BillySee58

What bleeding? These guys leaving are not guys Mccasland recruited. It's a very normal roster transition over a year period for a new coach. Also, we get to use those spots on other players, who will likely be big improvements over the four who are gone. All of the offensive players we have lost so far were bad offensive players. Lawson, you could argue, is not a bad offensive player but he certainly was this year. And he just isn't a shooter which really hurt this offense. When he was in our offense did not look good this year. When we stopped playing him in a primary role, our offense looked immensely better. Same with the other guys we lost. It's not a coincidence how much better this team did with Duffy and Miller taking the majority of Lawson, Temara, and Holston's minutes. Did you not watch the CBI? We looked just as good defensively as we did when Lawson and Holston were playing a lot. While looking leaps and bounds better on offense.

Yeah but it doesn't change the accuracy of his statement

Woolridge is now the only Benford player remaining. Technically Simmons signed under Benford too. Either way, this will be almost entirely a Mccasland roster going forward

Dang

I think it hurts more experience-wise than depth-wise. I'm pretty confident Mccasland will fill his spot with someone who fits the offense better (can shoot) and has decent length. I also wonder if with the open spots we might go after Tremell Murphy and his twin brother. Murphy has an Oregon offer but if we offer both that could be an advantage for us if we could bring them both on. Thanks to AJ for all his hard work representing the program.

I said we need to see young guys start to step up(verb) not a step up (noun). Starter is an internal accomplishment. A good recruit is a good player compared to our peers, not just compared to our roster. Andy Flusche was a legit CUSA level player. He was not an NFL player or even an all-CUSA player. I don't even think he was honorable mention. You can't win anything substantial with a team that has no all-conference players. We need more of those type of players, particularly on the offensive line and on defense, where we have had one (Kishawn McClain) since 2014 when Cyril Lemon and Derek Akunne made all conference. Personally I think Littrell's recruiting in his first two classes were not that impressive, especially outside of the skill positions. He hit on a QB (the most important position) some receivers, and had Jeff Wilson and that pretty much led us to 9 wins. We looked pedestrian and overmatched in the games after the Jeff Wilson injury. Our general average play across the board, save for our QB and receivers, was severely exposed. The point is that even though we had a good record last year, there are plenty of spots and opportunities to where if we have underclassmen who are the real deal, they should start. If underclassmen can't surpass average upperclassmen then they probably won't be any better than average themselves. We don't want that cycle.

7-on-7 is prevalent everywhere there are a lot of D1 recruits. The argument that D1 readiness among high-school recruits here specifically has fallen off as a result is an unsubstantiated take that really doesn't even have correlation to back it up, let alone causation.

Very good post. I think in year three we need to start seeing linemen and guys on defense who Littrell recruited actually step up and become good CUSA-level players. Its one thing to sign guys at certain positions and say they fit your system and will be good despite maybe not being that highly recruited. It's another for them to actually become that. Even Alabama has underclassmen jumping upperclassmen who are legit SEC players. You want to see these signees show something and not just fall in line behind guys who are older than them. Especially when those guys who are older are not necessarily all-CUSA guys.

Two very strong comments to start this off. Completely agree on both.

We're heading into year three of the Littrell era following his third recruiting class and third spring football practice season. The overall roster talent under Littrell has turned around from Mccarney's last year, as we all expected and as it absolutely had to. In year two we saw an impressive 9 wins, but we can all agree that it was not a loaded roster and that a few players, including an all-conference quarterback, really led the way and helped us to a lot of close wins. Now with our post-spring depth chart out to look at, we have something that roughly resembles what we will trot out on the field for year three. On paper, it reminds me a lot of last year's roster. On offense you have a really good QB, good receivers, offensive linemen who have experience but are likely not going to be preseason all-CUSA picks, and no Jeff Wilson but with a promising young backfield. On defense you still see not much proven depth, a few solid dependable players, decent amount of returning experience among starters, and mainly upperclassmen starting. One of the two exceptions to the last point was a big surprise in Tyreke Davis being listed over Ashton Preston. Imo that is very promising to see. My personal evaluation is that we have some star playmakers like Fine, Guyton, and Lawrence who can lead this team to a lot of wins but I'm not necessarily sold that this roster, top to bottom, is shaping up like a top-of-the-conference type roster. I like seeing Tyreke Davis pushing Preston out of the listed starting lineup because it shows the possibility of a recruited underclassmen locking up a starting spot early because of good play rather than lack of competition at the spot. NFL-type players are guys that come in and push legit D1 players out of starting spots. I would like to see more of that. Many of the young players who have played under Littrell so far have done so by default or because of lack of competition. Ozougwu starting over a walkon at Jack is an example of that. That's not a great look. So what do you guys think of the roster Littrell has built to this point? Do you see this roster becoming a top CUSA roster this year? Does this roster have the talent across the board to survive a key injury or two?

Exactly. And NT wasn't playing for prestige. This is the biggest takeaway from me in the new era. Make being competitive the norm and losing the exception. I've said this before, but RV had a run of football/basketball hires (basically all of his football/basketball hires) of Dodge, Stephens, Aston, Mccarney, Peterson, and Benford. Those coaches coached a combined 21 seasons and had a grand total of one winning season amongst 21. One out of 21!! Under 5% of their seasons resulted in a winning record! And what happened after that one winning season? The coach gets a big extension and raise when there was no actual threat of him being hired away by a bigger program, and despite never having proven capable of recruiting and developing his own guys at the most important positions in the sport (QB, OL, DL). Which he ended up failing spectacularly at. Because of that I was a little disappointed in the trigger-happy move by Wren Baker to do the same for Littrell, but at least Littrell is a legitimate candidate to move up the rungs of the CFB coaching job ladder. But my point is that winning seasons here, going forward, should not be seen as some amazing coaching accomplishment that serves as an automatic extension and raise.

6'8" 180 lb small forward originally from Hartford, KY currently playing at Mt Zion Prep in Baltimore (prep school where Mark Tikhonenko spent a year). Also played for Huntington Prep in WV for a year when he was in high school. Has a good outside shot and has point forward skills. Could project for us as an Allante Holston type defensive role, yet with top-not offensive skills. We have offered. Also has been offered at various points in his recruitment by USC, DePaul, Kansas State, WKU, and South Florida among other schools. His recruitment is really picking back up as Indiana State, Canisius, Howard, and Wyoming apparently all offered today. http://www.verbalcommits.com/players/trace-young https://www.prephoops.com/2018/01/recruiting-report-trace-young-2018/ High School 247 profile: https://247sports.com/Player/Trace-Young-79583

Good thing we didn't play in that tournament

The biggest difference in free-throw shooting from last night vs games where we struggled from the line is who went to the line. Smart, Duffy, Miller, and Draper are good free-throw shooters. That group was 23-26 from the line (88%) last night. The guys who you don't want at the line are Lawson, Woolridge, Simmons (improved as the season went on), Holston, Temara, and Arikawe (not bad for a big guy). That group was 9-17 from the line (53%) last night. Lawson going 6-8 was the biggest surprise, and Smart going 14-14 is damn impressive, but free-throw shooting is pretty predictable. Players generally stay true to their percentages.

Difference is, Mccasland is actually a good recruiter and has not let the game pass him up. Among many other things.

🔥🔥

I was so wrong and so right at the same time 😯. FTR, I was going to own up to this statement either way.

You take out the Benford years and that's 7 straight seasons of at least 18 wins and 6 out of 7 being 20-win seasons. We should win here

Stat recap for the CBI Champs: This was our 2nd biggest win increase from the prior season in school history. 1975-76 saw a 16-win improvement from the prior season. Roosevelt Smart set the single-season record for points in a season at North Texas tonight with 742 points on the season. Obviously aided by playing so many games, but we only played so many games because of how consistent a go-to guy he was. His 133 made threes on the season not only annihilated the previous school record of 90, but it puts him at 10th in school history in career 3-pt made field goals. His 167 made free throws is good for 5th most in a single season, and 221 made field goals is 7th in school single-seaon history. 88.8% from the free-throw line is the 2nd highest clip in school single-season history. Ryan Woolridge set the mark for most assists in a season with 221. He is up to 288 career assists, which puts him at 6th in North Texas career assists. Also, his 52 steals this year was good for 8th most in school single-season history. Last, at 66.2% Zach Simmons would have the highest season field-goal percentage in school history. Not sure if 154 shots is enough to qualify him, but if it is then he now holds that record.

Iona? Lehigh?

Holston is listed as a guard and he primarily plays the 4. He is a small ball player. Problem is, when you sacrifice size you are supposed to do so to get more skill on the court. Holston does not accomplish that. Miller gives you much more offensively, and has not been a drop off from Holston defensively.

San Francisco has scored 81 points in the last three halves of basketball. I think we have a decent handle on their offense at this point. Teams know each other very well at this point. Who is gonna execute better when the other team knows what you're doing?

Nice!

No thread on his 2019 teammate Kevin Mccullar (who we offered) but Mccullar has narrowed down his recruitment to a top 5, which we did not make.