We are still missing a solid post guy. I know 7-footers are a luxury, but Duke has four of them. Looks like Coach K and his protégé went all-in on height. Only one 7-footer, freshman Filipowski, starts, and he is a very good one. Lively, another 7-footer, gets lots of minutes off the bench and is another very good, quick, mobile big man. The two other 7-footers, Stanley Borden and Christian Reeves, both underclassmen, don't get a lot of PT and either one could help us a ton. I hope By is looking at them.

I agree and would love a true athletic 7 footer but I think it is hard to come by for most mid majors, as you said. I don’t want to put a former player down but I always go back to Joel Mensah. A former 4 star that had a lot of potential. He was a little under 7 foot but struggled at times with injuries and physicality. I think Coach By wants a true big man but when a quality one isn’t available, the staff would rather opt for an athletic and long wing that can do more.

Hopefully some success this season (March madness appearance or deep run in the Sun Belt tourney) will intrigue some skilled big men to transfer in.

Give me a couple more players like Mezie. 6’8” 230# physical inside players who have a decent handle, a mid-range shot, are good from the FT line, and who can rebound and bang down low…yeah, two more guys like that please!

(02-06-2023 10:31 PM)Longhorn Wrote:  Give me a couple more players like Mezie. 6’8” 230# physical inside players who have a decent handle, a mid-range shot, are good from the FT line, and who can rebound and bang down low…yeah, two more guys like that please!

Absolutely. I'd love a super athletic 6'11"+ guy as much as anyone else, but if it's between another Mezie and a guy that's here just for the sake of being 6'11" or 7' then give me our next Mezie all day long no doubt about it. When he's hitting his mid-range shot he becomes pretty damn unstoppable.

Teams in the Sun Belt with players over 6'10 (actually 6'9) and only 1 really stands out and about 4 are having solid seasons. The rest are bodies. The Sun Belt is not the ACC/Big10 etc. Marshall is a bigger team

Southern Miss

6'9 221 senior 10mpg 2pts 3reb
6'9 245 grad 33mpg 15pts 6.6 reb

Louisiana
6'10 225 6mpg 6pts 2reb
6'11 225 31mpg 20pts 8reb Jordan Brown (https://ragincajuns.com/sports/mens-bask...brown/8443)

JMU

Marshall
6'9 196 RS Fr 12mpg 4pts 3reb
6'10 198 Soph no playing time
7'1 227 Fresh 25mpg 8pts 10reb (vs JMU he had 28min 10reb and 6 points)
6'10 237 Soph (Listed as a G/F) 14 games 2pts 2reb 6mpg
7'0 244 Senior 11 games 6mpgs 2pts 2reb

Arkansas St.

7'2 226 12mpg 2pts 2reb in 13 games (transfer from Free Shoes U)
6'10 212 5pts 5reb

App. St. -

6'11 27mpg 9pts 6.5 boards (30 min 2 pts 2 reb vs JMU)
6'10 grad student 13mpg 4pts 4reb (11 min 0pts 4 reb v JMU)
6'0 freshman 26mpg 6pts 5reb (26 min 11 reb 2 pts v JMU)
6'9 grad student avg 16mpg 6pts 3 reb (13 min vs JMU over the weekend no points no rebounds)

Coastal

6'10 senior 9mpg 2 pts 2reb
6'9 5pts 5.5 reb
6'9 senior no stats
6'9 RS JR the Mostafa kid avg 12.5pts and 9.5 boards

La. Monroe

6'10 grad 8pts 28mpg 6.6 reb
6'11 no stats on his 3rd school (juco/UAB)

ODU -
@ 6'10 avg 5pts 4board 16mpg

Troy
6'9 senior (190lbs) 12 pts 28mpg 6.4 reb
6'10 230 10mpg 4pts 3 reb

Ga. Southern

6'11 senior 23mpg 7.5 pts 7 reb
6'9 190lbs freshman 9min 2pts 1.4 reb (he's a 3pt shooter)

Ga. State

6'10 freshman 16mpg 2pts 4 reb
6'9 230 senior 10min 3pts 3reb (13 games total)

South Alabama

6'10 205 freshman (6 games) 1pt 1reb 8mpg
6'9 235 10mpg 3pts 3reb
7'0 grad student the big man we struggled against 29mpg 11pts 9boards Kevin Samuel

Texas St.
6'9 208 12mpg 3pts 2reb
6'9 175 14mpg 4pts 3reb (12 games) on his 3rd school

Do you have some quick shot blocking stats? JMU is hurt defensively just as much by lacking a big guy.

(02-07-2023 11:30 AM)Hart Foundation Wrote:  Do you have some quick shot blocking stats? JMU is hurt defensively just as much by lacking a big guy.

Nope.

1) does the Sun Belt website have stats and you can filter that way?

Edit: try this
https://sunbeltsports.org/stats.aspx?pat...&year=2022

2). So many of these guys see limited minutes or are just bodies #11-13 on the bench


Can’t have big man in the middle redirected a shot by a guy drivin to the hole stat.

Steals better than blocks?

What are the team stats for D (FG%, TO’s, etc) and where do we rank vs SBC.

Plugging a 6’10 or 7’0 on the roster, which minutes do you remove? Is it just a defensive move, because this team often likes to press up the floor on offense.

Asking for that big man that can run, sorry it’s not the NBA and someone like DeAndre Ayton isn’t coming thru the door. Even he refuses to dunk at the hoop.

I think too many on here want Byington to play a different style or overhaul a good deal of what he does. I don’t see that ever happening.

Find a new coach.

Let’s be realistic, which NCAA program that isn’t the typical top 25 do posters here want to emulate? What coach? What playing style? 1984 PG/Sg/Sf/PF/PF-C combo?

I would guess a large number of the AAU teams aren’t run that way, so these players come in with a background of non-traditional (now traditional) big combo guards/wings where it’s 1v1, take your open shot style.

This post wasn’t a direct comment at you, just a ramble to your question.

Houston seems to be doing well this year with the tallest guy with any real playing time coming in at 6'8". Coach By has a roster talented enough to win the Sun Belt and he's always going to recruit athletic 6'5"-6'8" over a slow 6'10" guy. IMO, the reason we haven't broken through with a Coach By team in the past, was the inability to win games multiple ways. In the last 10 days, we beat ULM and App State when our shots weren't falling. It was a huge shift in our team's mentality. In the past, I felt like we had too many guys just assume "it's not my night". If this team can win games by locking down on D when our 3's aren't falling, we have a shot to win the SB. Defense can show up every night.

The good thing about this year’s team is that they aren’t getting rag dolled on the boards like last year. It isn’t a strength if the team, but most nights the Dukes have at least been able to neutralize conference opponents on the boards.

Some here seem to be implying that I want a big post guy just because he is 6'10+.

Nope! I specifically mentioned the two 7-footers riding the Duke bench, seeing an opportunity to give one a new home. Granted, neither may ever consider JMU, but the heck is there to lose? They are dwelling in obscurity on the bench in Durham and could be stars in the Sun Belt. Duke does NOT recruit any 7-footers only because they are 7 feet tall!

Isn’t one of JMU’s highly recruited freshmen 6’9”? I should probably look at the roster. Lol

Not implying anything. Just pointing out that most bigs at the Sun Belt level are duds. Why I lowered it to 6’9 to have some more player “bigs”. Several are the new age guard/forward at 6’10 under 200lbs

More Mezie type guys fit what Byington does than some 7’1 stiff IMO

(02-07-2023 05:52 PM)Longhorn Wrote:  Isn’t one of JMU’s highly recruited freshmen 6’9”? I should probably look at the roster. Lol

Yep Roberson is 6’9

I pointed out that all those trees (3 of 4) on App St didn’t produce squat except for the freshman 6’10 kid who grabbed 11 boards vs the Dukes.

Yea, that list was pretty eye opening really.

But, hey.I heard Chami was a heck of a nice guy, So there’s that.

(02-07-2023 06:22 PM)JMUDunk Wrote:  Yea, that list was pretty eye opening really.

But, hey.I heard Chami was a heck of a nice guy, So there’s that.

Gabe Chami was no Thom Brand!