24-25 Hoya Basketball

[FrazierFanatic]

We may sweat a little in November, so many new pieces to try to get to mesh. December will start to indicate where this group can go.

[EtomicB]

Oct 24, 2024 7:33:14 GMT -5 FrazierFanatic said:

We may sweat a little in November, so many new pieces to try to get to mesh. December will start to indicate where this group can go.

I agree that we'll probably sweat some early in the OOC and early in conference play too considering 5 of the 1st 6 games will be against Creighton, Xavier, Marquette, Uconn & St. John's.

[78HOYA78]

Can we all agree - there will be no easy games in the Big East. Protect home court and snatch a few away games against quality teams would give us tourney hopes. 13 days away 😊

[SSHoya]

No Dartmouth or AU type losses in OOC!!

[calhoya]

Oct 24, 2024 7:59:18 GMT -5 EtomicB said:

Oct 24, 2024 7:33:14 GMT -5 FrazierFanatic said:

We may sweat a little in November, so many new pieces to try to get to mesh. December will start to indicate where this group can go.

I agree that we'll probably sweat some early in the OOC and early in conference play too considering 5 of the 1st 6 games will be against Creighton, Xavier, Marquette, Uconn & St. John's.

Agree. If the talent is as improved as reported, it's going to be about learning how to win at this level. Too often over the past decade I feel that players (and fans) expected to lose close games down the stretch. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In the past few years in the second half no matter how close the game it became apparent to fans and opposing teams (other than Depaul) that any bad break, unforced TO, missed call by the officials, poor shot selection, missed defensive assignment etc. would cause the Hoyas to unravel and quickly snowball into another Hoya loss.

Cooley has almost an entirely new squad without any of the PTSD from these past few seasons. He needs to use November and December to develop them all. Hopefully we do not see a 7-8 man rotation against the so-called easy opponents.

[HoyaFanNY]

Oct 24, 2024 8:58:01 GMT -5 calhoya said:

Oct 24, 2024 7:59:18 GMT -5 EtomicB said:

I agree that we'll probably sweat some early in the OOC and early in conference play too considering 5 of the 1st 6 games will be against Creighton, Xavier, Marquette, Uconn & St. John's.

Agree. If the talent is as improved as reported, it's going to be about learning how to win at this level. Too often over the past decade I feel that players (and fans) expected to lose close games down the stretch. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In the past few years in the second half no matter how close the game it became apparent to fans and opposing teams (other than Depaul) that any bad break, unforced TO, missed call by the officials, poor shot selection, missed defensive assignment etc. would cause the Hoyas to unravel and quickly snowball into another Hoya loss.

Cooley has almost an entirely new squad without any of the PTSD from these past few seasons. He needs to use November and December to develop them all. Hopefully we do not see a 7-8 man rotation against the so-called easy opponents.

I'm the conductor of the optimism train.

More talented roster
Deeper roster
True PG that allows Epps to play off the ball
Depth in the frontcourt
Better defensively....hopefully but can't really be worse

[sweetness]

It will obviously take time, with all the new & young pieces. Two critical things I would love to see right away:

- Epps, Mack, and Peavy sharing the ball with each other and playing unselfish, team-oriented ball.

- Dramatically improved defensive effort and effectiveness. Key concerns being our smallish backcourt and our inability to protect the rim last year.

[hoyasaxa2003]

Oct 23, 2024 17:55:23 GMT -5 EtomicB said:

Oct 23, 2024 13:24:32 GMT -5 hoyasaxa2003 said:

The last sentence may be wise for some players, but it is also completely out of touch with the way 99% of these players think about college basketball these days. Most players would prefer to get a little money and leave to play at Samford or Cal-State Northridge than ride the pine at Georgetown and not play (or even worse, being at the university but not on the roster at all). As sad as it is for me to say this, I think the value of a Georgetown degree (which is high academically and professionally) is almost irrelevant when it comes to basketball at this point.

I really think the key is hope. While it happens, it is more rare for a team that is having success and that is poised for even more success the following year to lose 7-8 players to transfer, than teams like the ones we have featured over the last several years. There is also a lot of statistical noise here too in the sense that you're dealing with a small number of individuals on each team, and individual decisions can make things look way worse than they are. For example, in sequential years, Duke held onto all their players who didn't leave for the NBA or graduate (great retention!), and the following year they lost a huge number of players from their roster. To me, that says very little about the way Scheyer coaches given that it's the same person in two consecutive years with very different results. It's the same thing with Marquette. Again, they've been good under Smart and have kept that hope alive of continuing success, and they have had few transfers. My guess is that when Marquette eventually has a down year, that may change.

If we go 2-18 or worse again, I would absolutely expect a lot of transfers. If we go 7-13, show improvement, have some good young players playing big roles, and there are good expectations for 2015, I would not expect many transfers. And even better if we do better than 7-13.

Recruiting dictated the retention & transfers in Duke's case the 2023 class wasn't any type of threat to the returning players so they stuck around.

The complete opposite was the case with the class of 2024 with Flagg, Knuepell(sp?), Maluech(sp?), Harris etc. add to that the development of Proctor & Foster, and it's easy to see why kids like Stewart, Power & Schutt transferred out.

Roach in his last season more than likely wanted a big payday but Scheyer was more than likely unwilling to pony up when he knew he had Proctor & Foster on the squad both of whom have higher upsides than Roach on the team.

Duke isn't a good example IMO.

As for Marquette, this is what their coach has to say on the record about the transfer portal.

The conclusion I make from all of this is that transfers and whether it happens is complex, and depends on a number of factors that interplay. With the ability of guys to leave every year, there is no ability for coaches to build balanced rosters anymore--at least not easily. It's easier for great teams that recruit well, but even then it's hard because of all the unknowns that exist in college basketball.

I agree with you that the coaching staff matters a huge amount to whether players transfer, but it's just one factor among many. NIL has only existed for a few years at this point, so we are dealing with small sample sizes when it comes to examples. If, after 10 years, there are coaches who have a super-great record of retention, then maybe we can say that that coach is really good at retaining players. But, doing it after a couple of seasons is just one data point among many to come.

Lastly, I would add that I have a good friend who is extremely plugged into Duke basketball, and while some transfers were expected, they did not expect to lose as many guys as they ultimately did. But because they are Duke and recruit well, they recovered from it. If Georgetown loses a similar number of players after this season, we will not recover from it so easily.

[drquigley]

My quick evaluation will focus only on defense. Like JT2 used to say offense can come and go every game depending on how hot our shooters are but no excuse for not playing defense. I'll be worried if any of our cupcake OOC opponents score more than 60 points. Especially worried if any of those opponents get a bunch of open 3 point looks. But of course a loss to any of those opponents will also say a lot.

[MCIGuy]

Oct 24, 2024 10:33:26 GMT -5 drquigley said:

My quick evaluation will focus only on defense. Like JT2 used to say offense can come and go every game depending on how hot our shooters are but no excuse for not playing defense. I'll be worried if any of our cupcake OOC opponents score more than 60 points. Especially worried if any of those opponents get a bunch of open 3 point looks. But of course a loss to any of those opponents will also say a lot.

My evaluation will heavily be determined by Cooley being able to play walk-ons in the last five minutes in a few of those weak sauce OOC games. To be perfectly honest that could help lead those teams to get over 60 points if they go on game-end runs against the Hoya’s scubs

[SFHoya99]

Oct 24, 2024 10:33:26 GMT -5 drquigley said:

My quick evaluation will focus only on defense. Like JT2 used to say offense can come and go every game depending on how hot our shooters are but no excuse for not playing defense. I'll be worried if any of our cupcake OOC opponents score more than 60 points. Especially worried if any of those opponents get a bunch of open 3 point looks. But of course a loss to any of those opponents will also say a lot.

Yep. I am worried about out outside shooting a bit, but I am not overly worried about offense. Let's see some tough defense.

And the first sign will be if we simply out-talent the cupcakes. I would love us to really play well, but even if we don't, it's a very good sign if we simply have too much talent to let it be too close. It's been a minute since we could say that.

[78HOYA78]

Hopefully Coach Cooley will be able to give our bench some meaningful playing time (not garbage minutes) - and not pull them if they make a mistake. I still don't understand up by 20 and empty the bench with 1 minute left in the game. We had (or maybe still do) a player that hit about 90% of his 3s last season. Probably against other bench players but at least he still made them.

[hoyasaxa2003]

I had actually not seen this at all, but apparently some Providence trolls started a rumor that Cooley and UVA had mutual interest. Cooley shut them down:

[MCIGuy]

Oct 24, 2024 12:54:01 GMT -5 hoyasaxa2003 said:

I had actually not seen this at all, but apparently some Providence trolls started a rumor that Cooley and UVA had mutual interest. Cooley shut them down:

It started on Monday or Tuesday. Same usual suspect on Twitter. Those folks are lunatics but they seem to be able to easily fool a number of people. Including at least one person on this board.

[CTHoya08]

Once we turn the corner and ascend above Providence in the BE pecking order--and we will--it will be so satisfying to see those guys melt down and/or disappear.

[hoyasaxa2003]

Oct 24, 2024 13:00:34 GMT -5 MCIGuy said:

Oct 24, 2024 12:54:01 GMT -5 hoyasaxa2003 said:

I had actually not seen this at all, but apparently some Providence trolls started a rumor that Cooley and UVA had mutual interest. Cooley shut them down:

It started on Monday or Tuesday. Same usual suspect on Twitter. Those folks are lunatics but they seem to be able to easily fool a number of people. Including at least one person on this board.

Tim Brando fell for it for a bit, too.

[seaweed]

Oct 24, 2024 14:58:05 GMT -5 hoyasaxa2003 said:

Oct 24, 2024 13:00:34 GMT -5 MCIGuy said:

It started on Monday or Tuesday. Same usual suspect on Twitter. Those folks are lunatics but they seem to be able to easily fool a number of people. Including at least one person on this board.

Tim Brando fell for it for a bit, too.

Nobody ever thought he was the brightest bulb in the garden

[kettlehill]

Good Lord, please come back Hoyaboya, we need you....this board is hurting.

[SFHoya99]

Oct 24, 2024 18:38:29 GMT -5 kettlehill said:

Good Lord, please come back Hoyaboya, we need you....this board is hurting.

What, too much optimism for you? Certainly you can post snide comments about Cooley. Oh, wait, please pick an 18 year old to bag on endlessly because you hold creepy ass grudges about who was recruited!

If you want recruiting news, there's this thing called twitter. Or the recruiting board. What we don't need is a troll with a nasty agenda and a penchant for being a complete ass to teenagers they don't know.

[jwp91]

So there is a closed scrimmage against Virginia tomorrow.

Virginia lost to VCU 71-49 in the last scrimmage I am aware of, and subsequently lost Bennett.

Any predictions?