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Post by BeantownHoya on Oct 4, 2024 11:18:36 GMT -5
For those who do pay...is it worth it? Not for these specific articles but in general I mean... |
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Post by dariantownesvanzandt on Oct 4, 2024 12:01:53 GMT -5
Am I just missing something, or is Epps not in any of these photos? Is he injured? I didn't look through all of it, but he's in the 2nd photo of the top link (9/28). He's in "other" gear, not the reversible practice jersey. Seal also has a regular tee-shirt on. Pretty sure that means he's working out, but not running drills -- so just being held out for that day. |
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Post by dariantownesvanzandt on Oct 4, 2024 12:12:02 GMT -5
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jwp91
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Post by jwp91 on Oct 4, 2024 12:22:12 GMT -5
Am I just missing something, or is Epps not in any of these photos? Is he injured? I think he sat out one or more practices recently. Lots have players have had little nicks. |
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jwp91
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Post by jwp91 on Oct 4, 2024 12:25:47 GMT -5
For those who do pay...is it worth it? Not for these specific articles but in general I mean... Ron has watched a majority of the practices. Right now, he is about the only person who has first hand knowledge of where we are. Blue & Gray and others have provided tidbits, but Ron watches and talked to the coaches. He has answered questions like where is McKenna right now. What are you seeing from Burks? In what position is Fielder practicing? With no Kenner, Ron has a monopoly on real information right now. For me, it is worth it. The rest of us are just speculating and imagining.... |
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hoyas315
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Post by hoyas315 on Oct 4, 2024 12:48:02 GMT -5
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TrueHoyaBlue
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Post by TrueHoyaBlue on Oct 4, 2024 22:34:50 GMT -5
Had a chance to see some of the first practice, and this team is definitely a big step up athletically. Burks will be fun to watch, though it remains to be seen what his offense will looks like outside the paint. But it’s not a stretch to say he has hops that we haven’t seen since Aaron Bowen (but is also 4-5 inches taller).
Tough to make a lot of other judgments from what I saw, but Epps, Julius, and Seal were on the sidelines, though the first two seemed to be a few days away from getting on the practice floor.
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bluegray79
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Post by bluegray79 on Oct 6, 2024 21:47:53 GMT -5
Couldn't let the day go by without observing that we are one month away from the 24-25 season opener! My son is now in his senior year on the Hilltop, and every year I have been telling him (and anyone else who would listen) that Gtown basketball was going to be good, better than before, that we have a few dawgs who were going to raise us up, etc., etc. Of course, the last 3 years have not lived up to my hype, but I think we are going to move the needle for real this year, and I am really excited to watch this group play. My son is going along with my optimism and is getting the student season tickets. Start the countdown -- let's go!
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RusskyHoya
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Post by RusskyHoya on Oct 7, 2024 8:07:48 GMT -5
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jwp91
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Post by jwp91 on Oct 7, 2024 10:32:56 GMT -5
What a ray of sunshine. I think Mack and Epps will get their shots. The rest will have to split what is left. I think Mack and Epps may provide enough scoring to carry us to incremental success. |
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bluegray79
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Post by bluegray79 on Oct 7, 2024 11:00:40 GMT -5
A key question to me after watching that is How good is Ed Cooley at getting his team to buy in to specific roles, especially if those roles mean fewer minutes of PT? The coaches have to be aware of the possibility of Epps and Mack vying for more control of the ball and shooting, right? Tell me that they are talking through such a scenario and how they work that out.
If he can get that buy in, we'll get to see how some of these pieces fit together, and we'll get a picture of what may be coming in the next year or 2 if the core sticks with it and they grow together.
I don't/absolutely can't accept an 11th place projection. Not even sure how anyone reaches that conclusion -- will we finish below DePaul?? We have the 12th best recruiting group, and we ostensibly have a year jump on DePaul on the rebuild. Is Chris Holtmann that much better a coach than EC to take an arguably lower ranked recruiting class and be better Gtown this season? Seems most agree that we are an improved team that will challenge its opponents much more than last year. Is the Big East that stacked that, even though we improved, we still are picked last? No way. We may not win more than 6-9 BE games, and we're still a year or 2 away from being a legit NCAAT bubble team or better, but last place in the league cannot be realistic.
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SFHoya99
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Post by SFHoya99 on Oct 7, 2024 11:10:35 GMT -5
That seems such an odd question for a team that could stop anyone last year and is terribly young this year. I don't think "are there enough shots for everyone" is anywhere near the top of my list. The writer certainly has a bizarre list of assumptions and somewhat wishcasting. I don't think a dude who barely played last year and claims he's proudest of his defense is all that worried about shots, at least no more than anyone else. Plenty of teams have two ball handling guards as well, and I sincerely doubt Micah Peavy thinks he's going to be Michael Jordan. The real question is whether this team can defend with a roster with bigs of a combined experience of about half a season and only two upperclasmen period (and only two players who have ever started a full season!) can defend AT ALL after basically never playing together. |
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SFHoya99
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Post by SFHoya99 on Oct 7, 2024 11:35:40 GMT -5
I don't/absolutely can't accept an 11th place projection. Not even sure how anyone reaches that conclusion -- will we finish below DePaul?? We have the 12th best recruiting group, and we ostensibly have a year jump on DePaul on the rebuild. Is Chris Holtmann that much better a coach than EC to take an arguably lower ranked recruiting class and be better Gtown this season? Seems most agree that we are an improved team that will challenge its opponents much more than last year. Is the Big East that stacked that, even though we improved, we still are picked last? No way. We may not win more than 6-9 BE games, and we're still a year or 2 away from being a legit NCAAT bubble team or better, but last place in the league cannot be realistic. Cracked Sidewalks has always had a weird thing with Georgetown. Despite our recent failures, it's good to see it hasn't changed. Chemistry and the such can be very important, especially in college sports, but predicting chemistry, especially from the outside, is a fool's errand. There's so little information and these things can turn on the slightest of things. Cooley's teams usually play very strongly as a team, and even on last year's team, Styles said it was the best locker room he's been in. Of course, it's a new group of guys, but a team full of guys who are freshman or who didn't succeed at their last stop rarely has an issue with egos. Sometimes there's an issue with belief or understanding what you need to do to win ... but I'd imagine this team is a lot more like those early JTIII teams -- much more eager to win some games than pad some stats. I don't get the weird DePaul love, either. I guess it's older, but isn't it all transfers that would have similar motivation to the Hoya transfers? Except not as talented from most of the rankings? I think Holtmann is a good coach, but he didn't exactly kill it at Ohio State. It's a good hire, but I look at the two rosters and I don't really see it. They had 11 transfers come in and 247 puts them 59th in transfer ranking and us 23rd. |
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Post by dariantownesvanzandt on Oct 7, 2024 11:36:27 GMT -5
Yeah - ending up at 11th is the real mistake there. All of the individual comments & player critiques are at least arguable. And he seems to have a basis grasp of the roster.
But suggesting we could have a good team down the line with this roster, and picking us dead last (w/ DePaul still in the league)... seems incongruous.
The perennial doormat loses their entire roster and recruits a completely "playable" roster filled with mid-major mediocrity... while we have the league's returning leading scorer, 2 top-50-ish transfers, and the best non-UConn class in the league.
I don't know exactly what that means for us, but I do know it means we're not gonna be behind freakin DePaul.
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EtomicB
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Post by EtomicB on Oct 7, 2024 12:11:15 GMT -5
I don't/absolutely can't accept an 11th place projection. Not even sure how anyone reaches that conclusion -- will we finish below DePaul?? We have the 12th best recruiting group, and we ostensibly have a year jump on DePaul on the rebuild. Is Chris Holtmann that much better a coach than EC to take an arguably lower ranked recruiting class and be better Gtown this season? Seems most agree that we are an improved team that will challenge its opponents much more than last year. Is the Big East that stacked that, even though we improved, we still are picked last? No way. We may not win more than 6-9 BE games, and we're still a year or 2 away from being a legit NCAAT bubble team or better, but last place in the league cannot be realistic. Cracked Sidewalks has always had a weird thing with Georgetown. Despite our recent failures, it's good to see it hasn't changed. Chemistry and the such can be very important, especially in college sports, but predicting chemistry, especially from the outside, is a fool's errand. There's so little information and these things can turn on the slightest of things. Cooley's teams usually play very strongly as a team, and even on last year's team, Styles said it was the best locker room he's been in. Of course, it's a new group of guys, but a team full of guys who are freshman or who didn't succeed at their last stop rarely has an issue with egos. Sometimes there's an issue with belief or understanding what you need to do to win ... but I'd imagine this team is a lot more like those early JTIII teams -- much more eager to win some games than pad some stats. I don't get the weird DePaul love, either. I guess it's older, but isn't it all transfers that would have similar motivation to the Hoya transfers? Except not as talented from most of the rankings? I think Holtmann is a good coach, but he didn't exactly kill it at Ohio State. It's a good hire, but I look at the two rosters and I don't really see it. They had 11 transfers come in and 247 puts them 59th in transfer ranking and us 23rd. Their staff picked a lot of players who can shoot it from deep whether or not it translates well in the BE remains to be seen. |
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kghoya
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Post by kghoya on Oct 7, 2024 12:17:37 GMT -5
Georgetown is likely going to be picked for 10th or 11th by pretty much every mainstream site/outlet. Maybe someone goes wild and slots Georgetown into the 9 spot. If the Hoyas surprise and finish something like 7th, it will all change for 25-26 prognostications.
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SFHoya99
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Post by SFHoya99 on Oct 7, 2024 12:25:50 GMT -5
Their staff picked a lot of players who can shoot it from deep whether or not it translates well in the BE remains to be seen. That's an interesting strategy, I guess. None of the four major conference transfers are those guys which probably brings up some defensive questions. Six of the 11 transfers are shooters, including at least one tall guy, so they could put five out ... but it'd basically be something between a good mid-major and a bit lower in terms of where the players came from ... As a longer term strategy, I'd definitely question that, especially in Chicago, but I suppose for DePaul, which was a terrible offensive and defensive team last year, just getting to passable on offense would put them closer to what we were last year than what they were. Win some games on three point shooting alone. |
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Post by hoyasaxa2003 on Oct 7, 2024 12:27:34 GMT -5
I would take this guy's analysis with a grain of salt. It sounds like his grasp of the team is surface level. For example:
First, to me it seems pretty obvious from the end of last season that Cooley would prefer to play Epps more off-ball. Brumbaugh got more minutes as point guard as the season wore on. Unless you're completely out of touch, it's also obvious that a key to Epps being a better player for this team is to get LESS touches and to take LESS bad shots. Now, can Cooley get Epps to buy into that? Given that Malik Mack is clearly the point guard, I would think/hope so. I truly think a lot of Epps "hero-ball" type tendencies last year arose from lack of options. So, that's how they co-exist.
Second, why would Malik Mack transfer to Georgetown from "a tournament team"? Convenient that the author doesn't mention the tournament team is Harvard or that the Ivy League is a one-bid league most years. Or that the Big East is a much bigger platform. Or that the NIL opportunties are almost certainly better. Of all the things this author says, this seems to be the most ignorant. It's pretty obvious why he moved on from Harvard.
Third, this guy is pretending like there is going to be a crunch of playing time between Mack, Epps, Burks, and Fielder. This is ludicrous as they play different positions. If I had to guess, barring injury, Mack, Epps, and Peavy will all be in the 30 mpg+ club. As for Fielder, I wonder whether his recurring injuries will limit him, but he was the best three point shooter we had last year, and a better defender than Cook. While it remains to be seen whether Fielder can play the 4, and Sorber may very well supplant Fielder at the 5, there's still plenty of time to go around. Sorber may be great, but almost all freshman bigs have foul trouble with some frequency. And while Burks has a lot of potential, (a) he barely played last year, and so (b) even if he gets 15+ minutes a game, that's a big jump for him. And there will almost certainly be time for him at the 4 (if it's merited). We have a lot of front court players, but it remains to be seen whether we have real talented depth...or just a bunch of players. (It's been years since we've had any problems relating to too many talented guys at the same position. Frankly, if that happens this year, we should be ecstatic.)
As for being predicted 11th, it comes with the territory of winning 4 Big East games in three seasons. I don't know enough about DePaul to know how good they will be. Could we finish 11th? Sure. Given our youth and inexperience, it's probably way more likely we finish 11th than 1st, though I think both outcomes are unlikely. Preseason rankings like this really don't bother me because they are almost get a few teams very wrong. While it is irrational logic, I feel like we are "due" for some luck and maybe even exceeding expectations. Fingers crossed.
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SFHoya99
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Post by SFHoya99 on Oct 7, 2024 12:35:21 GMT -5
Georgetown is likely going to be picked for 10th or 11th by pretty much every mainstream site/outlet. Maybe someone goes wild and slots Georgetown into the 9 spot. If the Hoyas surprise and finish something like 7th, it will all change for 25-26 prognostications. Of course they are, and I don't expect anything different. We're young, we were bad last year, and there's no incentive for someone to bank on a giant leap. I am a bit surprised there aren't more write-ups noting that there's real upside here, even this year. Cooley's not a miracle worker, but he's definitely a coach who has had a number of teams outplay their immediate talent. And there's a massive infusion of talent along with a shift to a more Cooley-style roster. I get the skepticism: terrible last year; too young this year; and you're banking on decision making improvement from Epps and a positive league transition from Mack ... yeah, I wouldn't gamble on that. But it seems pretty common for these guys to put a DePaul team with many of the same problems and questions marks clearly a step up, and some of the reasoning is odd. Why does a star coming from Drake or Davidson not have the chemistry issues one coming from Harvard has? Somehow having an elite veteran defender in Micah Peavy is going to be an issue, not a good thing? I just really don't get the math for putting DePaul over us. They were worse than us last year, they kept less talent and pulled in less talent. Do people think Holtmann is that much better than Cooley (I'm not even sure there's an argument he's better at all)? Is it simply that they have a few more seniors and a few more shooters? They were 8.5 points of efficiency margin worse than us last year, and I get that both teams are more or less new rosters, but I don't see it. |
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dense
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Post by dense on Oct 7, 2024 12:37:24 GMT -5
That seems such an odd question for a team that could stop anyone last year and is terribly young this year. I don't think "are there enough shots for everyone" is anywhere near the top of my list. The writer certainly has a bizarre list of assumptions and somewhat wishcasting. I don't think a dude who barely played last year and claims he's proudest of his defense is all that worried about shots, at least no more than anyone else. Plenty of teams have two ball handling guards as well, and I sincerely doubt Micah Peavy thinks he's going to be Michael Jordan. The real question is whether this team can defend with a roster with bigs of a combined experience of about half a season and only two upperclasmen period (and only two players who have ever started a full season!) can defend AT ALL after basically never playing together. That shows me he has never seen Peavy play. Peavy is a team first guy through and through. He didn't live up to his high school billing but he became a great player who probably will make a NBA roster because of his willingness to do the little things and play great D. |
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