(04-04-2014 11:20 AM)JMUDuke25 Wrote:  

(04-04-2014 08:43 AM)JMU2004 Wrote:  Funny, I was just thinking about the Bud Childers situation in regards to Bourne.

Kenny fell into that job, so Bourne shouldn't get credit for that hire.

Just a thought.

Do you have an entire notebook at home of things to use just to attack Bourne?

Yes. It is quite long, and pages are added nearly weekly.

I disagree with people saying Cooke isn't that good of a player- I think he is a solid player who showed improvement and he didn't strike me as a guy who needed to have the ball 25 times a game- I think he did that out of necessity this year because honestly the ball movement especially when Nation wasn't playing was very poor at times. The one reliable thing on offense was that Cooke could generally get his own shot (whether it went in was another thing) and/or get to the line but now with him gone the guards (Curry and Nation) will really have to gel as play off of one another and create shots for others.

I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up somewhere good close to home- Lasalle, St Joes, even Nova or Rutgers. His father is involved and Cooke seems tight with Alex Kline from recruit scoop- he probably had a pretty good plan on his next step whether it works out better for him is another story I would think the 4 year graduate and 5th year path would probably have worked out better but clearly he lost faith in JMU and our future as a team which is troubling. But hey we're not the only program with an incumbent coach losing players- St Johns comes to mind- how about BU- similar level as JMU- their star guard is transferring and some major schools are interested.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2014/0...story.html

(04-04-2014 10:49 AM)jmu7396 Wrote:  Great post. One of the problems with athletics in both high school and college these days is there is very little loyalty to school or teammates anymore. It starts with AAU. Kids jump from team to team until they find one that lets them do what they want and play all the time. The teams practice very little, do almost no fundamental work, and focus on exposing players to college scouts. The player's focus is to show the scouts what they can do, not play as a team and try and win. Their only reason to win is so they can advance in the tournament they are in and hopefully play in front of more coaches. When the players go back to their high school and the coach gets on them to defend hard or play team ball they transfer to another high school where they can get more exposure and do what they want. There are high schools everywhere who try and bring in the best players they can and cater to them to stroke the coach's egos and get wins. All along the way the players pick up advisors who all know what is best for the kid and none of whom care what is best for the kid's team. That mentality is engrained in some of them when they get to college and it is up to the college coaches to get them to buy in to their system. Some do and some don't. Even Coach K at Duke sometimes has problems getting players to buy in. I heard him say in an interview once that the hardest part of coaching was getting the players to play together as a team. If he thinks it is hard, imagine how hard it is for a coach without his reputation. Amazingly a large percentage of college players think they are going to play pro so the mentality continues. They have to show the scouts what they can do and that destroys team concept. Thinking back on the season, Cooke played like he was trying to get the stats to move on. After I heard him say to someone after a late season home loss that it was only a game, no big deal, it kind of confirmed that in my mind.

Yep I remember reading an article a while back(I think leading up to the 07 National Championship) where Billy Donovan and Thad Matta were both saying they prefer guys that didn't play AAU for that reason. They were saying they like high school players and especially coaches' kids because they're used to playing a team game and used to really preparing for each team and each game. Usually higher basketball IQ guys than the AAU guys.

Speaking of Donovan, terrific article on him in yesterday's SI. He changed his recruiting philosophy after failing and employed the X's and O's of one Larry Shyatt, whom JMU had considered as head coach.

(04-04-2014 04:20 PM)NJDuke97 Wrote:  I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up somewhere good close to home- Lasalle, St Joes, even Nova or Rutgers.

Between Booth, Bridges, Hart and DiVincenzo, there is zero chance Nova takes him.

He's not that good at basketball.

(04-05-2014 08:17 PM)JHG722 Wrote:  

(04-04-2014 04:20 PM)NJDuke97 Wrote:  I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up somewhere good close to home- Lasalle, St Joes, even Nova or Rutgers.

Between Booth, Bridges, Hart and DiVincenzo, there is zero chance Nova takes him.

You think Temple would have interest? I figured if they checked in on Bessick they would at least do the same for Cooke.

(04-06-2014 08:08 AM)NJDuke97 Wrote:  

(04-05-2014 08:17 PM)JHG722 Wrote:  

(04-04-2014 04:20 PM)NJDuke97 Wrote:  I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up somewhere good close to home- Lasalle, St Joes, even Nova or Rutgers.

Between Booth, Bridges, Hart and DiVincenzo, there is zero chance Nova takes him.

You think Temple would have interest? I figured if they checked in on Bessick they would at least do the same for Cooke.

Even though we could use someone with his size at his position, I dont think so. We need someone who is a more efficient shooter. I think Cooke would be better served in the A10.

Bessick right now is our backup plan if we don't get JUCO All American Jordan Goodman. I think Bessick would be a good first big off the bench, but I dont anticipate he would ever start here. He is better than two of our bigs who played 12 and just under 14 minutes per game last year.

We are in a bit of a scholarship crunch right now, so we cant really take too many transfers.

The sky is the limit for Cooke but he just can't shoot. Maybe he turns that around. He's great going to the basket but he has to be able to knock down a jumper to hop over mediocre.

(04-06-2014 12:26 PM)DoubleDDuke Wrote:  The sky is the limit for Cooke but he just can't shoot. Maybe he turns that around. He's great going to the basket but he has to be able to knock down a jumper to hop over mediocre.

He probably should have signed with a school with a head coach known as a Shot Doctor............

Here is an interesting link from the NCAA to an article that tracked past transfers in D1.

http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/rese...basketball


"Where do these transfers end up? We tracked the 455 MBB student-athletes listed on ESPN’s 2013 Division I transfer list to determine where they are enrolled in 2013-14. Only 44% transferred to another Division I school (most of those to a less competitive program where playing time might be more available), while many ended up at Division II, Division III, NAIA or 2-year colleges (Figure 2). Fully 16% on the transfer list were not on a college roster as of fall 2013.

Close to 90% of MBB transfers say they left for athletic reasons. Absent proper academic planning for transfer, many of these SAs subsequently lose credits in the transition and register lower Academic Progress Rates (APRs) and graduation rates at their new schools than seen among non-transfers."

Here's the SI article on Donovan that I had mentioned:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/-colleg...inal-four/

The one thing that frustrated me with Cooke was he didn't play to his strengths at times. With his length, he should have been taking guards in the CAA into the post all day because when he did, he was successful. I don't know if that was his choice to settle for jumpers or Brady just didn't dial that up enough. I did like his ability to attack the basket because not only was it an effective method of scoring, he got guys on the other teams in foul trouble. I'm really not sure what the impetus of this decision was because it definitely wasn't PT. Oh well, I don't begrudge the guy but I'm just surprised/disappointed because when him, Curry, and Nation came in I got the impression that they had a bond to bring JMU basketball back out of the doldrums. Now, Cooke is gone and Nation is one more misstep away from being gone too. Sucks.

Word is that a lot of high majors have inquired about Cooke, some that might suprise you. Arizona state, Dayton and more than 7 schools from bcs leagues and traditionally above avarage programs at that. Cooke with the right development and coaching is going to suprise a lot of people.

More importantly is the hole he leaves in team dynamics, I couldn't see it in beginning of season but by mid season I saw flashes of curry and Cooke becoming better leaders than nation, curry is more vocal and personable but Cooke had that silent hard worker mentality.

Does the absence of Cooke give nation more room to be dysfunctional, knowing that the coaches need him even more?? I hope not.

Hope sterling and Hall have intregrity and are leaders instead of followers. We have had a pattern of recruits following bad habits from past players. That's 60% coaching 20 bad character and 20 just young mentality.[/align]

(04-07-2014 01:50 PM)Jmubarkers Wrote:  Word is that a lot of high majors have inquired about Cooke, some that might suprise you. Arizona state, Dayton and more than 7 schools from bcs leagues and traditionally above avarage programs at that. Cooke with the right development and coaching is going to suprise a lot of people.

More importantly is the hole he leaves in team dynamics, I couldn't see it in beginning of season but by mid season I saw flashes of curry and Cooke becoming better leaders than nation, curry is more vocal and personable but Cooke had that silent hard worker mentality.

Does the absence of Cooke give nation more room to be dysfunctional, knowing that the coaches need him even more?? I hope not.

Hope sterling and Hall have intregrity and are leaders instead of followers. We have had a pattern of recruits following bad habits from past players. That's 60% coaching 20 bad character and 20 just young mentality.[/align]

When your young you need players to play , they shouldn't be worried about being leaders. Let the talent speak for itself ( Kentucky ).

All I hope is that Sterling and Hall make our program better even if they are followers. I've never seen a pattern in our JMU bball players honestly.

This thread is depressing

Dayton just offered a Cornell SG Transfer http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketba...-cressler. Could that have been Cooke's spot they offered? It looks like he's a real good outside shooter from the percentages. You wonder if true major programs need transfers like Cooke- he's solid and has size for a backcourt player but he hasn't been much of a shooter- they have guys like him and are looking for shooters, point guards, or big men.

(04-07-2014 01:50 PM)Jmubarkers Wrote:  Word is that a lot of high majors have inquired about Cooke, some that might suprise you. Arizona state, Dayton and more than 7 schools from bcs leagues and traditionally above avarage programs at that. Cooke with the right development and coaching is going to suprise a lot of people.

More importantly is the hole he leaves in team dynamics, I couldn't see it in beginning of season but by mid season I saw flashes of curry and Cooke becoming better leaders than nation, curry is more vocal and personable but Cooke had that silent hard worker mentality.

Does the absence of Cooke give nation more room to be dysfunctional, knowing that the coaches need him even more?? I hope not.

Hope sterling and Hall have intregrity and are leaders instead of followers. We have had a pattern of recruits following bad habits from past players. That's 60% coaching 20 bad character and 20 just young mentality.[/align]

(04-04-2014 07:39 AM)Duke Dawg Wrote:  

(04-04-2014 07:03 AM)UofRfan Wrote:  Nation is better than Cooke, but your underating Cooke if you don't think his loss is a factor. I am unsure how you can be so certain you've replaced him, freshman seem to be a real crapshoot especially early.

The 2nd best player on the team left the team on a team where only 2 of the guys were average or better in conference play.

http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/scho.../2014.html

The current talent level in the program makes this type of loss big even if hes not "great".

Nation is a corner piece of course, but how many corner pieces do you have need in your puzzle DD?

win shares per 40 minutes:

Nation .156
Cooke .095

that's a pretty big gap

Offensive rating:

Nation 113.8
Curry 106.0
Cooke 103.3
Semenov 101.0

another big gap

Defensive rating:

Nation 102.4
Cooke 106.5
Semenov 108.0
Curry 109.3

turnovers per 100 plays:

Nation 8.3
Curry 12.7
Semenov 13.5
Cooke 15.4

by any measure, Nation outpaces Cooke by a good margin. UofR, you love these advanced stats. Almost all of them show Cooke as the 3rd or 4th best player on the team last year. Nation is CLEARLY the best, then probably Curry then either Seme or Cooke.

This is interesting- Nation's Player Efficiency was better than any player on Delaware. Bennimon had a better PER and Nation's was comparable to AJ Davis's but trailed Denzel Bowles. Do big men like Bowles and Bennimon typically have higher efficiency because they shoot a higher percentage of shots - layups, dunks?

I heard a funny story about Cooke the other day. One of my friends works for UREC and was at the front desk swiping people in. He looks up and sees Charles Cooke come in the entrance and behind him are 2 guys totally decked out in University of Rhode Island gear. We're talking huge URI letters and logos across their chests. One of the URI guys goes, "Wait so where are the basketball offices?" And Cooke says something like "Oh don't worry they're in the other building up there" while pointing in the general direction of Convo. The guys replies with, "Oh alright cool." And they go into UREC and Charles does a workout for them and leaves with them. Pretty ballsy if you ask me haha

Danny Hurley is the head coach at URI and his brother Bobby just took a head coaching job himself (in the MAAC, I believe...one of the NY schools).