(04-23-2019 05:35 AM)frankenheimer Wrote:  Gotta agree more with Pops than Buckyball. A starter on a top of the SoCon team, two more years of eligibility. Concussion protocol out of nowhere. And isn't ETSU taking a trip close to his home? I don't see how this transfer helps a pro career any more than staying. Transferring is a high-risk endeavor for a college athlete and should not be done without a lot of thought.
Something significant has changed, either in the program or for Mladen personally.

I agree. Armus isn't good enough to pull a Kevin Easley and go to a power conference team to significantly improve his stock. Combined with the strange circumstances surrounding the concussion protocol, it doesn't take much to see that something is up.

I hope that if something was wrong at the end of this past season and Forbes could have foreseen both of these departures that he has had some time to recruit some quality replacements. I fear that we might not get what we are looking for, as we always hear how recruiting often comes down to relationships that have been built over time. Surely this is not what Forbes had expected 3 months ago.

This one hurts about as bad as I think it gets... But losing your starting position to an angry tree limb would prompt some hard feelings. Mladen was probably going to be my favorite Buc ever had he stayed through. I'm not turning on Forbes, but rebuilding teams just to lose against senior-laden teams in championships every year is getting real old.

Maybe we can pick up a cousin on our trip to Belgrade ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Can we forego the conspiracy theories?

These departures are independent events.

Rodriquez's decision was whether or not to attend graduate school, that is what was required for him to continue his NCAA eligibility. Apparently he did not want to do that. I have no inside information, but I suspect Forbes knew that Jeromy did not plan to attend grad school.

Tucker can't play defense. After a year under Forbes (who is quoted to say he recruits offense and teaches defense), he didn't improve defensively. That was abundantly clear in the CITI game. Playing time for Forbes is a function of defensive effectiveness and Tucker made the decision to move on.

Bernard, apparently a very intelligent young man, graduated and decided to pursue graduate education and give it a try somewhere else. He is a communications major, could be that UL-M had a graduate program of interest to him??? Forbes knew of Bernard's intent to graduate.

Curtis situation I know so little about, but his twitter posting of 4 years of eligibility left could indicate he intends to move down in competition to D2 or NAIA.

Armus I can't begin to explain.

Remember, next year Corley, Good, and Guessan should graduate and Good and Corley will be faced with a decision whether or not to attend grad school and if so, where.

The timing of all these events and the sudden concussion protocol on 2 starters that most of us learned of when seeing them in street clothes on bench are conducive to conspiracy theories. Rodriguez leaving can certainly be explained away but Armus situation is fishy at best. Personal I think both are making a mistake for their futures. If nothing else they need to work on increasing free throw % and offensive low post game. Armus would be good for 6-8 more points per game if develop moves where didn’t turn ball over 3 feet from basket. Rodriguez is uber good rebounder but unless he morphs into Dennis Rodman he will be limited even in Europe. Next year was all set up to be Bucs year to go on run but not now. On bright side makes it more likely other schools don’t come courting Forbes??

I wonder is Armus’ parents will still show up when we play in Belgrade. [\sarcasm]

(04-23-2019 11:25 AM)ETSUfan1 Wrote:  I wonder is Armus’ parents will still show up when we play in Belgrade. [\sarcasm]

My question is will we even continue with the trip?

(04-23-2019 06:59 AM)BucDoctor Wrote:  Can we forego the conspiracy theories?

These departures are independent events.

Rodriquez's decision was whether or not to attend graduate school, that is what was required for him to continue his NCAA eligibility. Apparently he did not want to do that. I have no inside information, but I suspect Forbes knew that Jeromy did not plan to attend grad school.

Tucker can't play defense. After a year under Forbes (who is quoted to say he recruits offense and teaches defense), he didn't improve defensively. That was abundantly clear in the CITI game. Playing time for Forbes is a function of defensive effectiveness and Tucker made the decision to move on.

Bernard, apparently a very intelligent young man, graduated and decided to pursue graduate education and give it a try somewhere else. He is a communications major, could be that UL-M had a graduate program of interest to him??? Forbes knew of Bernard's intent to graduate.

Curtis situation I know so little about, but his twitter posting of 4 years of eligibility left could indicate he intends to move down in competition to D2 or NAIA.

Armus I can't begin to explain.

Remember, next year Corley, Good, and Guessan should graduate and Good and Corley will be faced with a decision whether or not to attend grad school and if so, where.

And Lee Harvey acted alone.

Heard he was going to Furman

(04-23-2019 11:40 AM)RodShaw2 Wrote:  Heard he was going to Furman

That would make as much sense as anything else I have heard/can think of. I was under the impression that Armas was a engineering major. Is Furman know for its engineering school? If he is going to Furman as a stepping stone to a professional basketball career, it seems like an odd choice.
What my mind keeps coming back to is that bizarre sequence in the semifinal game at the conference tournament when Armas shot not one, but two, ill advised three pointers. It made no sense at the time, especially in a game where the Bucs needed to play a disciplined/focussed game against a superior opponent. . But it makes me wonder if that was something that was building up for a while. Where Armas ends up may explain some of this.

(04-23-2019 04:11 PM)BigIslandBuc Wrote:  

(04-23-2019 11:40 AM)RodShaw2 Wrote:  Heard he was going to Furman

That would make as much sense as anything else I have heard/can think of. I was under the impression that Armas was a engineering major. Is Furman know for its engineering school? If he is going to Furman as a stepping stone to a professional basketball career, it seems like an odd choice.
What my mind keeps coming back to is that bizarre sequence in the semifinal game at the conference tournament when Armas shot not one, but two, ill advised three pointers. It made no sense at the time, especially in a game where the Bucs needed to play a disciplined/focussed game against a superior opponent. . But it makes me wonder if that was something that was building up for a while. Where Armas ends up may explain some of this.

I believe RodShaw meant Oswald was going to Furman or better yet a Military school of which we have a couple in the SoCon. As for the reat of this mess,I hope it gets on track real soon.....Go BUCS !!! 2020

Furman does not offer engineering degrees. It does offer dual enrollment engineering degree where first 2-3 years are at Furman getting the basics and last couple years at Clemson or Ga Tech for major (Electrical, Chemical, etc). Furman has a QB that did that last year.

(04-23-2019 04:11 PM)BigIslandBuc Wrote:  What my mind keeps coming back to is that bizarre sequence in the semifinal game at the conference tournament when Armas shot not one, but two, ill advised three pointers. It made no sense at the time, especially in a game where the Bucs needed to play a disciplined/focussed game against a superior opponent. . But it makes me wonder if that was something that was building up for a while. Where Armas ends up may explain some of this.

Don't remember if I posted this at the time or not, but after one of them (must have been the second one), Forbes blasted him mercilessly - he was as angry with a player as he can get (that we've seen). And as we discussed multiple times........some of the talk off-season was developing range for him. Lots of fodder for conspiracy theorists in all this. Lots of ways to try and put 2 and 2 and 2 and 2 together to try and get 11...
Does Forbes still do those radio interviews (some of) you all listen to? Has someone called Nate Morabito? [The visage of Nate Morabito doing a sports report is about as oxymoronic as Brian Noland wearing orange duds.]

Nate Morabito has moved on to the Charlotte market- thank goodness. One of the last stories he did before he left last year was about whether ETSU basketball was getting a proper return on investment from Forbes since he had only made it to the NCAA tournament once. As expected (and I suspect was his goal), he got blasted on social media for that story.

So it seems we are now back to a “normal” year for us in that Coach must go out and sign some talented transfers. The idea of “everybody back” is over and we will wait to see who Coach brings in. Still could be a good team next year with the right transfers and Patrick and everyone else being healthy.

I wish Armus well and hope he finds what is best for him, however, I won't miss his tendency to lower the ball before shooting under the goal and his 54% free throw shooting. If Forbes is able to get a beefy big transfer who can rebound we shouldn't miss a beat. We've got plenty of offense.

What stinks is next year the table was set for possible SoCon and NCAA run. With bringing in new players/transfers then they have to learn the system, mesh with new teammates, etc.

(04-24-2019 11:03 AM)Bucfreak23 Wrote:  What stinks is next year the table was set for possible SoCon and NCAA run. With bringing in new players/transfers then they have to learn the system, mesh with new teammates, etc.

I believe we still have a good core and hopefully that translates into a great all around team. Sure hope so....

If I had my druthers, I would have preferred both Rodriguez and Armus stay - if, and only if, they wanted to be here. They, of course, did not, for reasons that are immaterial at this point.

They are leaving AND that does not preclude our chances at winning the league next year. Consider the possibility that we'll be better without them. Unequivocally, they will go down as an all-time great rebounding tandem. I thought they were both solid defenders, too. Still, they were not without limitations. I think we're on track to add some diverse frontcourt players who will not likely be the prolific rebounding tandem of Armus/Rodriguez, but might give us more offensive versatility and an equal level of defensive presence. Joe Hugley, for starters, gives us a stretch-4 who shoots efficiently from everywhere on the floor. Having a guy like Joe who can pull out defenders has a compounding effect for the whole offense. We did not have that this year.

Also, I think our returning core is as good as any returning core in the league: Daivien seems to be on the brink of stardom; Pun exudes toughness, consistency, and cerebral play; a healthy Bo might be the most versatile player in the league; a healthy Pat gives us perimeter scoring and steady ball-handling; a year under Tray's belt might be what he needs to become more consistent; and Lucas and Octavian will give us rim protection.

Finally, from a chemistry standpoint, we seemed to wax and wane throughout this season. So, it's plausible to say we'll be more cohesive without them than with them. To be clear, I am NOT suggesting that they negatively impacted chemistry - only to say that group dynamics are unpredictable at times.

(04-24-2019 11:48 AM)Bucfaithful Wrote:  Finally, from a chemistry standpoint, we seemed to wax and wane throughout this season. So, it's plausible to say we'll be more cohesive without them than with them. To be clear, I am NOT suggesting that they negatively impacted chemistry - only to say that group dynamics are unpredictable at times.

There are many factors that determine chemistry. For whatever reason, neither the players or coaches seemed to be having much fun last year.

(04-24-2019 07:38 AM)squeak Wrote:  I wish Armus well and hope he finds what is best for him, however, I won't miss his tendency to lower the ball before shooting under the goal and his 54% free throw shooting. If Forbes is able to get a beefy big transfer who can rebound we shouldn't miss a beat. We've got plenty of offense.

Someone needs to see if Jerald Fields has any eligibility remaining.