyone on here who has an opinion - it isn't going to be the most well informed opinion because its really all guess work! Lots of hoping!

Beagle to me is probably the easiest to see his game translate. Assume he will rebound, shoot a good percentage and score a bit. Not sure at all about his defense or passing. But he's the easiest to me to see him being at least decent. But not even with that is it clear to me how much he contributes because I don't know that I see him being better than Walz. This is the one where I'd venture an educated guess that these two come pretty close to splitting time.

Nescovic probably has the best track record, but even that is hard to say. Predominately a shooter and that can sometimes not translate up against bigger and more athletic competition. I'd feel better about him if I knew he could just be a complementary scorer and play off a primary scorer. But I am still squinting trying to see a primary scorer for us! But if I am guessing (and to be clear we are all guessing) he's the one I'd slot for 30+ minutes.

White is the hardest of the experienced three to see how it will go. His best year was back in 20-21. He's had 5 seasons of college ball and they seem sorta all the same. No big step up, but seemingly solid. Just don't know how that translates when now he is in a new system for 1st time in 6 years and playing against better competition. He's the toughest for to see being a big contributor. The guard room is crowded. Hunt is clearly going to get good minutes. I also love Tyne. Think he has a chance to join the UR small PG legacy. He can (really!!) defend, he's tough, can handle etc. If he can step up his shooting and add a little bit of finishing, he can be really good and I think he can and will take a big step this year. If he does, White's opportunity will be limited.

And the downward two i have literally no idea. But I think we need to really hit on one! Walz and beagle should be OK in the middle. Neskovic will (hopefully) hold down a forward slot and there are options in the backcourt such that we should be ok - albeit lacking a King kinda guy). But we need a wing and we need a dynamic player of some sort. Tyne has a chance to be dynamic but might still be a year away from that and not sure anyone else of those mentioned is going to ever be dynamic. One of these guys two transfer down guys needs to be good for us IMHO. No idea which, but ideally its Roumoglu because of his size.

Mostly about the uncertainty surrounding the new transfers and I think we will live and die with how they do, but a big step from Tanner would go along way too. I am not mentioning Roache here because I just don't see him as part of a successful season. He is so limited (even when healthy) that I think its a bad sign if he is getting many minutes!

Also not sure what kind of identity we can create with this group. We were good last year because we were surprisingly really good on defense. We won with our defense. Quinn was a really good post defender, king was solid and Hunt, DJI and Harris were all excellent and Bigs was solid too. Not sure we can muster of that level of defense from amongst this group. This group I think is going to need to "old school" UR and be really efficient and smart on offense and probably need to have everyone be a threat and hope we can find a defense we can get by with. I am not so sure it will be the same version of man-to-man we saw last year - might need to a little more pack line style man and try to outsmart and outlast guys on our defensive end.

Biggest thing to me is what has already been mentioned a lot on the boards - - we don't appear to have a real dynamic player (an alpha in some other posts) and its going to be really hard to win a bunch without one emerging! Pretty sure its not any of the transfer up three. But, could be (and hoping it is) one of the transfer down guys and think it might be Tyne by seasons end if he doesn't end up being beaten down too much by having to be it too early!
I think you are way under estimating the quality of the transfers "(Beagle, White, Nescovic) who were solid (but not spectacular)" and quality of the team. All 3 of the guys you mentioned as "not spectacular" are potential starters, although they will have difficult competition at each position. I am very high on this team.
 
I agree with Philly. Beagle right now is easiest to see game translating. Tho I think he was better than solid. AEC rookie of the year is no joke. The issue is it doesn't look like he'll get the same MPG at Richmond with Walz there. he was getting 30+ at Albany. I feel good about that duo at the 5. Arguably our strongest position. Walz is an Ox and I like his developing game. If they are that, probably best if we could get them some time together on court. tbd if feasible. not sure if either can play the 4. We've had a non shooter in Cayo before tho. Cayo was a better ball handler. I'd like if 1 of them can show the forward skills because I feel like split time at 5 we might not be getting all they bring. Possible 1 owns that spot and takes more time too.
Agree with this. We have the potential to have our best tandem at center in a long time. As you note, Beagle was the AEC rookie of the year, best freshman in an entire conference, means he can play. And yes, Walz is a full grown man. Quinn, Golden, TJ were all finesse/skill guys at the center position. Yes, they could do more skill wise than Walz but they also lacked his physically imposing presence. Should make for a nice contrast between him and Beagle. And will be interesting if Mooney plays them on the court together. Mooney has generally avoided it, despite the urging from this board, and the few times he has tried it, the results have been meh at best.
 
Quinn, Golden, TJ were all finesse/skill guys at the center position. Yes, they could do more skill wise than Walz but they also lacked his physically imposing presence. Should make for a nice contrast between him and Beagle.
not sure Beagle and Walz are much of a contrast. I think they're more like each other than either is like TJ, Golden, or Quinn.
those are 3 really good centers to live up to.
 
I think you are way under estimating the quality of the transfers "(Beagle, White, Nescovic) who were solid (but not spectacular)" and quality of the team. All 3 of the guys you mentioned as "not spectacular" are potential starters, although they will have difficult competition at each position. I am very high on this team.
So, my point was how hard it is to actually know what to expect. I am probably not under or over estimating because I have literally said its guess work and I have no real expectations, good or bad. What we have to work with are some stats (from leagues we know little about) maybe a few videoclips and maybe ( but doubt it) someone saw a game or two. Not nearly enough to create realistic expectations - - good or bad. We have a LOT of questions this year. A lot. The transfers at the center of it. But also questions about the returnees too. And outside of Hunt. not a lot of known. Even Hunt has the question about can he step up and be even more than he was last year.

We had a lot of questions last year (though not as many as this year) and they all got answered pretty positively. King stepped way up. DJII made a big jump (both on offense and defense) once finally healthy. We emerged as an excellent defensive team as others (Harris, Tyne, Hunt) all answered some questions on the upside. That kind of thing could happen again no doubt. I don't know that I see it being done the same way because I don't think I see a path to being the same level defensively (unless I guess if Robinson and Romoglu emerge as defensive studs) but I do see a possible pass to being better on offense where we weren't as good last year. as we have been historically.

Lots of questions will have to answered positively though to get back to where we were last year overall. Time will tell! But any expectations (good or bad) are probably better described as hopes and fears than expectations. I have plenty of hopes and fears - - not too many expectations (except that our schedule sucks so bad, its almost impossible for us to be an at-large)!
 
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We need to pull another Kentucky this year to carry us like James Madison last season, I know that I am dreaming. So what, I believe that we will have a surprisingly successful season.
 
Agree with this. We have the potential to have our best tandem at center in a long time. As you note, Beagle was the AEC rookie of the year, best freshman in an entire conference, means he can play. And yes, Walz is a full grown man. Quinn, Golden, TJ were all finesse/skill guys at the center position. Yes, they could do more skill wise than Walz but they also lacked his physically imposing presence. Should make for a nice contrast between him and Beagle. And will be interesting if Mooney plays them on the court together. Mooney has generally avoided it, despite the urging from this board, and the few times he has tried it, the results have been meh at best.
Mooney said a few month ago he might play both, although that might change based on how everyone develops.
 
So, my point was how hard it is to actually know what to expect. I am probably not under or over estimating because I have literally said its guess work and I have no real expectations, good or bad. What we have to work with are some stats (from leagues we know little about) maybe a few videoclips and maybe ( but doubt it) someone saw a game or two. Not nearly enough to create realistic expectations - - good or bad. We have a LOT of questions this year. A lot. The transfers at the center of it. But also questions about the returnees too. And outside of Hunt. not a lot of known. Even Hunt has the question about can he step up and be even more than he was last year.

We had a lot of questions last year (though not as many as this year) and they all got answered pretty positively. King stepped way up. DJII made a big jump (both on offense and defense) once finally healthy. We emerged as an excellent defensive team as others (Harris, Tyne, Hunt) all answered some questions on the upside. That kind of thing could happen again no doubt. I don't know that I see it being done the same way because I don't think I see a path to being the same level defensively (unless I guess if Robinson and Romoglu emerge as defensive studs) but I do see a possible pass to being better on offense where we weren't as good last year. as we have been historically.

Lots of questions will have to answered positively though to get back to where we were last year overall. Time will tell! But any expectations (good or bad) are probably better described as hopes and fears than expectations. I have plenty of hopes and fears - - not too many expectations (except that our schedule sucks so bad, its almost impossible for us to be an at-large)!
Sorry, didn't mean to criticize, just want to correct what you said. The 3 players mentioned all played very well at their previous school and were one of the top players on the team. I think Beagle has potential to make one of the all conference teams. He is a rebounding machine.
 
Mooney said a few month ago he might play both, although that might change based on how everyone develops.
I may be wrong, but I think he said he might play 2 bigs together ... but he didn't specify Beagle and Walz.
I took that as if Soulis earns time, he might play the 4. he's the one I could see there.
 
As SF will tell you, I was probably irrationally exuberant on Soulis last season. I still think he can be a wild card this season. He lost a year last season - but I do still see him as a high ceiling guy. To Sman's point - if we were to go with two bigs - I believe Soulis is best suited as a more athletic 4 - that could get out to shooters on the perimeter and potentially be a match up problem on the offensive end. Problem for him is that it would seem Dusan is more proven, and maybe even Glou slides into the stretch 4 for some minutes, though I hope he has enough ball skills to be more of a wing.
 
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What big is going to play at the foul line area and score and dish from there like Quinn did last year and Grant before that and TJ before that...
Because, regardless of the talent anywhere else outside of this position, nothing is going to come easy unless we have a skilled player there.
Walz physically looks great but I dont see him there in anything but a backup role again. I don't think he's able to score 1 on 1 and his passing is inconsistent. I suppose he could take a major leap but I'm skeptical. I think Beagle HAS to be that guy unless we play a smaller body there and that won't bode well for a successful season. I like the overall talent and potential of the players but this is always key imo.
 
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I think big men who aren't skilled ball handlers and passers are usually that way because they've never been given the opportunity/responsibility to handle the ball.
this is Mike's 3rd year in this system. I'm confident he can handle by now.

Grant had more turnovers (82) than assists (69) his first full season. but never again.
TJ had 24 assists to 23 TO's at Niagara, then 55 assists to 52 TOs his first year here. his final year averaged 5.6 apg and almost a 2:1 assist to turnover ratio.
Neal had already developed that part of his game at Lafayette.
 
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Walz made a significant jump from year 1 to year 2. Year 1 he was a turnover machine and the game moved too quickly for him to process. Year 2 was an entirely different story to the point his play warranted him staying in the game past his minutes at times. I was impressed by the improvement. He can make that kind of improvement again - better shooting, better decision making (don't try to whip every pass cross court) and more consistency. Will see how it goes. I expect him to be around 20 mpg and Beagle probably a tiny bit more, so yes, maybe some 2 bigs lineups for 3-4 mpg. Soulis has yet to be healthy and needs to work himself in via his opportunities because playing time is tight. I think the OOC should have lots of them.
 
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btw ... Blue Ribbon picks us 8th. SLU is #1. says Mooney received an extension after winning the A10 Coach of the Year award.
only Richmond and SBU have less than 2 starters back.

talks about our good size. "we obviously have 3 small guards, but other than that ..."
the 3 small guards (Hunt, Tyne, White) are expected to play a prominent role.
Mooney says GW3's shooting is "just excellent".
Beagle's ballhandling and passing have "really, really impressed us".
shooting overall is really good ... Apostolos and Dusan are big reasons for that.
 
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btw ... Blue Ribbon picks us 8th. SLU is #1. says Mooney received an extension after winning the A10 Coach of the Year award.
only Richmond and SBU have less than 2 starters back.

talks about our good size. "we obviously have 3 small guards, but other than that ..."
the 3 small guards (Hunt, Tyne, White) are expected to play a prominent role.
Mooney says GW3's shooting is "just excellent".
Beagle's ballhandling and passing have "really, really impressed us".
shooting overall is really good ... Apostolos and Dusan are big reasons for that.
I get why people pick us lower than what we think, most of our roster has turned over. But in the portal era, that is fairly common. And its not like we are replacing our roster with a bunch of freshman, we have reloaded with proven college players and a couple guys from high majors who were big time recruits out of high school.

I'd put our roster up against anyone in the league right now. My question marks are 1. How this teams gels with all of the new players (Mooney had similar turnover last year and got it too work). 2. Who steps into the massive void that Jordan King occupied last year. One thing, I think we understate is how Jordan King's POY campaign elevated the play of every other player on the team. 3. Defense: Dji, Bigelow were great defenders, Neal was a great rim protector. Our front line all played together the year prior. How does our defense look with a new front line that have not never played together.
 
btw ... Blue Ribbon picks us 8th. SLU is #1. says Mooney received an extension after winning the A10 Coach of the Year award.
only Richmond and SBU have less than 2 starters back.

talks about our good size. "we obviously have 3 small guards, but other than that ..."
the 3 small guards (Hunt, Tyne, White) are expected to play a prominent role.
Mooney says GW3's shooting is "just excellent".
Beagle's ballhandling and passing have "really, really impressed us".
shooting overall is really good ... Apostolos and Dusan are big reasons for that.
"Mooney thinks he'll be in line for a breakout season this winter".

thx for blue ribbon report. I think that's just another way of saying he received an extension after last season. if it said he received extension because of A10 COY that's different. Tho I'm not saying he didn't have an auto extension for it in contract, some do. I've speculated that it was possible for Moon. Overall it's an odd clause imo when a small subset of fellow coaches vote to decide it when they r the ones invested in such job security. But we gave him 2 more years. No way that should ever be an auto 2 year extension. Granted we've done Moon and other contracts badly. & I don't see us giving that info up to Blue Ribbon either considering how we protect that info.

The Tanner thing sounds like the KOD - the kiss of death. I feel like that statement is regularly a miss under Moon. Duinker, Noyes, maybe others I'm missing. It's a fun thing to hear with any of your teams...who is the breakout player. Just the last one I really remember hitting on strongly was Skrocki after his frosh year. recall being told that directly by an asst coach. I feel better that URFan1 concurs tho!
 
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yeah, but we've heard from non-Mooney people that Tanner looks great.

the SF spot will go 1 of 3 ways.
1) Roche gets most of the minutes there. not ideal unless Roche is shooting 40% from 3 on volume ... in which case I'm on board.
2) AP gets most of the minutes, meaning he's the guy for us that UConn hoped he'd be.
3) Tanner is the best of the 3.

I'm excited about the freshmen but doubt they're ready.
I assume those scenarios are better than the walk-ons (D'Entremont and Graham).
other options which I don't think are viable are going small with someone like GW3 at the 3, or going big with Dusan at the 3.
 
Shooting, shooting and more shooting. If we can shoot well, we'll win a bunch. Posted last week I'm hopeful 5-6 guys can be true threats from deep. We have 7 options, so no shortage of guys to turn to if others have off nights. IMO need to have 3 of these 7 be in the 40% range and most others be 35% or better to have the offense fire on all potential (insert spiderman qualification about 40% being really good, but I'm setting expectations high - we have an offense designed to get lots of looks from 3, bigs to draw double teams, and are being told we have shooters.)

In rough order of potential and ceiling:
AP
Roche
Tanner
GWIII
B. Artis
Hunt
Tyne (love Tyne but he has to prove it.)
 
We have 7 options, so no shortage of guys to turn to if others have off nights.
it's just impossible to know if someone is really having an off night until the night is over.
you could pull Roche after missing his first 3 saying "he's off", when in reality he might hit his next 3 if you left him in.
 
Hopefully all of these guys can shoot 35-40% from 3 and then it comes down to which players are best in all phases, playmaking, rebounding and D. And I do know that we think that we have great, or at least improved from the last season shooting - every offseason :).
 
I would love to see the Spider Optimism meter for all these guys from March until now. Jaylen and Bryson and practically non existent. Tanner has been up and down and up. B.Artis was high then tailed off, same with GW3 but he is on the rise. Glou - HIgh to ehhh back to High.
 
it's just impossible to know if someone is really having an off night until the night is over.
you could pull Roche after missing his first 3 saying "he's off", when in reality he might hit his next 3 if you left him in.
That’s why we pay Moon the big bucks, no?

If you have a deep roster but no superstar or alpha scorer, it’s his job to figure this out game to game and minute to minute.
 
I feel like AP is going to be great. You don't take up a valuable scholarship spot on a 2x national championship team -- one of the most dominant teams we've seen in decades -- if you can't play at a very high level. He could be dynamic.
 
I feel like AP is going to be great. You don't take up a valuable scholarship spot on a 2x national championship team -- one of the most dominant teams we've seen in decades -- if you can't play at a very high level. He could be dynamic.
hope so. we've heard leaks that Tanner is playing great. would love to hear someone say AP's been unguardable.
 
I feel like AP is going to be great. You don't take up a valuable scholarship spot on a 2x national championship team -- one of the most dominant teams we've seen in decades -- if you can't play at a very high level. He could be dynamic.
I hope he will be great, but I can't say he will be just because UCONN gave him their 13th scholarship. Top teams seem to always have guys on scholarship who don't play much. And, UCONN lost 4 of their starters from last year, yet he still transferred. The UCONN talk was he can really shoot, and I think and hope he can be a key factor for us, but will need to see him play before I can say I expect a high level and dynamic player. But, I sure hope you are right.
 
Shooting, shooting and more shooting. If we can shoot well, we'll win a bunch. Posted last week I'm hopeful 5-6 guys can be true threats from deep. We have 7 options, so no shortage of guys to turn to if others have off nights. IMO need to have 3 of these 7 be in the 40% range and most others be 35% or better to have the offense fire on all potential (insert spiderman qualification about 40% being really good, but I'm setting expectations high - we have an offense designed to get lots of looks from 3, bigs to draw double teams, and are being told we have shooters.)

In rough order of potential and ceiling:
AP
Roche
Tanner
GWIII
B. Artis
Hunt
Tyne (love Tyne but he has to prove it.)
I think having, "bigs to draw double teams" is the question. I'm hoping Beagle is just that. And i'm hopeful Walz can step up but not holding my breath.
 
yeah, but we've heard from non-Mooney people that Tanner looks great.

the SF spot will go 1 of 3 ways.
1) Roche gets most of the minutes there. not ideal unless Roche is shooting 40% from 3 on volume ... in which case I'm on board.
2) AP gets most of the minutes, meaning he's the guy for us that UConn hoped he'd be.
3) Tanner is the best of the 3.

I'm excited about the freshmen but doubt they're ready.
I assume those scenarios are better than the walk-ons (D'Entremont and Graham).
other options which I don't think are viable are going small with someone like GW3 at the 3, or going big with Dusan at the 3.
Why would you call Dusan at the 3 going big? He is 6'7, same height as AP, can make the 3 at a high %, and has never averaged more than 4 boards a game. He is certainly not a "big". I think he will see a lot of minutes, no matter what lineup we have out there. Without getting into another position number debate with you, why would we want to limit ourselves to always having to play either Roche, Tanner, or AP if Dusan or anyone else might be the better option over them?
 
Shooting, shooting and more shooting. If we can shoot well, we'll win a bunch. Posted last week I'm hopeful 5-6 guys can be true threats from deep. We have 7 options, so no shortage of guys to turn to if others have off nights. IMO need to have 3 of these 7 be in the 40% range and most others be 35% or better to have the offense fire on all potential (insert spiderman qualification about 40% being really good, but I'm setting expectations high - we have an offense designed to get lots of looks from 3, bigs to draw double teams, and are being told we have shooters.)

In rough order of potential and ceiling:
AP
Roche
Tanner
GWIII
B. Artis
Hunt
Tyne (love Tyne but he has to prove it.)
?? Dusan says Hi.
 
Why would you call Dusan at the 3 going big? He is 6'7, same height as AP, can make the 3 at a high %, and has never averaged more than 4 boards a game. He is certainly not a "big". I think he will see a lot of minutes, no matter what lineup we have out there. Without getting into another position number debate with you, why would we want to limit ourselves to always having to play either Roche, Tanner, or AP if Dusan or anyone else might be the better option over them?
because I have Dusan (who's 6'8") at the 4.
if he's playing at the 3, then we either have AP at the 4 or we're playing 2 of the bigs together.
that's a pretty big lineup.
 
because I have Dusan (who's 6'8") at the 4.
if he's playing at the 3, then we either have AP at the 4 or we're playing 2 of the bigs together.
that's a pretty big lineup.
Now u just made me get into a position numbers debate with you again....teams don't really play a "4" anymore. Why would we limit ourselves with your lineup necessities when other teams don't do that? Why couldn't Dusan, Beagle, and Walz play together? If Dusan, AP, and Walz, or Dusan, AP, and Beagle play together, who cares who is the so called 3 or the so called 4? And, why say Dusan is a "4" (whatever that means anymore) when he has never averaged more than 4 rebounds a game? He was 42-99 (42.4%) and 49-135 (36.3%) from the 3 the past 2 seasons. Yet, you would play AP over him at the "3" just because he might be 1 inch taller than AP? Back to your original post about Roche, AP, or Tanner having to play the 3, why couldn't Dusan play with 3 guards and either Walz or Beagle?

I'm mainly saying, while I hope Tanner, Roche, and AP will all be huge factors for us, I hope the coaching staff is not limiting our lineup possibilities like you are by saying Tanner, Roche, and AP will combine for 40 minutes each game and never play together. Maybe I am reading you wrong, but when you say you only have those 3 penciled in at the 3, it seems like you are doing exactly that.
 
I don't think it's trying to always fit players into a traditional 1-5 role, but rather putting players on the court depending on match-ups and complementing skillset. Typically, this means someone like Walz or Beagle will play the 5, but I can definitely see scenarios where we will want to play a Beagle and Walz together or even have a smaller guard line-up.
 
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I hope he will be great, but I can't say he will be just because UCONN gave him their 13th scholarship. Top teams seem to always have guys on scholarship who don't play much. And, UCONN lost 4 of their starters from last year, yet he still transferred. The UCONN talk was he can really shoot, and I think and hope he can be a key factor for us, but will need to see him play before I can say I expect a high level and dynamic player. But, I sure hope you are right.
Nothing's a given, but 13 scholies at UConn in the midst of this run they're in are super valuable. I don't hold it against him that he transferred out even after they lost some key guys, because those spots are pretty much going to some of the best players in the country.

He might not be good enough to start for a 2x national champ, but only a few guys in the nation are. Few guys in the nation could hold a scholarship in that program both of these years, so I think the fact that he did says something about his potential greatness.
 
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