Given the current state of our roster, which teams in the A-10 do you think are worse than us? If you don’t think we are one of the bottom 4 teams in the league (if not bottom 1 or 2) please explain your optimism because I can’t generate any at the moment.
Who are we better than?
- Thread starter PASpider
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There is so much roster turnover in college basketball right now, I feel like it is hard to figure out how good teams will be.
I just don't know what we have or don't have yet.
I felt some of our guys last year had low ceilings. solid role players. I think some of the new guys can be more. but we'll see.
Well, I would say we can count on King, Bigs, and Quinn to start, and I'm not sure more than half, (maybe less than that) the teams in the A-10 can match that. And we have Roche, who should be one of the best 3 point shooters in the conference.
So, what will we get from the others? Sure, they are either unproven or have not done a lot here, but the same can probably be said for most A-10 teams when talking about players 5-10. Could Smith and Tanner be 2 of the better freshman in our conference? Is Noyes ready to get good minutes and build on some impressive things we saw in limited minutes last year? Can Hunt be a sneaky good, quality A-10 guard that we maybe are not talking enough about? Dji is already one of the better defenders in the A-10. Could he add a little offense, making him more of a weapon out there? And, will Walz be able to be more of a factor this year? Yes, a lot of questions and maybe it's a big ask to have everything work out great for all of them, but if we get a few of those questions answered positively for us, we could be sneaky good.
We know what the ceilings were for players like Goose and Grace and they weren't high (even though Mooney and some posters blew smoke up our rears most of the year about their games). I'd throw Randolph in that category as well, nice player, great energy, no starting level skill. JNel was and is a high ceiling talent guy to me, I question now his maturity and mental approach to the game.
Guys like Noyes, and obviously the freshman, one can at least say, he has an unknown ceiling because we haven't seen them on a college court yet.
As to your first paragraph, I’m just not that high on Bigelow’s game or Quinn’s for that matter. We had them last year and fared poorly. Quinn has some mid range game but his low post moves were appalling. Hopefully, he spent the whole offseason working on them. I’m going to call Burton and King a wash at best.
As for the second paragraph, that’s a lot of ifs…as you admit. Also, Walz wasn’t a true star in his high school conference where the tallest centers tend to be 6’5”.
I really hope you’re right, but I highly doubt it.
Agree with you about Goose. Grace wasn’t good, but people make Quinn out to be better than he really is at this point. I think Randolph had a higher ceiling and JNel had a lower one than you estimate. Excited to see more from the athletic Noyes, but he desperately needs to put on some muscle. I’m worried that now we are the minor leagues and will just lose any player that shows talent in our program. Maybe we are destined to have a roster full of question marks from here on out.
Yep, Trevor is an interesting case. Highly touted as a junior. Seemed to have a good senior year but without gaudy numbers. Could have been more hyped if had not already committed? Also, after handing the keys to a freshman this year I think we are expecting him tk be brought along with King, Dji and Hunt ahead to start the season.
Who is making Quinn out to be better than he is? If you mean me, all I said was I don't think half the teams in the A-10 can match King, Bigs, and Quinn when you asked why we would not finish in the bottom 4. I'm not calling them all conference, not calling them great, not saying we should dominate the A-10 with them. Just answering your bottom 4 question, and saying I think with King, Bigs, and Quinn we have a solid 3 guys that I don't think at least half the teams in the A-10 can match. It sounds to me like you are making Quinn and Bigs not as good as they are. Again, not saying great, but to act like they are not good players? Come on. Same with Grace, who you just said wasn't good. It is all opinion, and I obviously think there are more "good players" in college basketball than you do, but what exactly is your definition of good here?
Wow, you’re a little too defensive. I was basing my Quinn comment on posts I’ve seen on this board from multiple people, not just you. You say we have three that people can’t match up against. I’ll assume King gives us similar production to what he put up at a lesser school. However, Bigelow averaged less than 8 points and shot under 38% from 2 and under 28% from 3. I would say that every team in our league can match up with that. Quinn was a starting center averaging under 10 points a game with no 3 point shot and weak low post moves. He needs to be right next to the basket with his height or facing the basket from the free throw line in order to score. Again, I don’t see how our top 3 are better than so many other teams’ top 3. I think I’d rather have LaSalle’s top 3 than ours.
Disagree on Quinn's post moves. I think for a 7-footer at our level he actually has some good mobility and moves. His bigger issue last year was finishing. It seemed like he got himself in good position with regularity but then shot straight at the rim instead of using the backboard. Hopefully he is spending the summer working with someone like TJ Cline who was masterful at finishing around the rim.
Quinn often got bodied and had ball knocked away. I would like to see him hitting the weights and being much
stronger with the ball. He had trouble going to his left, also.
Quinn works his butt off and he's a great kid, but he is what he is ... a very solid big who can pass pretty well.
he isn't going to suddenly become more athletic. I'm glad we have him. he's good. but he's not going to be all league.
I'm high on Bigs. the tools are there. out from behind Grace and Bigelow, he might be something. and he'll need to be if we're going to be any good.
he isn't going to suddenly become more athletic. I'm glad we have him. he's good. but he's not going to be all league.
I'm high on Bigs. the tools are there. out from behind Grace and Bigelow, he might be something. and he'll need to be if we're going to be any good.
I'm not being defensive...just replying back to you. I said some teams (at least half IMO) in the A-10 can't match King, Bigs, and Quinn....not all teams. And, I will just disagree with you here. If each team put their best F out there, I don't think we would have the 15th best F in the conference in Bigs. Far from it. To me, his rebounding and athletic ability alone likely puts him in the top half. But, no worries, it's all opinion, so we will just have to disagree here. As for Quinn, how many A-10 bigs have 3 point shots and great low post moves that you are asking for? You are not only describing big time P6 bigs, but big time NBA bigs.
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Yes, we had Bigs and Quinn last year and fared poorly. We also had Tyler and fared poorly. Which goes back to what I will continue to say on here.... college basketball is a guard's game and you just can't win much without solid guard play. I don't think Bigs and Quinn were the reason we finished under .500 last year, and I certainly don't think Tyler was either.
100% agree. Guard play (and coaching) were the primary hinderance last year. Guard play SHOULD be much improved in 23-24. I like the quad that is in place. This is why I also believe that the Spiders could be better than some on here hypothesis.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not predicting A-10 championship & Final Four. But, I think .500 or a tad better is probable. The main problem will be figuring out player combinations and how much contribution for each component. I hope that Boydton has a lot of say in those decisions.
8legs1dream
Graduate Assistant
well now that your scapegoat is gone I guess we will just decimate all right? Better start working on the next round of excuses for next year!
First line sounds defensive, but whatever. Please watch the St. Joe’s game last year and tell me Quinn knows how to get to the basket. My point in discussing his 3 point game is to point out that he’s not making up for his post game with his 3 point game. Something has to improve dramatically for him to be an all league selection.
I agree that guards are more impactful than forwards which is the only thing that makes me hopeful about next year. Perhaps too hopeful as King played for a lesser school so can we expect him to put up the same numbers?
Finally, Burton didn’t have a great year last year. People have been critical of our reliance on him for our offense. Perhaps that’s because Quinn and the rest of the guys who are STILL HERE couldn’t be counted on to get to the basket and score.
Who said Quinn has to be an all league selection? Is that your qualification for being a good player? This whole debate started because you started a thread asking why we would not be a bottom 4 team. So, are you saying the only way for us to finish 11th or better is if Quinn is an all conference big?
I thought Quinn got significantly better all year. Yes, he has some limitations due to his athletic abilities but he can be a force around the rim on both ends on the court. Of all my concerns about the roster, the center position is not one of them. I think Walz is also a viable back up as well.
I’m saying that if he’s just an average big, and Bigelow shoots under 30%, then who exactly cannot keep up with them?
Why the faith in Walz? I played almost as much as he did last year and he didn’t dominate at the high school level.
I didn't think he looked overwhelmed when he had his minutes last year. Good passer, seemed confident out there, which is rare for a freshman big man. I don't have a lot of go on but we had Quinn and Grace last year, so there were not a whole lot of minutes available for him and then he got hurt when he did finally see some minutes.
I would say faith might be a strong word but as a back center, I'm interested in seeing more, how about that?
I would say faith might be a strong word but as a back center, I'm interested in seeing more, how about that?
Even with Quinn and Grace, from what I saw Walz should have gotten more mins. He gave productive mins when he did play, and I thought he deserved more. Certainly not a liability on the court and would have helped prep him and confidence for this year.
Just as he was starting to get some minutes, he had a pretty significant ankle injury. But agree in principal, he should have gotten more minutes. Speaks to some of Mooney's issues with time management/developing players when they are freshman, so they are ready to contribute in future years. Same good be said about Noyes last year, who certainly deserved more minutes than he was given.
Mooney was so intent on playing his 5th year seniors on a team going nowhere, that he didn't give time to players who will be the future of the program.
I thought it was weird that he specifically singled out Noyes in the preseason as a kid who was primed for a breakout opportunity, then proceeded to play him 52 minutes all season.
Looks like he had played 22 minutes all season before that game, then played 22 in that game. Then 8 minutes the last few games of the season.
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