Men's BB may not ......
- Thread starter dawgduice
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I think it's highly unlikely we start an all-freshman five next year, nor do we need to. I imagine that Tone Carr, Joe Hampton, Nazeer Bostic and Lamar Stevens will see plenty of PT, though. While these kids are talented, it's a big step from excelling in high school to being effective in the B1G. We have good players in Banks, Zemgulis, Reeves, Garner and maybe Washington who will fight for their jobs and figure to be better with another year of experience. The large question is whether Julian Moore will improve, will Watkins be ready to be effective, and can Chambers somehow find a competitive big man in the April signing period.
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I have a hard time deciding whether Chambers really wants a big time low post guy or having a few forwards that can do a little of everything. The latter is the Jay Wright way, and chambers coached at Villinova. The big men that Chambers has now are not guys that you would game plan around, but a hodge podge of various talents spread over multiple players. If Chambers could hand pick who he wanted, would his roster look more like MSU or more like Villinova?
I'm on board with bringing in a grad transfer next year, and then using that scholarship for the following year. As it stands right now, we've only got 1 scholarship available for the 2018 high school class, and using that up on another HS senior (or even a juco or traditional D1 transfer) would mean that we're out of ships for 2018 (barring a transfer of course, but this roster won't exactly be full of guys that we'd want to "carefront" to free up a ship). We're gaining too much momentum in recruiting right now, and while usually you will have someone decide to transfer each year which would make it a moot point, I wouldn't want to count on it so that we can sign someone in 2018.
I think, similar to what we've seen with Reaves this year, Chambers' recruits have more often come from big-time high school programs in the last few classes. Reaves and Hampton traveled all across the country with Oak Hill playing against the best competition in the country. Carr, Bostick and Stevens not only played in the most elite tournaments in the country in AAU, but Roman Catholic has traveled and played some pretty high-level competition this season. I think that even though they'll be young kids, they'll also have experience playing very high level basketball for several years before enrolling, and they might not be as overwhelmed as you might expect freshmen to be.
I think there's a good chance we beat Rutgers but it's at Rutgers so who knows. Last year with a slightly better team we managed to lose at Rutgers.
I think Saturday's game at Northwestern will go a long way towards showing how likely we are to win more than 2 games. If we can knock of the Cats (which won't be easy) then I'll feel better about our chances against some of the others. If we lose then it's hold on for Rutgers and hope for the best.
Doesn't help that Josh Reaves will be out several weeks with mono.
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I just "think" the freshmen talent for next year is FAR better than much of what will be returning. I just want them to play early and often. If not, I can't see how Chambers will survive next year. They are the only chance he has. All of them come for big time programs.
This is the class that Chambers has been fighting and clawing for for five years. They'll play quite a bit.
Our goal this year is to find a way to win 5 conference games, then win 8 next year, and finally win 10 or 11 in year seven.
It's a 7 year project. In fact, when Tim Floyd came in here originally BEFORE the horrendous DeChellis hire, he said it would take 8 years.
It's not pretty, but we are on schedule. In reality, this is year one for Pat, because it took him 4 years to take us from laughing stock in Philadelpha and the DMV, to a major player.
It's a 7 year project. In fact, when Tim Floyd came in here originally BEFORE the horrendous DeChellis hire, he said it would take 8 years.
It's not pretty, but we are on schedule. In reality, this is year one for Pat, because it took him 4 years to take us from laughing stock in Philadelpha and the DMV, to a major player.
Should have had a done and owner this year to help in leadership, experience, etc.
I like this year's team. Reaves is athletic but needs to develop a perimeter shot. Demgulus has looked pretty good for a true freshman. Garner has played better than I anticipated at PG and next year he gets to move back to the 2 position. Banks has improved and should make an impact the next 2 years. Moore has improved offensively but still struggles on defense.
The biggest problems are the lack of a true PG and no scoring big men other than Taylor. We'll miss Taylor but Watkins, Hampton, and Stevens arrive. They might take some time to develop but should be a big improvement. With no seniors and only 2 sophomores the future looks bright.
Lineup:
Carr/Garner
Garner/Reaves
Banks/Demgulus
Hampton/Stevens
Moore/Watkins
The biggest problems are the lack of a true PG and no scoring big men other than Taylor. We'll miss Taylor but Watkins, Hampton, and Stevens arrive. They might take some time to develop but should be a big improvement. With no seniors and only 2 sophomores the future looks bright.
Lineup:
Carr/Garner
Garner/Reaves
Banks/Demgulus
Hampton/Stevens
Moore/Watkins
Sorry but you're dreaming to think we can make the NIT this year.
Now I'll wait for fish to tell me I don't know what I'm talking about and that we have plenty of players to replace Newbill & Travis from last year.
NIT next year followed by a couple of shots at NCAA in 2017 & 2018.
I believe that it's pretty unrealistic to expect next year's team to make the NCAAs. Though not any more unrealistic than thinking that this year's squad could still make the NIT.
PSU probably needs 9 more wins to make the NIT this year. Which 9 teams are we going to beat?
We won't make the NIT in all likelihood this season, but we *have* been able to reproduce the production that Newbill gave us offensively through Taylor, Garner and Banks - Newbill averaged 20ppg, and we're getting ~21 ppg more out of those three than we did last year. Travis' rebounding has been replaced more by committee than by any one individual (Travis averaged 6 rebounds per game, and Banks and Moore combined are averaging ~6 more rpg this year than they did last year), but we've easily been able to replace his 5.5 ppg in our frontcourt. It's actually a credit to Chambers that we're a much more balanced team both in scoring and rebounding than we were last year.
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