|
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.
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
Post by reformation on Feb 22, 2024 21:37:42 GMT -5
Let's hope we get some guys who can shoot and pass the ball. Would be reluctant to take some more players who can't reliably knock down shots or hog the ball like Epps. Sounds like Dual needs help in the shooting dept, suspect we'd be way overpaying for him if that's what his issue is at Providence.
Planning on watching the Yale kid on Sat vs Columbia.
|
|
|
Post by reformation on Feb 21, 2024 10:01:05 GMT -5
Cooley is Gtwn's highest paid employee by a lot and most high profile one. I would expect that Jack spends or certainly should spend some time on it (that doesn't mean micromanaging but it does mean some level of review/scrutiny.
|
|
|
Post by reformation on Feb 19, 2024 10:42:18 GMT -5
It's not like you have a choice of who you want at a school like Fairfield. He should definitely have choices from a bigger pool at Gtwn than Providence. Btw same guy above shooting 70% from the line instead of 50 and maybe a little quicker would have a material impact on the team. His FT% indicates he can't shoot from other than at the rim, which limits effectiveness in many ways.
I am a Cooley supporter, but if he can't get better talent at Gtwn than he got at Providence, he should not be the coach at Gtwn and should not be getting paid $6mm/yr.
|
|
|
Post by reformation on Feb 19, 2024 10:19:20 GMT -5
Watched the game. St Johns would have still won if they'd hit open shots. Not sure why he didn't go there with his criticism--don't think anyone would have had this type of neg reaction to that type of criticism. If I were coaching STJ I would have also gone crazy behind closed doors, but I can't imagine I would have gone nuclear on my team as he did. Maybe the NIL money changes coaches' attitudes towards players. Still a dumb move on his part.
Can't imagine it will help his recruiting. He is going all in to get the underclassmen at my HS, which is where Soriano played. Can't imagine that this will help him one bit with their elite fresh/sophs.
|
|
|
Post by reformation on Feb 19, 2024 9:50:43 GMT -5
You don't need to change the type of player to get better players. The very best players are a little quicker and better shooter than guys a level below. Being the same player and a 5-10% better shooter can make a big winning/losing diff
|
|
|
Post by reformation on Feb 17, 2024 16:28:06 GMT -5
Look, the team is nowhere near talented enough to be competitive consistently vs good teams--no sense obsessing about it. Brumbaugh's play yesterday was encouraging Hopefully he can continue to develop. Still not sure if he can start on a high-level team, but Cooley should use him as the point rest of way and see what he can do.
Agree with others that the off season is critical as is the integration of the incoming freshman.
|
|
|
Post by reformation on Feb 11, 2024 9:29:51 GMT -5
Monroe was the 7th pick in the draft and played 12 years in the NBA. Laughable to compare him to anyone we currently have.
TBH I was at a top HS game recently. In terms of pure talent our most talented guys would not be in top 5, maybe top 7-9 of the combined talent on the two HS teams. Obviously, people develop & regress and some of the HS players I saw will not pan out either. Just saying there's only so much we can do with current roster: it's really about getting a couple of elite players and steadily upgrading overall talent and performance.
|
|
|
Post by reformation on Feb 11, 2024 0:15:42 GMT -5
Agree with DFW. Poor shooting is as much an issue as the defense. Our guys cannot consistently knock down open shots--good teams do that bad ones do not.
Monroe and Freeman would be huge upgrades to anyone we currently have. The real issue is how good are the guys coming in next year.
|
|
|
Post by reformation on Feb 10, 2024 18:18:24 GMT -5
I'm intrigued enough to go watch him play vs Columbia in a couple of weeks!
|
|
|
Post by reformation on Feb 10, 2024 18:06:05 GMT -5
The Ivy fifth year guys on St Johns have been a disappointment. The Ivy teams seem better than their individual players. I'm not saying I would not take this guy, but just not sure of his impact.
|
|
|
Post by reformation on Feb 10, 2024 17:59:21 GMT -5
Agree Epps and Felder would be useful (at their current skill level) for a good team coming off the bench for some useful minutes. I can't imagine that the staff ever projected Fielder as a 3. He's a 4 or 5 depending on the matchup.
|
|
|
Post by reformation on Feb 8, 2024 16:47:59 GMT -5
He plays like he has no confidence in his teammates. Given his poor shooting not sure why they'd have confidence in him either.
Next year, hopefully with a real PG, I'd have him come off the bench as a sixth man and then see what happens with his play, i.e., whether he is worth inserting as an off-guard starter or a radically transformed pt. He is small to play the 2 and needs to exhibit better shooting and overall efficiency to justify starting.
|
|
|
Post by reformation on Feb 7, 2024 21:32:34 GMT -5
Like us, St Johns is not a great shooting team--kind of a Big East weakness other than UCONN Marq. They have one top 50-75 guard, a top 125 center, and a Euro committed out of HS so far. Nothing spectacular. Pitino has not been able to convince the top tri state players to stay yet, though the guard is a NJ product. I know he visited my HS which has some of the top prospects in the area, (their center Soriano went to my HS, but he was third option on his HS team)), but I dont think has made any headway with the top kids.
|
|
|
Post by reformation on Feb 7, 2024 21:15:51 GMT -5
St Johns has better talent than we do. Their team has flaws but is still better constructed than ours. I suspect that St Johns feels that they should have done better than they have also.
|
|
|
Post by reformation on Feb 7, 2024 20:26:45 GMT -5
Not sure why Cooley doesn't control Epps more. Hopefully he is not controlling the ball next year.
|
|
|
Post by reformation on Feb 6, 2024 22:47:55 GMT -5
I'm a supporter of Cooley, but I don't think we have a viable core talent wise even with extra time together. Hopefully that will change with freshman and transfers for next year. We really don't have a point guard, on ball defenders, and shooters/scorers. It's fair to evaluate Cooley more critically at end next year. Constructing a whole new team from scratch is hard and it didn't work out for this year. We have some good recruits: this year's poor performance will put more pressure on next year's results though.
|
|