Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
We are only 3 weeks and 3 days away from the hoops Home opener vs Charlotte and the final season in the Convo.
I finally had a chance to watch/listen to the complete CAA basketball media day and see that JMU received 3 first place votes while Matt Lewis was selected for the first team and Darius Banks was selected for the second team.
I have a similar view as last year regarding Matt Lewis. He will need to make a quantum leap in order to be a CAA first team player. His first 2 years have been riddled with awful shot selection which is one of many reasons JMU has sucked. Will Louis Rowe rein him in and demand better basketball decisions? That is the biggest question I have.
Lewis obviously has plenty of athleticism and I think he is a good shooter that should be producing much better than he has so far. Perhaps a “less is more” approach will turn him into a good player. Take high percentage shots and pass on the low percentage hoists he has been prone to do. Maybe share some with his buddy Banks who is a very efficient offensive player and deserves more FG attempts if this is going to be a winning team.
2017-2018 Lewis was poor 37.6% FG and 33.5% 3pt
2018-2019 Lewis was poor 38.5% FG and 32.6% 3pt
NCAA average player shoots 44.3% FG and 34.4% 3pt
Lewis gets a lot of hype and love each year. He has had some big games and game winning shots. The stats don’t lie in his case. He shoots and misses a lot because he goes one on one and forces up bad shots. As I said in another post, he needs to learn that truly great players make everyone around them better. They find the open man and let him take the shot rather than forcing up a contested one. Lewis needs to improve greatly in this area.
Lewis is subject to criticism but keep in mind that he gets to the line a lot as well so the fg% stats that you are focused on don’t tell the full story. He gets to the stripe on average 5.5 times per game and shoots 80% while he’s there. Sure there have been some poor shots or forcing the issue but often those are higher difficulty shots that have a positive result in that they get some easier points at the line and get the opposition in Foul trouble at the same time.
Here is a link and you’ll see many of the best players in college basketball at the top of the list. Lewis falls just outside of the top 100 nationally.
https://www.teamrankings.com/ncaa-basket...-attempted
Lewis shot 21 fga per game(2nd most) and was 5th on the team in true shooting %(accounts for 3's and foul shots), which to Hart's point, can definitely be improved by just better selection, and lines up with what I felt I saw watching games. That being said, I was surprised to see that Mosley had 28 fga per game, and had nearly the worst true shooting%, which may help to explain our record
. Both of these players shot significantly better the year before, maybe due to a more aggressive defensive style that offered more fast breaks? Wilson and Banks were both money last year, so hopefully they get the ball a bit more per game. Will be interesting to see the distribution in a world without Mosley.
I think the offense will be more balanced this season with Mosely gone. The tendency was to lean on Stuckey as the #1 offensive option because he was the red shirt senior playing with underclassmen. When things went no where or broke down Lewis had the ball in his hands and was given the freedom to try to use his athleticism to create a shot. Then a couple of things started to change mid last year.
1)Wilson became more of a viable option inside in the post where JMU really hadn’t had one previously. If Phillips didn’t get going early he was a non factor and even when he was a factor if he didn’t dunk it he was getting fouled and it was an empty possession at the line. Develle often didn’t get into the flow of the game and or was in foul trouble. Wilson as a Sophomore became a lot more reliable post presence on offense as the season progressed and they started running the offense through him or at least having the ball move through him each possession.
2) Parker developed quickly as a true point guard. Lewis is a scorer and that’s his natural inclination- at times like @ Hofstra or in the CaaT last year you benefit from a guy like Lewis who wants to take the last shot but Parker is a more of a facilitator.
A year more experienced I expect the juniors sophomore and freshmen to share and move the ball around better and build on some of the offensive improvements we started to see mid last year.
If the ball gets shared, JMU will have a very good season.
Pre-season Kenpom ratings are out.
Just my gut but I think UVA will be slightly worse than their rating, Charlotte will play slightly better than their rating, Fordham worse, Radford worse, Mason and ODU better.
In conference hard to say but I think the CAA will wind up with a top 100 team or 2. According to a lot of the pundits Delaware will play better than the Kenpom pre season rank. I think JMU will as well.
Also FWIW in a secret scrimmage over the weekend apparently Hofstra lost to UMass- UMass has been pretty awful in the A-10 and Hofstra is expected to be good in the CAA.
Shane Mettlen @Shane_DNRSports
Preseason #KenPom ratings are out. For #CAAHoops out of 353 teams:
Hofstra 125
Northeastern 138
CofC 147
Towson 161
#JMU 224
Drexel 237
W&M 252
UDel 257
UNCW 266
Elon 330
#JMU's non-conference opponents, according to KenPom:
UVA 5
Radford 137
ODU 145
Mason 155
Fordham 193
Charleston Southern 209
ECU 238
Charlotte 263
New Hampshire 323
Coppin State 348
there's an intra-squad scrimmage open to the public this Saturday (12:30 or so -- check your local listings).
Those KenPom numbers aren’t surprising. Based on the number of lost impact players in the league it is shaping up to be the worst CAA since 2013. And we all know what happened in 2013.
CAA tourney title or bust.
All the “top” teams seem to on the surface have flaws
COC- who is their inside presence? Who plays PG/facilitator or is it just the Grant Riller show?
NE- who replaces Osseus as their defensive stopper? Who replaces Pusica at PG? Can Roland create his own shot?
Hofstra- who plays Center? Can Pemberton be the lead guy? Can the Pride play better defense?
(10-25-2019 06:05 AM)NJDuke97 Wrote: [ -> ]In addition to a nice article in today's DNR about stylistic changes to this years Dukes I thought you guys would appreciate this pod cast interview with Coach Rowe and Coach Oppenheimer.
https://espnharrisonburg.com/podcasts/da...penheimer/
Really interesting interview.
I've said it before, but while I am very critical of Rowe, I really like the guy. I want him to succeed. What JMU fan doesn't want an alum to succeed?
I know a lot of people expect this team to be much better due to the talent, but the truth is that this is still an extremely young team. Rowe's job is going to live or die by the play of the young guys. Rowe defenders will say he needs an extension because the team is just too young.
He has had plenty of time to build this program and this team must succeed for Rowe's contract to be extended.
As a coach, I'm not convinced he's good enough to be the head coach for a Div I program. He's got some pretty good assistants (Oppenheimer is one of them) that will hopefully help him fill the holes that he needs help with.
Anyway, go listen to the interview.
Those coaching additions are key! Not to mention the terrific incoming class. Read that article in tandem with the interview. Thanks for pulling that 97.
I really hope the team improves this year, but it's Rowe I desperately want to see the improvement from.
If our program's success is tied only to the level of talent we can recruit and the ability of our assistants, vs the talent and ability of our head coach, we're not going to build a very sustainable program.
Rowe needs to finish above .500 and be top 4 in the CAA this year to get an extension and probably at least get to semi-finals in the caa tourney.
I think Rowe needs 18+ wins on the season.....getting to 20 would be a big deal
(10-25-2019 11:30 AM)ShadyP Wrote: [ -> ]Rowe needs to finish above .500 and be top 4 in the CAA this year to get an extension and probably at least get to semi-finals in the caa tourney.
I think Rowe needs 18+ wins on the season.....getting to 20 would be a big deal
Yeah, just ask Brady.
(10-25-2019 11:38 AM)2Buck Wrote: [ -> ] (10-25-2019 11:30 AM)ShadyP Wrote: [ -> ]Rowe needs to finish above .500 and be top 4 in the CAA this year to get an extension and probably at least get to semi-finals in the caa tourney.
I think Rowe needs 18+ wins on the season.....getting to 20 would be a big deal
Yeah, just ask Brady.
Lol, perhaps....but I think Brady had wore out his welcome and it was simply time to move on.
who is going to the scrimmage?
i reserve the right to revise my prediction (+ / -) based on the scrimmage.
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12