Wash Times on recent Hoya roster events

[SFHoya99]

May 12, 2008 8:48:30 GMT -5 Boz said:

Not that I am doubting Barker Davis (and I mean that; I'm not being sarcastic), but could someone point me to where that news regarding Braswell was "confirmed"? I didn't see it elsewhere.

Again, Barker knows his stuff. I only ask because it seems really, really early for news like that. The spring semester is over, more or less, but there are summer classes, no?

Or maybe summer was not an option for qualification purposes, I'm not sure.


On second thought, just typing the above made me feel really creepy in a Tim Floyd or John Calipari sort of way. I probably shouldn't be looking for ways for Braswell to qualify just because it will help this team. If he's having trouble with his grades, that's probably what he should be focusing on for the next year, not becoming a Hoya & taking on the likes of DeJuan Blair.

That's exactly what I thought when I read it. It seems to me that Braswell not being qualified is a much bigger article than just "coach's reaction to being thin" and would've warranted something first.

Add in that III's quotes don't even allude to Braswell.

I don't doubt that even before this article Braswell being eligible was likely, but the article reads very strangely.

[SFHoya99]

May 12, 2008 10:08:25 GMT -5 hoyasexy said:

There will be times next year when we look like Villanova. We may see some occasions when we have 4 guards on the floor.

Possibly, but without injuries it will be rare unless it is intentional. Yes, foul trouble always is an issue for freshmen, but we don't play an overaggressive defense so I think that will help to minimize the foul issue.

I also think we may get some help from Nikita and Jansen. Now, how effective either will be is beyond me, but I think some PT for them is more likely than playing Freeman at the four for any significant stretch.

[GIGAFAN99]

May 12, 2008 10:26:34 GMT -5 moe09 said:

May 12, 2008 10:17:19 GMT -5 GIGAFAN99 said:

I put this scenario under "extremely rare." We'll rotate Summers, Monroe, and Sims down low. Hard for me to believe we'll rotate Freeman down to the 4. We could see Sapp at the three on occasion to run three guards or we could see Summers, Monroe, and Sims in all at once. But Wright, Clark, Sapp, Freeman and a big? I don't know why we'd do that unless we had a strategic advantage or an injury.

I don't see how this possibility couldn't come to fruition. Say Summers and Monroe get in foul trouble (they're both going to be getting a lot of minutes). Granted it could be the case that you put Omar or Nikita in at the four, but it could also be the case that you go four guards. I don't see how this is an extremely rare scenario.

I still consider Freeman a guard. He's probably 6'3". Plus, most of his game is played on the perimeter. Small Forwards can play equally inside and outside (even if they don't do it).

Say two guys get into serious foul trouble.? Yeah I guess that could happen but how often? I mean it happened like what three times in 34 games last year ('Nova twice and Davidson)?

I mean we might see 4 guards if our bigs hack away or we get a bunch of whistle-happy refs but in the course of a normal game 3 guys, 15 fouls, and 80 minutes in a slow-paced game usually has it covered. If it didn't, Mr. Macklin would have seen more than 10 minutes per game during conference play and might have hung around.

[CO_Hoya]

May 12, 2008 9:26:30 GMT -5 strummer8526 said:

We're going to need some creative offensive and especially defensive plans to keep competitive a team this shallow and this small.

It's too bad we don't have an offense that reduces the number of possessions (which will keep fouls down) and runs a lot of motion and back-cuts to take advantage of our quickness vs. bigger opponents.

[moe09]

May 12, 2008 10:40:43 GMT -5 GIGAFAN99 said:

May 12, 2008 10:26:34 GMT -5 moe09 said:

I don't see how this possibility couldn't come to fruition. Say Summers and Monroe get in foul trouble (they're both going to be getting a lot of minutes). Granted it could be the case that you put Omar or Nikita in at the four, but it could also be the case that you go four guards. I don't see how this is an extremely rare scenario.

I still consider Freeman a guard. He's probably 6'3". Plus, most of his game is played on the perimeter. Small Forwards can play equally inside and outside (even if they don't do it).

Say two guys get into serious foul trouble.? Yeah I guess that could happen but how often? I mean it happened like what three times in 34 games last year ('Nova twice and Davidson)?

I mean we might see 4 guards if our bigs hack away or we get a bunch of whistle-happy refs but in the course of a normal game 3 guys, 15 fouls, and 80 minutes in a slow-paced game usually has it covered. If it didn't, Mr. Macklin would have seen more than 10 minutes per game during conference play and might have hung around.

I'm not by any means saying it's going to happen all the time, but it's definitely going to happen more than it did last year considering this year we aren't as deep and therefore the guys in the rotation will be picking up more fouls since they're going to be on the court a bit more this year. It's quite illogical to say it didn't happen last year so it won't happen this year considering how different the two teams will be.

Greg and Dajuan will easily be logging 30 minutes a game, I don't think it's absolutely ridiculous to pick up 3 or 4 fouls each in that amount of time. Jeez... 3 guys and 15 fouls is an inaccurate portrayal of what it takes to run 4 guards. You actually need to have a big man to be able to play four guards in the first place. All it takes is two of your big men to get 3 or 4 fouls throughout the game, and you're down to one.

[lichoya68]

GO NIKITA YES YES YES FIRE AWAY THOSE THREES GO HOYAS is it november yet lets see you the baby hoyas do in the kenner league WHEN DOES KENNER START LIKE MID JUNE???

[dmlake99]

Clearly the transfers and possible non qualifier look bad on paper....but if championships were won on paper than my beloved Washington Redskins would have 8 superbowls in my lifetime....

I put my trust in JT3's gameplanning and teaching. For one, we are not short on talent. In fact, we are better on talent. Basically our concerns now rely on "potential foul trouble" and extra bodies to take the minutes and fouls. I have confidence we can find that and/or have that.

Don't be quick to discount Nikita and Omar. I think as fans (myself included) we get jaded by the top tier recruits and automatically think that Nikita and Omar can't contribute because they werent as high on the national radar. Neither of them will get down and be a banger down low, but I think they both will be able to contribute. If Olexi Pecherov can log minutes with the Wizards at PF/C I think Nikita can grab some minutes at Gtown( kind of same build...Pecherov taller). We didnt just recruit two nothings to keep a seat on the bench.

[kchoya]

May 12, 2008 10:16:33 GMT -5 PopeJohn2 said:

sure wish we had picked up anthony mcclain a few years ago when we had the chance.

Yeah, he was a real difference maker for Cincy last year. We really could use his 2.7 ppg and 3.0 rpg.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

My first reaction to the braswell news would to think we should look at some juco's however in 09 we'll get Vaughn, in theory braswell and hopefully riley. so we'd go from thin to stacked pretty quickly. So i don't think we'll go that route, but you never know.

[moe09]

May 12, 2008 11:16:08 GMT -5 kchoya said:

May 12, 2008 10:16:33 GMT -5 PopeJohn2 said:

sure wish we had picked up anthony mcclain a few years ago when we had the chance.

Yeah, he was a real difference maker for Cincy last year. We really could use his 2.7 ppg and 3.0 rpg.

Actually, if you look at his stats game-by-game he didn't do too poorly when he got more minutes. Either way it doesn't really matter.

[GIGAFAN99]

May 12, 2008 11:00:13 GMT -5 moe09 said:

May 12, 2008 10:40:43 GMT -5 GIGAFAN99 said:

Say two guys get into serious foul trouble.? Yeah I guess that could happen but how often? I mean it happened like what three times in 34 games last year ('Nova twice and Davidson)?

I mean we might see 4 guards if our bigs hack away or we get a bunch of whistle-happy refs but in the course of a normal game 3 guys, 15 fouls, and 80 minutes in a slow-paced game usually has it covered. If it didn't, Mr. Macklin would have seen more than 10 minutes per game during conference play and might have hung around.

I'm not by any means saying it's going to happen all the time, but it's definitely going to happen more than it did last year considering this year we aren't as deep and therefore the guys in the rotation will be picking up more fouls since they're going to be on the court a bit more this year. It's quite illogical to say it didn't happen last year so it won't happen this year considering how different the two teams will be.

Greg and Dajuan will easily be logging 30 minutes a game, I don't think it's absolutely ridiculous to pick up 3 or 4 fouls each in that amount of time. Jeez... 3 guys and 15 fouls is an inaccurate portrayal of what it takes to run 4 guards. You actually need to have a big man to be able to play four guards in the first place. All it takes is two of your big men to get 3 or 4 fouls throughout the game, and you're down to one.

I get your scenario. Dajuan gets two fouls in five minutes and here comes Sims and now we don't have anyone to spell Greg if in fact Dajuan is gone for the entire first half. Could that happen? Sure. Will we then run 4 guards? Maybe. I mean we could also just bring Dajuan back and tell him not to foul. Guys can manage their fouls.

Put it this way, we ran Bowman/Green/Roy for an entire season and I can't remember going Wallace, Cook, Sapp, Owens, and one of those three very much but I could be wrong.

[kghoya]

id like to see something official on chris before i freak out and start worrying about 4 guard lineups

[SFHoya99]

III's first year we basically had a seven man rotation -- and it was six early in the season (Ray Reed wasn't up to speed yet). DJ Owens subbed in for everyone, basically, much of the team played big minutes (three players playing more than 80% of the minutes).

It's basically the same rotation -- a veteran PF/SF (Summers/Bowman), a freshman PF/C (Monroe/Green), a freshman center who played middling minutes (Hibbert/Sims - who may be more ready to play more), a SF/SG who played middling minutes (Owens/Freeman - who will play more), a veteran SG (Cook/Sapp), and a younger PG (Wallace/Wright).

That team also had Ray Reed who played decent minutes -- Jason Clark should be fine filling in at least that.

Omar and Nikita (and the rest of Jason Clark) can fill in admirably for a freshmen Tyler Crawford and Ramell Ross.

We got tired at the end of the season -- and I could see that happening -- but we really didn't need to play four guards that often. I really don't remember that much DJ Owens at PF or Bowman at C -- and we have Nikita as well.

[turbohoya]

WHO AM I? I am 6'8" SG/SF with a sweet stroke who sat out last year but got to practice every day withing the JT3 system... Why does Nikita get ZERO respect on this board? Are we agreed that if he is not a TOTAL defensive liability he could be an enormous asset within a system that is made for shooters? Is he not the ideal 4th guard for the 4 guard chatter people keep throwing around or the potential back-up 3 in a larger line-up? I am on a LOVE NIKITA kick...

[SFHoya99]

Turbo,

I think people are somewhat reasonably wary of thinking Nikita is going to contribute given some of the hype Sead had as "ideal for the offense", etc., which he might have been but could never guard enough to actually get on the court. There were some good Kenner reports, some practice reports, some talk of him being a great shooter, etc.

That said, I think there are some real differences. Everyone I've heard from say that Nikita is MUCH more athletic than Sead and the reports have been much more glowing than Sead's ever were. Given our need, I'd be shocked to see him not see the floor at all.

[turbohoya]

The only thing I remember about Sead is that we picked him up very late in the recruiting period and Esh said he liked him because having played in Europe he was used to the Trapezoid Key... They are both white, East European and and about 6'8" but the comparisons should stop there... Believe in NIKITA (all caps... I like it better that way)

[alleninxis]

Nikita can play a little..

But Omar?

I'm sorry, but if he's needed in Big East Games..we're in trouble.

[HoyaChris]

Nikita is Steve Novak except that he is a better passer. He will see significant minutes.

[GIGAFAN99]

May 12, 2008 13:16:40 GMT -5 turbohoya said:

The only thing I remember about Sead is that we picked him up very late in the recruiting period and Esh said he liked him because having played in Europe he was used to the Trapezoid Key... They are both white, East European and and about 6'8" but the comparisons should stop there... Believe in NIKITA (all caps... I like it better that way)

That and he was seemingly the only high D-1 college basketball player that thought the first ten minutes of "Sweatin' to the Oldies" counted as a workout regimen.

[royski]

May 12, 2008 14:18:37 GMT -5 HoyaChris said:

Nikita is Steve Novak except that he is a better passer. He will see significant minutes.

Novak was Wisconsin player of the year, was on the C-USA all freshman team and was the C-USA 6th man, during his freshman year. He was then drafted into the NBA. Its nice to see such high hopes for Nikita.