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Post by professorhoya on Mar 17, 2021 22:38:59 GMT -5
Georgia Tech's best player Moses Wright out vs Loyola Chicago. This is a needle mover.
Sounds like COVID positive on Monday.
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hoyazeke
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
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Post by hoyazeke on Mar 18, 2021 5:06:11 GMT -5
DFW you don’t believe that if we had Mac we couldn’t have beaten Navy, Cuse, Butler and Quette. Maybe even WVU. Those 4gms change us from a team that needed the BE tourney to a team that gets an at large bid. Our problem was lack of good PG play to start the season. We wouldn’t have had the erratic offensive play early in the season waiting for Dante to grow into his role. Mac had his problems but he was better at running the team than Juggy and Juggy would’ve started the season in the position he’s striving at now, scoring assassin. I think initially we would have gotten a boost from Mac in those early loses. I think the problem we would run into is the problem Mac teams always run into is that Mac can only really play point guard (especially defensively), And Dante can really only play point. So you would have ended up having to play Mac at shooting guard which worsens are length/height/defense or have Dante come off the bench with Mac starting at point. Even on the Texas Tech team with Mac playing point, that's not the best defensive option. Overall, as good as Akinjo and Mac are, they are at worst defensive liabilities and at best slightly below average defensively because neither has height/length or absurd lateral quickness/speed. When you had those two on the court at the same time our defense suffered and I don't think we could have the defense that we've shown lately with them. We have a much higher defensive ceiling with the current personnel and composition on the team. The other thing is Blair and Mac kind of duplicate each other in terms of being super sub/instant offense with Mac with flashier athleticism and Blair with better 3pts. Blair kind of is doing the Mac function on how we would want to use Mac with Dante. Professor you are looking at this with hindsight of what Dante has become. No one cared about Dante's development in October/November and that's with no Mac. With Mac Dante would have been the freshman on the bench that got 5-10mins of mop up duty. The upside is better now but record would've been much better with Mac here running the team.
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hoyazeke
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Post by hoyazeke on Mar 18, 2021 5:11:34 GMT -5
DFW you don’t believe that if we had Mac we couldn’t have beaten Navy, Cuse, Butler and Quette. Maybe even WVU. Those 4gms change us from a team that needed the BE tourney to a team that gets an at large bid. Our problem was lack of good PG play to start the season. We wouldn’t have had the erratic offensive play early in the season waiting for Dante to grow into his role. Mac had his problems but he was better at running the team than Juggy and Juggy would’ve started the season in the position he’s striving at now, scoring assassin. Mac doesn't fit in what we have today as a program. Akinjo was Big East rookie of the year, not Mac. LeBlanc had the most raw talent of the 3. Both Mac and Akinjo wanted to be heroes while playing. Hero-ball. That is all well and good, but even the likes of Ewing and Michael Jordan adhered to the team concept and sacrificed their games for the betterment of the team while in college. Selfless, team ball is what works best with Coach Ewing. way I'm referring to sophomore year not freshman year. Until now the best Ewing's GTown teams have looked was the 6gm stretch right after defections. The team is better off without Mac but I do believe that with Mac we are easily a tourney team this year. Not needing a miracle run through the BE tourney. The difference is I believe Mac's team would get bounced 1st game while I believe Dante's team can make a Sweet 16 run.
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the_way
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Post by the_way on Mar 18, 2021 8:08:18 GMT -5
Mac doesn't fit in what we have today as a program. Akinjo was Big East rookie of the year, not Mac. LeBlanc had the most raw talent of the 3. Both Mac and Akinjo wanted to be heroes while playing. Hero-ball. That is all well and good, but even the likes of Ewing and Michael Jordan adhered to the team concept and sacrificed their games for the betterment of the team while in college. Selfless, team ball is what works best with Coach Ewing. way I'm referring to sophomore year not freshman year. Until now the best Ewing's GTown teams have looked was the 6gm stretch right after defections. The team is better off without Mac but I do believe that with Mac we are easily a tourney team this year. Not needing a miracle run through the BE tourney. The difference is I believe Mac's team would get bounced 1st game while I believe Dante's team can make a Sweet 16 run. His style just doesn't mesh here. It wouldn't work with what we are seeing today. Now, it isn't about one player with this team. That was the problem in the Mac/Akinjo regime. This current group doesn't care about the applause or ig view/likes. They just want to win and respect their head coach. So if it is Bile one day, or Harris another day, or Q or Blair chipping in with points, it doesn't matter. They are all contributing in their own way. If Blair,as a senior and leading scorer, has to come off the bench? So be it. They just want to win. They don't care about what other people think. And they are playing defense now too. It is a breath fresh of air. Happy with what we are seeing today. Looking forward to the future.
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joey0403p
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Post by joey0403p on Mar 18, 2021 8:12:25 GMT -5
Mac would have provided more scoring, potentially more balance. If you assume he buys in like the guys in the BET then we are better for sure - if you don’t think he buys in / can’t play defense - then we are worse.
I wish the young man well - I’m still bitter, at him and Leblanc (not James as much) - but they were 18 / 19 years old. Is what it is.
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the_way
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Post by the_way on Mar 18, 2021 8:22:50 GMT -5
Mac would have provided more scoring, potentially more balance. If you assume he buys in like the guys in the BET then we are better for sure - if you don’t think he buys in / can’t play defense - then we are worse. I wish the young man well - I’m still bitter, at him and Leblanc (not James as much) - but they were 18 / 19 years old. Is what it is. Why be bitter when we are in the tournament now? Everybody is in the tournament now (except for Arizona due to penalties, but they had a good season nonetheless). It was a win-win for everyone involved.
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Post by ColumbiaHeightsHoya on Mar 18, 2021 8:48:49 GMT -5
I don't understand all your heat over this. Matt McClung was never going to be an IR major, he did not come to Georgetown to join the Wall Street Alliance. He wants to play basketball for his career. After Akinjo, LeBlanc, Alexander, Gardner, and Yurtseven left, it's entirely possible someone told him that being on a last place team isn't a resume builder. He left for Tech where he leads the Red Raiders in scoring, appeared nationally 19 times in a 27 game season and has a #6 seed in the tournament. A couple of good games in the bracket positions him for what he always wanted: a draft pick. Until the last three weeks, even the most ardent HoyaTalk poster would not have suggested Georgetown, with a 4-10 record in early February, would provide that level of exposure for him. There were no untoward words exchanged and Mac took not not to throw anyone under the bus when he left. Coaches know to wish players well because if they don't it comes back to bite them on the recruiting circuit. Are you this angry about James Akinjo? No sir. I love the kid but he's not a NBA prospect. His only NBA position is pg and he had more turnovers than assists in conference play. Jahvon had 25 more assists in conference than him in 2 less games. One thing Hoya fans consistently do is not understand how good you have to be to make the league. He's a very good college player and is exciting as all heck. He''s going to make a ton of money playing pro ball somewhere, but none of the 3 main guys kids that left are legit NBA prospect, and tbh they never have been. "One thing Hoya fans consistently do is not understand how good you have to be to make the league". THIS IS SPOT ON! NBA players are next level. They also have a major + skill that can contribute to a team. There is a great SI article on Alex Caruso from the Lakers. Talks about so many G leaguers not understanding what an NBA GM is looking for so they are all trying to get up points. He was focused on D and assists as he realized that was his entry point. I am not sure Mac would ever get that even though he can be a really exciting player to watch and to me his + skill is his ability to finish in traffic at the net. I don't think that will get him to the league regardless if he stayed with Hoyas or Tech. Back to the tourney discussion, I really want to watch this MSU/UCLA game. I'll be interested to see which of these two conferences may have been over or under rated. The Big Ten & Big 12 were clearly the best conferences this year but with limited pre-conference games this year I think this could be a wild tournament. There wasn't as much to measure conference to conference play.
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Post by aleutianhoya on Mar 18, 2021 9:11:28 GMT -5
No sir. I love the kid but he's not a NBA prospect. His only NBA position is pg and he had more turnovers than assists in conference play. Jahvon had 25 more assists in conference than him in 2 less games. One thing Hoya fans consistently do is not understand how good you have to be to make the league. He's a very good college player and is exciting as all heck. He''s going to make a ton of money playing pro ball somewhere, but none of the 3 main guys kids that left are legit NBA prospect, and tbh they never have been. "One thing Hoya fans consistently do is not understand how good you have to be to make the league". THIS IS SPOT ON! NBA players are next level. They also have a major + skill that can contribute to a team. There is a great SI article on Alex Caruso from the Lakers. Talks about so many G leaguers not understanding what an NBA GM is looking for so they are all trying to get up points. He was focused on D and assists as he realized that was his entry point. I am not sure Mac would ever get that even though he can be a really exciting player to watch and to me his + skill is his ability to finish in traffic at the net. I don't think that will get him to the league regardless if he stayed with Hoyas or Tech. Back to the tourney discussion, I really want to watch this MSU/UCLA game. I'll be interested to see which of these two conferences may have been over or under rated. The Big Ten & Big 12 were clearly the best conferences this year but with limited pre-conference games this year I think this could be a wild tournament. There wasn't as much to measure conference to conference play.Agree completely. Hard to know about any conferences. Like you, I expect a greater number of upsets than normal. Not just the crazy 3-14 type upsets (How good is Colgate? Who knows?!? They didn't play a single OOC game....) But also the second-round 7-2 type upsets where it turns out the seven seed simply is as good as or better than the 2 but their conference was undervalued. And don't underestimate the Covid effect. Already a significant impact on some teams missing players....
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2021 11:48:40 GMT -5
way I'm referring to sophomore year not freshman year. Until now the best Ewing's GTown teams have looked was the 6gm stretch right after defections. The team is better off without Mac but I do believe that with Mac we are easily a tourney team this year. Not needing a miracle run through the BE tourney. The difference is I believe Mac's team would get bounced 1st game while I believe Dante's team can make a Sweet 16 run. His style just doesn't mesh here. It wouldn't work with what we are seeing today. Now, it isn't about one player with this team. That was the problem in the Mac/Akinjo regime. This current group doesn't care about the applause or ig view/likes. They just want to win and respect their head coach. So if it is Bile one day, or Harris another day, or Q or Blair chipping in with points, it doesn't matter. They are all contributing in their own way. If Blair,as a senior and leading scorer, has to come off the bench? So be it. They just want to win. They don't care about what other people think. And they are playing defense now too. It is a breath fresh of air. Happy with what we are seeing today. Looking forward to the future. You raise some very very good points. This is definitely a "team" now as oppose to when we had Mac and Akinjo. I hate to admit that as I would like to believe that both guys would have eventually gotten it and gotten us to this level but you never know maybe they wouldn't have.
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Post by ColumbiaHeightsHoya on Mar 18, 2021 12:10:34 GMT -5
Hinkle Capacity is 1250 or 14% for the game. I'll be there. Anyone else? I want to get a REBOUND.....MOVE cheer going at some point.
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DudeSlade
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
I got through the Esherick years. I can get through anything.
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Post by DudeSlade on Mar 18, 2021 12:45:52 GMT -5
"One thing Hoya fans consistently do is not understand how good you have to be to make the league". THIS IS SPOT ON! NBA players are next level. They also have a major + skill that can contribute to a team. There is a great SI article on Alex Caruso from the Lakers. Talks about so many G leaguers not understanding what an NBA GM is looking for so they are all trying to get up points. He was focused on D and assists as he realized that was his entry point. I am not sure Mac would ever get that even though he can be a really exciting player to watch and to me his + skill is his ability to finish in traffic at the net. I don't think that will get him to the league regardless if he stayed with Hoyas or Tech. Back to the tourney discussion, I really want to watch this MSU/UCLA game. I'll be interested to see which of these two conferences may have been over or under rated. The Big Ten & Big 12 were clearly the best conferences this year but with limited pre-conference games this year I think this could be a wild tournament. There wasn't as much to measure conference to conference play.Agree completely. Hard to know about any conferences. Like you, I expect a greater number of upsets than normal. Not just the crazy 3-14 type upsets (How good is Colgate? Who knows?!? They didn't play a single OOC game....) But also the second-round 7-2 type upsets where it turns out the seven seed simply is as good as or better than the 2 but their conference was undervalued. And don't underestimate the Covid effect. Already a significant impact on some teams missing players.... I completely agree this could be a wild tournament. The one thing with this game though is the Izzo effect -- his teams seem to flame out in the first game or go on a run in the tourney. If this were any other Big Ten team, I'd think this would be a helpful game to evaluate the conferences -- maybe it still will be -- but Izzo is hard to figure around. Also UCLA is without their best player for the year due to injury and they haven't been the same since. Either way, I'm thinking whoever wins this game is getting to the Sweet 16. Almost every year one of the play-in teams goes on a run and I just don't see the Wichita St/Drake winner being it. Izzo and Cronin are the types of coaches that can string wings together in a tournament setting. I'm also just not buying BYU or Texas at the seedings they have. On the 2-7 lines, who are liking? Oregon? UConn? UConn is a different team with Bouknight, but don't know how good the SEC champ Alabama actually is.
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DudeSlade
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Post by DudeSlade on Mar 18, 2021 12:48:52 GMT -5
Curious on thoughts on the other side of the East region from us. Anyone have a feeling on UConn-Maryland, or potentially UConn-Alabama? How good is Alabama? How good is Texas? Can MSU or UCLA pull that upset on Texas? Until Smart makes a run at Texas, I'm betting against them. Not looking ahead for us -- happy for any wins at this point -- but I feel like I could overanalyze our side forever, but there's some interesting games on the other side of the region too.
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rhw485
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Post by rhw485 on Mar 18, 2021 13:06:10 GMT -5
Curious on thoughts on the other side of the East region from us. Anyone have a feeling on UConn-Maryland, or potentially UConn-Alabama? How good is Alabama? How good is Texas? Can MSU or UCLA pull that upset on Texas? Until Smart makes a run at Texas, I'm betting against them. Not looking ahead for us -- happy for any wins at this point -- but I feel like I could overanalyze our side forever, but there's some interesting games on the other side of the region too. Just my opinion. UConn should be fine against Maryland from what I've seen (although all of this assumes Cole plays, they might have even won the BE semi if he doesn't go out of game). But Alabama is kinda a terrible matchup for them. The same way UConn was our kryptonite, Creighton felt like that to UConn a bit . And Bama does a lot of similar stuff that Creighton does on offense...with a top 5 defense. They're not even going to run pick and roll (which UConn could blitz) to create 3s, they'll just spread the floor and dribble drive at UConn's bigs all day. Quinerly looks completely different from what we saw at Nova, which just goes to show how important fit is. What Nate Oats has done at Bama is really impressive in two seasons. I'm generally bearish on B12, they look like the most over-seeded conference relative to computer rankings. But I'd still prob be chalky w Bama over Texas on bottom half. What's more interesting is every expert bracket I look at has the 3 1 seeds from the other regions, and then a wildcard pick from the East. Nobody wants to take Michigan w Livers out, even LSU could give them a problem if that's the matchup. I've seen Bama, Texas, Florida St consistently picked more frequently than Michigan at this point.
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joey0403p
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Post by joey0403p on Mar 18, 2021 13:20:53 GMT -5
Mac would have provided more scoring, potentially more balance. If you assume he buys in like the guys in the BET then we are better for sure - if you don’t think he buys in / can’t play defense - then we are worse. I wish the young man well - I’m still bitter, at him and Leblanc (not James as much) - but they were 18 / 19 years old. Is what it is. Why be bitter when we are in the tournament now? Everybody is in the tournament now (except for Arizona due to penalties, but they had a good season nonetheless). It was a win-win for everyone involved. I don’t like being dumped...that’s all Like I said - wish them well. Excited about the team we have....hoping for the BET team showing up and hopefully making some noise
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guru
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Post by guru on Mar 18, 2021 13:28:49 GMT -5
UConn v. Maryland?
Root for COVID.
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DudeSlade
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I got through the Esherick years. I can get through anything.
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Post by DudeSlade on Mar 18, 2021 14:25:30 GMT -5
Curious on thoughts on the other side of the East region from us. Anyone have a feeling on UConn-Maryland, or potentially UConn-Alabama? How good is Alabama? How good is Texas? Can MSU or UCLA pull that upset on Texas? Until Smart makes a run at Texas, I'm betting against them. Not looking ahead for us -- happy for any wins at this point -- but I feel like I could overanalyze our side forever, but there's some interesting games on the other side of the region too. Just my opinion. UConn should be fine against Maryland from what I've seen (although all of this assumes Cole plays, they might have even won the BE semi if he doesn't go out of game). But Alabama is kinda a terrible matchup for them. The same way UConn was our kryptonite, Creighton felt like that to UConn a bit . And Bama does a lot of similar stuff that Creighton does on offense...with a top 5 defense. They're not even going to run pick and roll (which UConn could blitz) to create 3s, they'll just spread the floor and dribble drive at UConn's bigs all day. Quinerly looks completely different from what we saw at Nova, which just goes to show how important fit is. What Nate Oats has done at Bama is really impressive in two seasons. I'm generally bearish on B12, they look like the most over-seeded conference relative to computer rankings. But I'd still prob be chalky w Bama over Texas on bottom half. What's more interesting is every expert bracket I look at has the 3 1 seeds from the other regions, and then a wildcard pick from the East. Nobody wants to take Michigan w Livers out, even LSU could give them a problem if that's the matchup. I've seen Bama, Texas, Florida St consistently picked more frequently than Michigan at this point. Yeah, I've seen that a lot too. It seems like the East is the region everyone expects to be messy. You mention LSU being able to beat Michigan -- which I think they could -- but they could just as easily lose to St. Bonaventure's in the 1st round. I could see Texas make the Final 4 just as easily as lose to MSU/UCLA. I could see Florida State lose to us, but if not, go to the Final Four. Michigan seems beatable without Livers, which makes this region wide open compared to the others. But there's also not an Iowa or Houston that would seem to be the logical next choice. There's also a lot of variability, potentially over/under-seeded teams, ones that can go on runs, teams that look different since covid (us) or injuries (UConn positively, UCLA & Michigan negatively), and matchups that are good/bad for teams -- like you mentioned UConn/Alabama (which is a great call!). I know that total season stats/rankings are supposed to have a greater predictive power for the NCAA Tournament than last 10 games or some short period of time. But I also think this year there's more factors that could drive extreme variability in performance. So I thought it'd be interesting to look at the last 10 games for the East teams on Bart Torvik, and I found there's a disproportionate share of the best performers over that timeframe in our bracket (10 of the top 26, 11 in the top 31), which could also add to the East being the crazy region this year: UConn: #5 Michigan: #6 Alabama: #9 Georgetown: #11 LSU: #13 Maryland: #15 BYU: #16 St. Bonaventure: #18 Florida State: #25 Texas: #26 Colorado: #31 Michigan State: #60 UCLA: #64 Abilene Christian: #85 UNC Greensboro: #106 Iona: #125
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Post by HoyaSinceBirth on Mar 18, 2021 15:43:48 GMT -5
Bama is a really poor rebounding team though, so I could see Uconn killing them on the glass on their way to an upset.
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Post by tribeninerhoya on Mar 18, 2021 16:43:05 GMT -5
Mount St. Mary’s looking strong early on. Impressive squad.
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Post by tribeninerhoya on Mar 18, 2021 18:34:14 GMT -5
Mount St. Mary’s looking strong early on. Impressive squad. Texas Southern says “not so fast my friend.” Ugly first half in Wichita State/Drake.
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hoyazeke
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Post by hoyazeke on Mar 18, 2021 18:50:15 GMT -5
Curious on thoughts on the other side of the East region from us. Anyone have a feeling on UConn-Maryland, or potentially UConn-Alabama? How good is Alabama? How good is Texas? Can MSU or UCLA pull that upset on Texas? Until Smart makes a run at Texas, I'm betting against them. Not looking ahead for us -- happy for any wins at this point -- but I feel like I could overanalyze our side forever, but there's some interesting games on the other side of the region too. I got UCONN going to the FF in one of my brackets and the Elite 8 in the other one. I don't know if it's because they have our number but I'm high on UCONN. In my experience guards dominate tourneys and Bouknight is one of the best. Cole isn't too bad either.
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