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Post by reformation on Mar 15, 2024 18:31:31 GMT -5
Should probably restart the thread for next year.
Btw, Soriano is a complementary player on a good team. He has trouble finishing, lacks skills to score around the rim against top competition. I saw him a lot in HS, he was like 3rd or 4th option on his HS team depending on the year.
Pitino making STJ competitive is not because of Soriano.
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Post by reformation on Mar 15, 2024 18:14:21 GMT -5
ESPN had him at 20 in region, 3 in state, 95th nationally. Pretty good. Hope he stays but not sure it's a game breaker either way. I guess it's a cost benefit in truest sense in today's game. I guess if I were him, I'd test the waters too. I'd be pretty concerned being subservient to EPPS in the Cooley scheme.
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Post by reformation on Mar 15, 2024 10:33:35 GMT -5
Would think NCAA next year is possible with some luck in the portal, at least one recruit being elite and a better coaching job by Cooley (don't run the offense through Epps).
Re Cooley, I've met him a couple of times and like him. I am actually optimistic re next year. However, he needs to be accountable for overall program performance. From a cost benefit analysis perspective, the program has and continued to be a disaster in his first year. I'm ok with Gtwn making a big investment in its signature sport but there has to be a payoff, right now it's pretty much a total loss financially and adds little to the overall school community. I'm ok giving him a reasonable, but not unlimited amount of time to fix the situation. Gtwn could fix major academic shortcomings with the $ allocated to basketball, so there is a cost to this effort.
The idea raised above that Gtwn has been held back by higher academic standards vs competitors is ridiculous. Under Ewing at least, it seemed we had no academic or character constraints. Cooley seems to recruit better players at least from a non bball perspective. Re the comparison to Pitino, STJ has starters who graduated from Harvard and Penn, so yes, Gtwn might have marginally better overall standards than STJ, but probably not materially so. On the academic front our standards are probably closer to the SEC than Ivy level, Northwestern etc. and have an actually worse basketball team than the top Ivies. Given the amt of money spent on the program those results are crazy.
Hey, look I'm optimistic re the future, but there has to be accountability. Lack of accountability has gotten us in the hole we're in. Hopefully Cooley can fix it, but we need to see evidence of transformational progress soon.
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Post by reformation on Mar 14, 2024 22:24:36 GMT -5
Cooley vs Pitino: Pitino was obviously much better year 1. They both effectively had full reboots. TBH Pitino probably would have done eve better here as he could probably have recruited better at Gtwn than STJ. Also, we don't have much of a core for next year from existing players.
Cooley has recruited well enough to give us hope for next year. Maybe we'll also get some positive news from the portal.
Next year is pivotal--it's fair to expect at least a tournament bid. If not, I'd want a lights out recruiting class with NIT. Otherwise, we'll need to reevaluate direction again.
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Post by reformation on Mar 14, 2024 9:39:20 GMT -5
Agree with above--from the outside it's hard to see why one would choose to play with Epps if Cooley is going to let him play the role of gunner. I would only want to play with an under-control Epps, not the one we currently have.
In terms of new talent, I think Cooley should get some staff who can recruit overseas. Gtwn has better name recognition overseas than the vast majority of schools we compete against for recruits--it would be a sign of Cooley adapting to the tools of his new environment vs just doing what he did at Providence.
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Post by reformation on Mar 10, 2024 9:04:09 GMT -5
I thought that you highlighted one of Ewing's rare moments of coaching excellence. I wish Cooley would exhibit some of the same toughness on EPPS as he did to Brumbaugh. To have a real view (which none of us probably do), we'd have to have an inside view of the team, personalities, and Cooley's day to day coaching style.
If all of our players don't improve "a lot" there is really no point to what we are doing as a program. Whether his syle vs each player is effective or not I guess we'll see next year.
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Post by reformation on Mar 7, 2024 15:29:02 GMT -5
On a basic level I agree with gujake above. It is also true that EPPs is a bit more efficient on paper at least as RB plays better and he has some confidence in him to share the ball occasionally. TBH both EPPS and RB tend to end up in bad positions in the offensive sets. Both may be improving a bit, but are still a long way from being centerpieces on a good team. They are both very easy to defend. None of our players are good enough at least yet to worry another team, kind of have to look at the overall team to judge real progress. It seems that Cooley obviously has written the season off a while ago and is just letting these guys run to see where they might fit in next year. I guess the alternative would be to yank the guys when they make obviously bad decisions: guess he's decided it's not worth the friction given where the overall team is.
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Post by reformation on Mar 6, 2024 21:53:52 GMT -5
Epps has the ball all the time and the others and coach defer to him--also look at the team stats, not just his ind stats.
Fyi Gtwn is very easy to defend when he has the ball--relatively easy to direct him to one side and force a bad shot, since he does not create and it's not like he's an elite shooter so I would not care if he gets a few baskets when he's hot as it will generally not last.
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Post by reformation on Mar 6, 2024 21:23:56 GMT -5
Wonder if some of Cooley's comments are driven by the amt of NIL$ invested in Epps for which he is getting internal flak for? Obviously pure speculation + there is a big bid ask here on what Epps is worth. Just me but I would be all over him for lack of team play if I were Cooley, he just isn't nearly good enough to let run wild like he does.
When I met Cooley, I was super impressed that he remembered my HS coach from 30+ yrs ago as he had recruited my HS. I am very surprised how he handles Epps.
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Post by reformation on Mar 6, 2024 16:21:15 GMT -5
Epps is quick. His speed allows him to get a lot of shots. Don't think he, at least currently, fits into any real team concept (never passes, takes poor shots, not a good defender, small size for a 2, not a great shooter IMO). Hard to see him as a cornerstone of a good team. Hard to think I'd want to play with a guy that never passes, if I'm in transfer portal or recruit but hey none of us are really that close to the situation so maybe Cooley is right.
If he could shoot more reliably, I see him as a sixth man on a good team (instant offense if he is hot, on the bench if he is not).
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Post by reformation on Feb 28, 2024 18:48:16 GMT -5
Btw I saw Soriano in HS. I would say Sorber is better as a HS player, so I guess we could use Soriano as a floor for him and Monroe or Sweetney as ceiling. Sorber has better instincts than Soriano and looks more skilled generally as a passer shooter etc., but maybe slightly smaller. Both played on HS teams where they were not the sole feature, Soriano was third or fourth option on his team (better than Sorber's).
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Post by reformation on Feb 28, 2024 18:42:32 GMT -5
Don't think relying on Epps/Styles even at a 3rd and 4th option is a great idea. Epps is too small and not a good enough shooter at the 2 and has is not a good ball distributor to say the least as a pg(proven he cannot run the pt). Styles is very inconsistent, maybe ok if everything else around him is very good. Taking best avail talent may be where we are as we have need pretty much everywhere depending on how they want to use Sorber. Pretty much every other position is open other than Sorber.
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Post by reformation on Feb 28, 2024 14:42:09 GMT -5
I'd be more optimistic re Sorber as an offensive option day 1--btw who else is a better option on the team now. In terms of comps to other Hoyas maybe Sweetney or Monroe I guess, though Monroe might be a bit of a stretch (he was a top 10 national recruit, NBA first rounder and played 10 years in the league--he was a big day 1 impact player. Not sure Sorber is at that level coming in--would be great if he is. Optimistic re his impact, but Monroe level immediately would be a mild surprise at least)
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Post by reformation on Feb 28, 2024 11:41:30 GMT -5
We don't currently have a viable core talent wise for a good team let alone an elite team. The guys we have are reserves or sixth men on good teams. Agree above if we want to be elite again, we need at least one or two elite talents. It looks like we have good freshman talent coming in: in order for it to be transformational we need solid transfer portal guys as well. TBH, none of those transfer portal guys mentioned look like transformational talents either. Hopefully the freshman/portal talent upgrade next year will allow us to get into the tournament and we will leverage the upward trajectory to get a couple of elites the following year. Also, we need much better overall shooting talent. Maybe Sorber turns out to be an NBA talent level guy and that would be a start--hard to tell, could see it either way.
Trying to start totally from scratch is hard. I'm sure Cooley regrets several of his personnel moves. I'm still positive on Cooley but I think showing a lot of progress next year will be critical.
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Post by reformation on Feb 28, 2024 11:24:04 GMT -5
He seems to be improving a lot watching recent vs earlier tapes so hopefully that trend will continue into his freshman year. He seems to have very long arms but plays a bit below the rim. He also seems very court aware unlike almost everybody on our current team and I think could help with our terrible ball movement on offense immediately. In terms of making an immediate impact I think that will depend to some degree on how Cooley uses him and who else is around him as mentioned above. Also, as he gains more confidence in his skills, he should become more aggressive. Watching his recent tapes its true above that he did not dominate (the MCDAA kid on my HS team tends to dominate most nights, e.g.,) though I think that in Sorber's case he has developed skills and team role more gradually than a lot of elite kids, so may not yet have the attitude to dominate even if he has the capability now at the HS level.
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Post by reformation on Feb 26, 2024 19:51:23 GMT -5
Interesting find. Gtwn and Depaul are the only two schools that prioritize basketball as a signature sport. At Least we're a safe distance from the others. TBH all of the schools on the list are kind of a surprise given that they have decent resources and focus on top tier athletics and are pretty attractive destinations generally. Thinking aloud, I would bet that the common thread is lack of accountability. Other common thread is Gtwn and Stan have shared an AD, though I am not really blaming Bermanrd Muir for the failures at Gtwn or Stan.
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Post by reformation on Feb 25, 2024 17:31:11 GMT -5
If SJU wins out and a couple of games in BET I'd think they make it (obviously a big "if"). Would think their pivotal game is on the rad vs Butler. I would think that they will beat us and Depaul + get at least 1 win at the BET. Playing their freshman guard Wilcher helped them a bit today. He was a good spark in the first half which allowed them to build a good lead which they surprisingly held.
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Post by reformation on Feb 25, 2024 15:56:52 GMT -5
I watched Wolfe from Yale play Columbia last night. While a good player, he certainly did not dominate vs Columbia. He plays mostly from the top of the key. Decent but not great shooter. He had good post moves. Ok, but not great defensively, rebounding etc. Not super athletic, though not terrible either. If he's actually avail, if I'm Cooley I'd have to think pretty hard how I'd use him together with Sorber. I'd be pretty cautious re spending a ton of NIL money on him. I suspect he has a lot of room to develop, but he still needs a lot of work.
As an aside I randomly sat next to the Yale and Columbia AD's. They were aware he might go, but thought he'd be crazy to even go for $1mm NIL$ as they obviously vale his Yale degree highly. I chirped in that it depends on where he'd be going. They thought he was a lot closer to NBA level than I thought at his current state.
Game overall was fun, students go for free (as did I since I teach a class there.) Teams played much better and tighter D than Gtwn and moved the ball much better. I suspect the tight D vs typical gtwn game was partly a more even talent match than gtwn has vs its BE opponents on a regular basis, hopefully it's not coaching!
Sad to think that for all the money we spend on the program, we get so little out of it versus even an Ivy, on the other hand I am still optimistic for next year if we make the right portal moves and one or two of the freshman turn out to be good as advertsed.
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Post by reformation on Feb 25, 2024 15:23:45 GMT -5
Freshman can absolutely start in the BE/certainly on Gtwn. Freshman certainly start in other P5 conferences. I've seen a decent amt of elite HS basketball this year. A lot of the guys I've seen would be big and immediate upgrades for Gtwn.
We just have to be able to recruit those guys.
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Post by reformation on Feb 23, 2024 11:47:02 GMT -5
When one is as bad as we are on defense its usually not just one thing. Are we athletic enough to be really good on D-No. Just watching, we play too far off opponents generally, usually that's because the Defensive player is not quick enough to guard the other player. In terms of scheme/help etc., it's also not working. Obviously, this is not news to anyone so I am sure they must be working on adjustments which are just not translating to the games. One other factor might be a hangover from the poor ball dominant offensive sets, which probably frustrate some players and may leave people out of position on transition.
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