hoyazeke
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Post by hoyazeke on Jun 21, 2024 13:54:38 GMT -5
Disclaimer, I haven't seen any of the new players but Peavy(1gm)...ideally I would want a lineup of Mack, Epps, Peavy/McK, Fielder/Burks and Fielder/Sorber...I think the front court combos of defenders ranging from 6'6" to 6'11" would cause problems for Os...I'm trusting that Ed gets these guys coached up on the defensive side...no excuses because no matter who starts we should have 2ns stringers that are just as long and just as athletic...with Caleb, Kayvaugh, and Curtis we have size on the wings that add extra depth. I know that we don't have the 3rd true center that we wanted but we should have plenty of length and rim protection.
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bluegray79
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Post by bluegray79 on Jun 21, 2024 13:54:51 GMT -5
Quick chime in on McKenna - This is the worst kind of chiming in, and I apologize for the total lack of evidence while at the same time being pretty darn sure it exists. I have had the sense that McKenna is solid bordering on stud from a story or coach quote (if anyone has the source(s) of this, please share the link or quote.) Coulda been EC or Ivan, but it was clearly a statement of the huge upside Drew McKenna has and how they're looking forward to having him play for the Hoyas.
(Anyone else remember anything like this? Again, apologies for the lack of anything more definite than a vague memory.)
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MCIGuy
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Post by MCIGuy on Jun 21, 2024 16:10:35 GMT -5
Quick chime in on McKenna - This is the worst kind of chiming in, and I apologize for the total lack of evidence while at the same time being pretty darn sure it exists. I have had the sense that McKenna is solid bordering on stud from a story or coach quote (if anyone has the source(s) of this, please share the link or quote.) Coulda been EC or Ivan, but it was clearly a statement of the huge upside Drew McKenna has and how they're looking forward to having him play for the Hoyas. (Anyone else remember anything like this? Again, apologies for the lack of anything more definite than a vague memory.) You sure it wasn’t Fielder? I mean he is a Drew too. ☺️ |
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wolveribe
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Post by wolveribe on Jun 21, 2024 19:15:26 GMT -5
Time will tell, but this is a top 25 high school and transfer class and people are acting like we have zero talent. Providence.....outside of Hopkins being a BE player of the year, I don't see them better than mid tier.
Granted- a lot is required of Fielder and Sorber unless another big is added, but that doesnt negate a lot of good
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jwp91
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Post by jwp91 on Jun 21, 2024 19:31:51 GMT -5
Burks is a junior coming from a blue blood program. I don't think it is unreasonable to speculate that he is more likely to be more ready than a freshman. -Burks is a sophomore -He wasn’t listed in the RSCI which means he wasn’t a Top 100 recruit of his class unlike McKenna who was in his 2024 class’ RSCI before he skipped his senior season -McKenna has a semester head start over him in regards to knowing how the Hoya coaching system. Well, then let's say that I saw more immediately relevant skills in Burks abbreviated highlights than I did in McKenna junior year film that I saw. Burks has the potential to a be monster in the PNR. Uber athletic and coordinated. He excelled in transition. Is bouncy which I hope will translate into rebounding acumen. Had a quote in the off-season about taking more pride in locking someone down defensively than scoring a basket. Has a history of being the leading scorer in whatever high school league he played. As I say this, I do not disparage McKenna in any way. I just know less about him based on what has been available to me. If McKenna turns out to be more ready than Burks, then that would skew us closer to an upside case. McKenna is just flying below the radar. |
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bluegray79
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Post by bluegray79 on Jun 24, 2024 12:36:13 GMT -5
Quick chime in on McKenna - This is the worst kind of chiming in, and I apologize for the total lack of evidence while at the same time being pretty darn sure it exists. I have had the sense that McKenna is solid bordering on stud from a story or coach quote (if anyone has the source(s) of this, please share the link or quote.) Coulda been EC or Ivan, but it was clearly a statement of the huge upside Drew McKenna has and how they're looking forward to having him play for the Hoyas. (Anyone else remember anything like this? Again, apologies for the lack of anything more definite than a vague memory.) You sure it wasn’t Fielder? I mean he is a Drew too. ☺️ Naw, it was definitely McKenna. Thanks for the possible dignified escape hatch, but it was Drew McK. |
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jwp91
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Post by jwp91 on Jun 24, 2024 12:38:54 GMT -5
I hope McKenna is a monster. One of the downsides of skipping your senior year of high school basketball is that it dramatically lowers your profile. It may be great for him developmentally, but from a simple personal marketing/branding perspective, it does not help.
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MCIGuy
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Post by MCIGuy on Jun 24, 2024 13:48:58 GMT -5
-Burks is a sophomore -He wasn’t listed in the RSCI which means he wasn’t a Top 100 recruit of his class unlike McKenna who was in his 2024 class’ RSCI before he skipped his senior season -McKenna has a semester head start over him in regards to knowing how the Hoya coaching system. Well, then let's say that I saw more immediately relevant skills in Burks abbreviated highlights than I did in McKenna junior year film that I saw. Burks has the potential to a be monster in the PNR. Uber athletic and coordinated. He excelled in transition. Is bouncy which I hope will translate into rebounding acumen. Had a quote in the off-season about taking more pride in locking someone down defensively than scoring a basket. Has a history of being the leading scorer in whatever high school league he played. As I say this, I do not disparage McKenna in any way. I just know less about him based on what has been available to me. If McKenna turns out to be more ready than Burks, then that would skew us closer to an upside case. McKenna is just flying below the radar. I really appreciate your opinions and knowledge, jwp, but I would really love to know what highlights of McKenna you saw that would suggest in the slightest he is less relevantly skilled than Burke. Sometime this evening I will come back to this thread and post links of McKenna that I had used in his thread months back. |
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jwp91
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Post by jwp91 on Jun 24, 2024 14:12:08 GMT -5
Well, then let's say that I saw more immediately relevant skills in Burks abbreviated highlights than I did in McKenna junior year film that I saw. Burks has the potential to a be monster in the PNR. Uber athletic and coordinated. He excelled in transition. Is bouncy which I hope will translate into rebounding acumen. Had a quote in the off-season about taking more pride in locking someone down defensively than scoring a basket. Has a history of being the leading scorer in whatever high school league he played. As I say this, I do not disparage McKenna in any way. I just know less about him based on what has been available to me. If McKenna turns out to be more ready than Burks, then that would skew us closer to an upside case. McKenna is just flying below the radar. I really appreciate your opinions and knowledge, jwp, but I would really love to know what highlights of McKenna you saw that would suggest in the slightest he is less relevantly skilled than Burke. Sometime this evening I will come back to this thread and post links of McKenna that I had used in his thread months back. If you could point me good, recent film of McKenna, I would love to see it. I think I watched the better part of 1-2 games of his from his junior year on Youtube. I don't know which ones...names I don't recognize as I don't follow DMV high school basketball that closely. As I recall, I saw a tall, skinny scorer. I have no recollection of him defensively. He seemed to be an average athlete. Ron at HR has described him as more of a 2 from watching practice. If we didn't have Peavy or Epps, I could see a much bigger role for McKenna this year, but I see those guys getting 25+ minutes a game. I could totally see him as a back-up to those guys at both positions. I am not saying McKenna can't play the 4, but I don't remember seeing anything in my watch that would suggest that would be a great spot for him. Yes, he is tall but Jamorko Pickett showed us his freshman year how size doesn't always translate to where someone is comfortable playing. The Twitter video I saw with an appearance of whom I thought was Drew, he had filled out a lot from what I saw of his junior video which is not unexpected for 18 months of difference at the ages of 17-19. So, I would appreciate any help in video to help me understand him as a player. I wish there was video of that KL game in which he blew your mind last summer. |
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blueandgray
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Post by blueandgray on Jun 24, 2024 14:37:10 GMT -5
We lost a lot of really close games last year…primarily due to 3 major factors:
(1). Poor perimeter defense
(2). Poor PG play especially when Epps was at the 2
(3). Poor defensive rebounding.
We will still have issues in certain areas…especially with rebounding….but we have vastly improved points 1 and 2.
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MCIGuy
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Post by MCIGuy on Jun 25, 2024 1:30:38 GMT -5
Couldn't find my Hoya files so I had to dig up the best McKenna clips I could from scratch. This is all from Twitter. As soon as I can I'll do a YouTube search for his best material.
I think this is my favorite of the bunch; a short collection of examples of his capabilities as a face-the-basket threat on offense. Notice the handle, the change of direction, the pullup, the form of his shot
/video/1
The next two aren't so bad either:
/video/1
/video/1
Last year Michael DeRosa did an excellent breakdown of McKenna in a thread :
McKenna interview after he scored 42 points in a loss to Bishop McNamara. That entire game is on YouTube somewhere...I'll have to track it down again. But still those were ridiculous numbers.
I apologize for these links not appearing as thumbnails. I am not sure if this site supports the "X' format. If it does someone point me in the right direction and I'll clean this up.
MOD NOTE: In order for the thumbnails to properly view, one has to edit "x.com" to "twitter.com" (I've done it for all of the links above). Proboards does not appear to have ever updated their automatic link function for this.
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MCIGuy
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Post by MCIGuy on Jun 25, 2024 1:42:43 GMT -5
As I recall, I saw a tall, skinny scorer. I have no recollection of him defensively. He seemed to be an average athlete. Ron at HR has described him as more of a 2 from watching practice. He does have guard skills but I am not certain he is a two. If he was a two at that height he would have been viewed as a Top 25 prospect in high school. |
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jwp91
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Post by jwp91 on Jun 25, 2024 8:50:48 GMT -5
A genuine thank you for taking the time to compile this. He is a very good scorer and I imagine there will be times this season when we absolutely need that. I am happy to see he has good vision to find teammates. I hope that he is at least average defensively and rebounding-wise. I did notice that in all of those clips he was perimeter-oriented though he has the size to theoretically be a big. I have no problem saying that McKenna is better offensively than Peavy. I am hoping Peavy as the only senior on the team will lead by example with his defense where I think he is an elite perimeter defender. If Peavy could rub off on the rest of the roster with his approach to defense, that would be a wonderful thing. Imagine if you were able to combine Peavy defensively with McKenna offensively. That would be a hell of a player. So I am convinced that McKenna will have an important role on the team with a scoring contribution that is needed. I am not convinced how much he will contribute to our depth problem at big and how much time he might see at a 4 vs. Burks. With a line-up of C/Mack/Epps/Peavy, we are going to need someone to help bang and get rebounds. I still have questions what McKenna can do there. |
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MCIGuy
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Post by MCIGuy on Jun 25, 2024 12:23:29 GMT -5
Thanks, Dan.
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Post by TrueHoyaBlue on Jun 25, 2024 12:27:40 GMT -5
My biggest impression of McKenna from last year’s Kenner league was a level of craftiness that seemed beyond his years. He reminded me of the old guy at the pickup game in the YMCA who is not the most athletic but has a dozen different options of how to score, changing speeds and angles rather than relying on pure speed or hops.
Neither is a perfect comparison, but there were elements of his game, particularly inside the arc, that reminded me of Austin Freeman and of Roosevelt *Jones from Butler. I’m excited to see what he looks like on the court with another year of skills development and strength and conditioning.
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EtomicB
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Post by EtomicB on Jun 25, 2024 13:07:48 GMT -5
My biggest impression of McKenna from last year’s Kenner league was a level of craftiness that seemed beyond his years. He reminded me of the old guy at the pickup game in the YMCA who is not the most athletic but has a dozen different options of how to score, changing speeds and angles rather than relying on pure speed or hops. Neither is a perfect comparison, but there were elements of his game, particularly inside the arc, that reminded me of Austin Freeman and of Roosevelt Colvin from Butler. I’m excited to see what he looks like on the court with another year of skills development and strength and conditioning. Freeman & Colvin? Sign me up to watch that type of player put on for Gtown. After Battle mentioned that DM had improved physically and now he has to get it to translate on the court, I pretty much put a pause on my expectations for him this season. Early on anyway |
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SSHoya
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Post by SSHoya on Jun 25, 2024 13:32:00 GMT -5
My biggest impression of McKenna from last year’s Kenner league was a level of craftiness that seemed beyond his years. He reminded me of the old guy at the pickup game in the YMCA who is not the most athletic but has a dozen different options of how to score, changing speeds and angles rather than relying on pure speed or hops. Neither is a perfect comparison, but there were elements of his game, particularly inside the arc, that reminded me of Austin Freeman and of Roosevelt Colvin from Butler. I’m excited to see what he looks like on the court with another year of skills development and strength and conditioning. Don't you mean Roosevelt Jones of Butler? en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_JonesRosevelt Colvin is a former Purdue football player who won two Super Bowls with the New England Patriots. |
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Post by TrueHoyaBlue on Jun 25, 2024 14:30:09 GMT -5
My biggest impression of McKenna from last year’s Kenner league was a level of craftiness that seemed beyond his years. He reminded me of the old guy at the pickup game in the YMCA who is not the most athletic but has a dozen different options of how to score, changing speeds and angles rather than relying on pure speed or hops. Neither is a perfect comparison, but there were elements of his game, particularly inside the arc, that reminded me of Austin Freeman and of Roosevelt Colvin from Butler. I’m excited to see what he looks like on the court with another year of skills development and strength and conditioning. Don't you mean Roosevelt Jones of Butler? en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_JonesRosevelt Colvin is a former Purdue football player who won two Super Bowls with the New England Patriots. Guilty as charged (and my Patriots fan brain at work with that particular short-circuit). |
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SFHoya99
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Post by SFHoya99 on Jun 25, 2024 20:27:19 GMT -5
You sure it wasn’t Fielder? I mean he is a Drew too. ☺️ Naw, it was definitely McKenna. Thanks for the possible dignified escape hatch, but it was Drew McK. Yeah, those most recent comments tell me he's going to take some time. Frankly, the fact that we never got the "He's the best player in practice" quote (which isn't normally true but is often said) during the spring kind of signaled to me that we're not looking at a day one impact player. |
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SFHoya99
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Post by SFHoya99 on Jun 25, 2024 20:34:26 GMT -5
We lost a lot of really close games last year…primarily due to 3 major factors: (1). Poor perimeter defense (2). Poor PG play especially when Epps was at the 2 (3). Poor defensive rebounding. We will still have issues in certain areas…especially with rebounding….but we have vastly improved points 1 and 2. Even with the freshmen, I think the defense will be better. We lost a lot of those games because we simply could not get a stop. We literally had to score every time down. I remember watching one game where Styles and Bristol went off and you simply knew we wouldn't get one more stop. If the defense is not improved, even with such a young team, then we really do have a much bigger problem. But no Massoud and Heath alone should get that done. I also think that we struggled in final possession because everyone knew it had to be Epps. That made him easy to defend, and when we tried to go to anyone else, they turned the ball over. The potential offset to this is whether we will be in as many games with the loss of three point shooting from Styles, Rowan and Heath, as well as Cook's offensive rebounding, which really helped us. Unless we see steps forward, this is a worse shooting team. And if we had gotten a Reynolds or whomever, I wouldn't worry about the free offensive points off boards. But we're asking young and skinny guys to do it. So Mack and Sorber and Fielder and Mulready and anyone else need to make up those points somehow. If they can, we'll be significantly better. |
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