(04-20-2015 05:52 PM)emu steve Wrote:  

(04-20-2015 05:42 PM)rayEMU Wrote:  

(04-20-2015 04:40 PM)emu steve Wrote:  Why?

We can use a '3 guard' offense, as follows:

Can't Bond play PG (with two SGs) on offense, a 3 guard offense, but SF on defense (in a 2 - 3 zone)?

One of the nice things about Bond is that because of his size and athletic abilities he is very versatile, in this case play in the back court on offense but front court on defense.

If we get a 'shipload' of SGs, that is what I'd do: Get three scorers out there from the guard position, because we aren't going to get 15 or 20 points from a PF or center this year.

Bond, Lee and the other one SG need to light it up...

Ironically, I think you are arguing my point, Steve. I am very comfortable with this two deep rotation:
PG Alvano/ Stone
SG Lee/ Mangum
SF Bond / Price

Am I misunderstanding you? Are you suggesting get more SGs, and push Bond out to PF?

I think you are (misunderstand me).

I'd have Bond as my starting PG with TWO SGs. That gives the offense its juice. Essentially a three guard OFFENSE. It maximizes our strength at SG.

As far as defense, Bond would NOT play one of the two top guard positions in the 2 - 3 zone. He would play one of the wing positions.

That would get 2 SGs in the game at the same time without destroying the 2 - 3 zone with 3 guards.

Shooting guard is probably the easiest position to recruit and we still have other prospects on the board...

This isn't the thread to discuss it, but e.g., when I watched Lamonta Stone II play against Muskegon, his dad employed a 1 - 3 - 1 zone with Lamonta along the baseline. I have no idea if Murphy would change up his 2 - 3 zone when Stone plays and go with a variant, e.g., 1 - 3 - 1.

Murphy can improvise without going outside of a zone defense.

Interesting thoughts...I guess you are enjoying speculating as much as I

Ray, one thing about recruiting, esp. EMU, there is so much we don't know. Compare that to watching a game. I come here and eagerly await comments on what others saw that I did not. (I have those, "damn, I didn't see that..." moments).

Here it is very different. We are pretty well working in darkness. What is public is a small part of what we'd need to know to speak authoritatively on how our recruiting is going. Even coaches are in the dark as someone (e.g., recruit, AAU coach, H.S. coach, etc.) will say one thing to one school and something different to another.

Because of that I find it hard to say what I think of their recruiting strategy. From what I know, they recruited both Stone and Edwards very effectively. I have reason to believe that if Edwards hadn't blown up, we would have been 'right there' with a real shot at him. But that is the way things go. I remember Mark Few saying that he recruited a kid from Oregon for two years. Then Calipari made a phone call and he was gone (to Kentucky)... P.S. He later transferred from KY to Gonzaga. :)

I've been following this on Twitter all day long (using the Tweeter search function). His visit was out on Twitter for a couple days.

"GHC Athletics ‏@GHC_Athletics · 17m17 minutes ago
Charger Basketball is happy to announce that Ty Toney has committed to Eastern Michigan. You represented Charger Nation Well! "

I like it. He's got game. A very good recruit. I'll post some stuff I found on him... I swear I thought I saw a Tweet saying 'nice campus' but I can't re-find the Tweet now.

This was a Tweet from April 15 (Wednesday):

"Tyler Greenawalt ‏@TyGreen14 · Apr 15  Rome, GA
Basketball recruitment news: @GHC_Athletics guard Ty Toney has not made his decision yet, but plans on visiting @EMichiganU this weekend"

I now find Googling 'less satisfying' and Twitter Advanced Search a better payoff.

https://twitter.com/verbalcommits/status...1730143232

We got Ty Toney Juco guard

Now putting 2 + 2 together (and hopefully coming up with 4):

1). Joevair Kennedy - I assume that the Twitter I found that he was offered mid-March and didn't accept it. That scholarship is gone, gone, gone.

2). Some of the other SG candidates. See above.

3). If my math hasn't failed me, we have one known scholarship left and that has almost got to be a post player and with immediate eligibility. Lace them up and go out there and play major minutes...

IF (IF, IF) I'm right that Bond can play PG on offense (but SF on defense) in what is offensively a 3-guard lineup but still a 2 - 3 zone (with Bond flipping positions from G to F on defense), I can see Bond, Lee, and Toney starting with a center and PF.

IF this is going to be the offense, then Murphy needs a lot of SGs as he'll need 2 x as many as usual.

Here is a Tweet indicating Ty was visiting EMU this weekend:

Corry Black ‏@CoachCBlack · Apr 17
6'2 Soph Ty Toney of @GHC_Athletics is visiting Eastern Michigan,Watch @JucoReport Eval http://jucoreport.com/catching-up-with-ty-toney/ …

(and if one clicks here is the scouting report):

http://jucoreport.com/catching-up-with-ty-toney/

The report indicates that he was a PG at Appy State (but not his natural position - and he CERTAINLY does not need to be a PG at EMU). He is a slasher and not a three-ball shooter.

(04-20-2015 07:08 PM)EAGLE KING Wrote:  https://twitter.com/verbalcommits/status...1730143232

We got Ty Toney Juco guard

High number of offers out of a well-regarded JUCO school. Lots of info out there on him...sounds like a slasher/scorer but not much of a shooter. Doesn't sound too different from Mangum, although Willie loves his 3's.

This means a huge logjam at guard. I wouldn't be shocked at all at this point if Alvano transfers and we go with what Steve was saying: starting two SGs and having Bond run the point on offense and wing on defense. Stone might be a redshirt candidate, although none of these guards are seniors.

I'm confused, but we are bringing in scorers...something we didn't have enough of last year. We might be playing a lot of small ball.

(04-20-2015 08:06 PM)EagleSam Wrote:  

(04-20-2015 07:08 PM)EAGLE KING Wrote:  https://twitter.com/verbalcommits/status...1730143232

We got Ty Toney Juco guard

High number of offers out of a well-regarded JUCO school. Lots of info out there on him...sounds like a slasher/scorer but not much of a shooter. Doesn't sound too different from Mangum, although Willie loves his 3's.

This means a huge logjam at guard. I wouldn't be shocked at all at this point if Alvano transfers and we go with what Steve was saying: starting two SGs and having Bond run the point on offense and wing on defense. Stone might be a redshirt candidate, although none of these guards are seniors.

I'm confused, but we are bringing in scorers...something we didn't have enough of last year. We might be playing a lot of small ball.

I was thinking of scoring. Two weeks ago I (and probably most here) wondered how we'd get to 50 (you know, first to 50...). We know that we lost two seniors, KWard and Talley, who were consistent offense.

My guess is that Lee needs to ave. 17 - 18 ppg.

Bond + the other SG (e.g., Toney or Mangum or...) need to ave a combined 22 ppg.

Last year I thought: Lee + KWard = 30 ppg and Talley 10 ppg for a total of 40 ppg.

Need 40 ppg from the 3 scoring positions (1, 2 and 3).

(04-20-2015 08:06 PM)EagleSam Wrote:  

(04-20-2015 07:08 PM)EAGLE KING Wrote:  https://twitter.com/verbalcommits/status...1730143232

We got Ty Toney Juco guard

High number of offers out of a well-regarded JUCO school. Lots of info out there on him...sounds like a slasher/scorer but not much of a shooter. Doesn't sound too different from Mangum, although Willie loves his 3's.

This means a huge logjam at guard. I wouldn't be shocked at all at this point if Alvano transfers and we go with what Steve was saying: starting two SGs and having Bond run the point on offense and wing on defense. Stone might be a redshirt candidate, although none of these guards are seniors.

I'm confused, but we are bringing in scorers...something we didn't have enough of last year. We might be playing a lot of small ball.

Very confused... By far the best player Ray Lee a junior SG. So you bring in 2 junior SG in your recruiting class.

I agree, we will see a lot of small ball next year.

(04-20-2015 08:40 PM)rayEMU Wrote:  

(04-20-2015 08:06 PM)EagleSam Wrote:  

(04-20-2015 07:08 PM)EAGLE KING Wrote:  https://twitter.com/verbalcommits/status...1730143232

We got Ty Toney Juco guard

High number of offers out of a well-regarded JUCO school. Lots of info out there on him...sounds like a slasher/scorer but not much of a shooter. Doesn't sound too different from Mangum, although Willie loves his 3's.

This means a huge logjam at guard. I wouldn't be shocked at all at this point if Alvano transfers and we go with what Steve was saying: starting two SGs and having Bond run the point on offense and wing on defense. Stone might be a redshirt candidate, although none of these guards are seniors.

I'm confused, but we are bringing in scorers...something we didn't have enough of last year. We might be playing a lot of small ball.

Very confused... By far the best player Ray Lee a junior SG. So you bring in 2 junior SG in your recruiting class.

I agree, we will see a lot of small ball next year.

I really, really think it adds credence to my hypothesis about Bond playing PG. [Bond will score a lot more than Alvano.]

I see this as a way to increase scoring at PG.

Then Lee and another SG start and both play guard in the zone (both Toney and Mangum are too short to play SF defensively -but Bond can play the wing).

Hm, I still wonder if we are losing a guard off the current roster. I hoping we get some confirmation that Stone has signed. Toney had offers from Jackson St., Jacksonville St, Tenn St., Niagara, FIU, Texas Southern.

(04-21-2015 03:02 AM)emu79 Wrote:  Hm, I still wonder if we are losing a guard off the current roster. I hoping we get some confirmation that Stone has signed. Toney had offers from Jackson St., Jacksonville St, Tenn St., Niagara, FIU, Texas Southern.

who knows.

I think the big question is who plays PG.

We got to get a lot of scoring there because I don't see a big scorer at '4' or '5'.

Other than Ogide I have NO idea whom the staff is looking at center. My Twitter search produced = nada, nothing...

I'd guess the staff is going through those lists of graduate eligible transfers and hoping someone can play and score 5 - 7 ppg.

Here is the transfer list from Verbalcommits.com:

http://www.verbalcommits.com/transfers/2015 One can go to the Complete Transfer List, click on the Ht column and look at the big boys out there. I love the fact that they have an 'Immediately Eligible' column. :) x 4.

Here is a JUCO list. It is NOT sorted, etc. etc. would literally have to go through the list name by name to find uncommitted players, hoping to find some big fellows.

http://www.jucorecruiting.com/2015-junio...r-profiles

#WSBoundTigers :)

My hunch is that Alvano is transferring to get closer to home and a result there will six in this class.

LaVert the 6'8 forward/center from Mott CC may be in play here.

(04-21-2015 07:10 AM)emu79 Wrote:  My hunch is that Alvano is transferring to get closer to home and a result there will six in this class.

LaVert the 6'8 forward/center from Mott CC may be in play here.

PG is looking pretty full with a LOT of players, maybe 5, who have PG skills: Bond, Alvano, Stone, Toney, Mangum and (bonus) Lee.

Lot to sort through there.

BTW, I'm guilty of short changing Nazione. He has a chance to move forward in his 2nd season of D-I ball. I hope he has a solid season at a real position of need for us. If he can do it, he'll have the opportunity...

(04-21-2015 03:02 AM)emu79 Wrote:  Hm, I still wonder if we are losing a guard off the current roster. I hoping we get some confirmation that Stone has signed. Toney had offers from Jackson St., Jacksonville St, Tenn St., Niagara, FIU, Texas Southern.

http://www.verbalcommits.com/players/tymetrius-toney

You left out some big ones, like Tulsa, UTEP, Iona, and Cleveland State. He was quite a coveted JUCO, like KWard was. I also wonder if a current guard is transferring. Alvano and/or Perry seemed like the biggest candidates, but both were at the Ypsi Awards last night with the team, so who knows. One could be waiting for the semester to end to announce.

Stone has given no indication on Twitter that he's not still coming here. Still says "EMU commit".

Well we're making some positive progress. I think we can all agree on that. If we're at 5 yep we need a center/power forward type.

If we're at 6 for this class make that two center/power forward types.

Thanks Eagle Sam I was just using the most recent twitter for Toney, but yeah he had a boatload of Div I offers. I would rank him above guys like Cochrane, Clyburn and Grayer and probably more ready to contribute even if its only for two years.

I know we need a center but:

http://www.chicagohoops.hoops247.com/ind...om-buffalo

(04-21-2015 07:36 AM)emu79 Wrote:  Well we're making some positive progress. I think we can all agree on that. If we're at 5 yep we need a center/power forward type.

If we're at 6 for this class make that two center/power forward types.

Thanks Eagle Sam I was just using the most recent twitter for Toney, but yeah he had a boatload of Div I offers. I would rank him above guys like Cochrane, Clyburn and Grayer and probably more ready to contribute even if its only for two years.

I don't normally like a class which is TOO JUCO heavy, but this one will be.

That said, we will have a lot of JUCOs who can contribute from day one.

Toney could be the ace of this class. He showed well at Appy State (6+ PPG, which is what Bond did for us) as a frosh, followed by a sophomore JUCO year, so he should have 'double-digit' scoring potential.

That is what we'll need if he, e.g., plays PG (as he did at Appy) get to 10 - 12 ppg ala what Talley did for us over the last two years.

So if Toney does 10 (PPG), Lee 17, and Bond 12 we'll be fine.

I'd think that Bond will be the 'most improved player' in 2015/16. He has a ton of upside potential. If Timmy can take his 3-point shot from 33% to say 37% he will be a very dangerous SF (that assumes Murphy doesn't listen to me and play Timmy at... PG ).

As far as we can tell, we have 12 players and one remaining scholarship, potentially two if a guard does indeed transfer. How it looks from a depth chart stand point right now (this isn't intended to indicate who starts, per se):

G: Toney/Alvano/Stone
G: Lee/Mangum/Perry
F: Bond/Price
F: Nazione/Wofford-Humphrey/Nobles
C: Samuels/Nazione?/Nobles?

I feel like it's obviously essential that our last scholarship goes to a center. With Samuels being our only true 5, and a foul machine at that, we would be looking at a lot of undersized minutes at that spot. I think Nazione can work as a decent 3rd option at center, but in no way should he play regular minutes all season there. He's better suited as a forward in our defense.