its got a decent shot to be a 1 bid league with that bid being a 7-10 seed. the league lost a ton of talent. it might be a more competitive conference, but no teams in the top 30 isn't a very good conference.
Jennifer is trash on defense against any team that's not playing high school point guards. Against some of the teams we have in the AAC he's adequate enough but people need to stop acting like he's some great defender. He's just not.
As of today, it looks like we have 4 tier 1 wins and 4 tier 2 wins available to us in the conference portion of the schedule.
Last season we had 4 tier 1 and 3 tier 2..... the league is better, if UConn and Memphis move up as well like I expect they should, our league will provide more opportunities for every one in this league.
We just need to collectively do work in the non conference
The numbers and synergy say he is an excellent defender.
And the narrative that says he is only a good defender because of Gary and Kyle, is also not supported by facts. His worst defense came on shots 17 ft and closer, his best defense came on everything 18ft she beyond. Call it what you want, but he grades out as an excellent perimeter defender. He doesn’t generate steals, but you don’t need to to be a great defender to do that.
His pick and roll converse was excellent according to synergy.
He played good defense on the perimeter. And it’s hard to show me evidence he didn’t
I was also at the scrimmage. I'm not nearly as optimistic about what I saw though.
The best part of the night was Logan Johnson really showed his upside. We've really never had a player like him since Cronin has been here. I had seen his YouTube videos but I never thought he looked all that athletic in them but he always looked like a very solid, high iq player who just found ways to get where he wanted. Boy was that wrong. This guy is bouncy but still very smooth basketball wise. I expect to be very frustrated with his lack of playing time this year with Jenifer ahead of him. Sure he's going to make lots of mistakes, but I think long term we'd better by the end of the year if he played a lot. The block he had where he pinned it was super quick... He stole an outlet pass in the first few minutes that I don't know how he got there. The team in Black put him in pick n roll a bunch, and he was physical trying to defend albeit he seemed to be thinking a little bit too much on some of these actions. I'm sure that will improve, but will ultimately be what dictates his playing time.
Cumberland looks like he lost weight. He was noticeably quicker. He was about exactly what everyone expected from him.
Jenifer was 2-9 in the first half, not sure what the final stat line was. He did knock down two or three 3's though, but I think his career shooting is a better predictor of what's to come. Bright side is he actually didn't seem to hesitate to shoot from 3, so hopefully if he's just selective and only takes wide open in rhythm catch and shoot looks, he'll be ok.
Fredericks looked lost to me. Not sure if the competition level is too big of a jump, he just had an off night, or what, but he seemed like just another guy.
Brooks/Eliel/Diarra are all exactly what you thought they were.
Cane's floater game and ability to finish over bigs and in the paint looked good. He knocked down a few 3's too.
Trevor Moore is a very good shooter when catch and shoot. He doesn't do a lot more than that on offense, but that's ok because i don't think he has a very good handle nor is good at creating. The spacing he allows our offense with his shooting ability is important. If he isn't requiring teams to not leave him, we're going to have a very clogged paint.
I see everyone's very excited with Scott. I really just didn't see it. I thought his game was more of a product of his competition. His season is going to tell a lot about how far we go, so hopefully in wrong.
Prince/Hardnett aren't anywhere near ready.
Keith Williams. Still not a good shooter. I think he's our irrational confidence guy, in he's going to take some terrible shots and do some awful stuff, but some nights it will work out fall in the hoop. I did forget about just how athletic he is. He's going to translate that athleticism into high level wing defense for our defense to reach similarly high levels. His ability to create is still lacking, but he will try that's for sure.
I thought we did play with more pace than normal, but it's practice and I've thought that many years before expecting a change. Not falling for that trap again.
I thought our defense overall in the scrimmage was trash. But again, it's October, a scrimmage, and we have the athletes to guard. Add in Cronin's history and I'm sure we'll be a top 30 kpom defense with a chance at cracking the top 15.
This team seemed scrappy in the scrimmage. They played hard. Legitimately very hard. The last five minutes got really intense when the Red team made their run.
Overall predictions:
Win between 20 and 24 games.
Bubble team most of the year that probably gets in and finishes with an 8-12 seed. Maybe win one tournament game.
Hmmm...Obviously Gary was great, but last year, everyone, including at times the head coach, cited Kyle's defense as his major weakness. He may have blocked some shots, but I think players like Nsoseme might be an upgrade defensively...now the offense on the other hand...With that being said our defense has always been the system. as long as guys stay disciplined our defense is always going to be great. maybe not as good as last year, but we will always be in the top 25.
Hmmm...Obviously Gary was great, but last year, everyone, including at times the head coach, cited Kyle's defense as his major weakness. He may have blocked some shots, but I think players like Nsoseme might be an upgrade defensively...now the offense on the other hand...
theres a good chance last years defense was the best we'll ever see here. statistically it was off the charts. we forced a very low shooting% against, we turned teams over a lot, we didn't give up a lot of Ft, we stopped 3's, we blocked a ton of shots. Our only weakness was giving up offensive rebounds.
its going to take a step back cause nobody can be gary and the perimeter is going to go from jake to broome.
theres a good chance last years defense was the best we'll ever see here. statistically it was off the charts. we forced a very low shooting% against, we turned teams over a lot, we didn't give up a lot of Ft, we stopped 3's, we blocked a ton of shots. Our only weakness was giving up offensive rebounds.
its going to take a step back cause nobody can be gary and the perimeter is going to go from jake to broome.
It can take a step back and still be top 10.
So the defense is going to take a step back the Offense will take a step back as well as three 1K scorers left and the coaching staff took a step back in tenure with LD leaving. The only thing improving this year is the arena
So the defense is going to take a step back the Offense will take a step back as well as three 1K scorers left and the coaching staff took a step back in tenure with LD leaving. The only thing improving this year is the arena
can't really deny any of those things, but they play the games for a reason.
maybe we win the conference and get hot in the tournament. who knows what could happen.
this team probably has the highest chance of missing the tournament of any team we've had since we got to this conference. but its also probably the easiest road to the tournament since we've been in this conference.
just get to the tournament and hope luck happens.
In my opinion, the year after SK left, is the year we most likely should have missed the tourney based on personnel. We didn’t have a single double digit scorer that year. And sophomore Troy caupain was no where near the scorer and alpha jarron is.
but we could score from both posts that year. ellis and clark gave us 18 points 15 boards a game combined. we probably dont get close to that production from those 2 spots this year.
SO KJ was his best year. 35% from 3 somehow. Troy had his best shooting year by far that year too.
Big downgrade at PG and big downgrade at C. Big upgrade at SF. Question mark at SG until we see what Mick allows Broome to do. If Broome still isn't allowed to play his game then its a wash. Scott would have to take a big leap to get to freshman Gary. As we all know its a lot to go from doing it 10 minutes a game to 25+.
I just think not having a single player you can throw it to in the post severely limits the capabilities of an offense.
that 2015 team played the slowest of any team micks had here. they couldn't shoot at all and turned the ball over a ton. those games were hard to watch. i would expect us to look a lot like that team.
I think the opposite.
There are a ton of successful teams around the league who lack post scorers.
I want our bigs scoring on lobs after rolls to the rim and put backs.
We can’t play a faster pace of basketball if we throw everything into the post and let them work.
I want a faster paced guard oriented offense. And this team is far more suited for that.
I think Justin has an under rated 3 point shooting stroke that can be helpful to this tram.
I think the opposite.
There are a ton of successful teams around the league who lack post scorers.
I want our bigs scoring on lobs after rolls to the rim and put backs.