you love a good HS recruit. But the portal is for immediate points replacement, for which we have a pretty big need - King, Quinn, Bigelow is a big percentage of this year's scoring. I cannot see that the current freshmen or next year's true freshmen will fill it. Will see how it goes.
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Sure would be nice to know how many potentially available yet also possibly not available players could fit those needs... SF, we are all waiting on that report!!
yes I do, lol!
in my opinion, we replaced Bigs and Harris with Robinson and McGlothin.
with 2 spots left, I think we hit the portal and replace Quinn and King. well documented how I think we need a 3rd big man. and while not desperate we're a little thin at guard.
Need shooters. All positions, any position. As many as possible.
Replacing a grad student starter with a freshman is a great strategy for finishing ninth in the league. It's just the era we are in. We need to be looking at transfers to fill at least two of those three spots and ideally all of them.
? there's 2 spots, not 3.
good freshmen sometimes start.
but we have Noyes still, who was starting this year and could start next.
I'm just assuming someone else leaves after the season ends. It's pretty much going to happen every year. We are losing three grad starters, and I'm not really in the mood to replace any of them with freshmen. Agreed that Noyes hopefully is ready to step into a starting role for real, but who knows at this point.
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possible but I don't think we expect a freshman starter. for now I expect:
Tyne
Hunt
Bailey
Noyes
Walz
guards on the bench: Smith, Graham
wings on the bench: Tanner, Robinson, McGlothin
Post on the bench: Soulis
we may land starters in the portal, but Tyne is ready and Walz has been solid.
as for losing someone, never know. but Smith is in line for real minutes ... and a potential starting spot the next year when Hunt is done. Tanner has to compete with the 2 freshmen, but could also slide to the 2 if his handle is adequate.
for the 2 remaining spots, I can't go to war with just Soulis as a post on the bench. and Graham hasn't shown anything, so I can't have just Smith as a bench guard.
Tyne
Hunt
Bailey
Noyes
Walz
guards on the bench: Smith, Graham
wings on the bench: Tanner, Robinson, McGlothin
Post on the bench: Soulis
we may land starters in the portal, but Tyne is ready and Walz has been solid.
as for losing someone, never know. but Smith is in line for real minutes ... and a potential starting spot the next year when Hunt is done. Tanner has to compete with the 2 freshmen, but could also slide to the 2 if his handle is adequate.
for the 2 remaining spots, I can't go to war with just Soulis as a post on the bench. and Graham hasn't shown anything, so I can't have just Smith as a bench guard.
My feeling is that we need to be landing at least one impact transfer starter every year from now on, no exceptions. Because the teams that will be in the running for the league title will be doing that.
We all thought Noyes was ready to be a starter this year. That lasted what 5 games? What makes us think another year is going to make him ready. And yeah, starting freshman is a good strategy if you wanna play in the opening round of the A-10 tournament. And man, Smith is in line for real minutes next year scares me just a bit. He doesn't seem ready for the A-10 yet.
Mooney is gonna hit the portal hard, that is just a fact. I think everyone, including Mooney realizes, he is a much better portal talent evaluator than he is high school and you can get guys who already proven they can play in college.
also you left Roche off the roster for next season.
but yeah, at this very point in time that 5 is a lineup that scares no one offensively, particularly from 3. It would make this year's away game offense look like the dream team.
EDIT to add that the bench sman lists (other than the missing Roche) has scored like 6 collegiate points combined at this point. While I'd love to believe in a 2nd year jump for everyone and they all come out seasoned and ready to be real contributors, more often it is like this year - 1 freshman finds minutes as a rotation guy, others wait, and sophomores/2nd year players who get time put up numbers like Walz and Noyes are doing.
Bottom line is that roster cannot be expected to find consistent scoring.
but yeah, at this very point in time that 5 is a lineup that scares no one offensively, particularly from 3. It would make this year's away game offense look like the dream team.
EDIT to add that the bench sman lists (other than the missing Roche) has scored like 6 collegiate points combined at this point. While I'd love to believe in a 2nd year jump for everyone and they all come out seasoned and ready to be real contributors, more often it is like this year - 1 freshman finds minutes as a rotation guy, others wait, and sophomores/2nd year players who get time put up numbers like Walz and Noyes are doing.
Bottom line is that roster cannot be expected to find consistent scoring.
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play the best, no matter what class they are. The goal is to win!
Can’t we get through this season?
a year ago we didn't expect consistent scoring this year from Dji and Isaiah either. guys do improve year over year. some guys make the most of increased opportunity.
we'll definitely hit the portal hoping to get the best players we can. but I don't think we'll do it without regard to position. we'll focus on a big and a guard.
Love your optimism and hope you are correct. But Bigs had a few offensive games last year to show he was capable of scoring well, and in bunches. And Dji had shown flashes over his 3 years and the fact that he is showing out as a senior - not a fresh/soph like most of those guys will be - is important.
I think Tyne will be a scorer going forward. All others are complete unknowns.
Case in point was this DC game. Spiders jumped to a nice early lead. 4 subs - Tyne, Walz, Roche, Harris - came in at first sub opportunity along side King and 120 seconds later DC had ripped off a big run to take the lead. Who can score is the question.
I think Tyne will be a scorer going forward. All others are complete unknowns.
Case in point was this DC game. Spiders jumped to a nice early lead. 4 subs - Tyne, Walz, Roche, Harris - came in at first sub opportunity along side King and 120 seconds later DC had ripped off a big run to take the lead. Who can score is the question.
Bigs averaged under 8 ppg, and shot 26.5% from 3.
Bailey averaged 3 ppg.
I do think young players get less game opportunity now with the portal. but they still develop will hopefully be ready when called upon.
we may find King's replacement in the portal, keeping Tyne as a super sub at the 1 and 2.
and we may find Quinn's replacement there too, keeping Walz in his current role another year.
it's all obviously TBD. having a good year like we are has to help.
Bailey averaged 3 ppg.
I do think young players get less game opportunity now with the portal. but they still develop will hopefully be ready when called upon.
we may find King's replacement in the portal, keeping Tyne as a super sub at the 1 and 2.
and we may find Quinn's replacement there too, keeping Walz in his current role another year.
it's all obviously TBD. having a good year like we are has to help.
Agreed. King thriving as a small guard keeps that lineage going. If there is another small guard in a lower league looking to step up, we can be sure UR has a shot at him. I just think he has to be a proven scorer like King. The difference between this and last year’s team is entirely King - both what he does scoring and what that opens for other guys.
This year without King (let’s say JNel stayed) would be a lot rougher IMO. I don’t want that next year.
This year without King (let’s say JNel stayed) would be a lot rougher IMO. I don’t want that next year.
While I agree King is the big difference, some of our wins might have been losses if not for improvement from Dji, Bigs and Quinn
Of course, fully agree there. Hope they keep improving as the year goes on, the jumps have been as good as we could have hoped.
As people have mentioned, this team plays with a confident attitude, which I love. The one guy I need to see show that more late in games is Neal, the way King, Bigs and Dji have so far to make big plays in big spots in the last couple minutes. I'm not going to give an out on conditioning or anything else because at this point, he needs to be able to finish strong. Of those guys Neal has more room for improvement - hitting FTs, nailing clean looks (especially layups!) when he's got the advantage on his man late.
