So...the preseason coaches rankings don't give me much hope that JMU will have an above average hoops season, this season. And I get it. The team is young and/or has not played a whole lot of game-competition basketball together. Only McLean and Snowden are holdovers and Snowden did not start his college career in the program.

Still, we have a couple of transfers with experience playing D1 basketball and a nice compliment of recruits that, by most accounts, are higher caliber recruits than what we have been used to seeing. This league has a history of above average freshman stepping in and making an impact. You could argue that JMU's best team in the last gazillion years ended up being led by a trio of freshmen.

Those of you that are close enough to the program to be dangerous...is there any hope for this year's squad to be any good?

I think the talent will be above what we've had the past few seasons but I have no confidence in Rowe's ability to coach or motivate so my expectations are low. Hope to be surprised.

(11-01-2017 01:27 PM)PhillyDuke Wrote:  So...the preseason coaches rankings don't give me much hope that JMU will have an above average hoops season, this season. And I get it. The team is young and/or has not played a whole lot of game-competition basketball together. Only McLean and Snowden are holdovers and Snowden did not start his college career in the program.

Still, we have a couple of transfers with experience playing D1 basketball and a nice compliment of recruits that, by most accounts, are higher caliber recruits than what we have been used to seeing. This league has a history of above average freshman stepping in and making an impact. You could argue that JMU's best team in the last gazillion years ended up being led by a trio of freshmen.

Those of you that are close enough to the program to be dangerous...is there any hope for this year's squad to be any good?

They will take some lumps early but will get better as the season progresses. With the possible exception of catastrophic injuries they should be pretty entertaining to watch and will be a tough out at tournament time. Some of the authorities on the board might want to ask the women's coaches what they think. They get to watch them a lot on the days where they practice after the men.

Bogey, who do you think will start the opener and who should we look to improve the most over the season?

I think the team has a chance to be good...I've seen them play.

Rowe has already said he hasn't decided on the starters yet and is letting them battle for minutes in the preseason. I hope that is resolved a few games into the season because There is nothing worse than a team full of players who are uncertain of their roles.

By default, Rowe has to be a better coach than he was last year, but I'm expecting he will still be worse than the coach he replaced from 2 years ago. I guess we can do a season prediction thread when we get closer to opening night.

My biggest question - will Rowe turn Mosley into a true point guard? If he is allowed to be a scorer first, passer second then this team will struggle on offense.

His press conferences and interviews are much, much better. I do think he's learned a lot from last year. While they were only exhibitions, I liked how the team played hard in the USVI.
I feel like this is year is going to define Rowe. If this year we see massive improvement I have hope for the MBB program. If we struggle this year, he isn't going to be here much longer.
I am genuinely rooting for him as I know he wants JMU MBB to be great. I just am not sure he's the guy yet. Please turn this program around Rowe.

(11-01-2017 02:29 PM)olddawg Wrote:  Bogey, who do you think will start the opener and who should we look to improve the most over the season?

This was Walfish’s guess at this point: My inkling right now is starting five of Mosley, McLean, Banks, Phillips and Smith. Bench: Jones, Scissum, Snowden, Lewis, Pinkard, Jacobs

Everyone will be able to form their own opinions of the team when it opens play next week, but I'll give some quick impressions.

1 This is a skilled team with substantial talent and a lot of players that will contribute.
2. Starting line-up is likely to include Mosley, McLean and Phillips.
3. Freshman class is a good one. Zach Jacobs is injured right now, though, and I don't know what his timetable for a return is at this point.
4. This is a much better shooting team than most would expect.
5. Very tough to know how they will fare in terms of wins and losses, but they will surprise everyone relative to their last place prediction at the league media day. Final record will depend on health and execution, of course.
6. Biggest weaknesses include lack of game experience and perhaps vulnerability inside to big, physical teams.
7. Biggest surprise player (i.e., under the radar)? Perhaps Pinkard.

Not sure how much any coaches or reporters would really know anything about our team given the turnover and number of new faces. I have a feeling this season is going to be like a box of chocolates.

ESPN has us ranked at #257 out of 351.

(11-01-2017 02:29 PM)olddawg Wrote:  Bogey, who do you think will start the opener and who should we look to improve the most over the season?

If I had to guess I would say Phillips at the five, Mosley at the two and Joey at the one are pretty locked in as starters. It looks like Joey is going to be the point guard. It just seems to come down to the fact that Mosley is more comfortable as a two guard. The other two starting spots are in a state of flux. Cam Smith is probably the best person at the four but because of his bad knee he can't go a full practice and that is not going to change during the year. Because of the injury I would be very surprised if Smith ever plays more than 15 minutes a game. Just on principle I am not sure that Lou will start someone who can't go a full practice. Zach Jacobs would probably be next in line but he had surgery on his thumb about 4 or 5 week ago and will not be at full speed for at least a couple more weeks. That means that we are probably looking at Scissum starting at the four. Scissum can hit an open shot but beyond that he has limitations. Ramone will probably start at the three but I can see Banks overtaking him early in the season. Poor Banks seems to be getting over his ankle issues but a couple of days ago I am hearing that he had to have his big toe nail surgically removed. He is in dry dock right now and won't play in the closed scrimmage against American this weekend. Banks has the potential to be pretty good at this level. For the casual fan I think Jacobs is the person who will make the biggest strides this year. Because of his surgery he is a bit behind but he is very skilled and I think he will be fun to watch over the course of his four years. With a little luck Banks should also improve over the course of the year. Matt Lewis is pretty talented but for now he is not going to beat out Joey or Mosley.

I don't think this team will have any problem scoring. Early in the year defense and turnovers will probably be the biggest issues.

Bogey --

You know the team better than me, but I would think that Wilson will contribute at the 4 and 5 positions. He's skilled around the basket, is strong and weighs 260 pounds. In what I saw the other day, Smith wears a huge leg brace and I didn't see him play a ton. Scissom, to me, is a perfect guy to come off the bench, as his best skill is the ability to pick and pop from the outside. He's not a good ball handler. I didn't get a chance to see Jacobs play, but it's good to hear how skilled he is. The other guy that's probably good off the bench is Pinkard, who's quite athletic and can score. Both Banks and Lewis are very good players for freshmen. I think Lewis can run the point if necessary, giving the team three guys at that all important position. I agree that offense shouldn't be a problem...it will be defending and rebounding. In what I saw, I didn't see turnovers as a problem, but it was a very small sample size of 20 minutes of game time. Like I posted, this team is skilled and can really shoot the ball.

Picking a won-loss record is really tough, in large part because we don't really know how good the rest of the CAA is at this point (I think it's down relative to last year's no. 11 ranking, but I could be wrong) and JMU has some tough games out of conference. There are some pretty solid mid-major teams in the Bahamas conference, plus games versus ODU, Mason, Richmond and Florida. That Northern Kentucky team won something like 24 games a year ago and I saw them as a top 100 team in one recent listing.

Should be an entertaining and fun season in any event.

PG is critical. If Rowe isn't grooming Moseley to take that role and he hasn't recruited one good enough to play last year or this year, it is a problem. We already know what we are going to get with McLean... a 5'10" shooting guard.

It's almost hoops season. The best time of the year is when it overlaps with football season

I’m anticipating a rough year from a wins and losses perspective, with some frustrating losses due to youthful mistakes and defensive breakdowns. I just hope to see some intensity, entertaining athleticism and glimpses of a better future from our guys during the games. And maybe they could run a few backdoor cuts just to keep this old man happy.

Here's one take on the CAA:

https://www.midmajormadness.com/2017/10/...cb-mcgrath

(11-02-2017 01:41 PM)Dukes84 Wrote:  Bogey --

You know the team better than me, but I would think that Wilson will contribute at the 4 and 5 positions. He's skilled around the basket, is strong and weighs 260 pounds. In what I saw the other day, Smith wears a huge leg brace and I didn't see him play a ton. Scissom, to me, is a perfect guy to come off the bench, as his best skill is the ability to pick and pop from the outside. He's not a good ball handler. I didn't get a chance to see Jacobs play, but it's good to hear how skilled he is. The other guy that's probably good off the bench is Pinkard, who's quite athletic and can score. Both Banks and Lewis are very good players for freshmen. I think Lewis can run the point if necessary, giving the team three guys at that all important position. I agree that offense shouldn't be a problem...it will be defending and rebounding. In what I saw, I didn't see turnovers as a problem, but it was a very small sample size of 20 minutes of game time. Like I posted, this team is skilled and can really shoot the ball.

Picking a won-loss record is really tough, in large part because we don't really know how good the rest of the CAA is at this point (I think it's down relative to last year's no. 11 ranking, but I could be wrong) and JMU has some tough games out of conference. There are some pretty solid mid-major teams in the Bahamas conference, plus games versus ODU, Mason, Richmond and Florida. That Northern Kentucky team won something like 24 games a year ago and I saw them as a top 100 team in one recent listing.

Should be an entertaining and fun season in any event.

JMU had a closed scrimmage at American yesterday and Ramone, Stuckey, joey, Scissum and Phillips started. We won easily but American is horrible.
Scissum is starting because he has some seniority but I will be shocked if he stays a starter. As the season progresses I would not be surprised to see Ramone becoming a backup. Banks and Jacobs did not play because of injuries. Jacobs is still on the mend from the surgery on his hand. He has a shot of getting back for ODU but I would not expect much at that point. Banks had the toenail removed. He should be back for ODU.
When Dwight Wilson arrived here in the summer he weighed 270 pounds. and was in horrible shape. What is a bit crazy is he absolutely did not look in any way fat. I think he is down around 260 and he is starting to get in shape and he looks at lot more bouncy than he did in high school. His biggest problem is that when he arrived at JMU he was hopelessly lost on defense. It would have been hard to hide him once people got some film. In the last couple of weeks he has started to make some small baby steps in the right direction defensively. If he keeps getting better on defense he will probably get some playing time. We need to be patient with him. Unless I am way off base, I think we are going to really like him in another year or two. He apparently played well at American. Joey also played real well at American. With two years experience I know that the original plan was to play stuckey at the point and I know that Joey struggled at that position last year. His first two years at JMU did not prepare him to play the point as a junior. All I can say is that he has really gotten comfortable with Lou's system and is absolutely playing at a much higher level. Last year during practice Stuckey was always the best player on the court. Right now Joey is by far and a way the best and most consistent player for the Dukes. Last year he was very foul prone and determining whether that has improved is more difficult to determine at this point.

Thanks for the report, Bogey. I greatly appreciate the insight. Really looking forward to Season #2 in the Lou Rowe era and seeing these young'uns grow up in front of us.

Bogey, do you agree with Hart that Joey shouldn't play PG?