EtomicB
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Post by EtomicB on Sept 9, 2024 17:20:23 GMT -5
Considering this is basically a new team, I think the best players should play as opposed to gearing it towards the best defensive team you can play. Agree, but defense is as important as offense. And if the best set up is to rely on our short guards for offense and then have a strong defensive frontcourt to cover for them ... that may be the best team. Especially with Sorber being a freshman, having Burks' strength out there might be necessary in the BE. And there's also the cultural factor. I would not be opposed to a requirement of a certain level of defensive effort and ability for every player to set the tone of what is required to start and play. Yes, it is. And it may be that they hoped Fielder would progress and hasn't. Or that they think he will be hasn't yet. Or are hedging their bets. Or maybe Burks is just killing it. We may also get Fielder at the 4 but not starting and only in those situations where he won't get abused. I hear you SF, as I’ve stated many times over the years I’m very biased towards the offensive side of the court. As you’ve stated the team will more than likely be compromised defensively due to the smaller backcourt so maybe embrace the offensive side. Plus I’m very high on Fielder and have no idea what to make of Burks or any of the newcomers outside of Peavy & Sorber Cooley’s culture has always been playing hard & tough neither of which the team displayed much of last season, my hope is we see a lot of both this season.
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thedragon
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Post by thedragon on Sept 9, 2024 17:31:33 GMT -5
I'm more focused on Peavy and Burks than Fielder. Fielder to me is icing if he makes a leap and can play the 4.
Peavy is going to be expected to play 35 minutes a night. At multiple positions. Guarding the best opposing player that isn't a true 5 or a true 1. And provide veteran leadership. Not to mention he should have the opportunity to get a lot of clean looks from 3 if defenses have to shade toward Epps and Mack. Whether Peavy is closer to Ish or Justin Minaya will be big.
Burks has the highest ceiling of anyone on the team in my opinion (on both sides of the court). He could go for a bunch of double doubles while acting as a weakside shot blocker or he could be a bigger version of Aaron Bowen. If he's playing 25+ minutes a night at the 4 something has likely gone very right.
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calhoya
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Post by calhoya on Sept 9, 2024 17:47:28 GMT -5
I’m on HR, Ron’s summer practice reports were good but they were from his perspective not Cooley’s or staff members.. Insiders posting how the staff “loves” player X shouldn’t be ignored but it doesn’t replace hearing it directly from staff members Here’s an example of what Sean Miller does at Xavier. Do I expect this type of performance from Cooley? Nope, but a presser every 5 to 6 weeks during the offseason isn’t a high bar to clear especially for a program with a low excitement level within its fan base I fully agree. Frankly, given how much Cooley was out there at Providence, I am quite surprised at how quiet things have been. It makes you think it's more of a Georgetown institutional thing than the coach. EtomicB , I know last summer I argued in favor of giving Cooley and the program leeway on this because in my mind they were already doing a lot more than the previous coaching staff (more than they have done this summer), and they were having to get settled. But, we are now over a year in, the academic year has started, and still silence. I realize it is "early" in the sense that there is no basketball for 2 months, but it would be nice to start building some chatter and discussion (even if it is garden variety stuff that's unlikely to be that interesting). Agree with this. While it may still be two months before games, the Athletic Department is already at work with efforts to sell season tickets and the students are back. I think that Cooley started out promoting the hell out of the program and then when everything fell flat last season he might have concluded that he should back off raising expectations. Still if the program is ever going to recover from the depths to which it has sunk it is going to take a major effort to win over the students and the community and not rely upon us old codgers who still can remember the glory days. Just a little more information particularly to those of us alums across the country might help generate some excitement.
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hoyarooter
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Post by hoyarooter on Sept 9, 2024 18:09:04 GMT -5
We played 9 OOC home games last year, and look to play 7 (if McD games aren't included) this year. So it'd be 19 vs. 17 right? For your tix... that's around $71/game vs 63/game. So they'd really be jacking up the ticket cost over 10% after consecutive 2 BE win seasons. That... wouldn't be cool. It is what it is. A classmate of mine (so also 45+ year season ticket holder) isn't renewing, partly because he retired and relocated to the Delaware shore, as I did, but I still drive back for all games. Call me crazy. . . Since no one else has jumped in, I'll bite the bullet. You're crazy. Intensely loyal, but still cray cray, as daughter Rooter used to say.
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SSHoya
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Post by SSHoya on Sept 9, 2024 18:16:39 GMT -5
It is what it is. A classmate of mine (so also 45+ year season ticket holder) isn't renewing, partly because he retired and relocated to the Delaware shore, as I did, but I still drive back for all games. Call me crazy. . . Since no one else has jumped in, I'll bite the bullet. You're crazy. Intensely loyal, but still cray cray, as daughter Rooter used to say. Better to be crazy than stupid! 😀 But maybe I'm both?😐
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hoyarooter
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Post by hoyarooter on Sept 9, 2024 18:37:57 GMT -5
Since no one else has jumped in, I'll bite the bullet. You're crazy. Intensely loyal, but still cray cray, as daughter Rooter used to say. Better to be crazy than stupid! 😀 But maybe I'm both?😐 Nah, I think not.
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MCIGuy
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Post by MCIGuy on Sept 9, 2024 22:10:19 GMT -5
It may not mean anything but Fielder had the best DRtg of all Hoyas' players who got real minutes last season. Okay, maybe that came when he was spending time at the five. Still his numbers on BOTH sides of the ball (was best of all Hoyas on the ORtg too) were more impressive than Burks. But now Burks has apparently become Scottie Pippen? Okay. The season can't come fast enough.
Btw last year at this time the same Ron of HR said that the scuttlebutt from the coaches was that Fielder had the most upside of any of the players. This was sort of collaborated by Cooley publicly when he told reporters that Fielder would be a household name and First Team All Big East in a couple of years. Now he is to be relegated to the bench for eternity? Burks must be some neck of an upgrade. Or the staff is flailing at getting the players to live up to the potential they once saw in them.
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blueandgray
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Post by blueandgray on Sept 9, 2024 22:22:01 GMT -5
Just to be clear…the chatter is all speculation. But those 5 players have elevated themselves in practice in seems.
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MCIGuy
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Post by MCIGuy on Sept 10, 2024 3:59:21 GMT -5
Without giving away anything too specific, the chatter from HR about Burks that stands out to me this summer was the one that told people to slow down their horses when it came to these grand predictions for him. Especially on the offensive end. That said that same source has been down somewhat regarding what he has seen of Fielder this summer too even while conceding that injuries may be at play.
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jwp91
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Post by jwp91 on Sept 10, 2024 10:15:44 GMT -5
Without giving away anything too specific, the chatter from HR about Burks that stands out to me this summer was the one that told people to slow down their horses when it came to these grand predictions for him. Especially on the offensive end. That said that same source has been down somewhat regarding what he has seen of Fielder this summer too even while conceding that injuries may be at play. I don’t think we need a lot from Burks at the 4. I think Mack, Epps, and Sorber will shoulder the scoring. If we could get great defense, 6 pts., 5 rebounds, and 30%+ from 3 would be a satisfactory.
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SFHoya99
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Post by SFHoya99 on Sept 10, 2024 11:02:18 GMT -5
It may not mean anything but Fielder had the best DRtg of all Hoyas' players who got real minutes last season. Okay, maybe that came when he was spending time at the five. Most of his minutes did come at the five. Fielder and Cook played together for much of the Holy Cross loss, where we oddly got destroyed on the boards despite our size advantage. I don't know that they did much after that, at least for a while. The D Rating is a lot of why I've said that perhaps it's a mistake and that people are overrating some more visually embarrassing possessions. To my eye, he did a decent job of rim protecting, and while, yes, he caught on the perimeter and murdered and yes, he missed some rotations ... I don't know that was all that much worse than anyone else and all that frequent. This isn't the NBA playoffs -- some teams don't have the ability to consistently exploit a weakness like this. That said, D rating can be overrated in a number of ways. For one, Fielder may have gotten more minutes against backups or bad teams. And two, the allocation of D Rating to individuals is heavily biased to players with high defensive rebound totals (and blocks and steals). Fielder got a lot of d rebounds by default. But I do think he's probably a better defender than he can look. At the same time, Cooley did keep him out of situations where he'd be exploited. I'm not sure anyone called him anywhere near Scottie Pippen. One person said they though they had the most defensive and offensive upside of anyone on the roster, which I don't agree with at all. But that doesn't also mean he isn't the best option right now. I still think Fielder has upside. But it's upside, not performance, and his offensive upside will also depend on whether he can play acceptable defense. And let's not forget, the roster he was being compared to at the time includes exactly one other returning player in Epps. No one has said that. Are you simply working yourself up? I suspect that neither is all that complete or great right now. Burks is stronger and quicker defensively -- I am pretty sure about that. I would be surprised to see Burks be better overall offensively -- he didn't play a lot last year, but it basically looked like he finished on the break and that's about it. But it may simply be that with Sorber, Epps and Mack out there, you need some more defense and strength. We'll see. The player who is slated to start in September is not always starting in March, either. But also ... players, by definition, only reach a certain level of potential a certain % of the time. That's why it's potential.
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SFHoya99
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Post by SFHoya99 on Sept 10, 2024 11:04:45 GMT -5
Without giving away anything too specific, the chatter from HR about Burks that stands out to me this summer was the one that told people to slow down their horses when it came to these grand predictions for him. Especially on the offensive end. That said that same source has been down somewhat regarding what he has seen of Fielder this summer too even while conceding that injuries may be at play. This is pretty much what I suspected. I don't see much of an offensive game for Burks, but I think he could be a very flexible and effective defender with his very long arms and good athleticism. That's a sort of a Draymond Green body -- or a Kevon Looney. They tend to do a good job of crowd control. Fielder may still be coming off injury, or he may simply still be a defensive liability at the four. He's young; he can heal and/or improve. It just wouldn't shock me if Cooley prioritized the better defender.
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SFHoya99
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Post by SFHoya99 on Sept 10, 2024 11:07:06 GMT -5
Just to be clear…the chatter is all speculation. But those 5 players have elevated themselves in practice in seems. I think it's far more interesting and positive that Sorber has grabbed a spot. I know a lot of people assumed it, and it may be by default. But a freshman slated to start at the 5 isn't something I overly assumed even on this team. That said, that may also be why we are leaning defense and rebounding at the four.
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SFHoya99
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Post by SFHoya99 on Sept 10, 2024 11:07:49 GMT -5
Burks has the highest ceiling of anyone on the team in my opinion (on both sides of the court). Defensive, maybe. What are you seeing that I'm missing offensively?
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Post by SoCal Hoya85 on Sept 10, 2024 15:17:52 GMT -5
Fwiw, there is quite a bit of chatter suggesting that the starting line up could very well be the following: Mack - pg Epps - sg Burks - sf Peavy - pf Sorber - center Would this surprise anyone? I don't know if anyone can claim any expectations at all given this is basically a new team and we didn't have Kenner this year. It's tough to be excited in a vacuum even if we might be good. I guess I'm somewhat surprised McKenna didn't break in. Seems like a lot of more offensively raw players, which to me could be a sign that Cooley thinks Epps and Mack are going to have epic usage numbers. They will shoot and drive a ton and everyone else will rebound and scrap.
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thedragon
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Post by thedragon on Sept 10, 2024 16:48:13 GMT -5
Scottie Pippen? That ramped up quickly!
I said that I think he has the highest ceiling offensively and defensively on the team - and I stand by that. Do I think it's likely he reaches those ceilings? Probably not.
UK/Cal took a flier on him as a 3 star because of the raw flashes. The size and athleticism is 5 star. Everything else was 2 star.
All I'm saying is if the light bulb ever clicks he's the prototype build and athleticism for the draft these days.
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hoyaguy
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Post by hoyaguy on Sept 10, 2024 17:12:15 GMT -5
Fwiw, there is quite a bit of chatter suggesting that the starting line up could very well be the following: Mack - pg Epps - sg Burks - sf Peavy - pf Sorber - center Would this surprise anyone? I don't know if anyone can claim any expectations at all given this is basically a new team and we didn't have Kenner this year. It's tough to be excited in a vacuum even if we might be good. I guess I'm somewhat surprised McKenna didn't break in. Seems like a lot of more offensively raw players, which to me could be a sign that Cooley thinks Epps and Mack are going to have epic usage numbers. They will shoot and drive a ton and everyone else will rebound and scrap. I’m excited to watch McKenna play in a game finally. Though I’m not surprised he will be coming off the bench at least at first. Realistically Mack, Epps, Peavy are all starting and McKenna isn’t a 5 so it really only leaves the 4 left (or I guess if McKenna and Peavy were better as a 3 & 4 than Peavy with Fielder or Burks). If Fielder still has some trouble defending the 4 effectively from injuries or speed, I can definitely see Cooley wanting to start off with a slightly more defensive lineup then adapt from there in-game. Fielder at the 4 could be more situational depending on the matchup or dynamic with who ever is playing center. I’m not expecting an incredible development after a summer lol. Do we think we will ever see a Fielder/Burks combination in the front court?
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hoyajmw
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Post by hoyajmw on Sept 11, 2024 7:31:11 GMT -5
Since no one else has jumped in, I'll bite the bullet. You're crazy. Intensely loyal, but still cray cray, as daughter Rooter used to say. Better to be crazy than stupid! 😀 But maybe I'm both?😐 I hope you don’t mean there will be no more fiesta in the stands but I fear that is indeed what is happening…🤦🏻♂️ Say it ain’t so…
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SSHoya
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Post by SSHoya on Sept 11, 2024 8:12:58 GMT -5
Better to be crazy than stupid! 😀 But maybe I'm both?😐 I hope you don’t mean there will be no more fiesta in the stands but I fear that is indeed what is happening…🤦🏻♂️ Say it ain’t so… I am fiesta adjacent as Andrew from the Ticket Office did a good job of keeping the party going! You could say we're keeping the band together! As much as some folks complain about Athletic Department responsiveness, the Ticket Office including Steve Alleva when he was in charge, have been extremely helpful to me. Steve managed to transfer my season tickets to my seat mate when I was deployed to the Middle East!
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dense
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Post by dense on Sept 11, 2024 8:35:02 GMT -5
Burks has the highest ceiling of anyone on the team in my opinion (on both sides of the court). Defensive, maybe. What are you seeing that I'm missing offensively? From what I've seen he is a decent spot up wing 3pt shooter. Didn't get a lot of those chances with Kentucky but looking at his high school video and AAU stuff he did hit some. He may have improved in that regard.
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