2017-2018 Season

[jacobkdoyle]

@JonRothstein
20 impact transfers for the 2017-18 college basketball season. Here's more @FanRagSports: https://t.co/SL6PzB9twj

[waterhead]

Originally Posted by jacobkdoyle

@JonRothstein
20 impact transfers for the 2017-18 college basketball season. Here's more @FanRagSports: https://t.co/SL6PzB9twj

PG probably tops my list of questions as to just how good we will be this year. What will the pace look like? How will chemistry be? Will the offensive production account for a potential increase in turnovers, etc? I like the fact that the pace shouldn't change much whether Jenifer or Broome is in. Are we really going to run this year? I hope so!

#2 is probably going to be how well we can defend "home court" playing off campus? If we can run the table or hold it to one loss I will be content. We are going to have some cold shooting nights...will our overall talent be enough to overcome hot shooting nights by other teams? I hope so!

#3 would probably be whether or not we will remain "elite" on defense after losing a couple 4 year guys who knew the system very well. We add instinct vs athleticism with Cumberland vs KJ. We add quickness vs length with Broome vs Caupain. Will we really press more? I hope so!

#4...is who is going to step up from the bench so we don't skip a beat when they are in? Can we get at least 1 big, 1 wing, and 1 PG to be a quality replacement? I hope so!

I am actually fairly optimistic about all of these questions above. Practice starts in 2 weeks or so. 1st Exhibition in 6 weeks or so. 1st game in about 8 weeks or so. The suspense is killing me!

[jacobkdoyle]

Originally Posted by waterhead

PG probably tops my list of questions as to just how good we will be this year. What will the pace look like? How will chemistry be? Will the offensive production account for a potential increase in turnovers, etc? I like the fact that the pace shouldn't change much whether Jenifer or Broome is in. Are we really going to run this year? I hope so!

#2 is probably going to be how well we can defend "home court" playing off campus? If we can run the table or hold it to one loss I will be content. We are going to have some cold shooting nights...will our overall talent be enough to overcome hot shooting nights by other teams? I hope so!

#3 would probably be whether or not we will remain "elite" on defense after losing a couple 4 year guys who knew the system very well. We add instinct vs athleticism with Cumberland vs KJ. We add quickness vs length with Broome vs Caupain. Will we really press more? I hope so!

#4...is who is going to step up from the bench so we don't skip a beat when they are in? Can we get at least 1 big, 1 wing, and 1 PG to be a quality replacement? I hope so!

I am actually fairly optimistic about all of these questions above. Practice starts in 2 weeks or so. 1st Exhibition in 6 weeks or so. 1st game in about 8 weeks or so. The suspense is killing me!

I cannot freaking wait to watch these guys play again. We're going to be operating at a very high level this year. We really should have a countdown clock going. I love getting lost in college football and having posts like this remind me how close we are to Bearcat Basketball.

[justinhub2003]

Originally Posted by waterhead

PG probably tops my list of questions as to just how good we will be this year. What will the pace look like? How will chemistry be? Will the offensive production account for a potential increase in turnovers, etc? I like the fact that the pace shouldn't change much whether Jenifer or Broome is in. Are we really going to run this year? I hope so!

#2 is probably going to be how well we can defend "home court" playing off campus? If we can run the table or hold it to one loss I will be content. We are going to have some cold shooting nights...will our overall talent be enough to overcome hot shooting nights by other teams? I hope so!

#3 would probably be whether or not we will remain "elite" on defense after losing a couple 4 year guys who knew the system very well. We add instinct vs athleticism with Cumberland vs KJ. We add quickness vs length with Broome vs Caupain. Will we really press more? I hope so!

#4...is who is going to step up from the bench so we don't skip a beat when they are in? Can we get at least 1 big, 1 wing, and 1 PG to be a quality replacement? I hope so!

I am actually fairly optimistic about all of these questions above. Practice starts in 2 weeks or so. 1st Exhibition in 6 weeks or so. 1st game in about 8 weeks or so. The suspense is killing me!

I do think we need to be realistic about offensive pace and pressing. It’s insanely hard to do both well. We have good depth but not good scoring depth, the bulk of our offense will come from our starters so we need those guys to not be extremely tired from pressing on D.

Conditioning will be hugely important.

I love that we have 12 guys but in reality the best teams only use 7-8 so need our starters to be able to play 30 min

[jacobkdoyle]

Originally Posted by justinhub2003

I do think we need to be realistic about offensive pace and pressing. It’s insanely hard to do both well. We have good depth but not good scoring depth, the bulk of our offense will come from our starters so we need those guys to not be extremely tired from pressing on D.

Conditioning will be hugely important.

I love that we have 12 guys but in reality the best teams only use 7-8 so need our starters to be able to play 30 min

I don't even give a second thought to Broome, Evans, and Cumberland playing 30 minutes in any style. Clark obviously can play 30 minutes...but can he do it at a faster pace? I don't see anyone else on the team as a 30 minutes a night type player at this point. Williams seems like he could, but idk if he'll be ready for it. Washington has shown to be more useful in 25 or so minutes.

So I agree, when we aren't blowing out bad teams and we only use 8 or so guys, how will we play? And who will those 8 or so guys be? It'll likely be Jenifer, Brooks, Williams, and either Scott or Diarra as the main bench options I'd think. I don't want to rule out T Moore bc the reports on him have been very good. But I'd think in our biggest games, he'd be in for limited minutes as a shooting spark.

Overall I absolutely believe our pace will be up. Bc 2/3 of our games can be the pressing, using depth style that we've been hearing about. I just hope we don't totally flip that in big games and play the tight style where we basically try to hold on for dear life for 40 minutes. Even when the rotation shortens, we need to be able to find a way to impose our will on the other team. Like you said, it's important that these guys are in great shape.

[waterhead]

Originally Posted by justinhub2003

I do think we need to be realistic about offensive pace and pressing. It’s insanely hard to do both well. We have good depth but not good scoring depth, the bulk of our offense will come from our starters so we need those guys to not be extremely tired from pressing on D.

Conditioning will be hugely important.

I love that we have 12 guys but in reality the best teams only use 7-8 so need our starters to be able to play 30 min

I agree about not tiring our starters out by pressing and running too much. That is why we will need some quality depth if we are going to run. It doesn't look like we will have so much offensive depth but if we can get stronger minutes out of our bench on D (than some of our starters) maybe we will be just fine.

I think we can expect to get better on D when Washington is out even though on offense we won't. If a guy like Williams can defend better than Cumberland maybe we don't lose too much there either. If we are going to run...we need quality on D from the bench!

If we can keep Clark and Evans in the game for 30+ minutes...we can be an elite D with Brooks, Diarra, or Scott in for Washington and Williams in for Cumberland.

Evans doesn't tire. Clark and Washington do. We will need Brooks and Diarra/Scott/Nsoseme to step up. We don't need the backups for too long in big games. We just need them to lock it down on D when they come in.

[jacobkdoyle]

Originally Posted by waterhead

I agree about not tiring our starters out by pressing and running too much. That is why we will need some quality depth if we are going to run. It doesn't look like we will have so much offensive depth but if we can get stronger minutes out of our bench on D (than some of our starters) maybe we will be just fine.

I think we can expect to get better on D when Washington is out even though on offense we won't. If a guy like Williams can defend better than Cumberland maybe we don't lose too much there either. If we are going to run...we need quality on D from the bench!

If we can keep Clark and Evans in the game for 30+ minutes...we can be an elite D with Brooks, Diarra, or Scott in for Washington and Williams in for Cumberland.

Evans doesn't tire. Clark and Washington do. We will need Brooks and Diarra/Scott/Nsoseme to step up. We don't need the backups for too long in big games. We just need them to lock it down on D when they come in.

I'm interested to see Brooks. Hopefully he got a little bit stronger in his core and upper body. He moves his feet surprisingly well for being such a big guy. But I feel like he struggled in our most crucial games (actually held his own ok against UCLA but I'm thinking more of the SMU game in the AAC Tournament where he was out of his depth). If he can turn the corner and start becoming a force, we'll be in great shape with our big man depth. He doesn't appear to be afraid at all. That may be the most key thing for a FR. But now he has to do more and actively help the team, instead of just treading water and holding his own. This is the year I think where we get a better glimpse of his ceiling.

[justinhub2003]

I think Evans has proved he could play 40 minutes a night if he wanted. He literally never gets tired.

Just think though; in one year, mick moved to a motion offense and went from the 69th offense to the 34th. That’s a huge jump in one year.

I expect top 15 in defense and top 30 and maybe even top 25 on offense.

I don’t want to play fast for fasts sake. I want the ability to play fast which we have and to turn it up when needed. Against ucla a faster pace would have killed us, the slower pace in the first half kept us in the game.

I just want constant motion in the offense. And in terms of defense and pressing, I’d like to have it as an option but over all I’m not sure it’s a needed thing. Our man to man shuts down teams who can shoot and our zone protects the paint. It really just depends on how well we press.

[jacobkdoyle]

Originally Posted by justinhub2003

I think Evans has proved he could play 40 minutes a night if he wanted. He literally never gets tired.

Just think though; in one year, mick moved to a motion offense and went from the 69th offense to the 34th. That’s a huge jump in one year.

I expect top 15 in defense and top 30 and maybe even top 25 on offense.

I don’t want to play fast for fasts sake. I want the ability to play fast which we have and to turn it up when needed. Against ucla a faster pace would have killed us, the slower pace in the first half kept us in the game.

I just want constant motion in the offense. And in terms of defense and pressing, I’d like to have it as an option but over all I’m not sure it’s a needed thing. Our man to man shuts down teams who can shoot and our zone protects the paint. It really just depends on how well we press.

I just don't want us to change who we are for the opponent. They need to adapt to us. We're the ones who are Top 15 caliber out of over 350 teams. So it doesn't make sense to me to switch style at any point this year. Obviously like you say, we won't be playing 12 guys every game. But if we play a UCLA type in the tourney this year, or a Princeton type (I don't even know if that's still a thing), we should try to play our pace. We are always going to be a specific gameplan type team bc we put so much into our defense, but I don't want to go into a game against what we perceive to be a top team and play like we're a 16 seed vs a 1 seed and shorten the game. I have enough faith in what we have that we can roll the ball out and see what happens. I'll be ok if we get knocked out this year playing our game. But taking ourselves out of it for the sake of gameplanning isn't something I'm hoping for at all out of this year's team. I can kind of understand why we wanted to slow things down vs UCLA last year bc of our personnel, but I also feel like that took a guy like Evans out of his natural game bc he was thinking out there. And it led to hesitation. We have the talent this year to let it rip against anyone, whether it be Kansas or Alabama State.

[waterhead]

Originally Posted by justinhub2003

I think Evans has proved he could play 40 minutes a night if he wanted. He literally never gets tired.

Just think though; in one year, mick moved to a motion offense and went from the 69th offense to the 34th. That’s a huge jump in one year.

I expect top 15 in defense and top 30 and maybe even top 25 on offense.

I don’t want to play fast for fasts sake. I want the ability to play fast which we have and to turn it up when needed. Against ucla a faster pace would have killed us, the slower pace in the first half kept us in the game.

I just want constant motion in the offense. And in terms of defense and pressing, I’d like to have it as an option but over all I’m not sure it’s a needed thing. Our man to man shuts down teams who can shoot and our zone protects the paint. It really just depends on how well we press.

I don't know. Last year and the previous few years we had a PG who was kind of flat footed and not as quick. Cronin said pressing was not a great plan with Troy in the game and I imagine (for the same reason) neither was pushing the ball up the court. Troy was flat footed, although sure footed and controlled, but he wasn't built for the press or running.

We have to play to our strengths and I don't see how playing fast is not to our strength this year with 5 scorers on the court and a very quick PG (or two).

There will never be a time when playing fast on offense means that Cronin will relieve his team from getting back on D. A faster pace on O will mean a few more points given up on D by rule...but the efficiency needs to be there on either end to accommodate.