Jacksonville Pre-Game Discussion Thread

[blueandgray]

I know this is probably a little premature... but I just couldn't contain myself with the season just two weeks away ;D.

I don't know much about the Dolphins other than they are young and undersized. I believe they have a center who is 6'10" and the next tallest guy is 6'7'... should be nice for our bigs.

What I do know is that Jacksonville will have just come off playing FSU two days before travelling to the hilltop to play us.... tough way for them to start the season.

[hoyalove4ever]

I believe that I read they were projected first in their league.

[lichoya68]

i believe i read prediction of first in their league also wont be bad good early early test ps is artis gilmore STILL playing for them or is he NOW too old go hoyas ;D

[kchoya]

Damn, in the office pool, I had the fifth message for the first reference to Artis Gilmore.

[prhoya]

Good first game, especially if they make the Tournament.

[royski]

Their team preview from Blue Ribbon is the free one from their conference on ESPN.com

insider.espn.go.com/ncb/insider/news/story?id=3643518&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fncb%2finsider%2fnews%2fstory%3fid%3d3643518

Someone else can tinylink that if they wish.

BACKCOURT: B+
BENCH/DEPTH: A-
FRONTCOURT: A-
INTANGIBLES: B+

After bouncing back from a slow start and advancing to the A-Sun title game, Warren can feel the wave of momentum his program is riding heading into the new season.

"We've got some guys who are very confident in themselves," he said.

With five starters and so many quality reserves returning, the Dolphins are hoping to make the next step and punch a ticket to the Big Dance.

But Warren stresses the importance of taking one step at a time.

"We lost a few players," he said. "Things have to work out perfectly -- just because you got to the championship last year doesn't mean it will happen again."

In hindsight, things fell the way they needed to last year for Jacksonville to come within one game of the NCAA Tournament. Without the overtime win over Stetson, who knows how the season would have unfolded?

But the Dolphins realized how tough they were last year when they survived the long losing streak. What's more, most of them are back to try to take the next step.

It will be a challenge, but count on Jacksonville to be in the A-Sun mix once again this March.

[strummer8526]

Isn't this the team we beat by 7,000 points last year in McDonough?

[jgalt]

Nov 3, 2008 17:46:30 GMT -5 strummer8526 said:

Isn't this the team we beat by 7,000 points last year in McDonough?

No, that was Radford. Jacksonville was the game before and the score was 87-55.

What were the Blue Ribbon grades for gtown, if anyone remembers? these seem pretty solid. For those who have seen multiple Blue Ribbon issues and teams, are the grades relative to the conference or relative to every other team?

[HoyaSinceBirth]

i was thinking the same thing jgalt because those look higher than our grades. This looks like it'll be a good opening game for us.

[blueandgray]

Alright...time to ignite this thread. Who's our starting 5 again?

[HoyaNyr320]

Nov 3, 2008 18:47:01 GMT -5 blueandgray said:

Alright...time to ignite this thread. Who's our starting 5 again?

Sapp, Wright, Freeman, Summers, Monroe with Vaughn off the bench first and Clark second

[jgalt]

Nov 3, 2008 19:18:36 GMT -5 HoyaNyr320 said:

Nov 3, 2008 18:47:01 GMT -5 blueandgray said:

Alright...time to ignite this thread. Who's our starting 5 again?

Sapp, Wright, Freeman, Summers, Monroe with Vaughn off the bench first and Clark second

Clark off first then Vaughn, with nikita making an appearance with more than 10 minutes left, but not because of a blow out

[idhoya]

clark, Vaughn and Henry off the pine.

[tashoya]

Damn it's good to be talking about real games again!!

[lichoya68]

wright sapp in the backcourt monroe at center ... summers and freeman at the forwards.. off the bench first CLARK then vaughn then nikita

[lichoya68]

then henry i think he could move up to the first or second off the bench we will see wowowoowo ;D

[vcjack]

I like that this game is the first one of the season. IIRC Wright and the "fast lineup" got a lot of play in the game last season so its a nice transition into the new era.


I think we all know the starting lineup but I'll be interested to see what the bench rotation looks like, especially if/how Nikita is used

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

Nov 3, 2008 19:51:45 GMT -5 tashoya said:

Damn it's good to be talking about real games again!!

I second that.

This will be an interesting game to watch the offense - I don't doubt that we'll run faster and get points from our defense and transition, but I want to see how the offense runs with either a) Monroe running point forward, or b) Summers being our point forward with Monroe running the traditional big-man plays that we had for Roy.

I think the starting 5 is - Sapp, Wright, Freeman, Summers, and Monroe.

Another good question is where do the rebounds come from with this lineup? How good is Monroe on the boards?

[SirSaxa]

Nov 3, 2008 16:35:56 GMT -5 royski said:

With five starters and so many quality reserves returning, the Dolphins are hoping to make the next step and punch a ticket to the Big Dance.

5 Starters returning?
This is going to be a good challenge for our guys in their very first game.

[GIGAFAN99]

Nov 3, 2008 20:10:23 GMT -5 StPetersburgHoya (Inactive) said:

Nov 3, 2008 19:51:45 GMT -5 tashoya said:

Damn it's good to be talking about real games again!!

I second that.

This will be an interesting game to watch the offense - I don't doubt that we'll run faster and get points from our defense and transition, but I want to see how the offense runs with either a) Monroe running point forward, or b) Summers being our point forward with Monroe running the traditional big-man plays that we had for Roy.

I think the starting 5 is - Sapp, Wright, Freeman, Summers, and Monroe.

Another good question is where do the rebounds come from with this lineup? How good is Monroe on the boards?

I'm not that worried about boards. We'll have 5 rebounders on this team assuming Freeman has learned how to box out. Last year we had three most of the time (Freeman and Wallace were the weak spots).

Put Monroe at Roy's spot for now, if for no other reason that he's a triple threat at the top of the key (something even Roy couldn't claim). Dajuan has to play point forward. He just has to. If we're going anywhere, Summers needs to be more like Jeff than Brandon. He has the talent.

Meanwhile, the word for this team is ATTACK. This team should move forward all the time and make teams uncomfortable on both sides of the ball. Those cuts will look awfully difficult to defend if and when we're running them the right way. And on the other side, passes will look difficult to throw with constant ball pressure.

It's that time again!