(03-30-2023 08:29 PM)POTUS#4 Wrote: VCU is in the portal.
Indeed they are.
I think they have 4 scholarship and one walk on still on the roster.
Wow.
I’ll need to pay attention and see if they go back to free tickets during the week and $4 for a BOGO on the weekends. Might take the kids to a couple games again…
(03-31-2023 10:49 AM)JMUDunk Wrote: [quote='POTUS#4' pid='18877372' dateline='1680226156']
VCU is in the portal.
Indeed they are.
I think they have 4 scholarship and one walk on still on the roster.
Wow.
I’ll need to pay attention and see if they go back to free tickets during the week and $4 for a BOGO on the weekends. Might take the kids to a couple games again…
(03-31-2023 10:49 AM)JMUDunk Wrote: [quote='POTUS#4' pid='18877372' dateline='1680226156']
VCU is in the portal.
Indeed they are.
I think they have 4 scholarship and one walk on still on the roster.
Wow.
I’ll need to pay attention and see if they go back to free tickets during the week and $4 for a BOGO on the weekends. Might take the kids to a couple games again…
Rowan Brumbaugh, a 4 star guard and native of Washington, DC, has entered the portal. He was a freshman who didn’t play on last season’s Texas team. He redshirted last year, so he’d have 4 years of eligibility. Given how this crazy transfer world is shaking out, I suppose he saw the writing on the wall and anticipated he was going to be buried on the depth chart at Texas. His natural position appears to be at the point.
We only have a couple scholarships to fill and the coaches seem to high on the players that are returning. Seems to be that would lead them to being selective. I believe we have two scholarships, right? That is assuming Ihenacho ends up transferring closer to home.
We need a big man, a post player who can play with his back to the basket and kick out to the open 3. The dribbling around in circles, looking for a cutter that is almost never there is frustrating basketball to watch and has led to the turnover factory that our offense has become.
I agree we need a big, but if we want our guards to slash and cut to the basket, then we can't have our bigs clogging those lanes. For example, see Minnesota Timberwolves after they added Rudy Gobert. Not saying we can't get another big man, but we need to make sure he can pop out to 10-15 feet and knock down midrange shots. If he's only finishing around the basket, he can't/won't pull his defender out of the driving lane.
(04-12-2023 09:17 AM)Purple Wrote: We need a big man, a post player who can play with his back to the basket and kick out to the open 3. The dribbling around in circles, looking for a cutter that is almost never there is frustrating basketball to watch and has led to the turnover factory that our offense has become.
I get that modern basketball may not be your cup of tea with a 1 in - 4 out approach, but lets no get over dramatic.
JMU is not Duke, Kentucky, etc....so the proto-typical 5 (back to the basket center) is not likely to show up in Harrisonburg. And not too many teams even run an offense that makes use of back to the basket centers unless Dean Smith comes back from the grave.
And the turnover factory you allude to is just FALSE if you even take a glance at the past year season stats.
JMU averaged 13.2 turnovers a game while forcing 16.5 turnovers a game.
13.2 is not too bad would a little lower be nice sure, but this is far from what one would categorize as a turnover factory for the season. Are there some outlier games, sure....every single team has some of those.
(04-12-2023 08:27 AM)AssyrianDuke Wrote: We only have a couple scholarships to fill and the coaches seem to high on the players that are returning. Seems to be that would lead them to being selective. I believe we have two scholarships, right? That is assuming Ihenacho ends up transferring closer to home.
Without Nacho, we have 7 players returning and 2 high school commits. Should be 4 schollies open.
*lost Molson, Morse, Offerum, Sule, Strickland (and Ihenacho)
(04-12-2023 09:17 AM)Purple Wrote: We need a big man, a post player who can play with his back to the basket and kick out to the open 3. The dribbling around in circles, looking for a cutter that is almost never there is frustrating basketball to watch and has led to the turnover factory that our offense has become.
I get that modern basketball may not be your cup of tea with a 1 in - 4 out approach, but lets no get over dramatic.
JMU is not Duke, Kentucky, etc....so the proto-typical 5 (back to the basket center) is not likely to show up in Harrisonburg. And not too many teams even run an offense that makes use of back to the basket centers unless Dean Smith comes back from the grave.
And the turnover factory you allude to is just FALSE if you even take a glance at the past year season stats.
JMU averaged 13.2 turnovers a game while forcing 16.5 turnovers a game.
13.2 is not too bad would a little lower be nice sure, but this is far from what one would categorize as a turnover factory for the season. Are there some outlier games, sure....every single team has some of those.
OK, yeah, sure, I know nothing about modern basketball, and you, I guess, are the second coming of John Wooden.
I said I would like to see a post player who "can" play with his back to the basket (which is not an obsolete concept), but I never said that's all he should be able to do. Ideally, it would be nice if said player can play away from the basket, too, and also has some range, especially from behind the arc, and can hit the open jump shooter and cutter to the hoop.
Asking for way too much, huh?
Nope, those guys are all over the country, many at mid-majors. You claim that we have to be "Duke, Kentucky, etc." to even have a prayer of attracting a player like that.
Baloney! For whatever reason, I guess By just doesn't see the value of a solid post player/shot blocker. Go figure. It's his team, he can do what he wants, but I see it as a big hole in our game. The dribble-around-and-pass-the-ball-until-we-turn-it-over-or-let-the-clock-run-down-until-we-have-to-force-a-shot-or-fly-out-of-control-to-the-bucket-hoping-for-a-foul offense is not maximizing the commendable athleticism By has put on the floor. I guess By tried with Mensah, but that just didn't work out. Maybe he is trying behind the scene and I just can't see it. All I know is there are lots of good post players to recruit, both in high school and in the portal. And, many play for mid-majors.
I am not going to post the long list of big men around the country who represent the player I am talking about. I will give you a single example. Now, this player started college before By got to JMU, so By obviously gets a pass on this one, but there are other gems out there and they are just not being seen. Everyone is going for the elite players and lots of very, very good players are being overlooked. Amazing!
The player I am talking about was a 6'10" high school senior in the class of 2017. His size alone should have gotten him lots of attention, but it didn't. As you can see from the highlight videos below, he was not only good with his back to the basket (maybe George Mikan came back from the grave and taught him that primitive crap), but he has a fine looking jump shot, too, even from behind the arc, where he was only 42% this past season, compared to 49% the season before. He shoots 85% from the line, too. Despite being that talented, and you can see it all for yourself in his high school highlight video, below (the same one Lou Rowe could have watched), he was offered a single DI scholarship, from VMI. He took it.
Here is the kicker - the kid, Jake Stephens, grew up and played an hour away from JMU, just north of Winchester. And, we never saw him! He is now 7'1/275 pounds (7'10" wingspan) and will definitely be an early round NBA draft pick. He played at VMI for four years, then followed his coach to Chattanooga to play there for a season before heading to the NBA.
The first video, below, is a highlight reel of Stephens this past season at Chatty. The second video is Stephens as a high school junior. My question is what the hell were Rowe and his assistants doing? It certainly doesn't look like they were recruiting. How does a kid this size and this talented an hour away go without even a look? WTF!
Europe and the portal are full of big dudes looking for the opportunity to star for an ascending team in need just like JMU. And, I have mentioned Duke's overabundance in the 7-footer category, with two very good ones who never see the court (Filipowski is coming back, so he and 7'1" Lively will get all the PT again next season, leaving the other two very frustrated).
Check out these videos of what could have been if Lou Rowe had been paying half attention....
Certainly seems like the type of player they could have used. Interesting that given his size he didn't draw more interest with hopes he'd fill out and find his game.
Quote:Going into his senior year of high school, Jake Stephens was a little known recruit who was committed to Shepherd University, a Division II school in his home state of West Virginia. Then, at the last minute, Virginia Military Institute head coach Dan Earl swooped in and scooped the big man project away.
(04-12-2023 09:17 AM)Purple Wrote: We need a big man, a post player who can play with his back to the basket and kick out to the open 3. The dribbling around in circles, looking for a cutter that is almost never there is frustrating basketball to watch and has led to the turnover factory that our offense has become.
I get that modern basketball may not be your cup of tea with a 1 in - 4 out approach, but lets no get over dramatic.
JMU is not Duke, Kentucky, etc....so the proto-typical 5 (back to the basket center) is not likely to show up in Harrisonburg. And not too many teams even run an offense that makes use of back to the basket centers unless Dean Smith comes back from the grave.
And the turnover factory you allude to is just FALSE if you even take a glance at the past year season stats.
JMU averaged 13.2 turnovers a game while forcing 16.5 turnovers a game.
13.2 is not too bad would a little lower be nice sure, but this is far from what one would categorize as a turnover factory for the season. Are there some outlier games, sure....every single team has some of those.
OK, yeah, sure, I know nothing about modern basketball, and you, I guess, are the second coming of John Wooden.
I said I would like to see a post player who "can" play with his back to the basket (which is not an obsolete concept), but I never said that's all he should be able to do. Ideally, it would be nice if said player can play away from the basket, too, and also has some range, especially from behind the arc, and can hit the open jump shooter and cutter to the hoop.
Asking for way too much, huh?
Nope, those guys are all over the country, many at mid-majors. You claim that we have to be "Duke, Kentucky, etc." to even have a prayer of attracting a player like that.
Baloney! For whatever reason, I guess By just doesn't see the value of a solid post player/shot blocker. Go figure. It's his team, he can do what he wants, but I see it as a big hole in our game. The dribble-around-and-pass-the-ball-until-we-turn-it-over-or-let-the-clock-run-down-until-we-have-to-force-a-shot-or-fly-out-of-control-to-the-bucket-hoping-for-a-foul offense is not maximizing the commendable athleticism By has put on the floor. I guess By tried with Mensah, but that just didn't work out. Maybe he is trying behind the scene and I just can't see it. All I know is there are lots of good post players to recruit, both in high school and in the portal. And, many play for mid-majors.
I am not going to post the long list of big men around the country who represent the player I am talking about. I will give you a single example. Now, this player started college before By got to JMU, so By obviously gets a pass on this one, but there are other gems out there and they are just not being seen. Everyone is going for the elite players and lots of very, very good players are being overlooked. Amazing!
The player I am talking about was a 6'10" high school senior in the class of 2017. His size alone should have gotten him lots of attention, but it didn't. As you can see from the highlight videos below, he was not only good with his back to the basket (maybe George Mikan came back from the grave and taught him that primitive crap), but he has a fine looking jump shot, too, even from behind the arc, where he was only 42% this past season, compared to 49% the season before. He shoots 85% from the line, too. Despite being that talented, and you can see it all for yourself in his high school highlight video, below (the same one Lou Rowe could have watched), he was offered a single DI scholarship, from VMI. He took it.
Here is the kicker - the kid, Jake Stephens, grew up and played an hour away from JMU, just north of Winchester. And, we never saw him! He is now 7'1/275 pounds (7'10" wingspan) and will definitely be an early round NBA draft pick. He played at VMI for four years, then followed his coach to Chattanooga to play there for a season before heading to the NBA.
The first video, below, is a highlight reel of Stephens this past season at Chatty. The second video is Stephens as a high school junior. My question is what the hell were Rowe and his assistants doing? It certainly doesn't look like they were recruiting. How does a kid this size and this talented an hour away go without even a look? WTF!
Europe and the portal are full of big dudes looking for the opportunity to star for an ascending team in need just like JMU. And, I have mentioned Duke's overabundance in the 7-footer category, with two very good ones who never see the court (Filipowski is coming back, so he and 7'1" Lively will get all the PT again next season, leaving the other two very frustrated).
Check out these videos of what could have been if Lou Rowe had been paying half attention....
With your vast knowledge and recruiting depth, it is a wonder Byington got the job and not you. Maybe you can be a volunteer assistant and tell him daily everything he is doing wrong.
JMU does have big guys.....Jerrell Robertson 6-10ish I think and a project to an extent and will see more PT this year. If you actually watched him last year when he got in the game you can see he was not ready. Since you like HS projects, JMU also has a 7ft white guy from somewhere in Loudoun County as another project guy.
Under Brady, JMU went deep into the European/Russian arena, the only one worth a darn was Semenov who was at JMU for like 7 years and was a rangy 3-guy. None of the other Euro-guys were nothing to get excited about unless you loved Paulus and no defense Chubaka