Charlotte (3/4/20)

BillySee58 · March 5, 2020

29 minutes ago, SCREAMING EAGLE-66 said:

---McCasland won the national Junior College championship (as the head Coach) at Midland College several years ago ..... A few years earlier with a different Coach they had made the NJCAA finals and had been well ahead in the semifinals but kept the starters in the game... Near the end of the semi-final game a player (I think Mookie Blaylock, future NBA player) screwed up his foot and was not available for the final and MC lost the final...barely ... No doubt McCasland knows that... It likely is a factor in his decision to not play starters so much when near nothing is at stake. Midland should have won their second and consecutive title [also had Spud Webb the previous year] if he had not been injured . Three players on that defeated team played in the NCAA final two years later .. OU vs. Kansas, including Mookie Blaylock... --------- It is tough to not play your best players but there are risks.

But we did play our starters last night. All of our starters played 27 or more minutes including Hamlet playing 30 and Reese playing 34.

Green Lantern · March 5, 2020

1 hour ago, BillySee58 said:

But we did play our starters last night. All of our starters played 27 or more minutes including Hamlet playing 30 and Reese playing 34.

Yep. But it looked like we were just going through the motions.

FirefightnRick · March 5, 2020

1 hour ago, BillySee58 said:

But we did play our starters last night. All of our starters played 27 or more minutes including Hamlet playing 30 and Reese playing 34.

What your missing though is Charlotte took it easy Sunday and only worked up a partial sweat knowing they had the eventual champ coming in three days later who would obviously be over worked, over stressed, over schooled and sleep deprived from jet lag due to the grueling 2 1/2 hour flight....knowing they had to beat us to gain a spot closer to a bye on Wednesday.

Meanwhile...Charlotte had classes canceled Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Spent most of that time getting sleep and rub downs while being fed fruit and protein from Swedish virgins in order to get ready for our game.

It’s a wonder we even scored 40 points?

Rick

BillySee58 · March 5, 2020

20 minutes ago, FirefightnRick said:

What your missing though is Charlotte took it easy Sunday and only worked up a partial sweat knowing they had the eventual champ coming in three days later who would obviously be over worked, over stressed, over schooled and sleep deprived from jet lag due to the grueling 2 1/2 hour flight....knowing they had to beat us to gain a spot closer to a bye on Wednesday.

Meanwhile...Charlotte had classes canceled Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Spent most of that time getting sleep and rub downs while being fed fruit and protein from Swedish virgins in order to get ready for our game.

It’s a wonder we even scored 40 points?

Rick

The post I was responding to seemed to imply that Mccasland learned to rest his starters from past situations. I was just pointing out that he didn’t rest his starters, from a minutes standpoint. Not dispute that Charlotte had an advantage.

greenminer · March 5, 2020

19 minutes ago, BillySee58 said:

The post I was responding to seemed to imply that Mccasland learned to rest his starters from past situations. I was just pointing out that he didn’t rest his starters, from a minutes standpoint. Not dispute that Charlotte had an advantage.

lol I think @FirefightnRick was being ultra sarcastic and really meant to suggest, 'stop making excuses and play for the damn win.'

I could be wrong. My mind is having a hard time getting past Swedish virgins.

FirefightnRick · March 5, 2020

3 hours ago, greenminer said:

lol I think @FirefightnRick was being ultra sarcastic and really meant to suggest, 'stop making excuses and play for the damn win.'

I could be wrong. My mind is having a hard time getting past Swedish virgins.

🥴

Rick

Edited March 5, 2020 by FirefightnRick

GrandGreen · March 5, 2020

19 hours ago, BillySee58 said:

If there is one takeaway from this game, it’s that no matter how great a season we have had, we absolutely have to improve our bench this offseason. Getting 4 starters and Bell back is great, but with Draper and Rose graduating, we will have just 5 guys from our 8-man rotation back and they’ll all likely be starters (assuming Bell starts).

Mohamed, J Simmons, and Alcindor are complete non-factors and we need guys on our bench who we can turn to. We really don’t have that right now. Even some of our starters are hot and cold, like Gibson and Reese. It would be great if we had guys off our bench who could step up when they’re off, but we haven’t had that.

It’s imperative that we capitalize off of our on-court success and turn that into recruiting momentum. And raise our standard for players we sign going forward. If Mccasland is only going to play guys who can shoot, we have to stop offering guys who can’t.

I am not sure how much McCasland can raise his recruiting particularly out of the juco ranks. Bell, Reese and Hamlet were a great class. Geu was another great addition. Jackson his only hs school recruit was committed very early.

McCasland has not been as quick as others to dump players. I doubt Mohamed or J. Simmons fit into his plans, however he did bring Simmons with him to NT.

Not so sure about Alcindor being a non-factor, why was is he being redshirted if they don't want him here next year?

I like Draper and Smart, but think the freshman signed could be better his first year than ether.

Obviously, NT has to get a serviable big man. I am sure like everyone else, MaC wants more of an outside threat at forward than he now has.

My guess is that NT will add one hs guard and two transfer big men.

BillySee58 · March 6, 2020

1 hour ago, GrandGreen said:

I am not sure how much McCasland can raise his recruiting particularly out of the juco ranks.

He doesn’t need to raise his recruiting in the JUCO ranks. Just keep getting guys like he did last class to add to what he already has. But now he has more recruiting ammo with the success of this season. He absolutely can get better players than when he first got here, or even after his first season here when he took some marginal signees that have really added nothing these past two seasons and were never impressive recruits to begin with.

1 hour ago, GrandGreen said:

Bell, Reese and Hamlet were a great class. Geu was another great addition. Jackson his only hs school recruit was committed very early.

McCasland has not been as quick as others to dump players. I doubt Mohamed or J. Simmons fit into his plans, however he did bring Simmons with him to NT.

He dumped Tikhonenko once Bell committed and we needed to clear a spot for him. This season is going to make recruiting a whole lot easier and guys who are better than J Simmons, Mohamed, and Alcindor are going to want to come here. Question is do we make room for them.

1 hour ago, GrandGreen said:

Not so sure about Alcindor being a non-factor, why was is he being redshirted if they don't want him here next year?

Because he was at the dead end of the bench and still had a redshirt year to take.

1 hour ago, GrandGreen said:

I like Draper and Smart, but think the freshman signed could be better his first year than ether.

Obviously, NT has to get a serviable big man. I am sure like everyone else, MaC wants more of an outside threat at forward than he now has.

My guess is that NT will add one hs guard and two transfer big men.

Yeah, Jones is a better offensive player from day one than both Rose and Draper. But with Jackson and Wise being the only two guards returning from our bench, we need someone else who can score and shoot off the bench.

GrandGreen · March 6, 2020

1 hour ago, BillySee58 said:

He doesn’t need to raise his recruiting in the JUCO ranks. Just keep getting guys like he did last class to add to what he already has. But now he has more recruiting ammo with the success of this season. He absolutely can get better players than when he first got here, or even after his first season here when he took some marginal signees that have really added nothing these past two seasons and were never impressive recruits to begin with.

He dumped Tikhonenko once Bell committed and we needed to clear a spot for him. This season is going to make recruiting a whole lot easier and guys who are better than J Simmons, Mohamed, and Alcindor are going to want to come here. Question is do we make room for them.

Because he was at the dead end of the bench and still had a redshirt year to take.

Yeah, Jones is a better offensive player from day one than both Rose and Draper. But with Jackson and Wise being the only two guards returning from our bench, we need someone else who can score and shoot off the bench.

Teams like WKU and many others dump multiple players every year and replace them with what they hope will be better players. MaC moving Tikhonenko after two year is not comparable.

Redshirting Alcindor makes no sense to me, why would you save a year of eligibility for someone you don't want. It seems to me that releasing Alcindor with a red shirt intact would have been much better for him and NT.

The question that occurs to me is can Mac recruit front court players. As you stated, none of his big recruits have been good college level. Z. Simmons was here when Mac arrived and Geu an one year transfer.

BillySee58 · March 6, 2020

2 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

Teams like WKU and many others dump multiple players every year and replace them with what they hope will be better players. MaC moving Tikhonenko after two year is not comparable.

How is that not comparable? Tikhonenko would still be here if Bell hadn’t committed. But once he was that’s how Mccasland made room.

Quote

Redshirting Alcindor makes no sense to me, why would you save a year of eligibility for someone you don't want. It seems to me that releasing Alcindor with a red shirt intact would have been much better for him and NT.

That’s not true at all. It’s much more beneficial for him to transfer as a redshirt sophomore than as a true junior. Again, Alcindor had no other D1 offers. He wouldn’t be going D1 to D1, which is the only scenario where having that redshirt available would still benefit him.

If we are to move on from him, redshirting this season allows him the option of going the JUCO route, which he would not be able to do as a true junior, and if he goes the D2/D3/NAIA route he is eligible immediately so this way he gets 3 more years there instead of 2.

Plus, again, he was end of the bench and redshirting is a mutual decision. Mccasland was redshirting him the year before but after some injuries he asked Shakeem if he would be interested in burning his redshirt and Shakeem came to the mutual decision that he wanted to do so and try and take some of the available minutes. But he ended up only playing in 5 games despite us being extremely short-handed at times throughout the season. This year, with no one else redshirting on the roster, the decision to redshirt was likely just as much his as it was the coaching staff’s.

Edited March 6, 2020 by BillySee58

GrandGreen · March 6, 2020

9 hours ago, BillySee58 said:

How is that not comparable? Tikhonenko would still be here if Bell hadn’t committed. But once he was that’s how Mccasland made room.

That’s not true at all. It’s much more beneficial for him to transfer as a redshirt sophomore than as a true junior. Again, Alcindor had no other D1 offers. He wouldn’t be going D1 to D1, which is the only scenario where having that redshirt available would still benefit him.

If we are to move on from him, redshirting this season allows him the option of going the JUCO route, which he would not be able to do as a true junior, and if he goes the D2/D3/NAIA route he is eligible immediately so this way he gets 3 more years there instead of 2.

Plus, again, he was end of the bench and redshirting is a mutual decision. Mccasland was redshirting him the year before but after some injuries he asked Shakeem if he would be interested in burning his redshirt and Shakeem came to the mutual decision that he wanted to do so and try and take some of the available minutes. But he ended up only playing in 5 games despite us being extremely short-handed at times throughout the season. This year, with no one else redshirting on the roster, the decision to redshirt was likely just as much his as it was the coaching staff’s.

If you want to compare one transfer out every few year's with teams that turn over multiple players every year, yes exactly the same.

Your comments on Alcindor do not make sense to me.

Perhaps my ignorance but how is Alcindor better off transferring out after having burned his redshirt better for anyone.

If he transfers down, it makes no difference at all. He could have done that last year and still had a juco year. Now if he transfers to another d1 school he will lose a year because he has already redshirted.

He could have left last year and then used his redshirt year and maintained all his eligibility.

Again there is no good explanation why NT would have Alcindor on ship and then redshirting him if they plan to release him the next year.

The only thing I can think of is that neither NT or Alcindor could find any other team that wanted him that he wanted to transfer to. If a players transfers out it has little or no effect on the APR computation. but just releasing a player does.

You are a lot closer to the team than I am, I have no idea if Alcindor can play or not. J. Simmons might be good at a lower level and Mohamad appears to be a good shooter that someone would probably take a change on.