Evansville (11/5/24)

CMJ · October 31

Another season is upon us. How does Year 2 under Hodge go? Do we compete for the league title this season? Will the newcomers and vets mesh well?

Evansville used to have pretty decent teams, though they've had a rough six or seven years. The MVC is a really strong league though, so that explains some of it. Also, nowadays with all the player turnover, it almost doesn't even make sense to look at previous seasons.

Hopefully "election watching" won't keep too many people away from going.

Edited October 31 by CMJ

NT80 · October 31

1 hour ago, CMJ said:

Another season is upon us. How does Year 2 under Hodge go? Do we compete for the league title this season? Will the newcomers and vets mesh well?

Evansville used to have pretty decent teams, though they've had a rough six of seven years. The MVC is a really strong league though, so that explains some of it. Also, nowadays with all the player turnover, it almost doesn't even make sense to look at previous seasons.

Hopefully "election watching" won't keep too many people away from going.

I trust Ross to find good transfers like he did last season. If the secret scrimmage results were accurate that was a good sign. Last season we got into some injury situations I hope we avoid this year. I'm anxious to see the new roster play together....it's like Christmas.... see what we got!

greenminer · November 1

Less than a week away!

greenjoe · November 1

Sorry. I think it’s a bad decision to schedule a game against a presidential election. Judging by early voting turnout, the election may draw more watchers than this first game.

MCMLXXX · November 1

1 hour ago, greenjoe said:

Sorry. I think it’s a bad decision to schedule a game against a presidential election. Judging by early voting turnout, the election may draw more watchers than this first game.

Perhaps we should offer a free beer to everyone who wears their "I Voted" sticker to the game. Do you think that would increase attendance?

BleedingGreen · November 1

Or or..a t shirt give away

“Make the Pit Great Again “

Venson · November 3

On 11/1/2024 at 2:34 PM, greenjoe said:

Sorry. I think it’s a bad decision to schedule a game against a presidential election. Judging by early voting turnout, the election may draw more watchers than this first game.

It is a bad night for a game. I agree the election watching will take away from attendance and watching.

untlynchka1 · November 3

3 hours ago, Venson said:

It is a bad night for a game. I agree the election watching will take away from attendance and watching.

Yeah, and it’s a damn shame because the election stuff doesn’t even start to get interesting until after the game will be over.

greenminer · November 4

TOMORROW

Big Z · November 5

Spread right now UNT -13.5

Matt from A700 · November 5

Vote early, get to the Pit!

We won't have a confirmed President tomorrow anyways.

Son Of A Flying Worm · November 5

According to the Evansville game notes put out by the university, these are the projected starters:

Jasper Floyd

Atin Wright

Rondel Walker

Grant Newell

Moulaye Sissoko

Not really a surprising 'big' starting lineup. I wonder about the spacing in a Walker/Newell (and Sissoko, of course) lineup. Excited about the length, athleticism, and defensive ability of the combination though.

Censored by Laurie · November 5

1 hour ago, Son Of A Flying Worm said:

According to the Evansville game notes put out by the university, these are the projected starters:

Jasper Floyd

Atin Wright

Rondel Walker

Grant Newell

Moulaye Sissoko

Not really a surprising 'big' starting lineup. I wonder about the spacing in a Walker/Newell (and Sissoko, of course) lineup. Excited about the length, athleticism, and defensive ability of the combination though.

entirely based on previous season stat lines and presumed fit, I mentally have Massie starting at the 4...he seems to bring a little bit more offensive game than Newell, and while he gives up some inches he did average more boards and he's pretty range-y and like Walker, averaged over a steal/game last season.

plus assuming Vice and Smith aren't contributors this season, Newell and Lorient off the bench can give enough height to sort of combo man the 4/5 spot...neither is really a 5, but together you can get a rotation with Sissoko

UNTLifer · November 5

Will we see a faster tempo, or will we continue to grind teams down?

NT80 · November 5

1 hour ago, Censored by Laurie said:

plus assuming Vice and Smith aren't contributors this season, Newell and Lorient off the bench can give enough height to sort of combo man the 4/5 spot...neither is really a 5, but together you can get a rotation with Sissoko

Players that aren't contributors are more likely to just hit the Portal again than just wait till their time and develop. It's really difficult for coaches now to keep all roster players happy about their roles and return the next season.

UNTLifer · November 5

Game notes

https://meangreensports.com/documents/2024/11/4/11.05.24_UNTMBBGameNotesvsEvansville.pdf

Censored by Laurie · November 5

39 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

Will we see a faster tempo, or will we continue to grind teams down?

I'm torn. aesthetically I'd like to see a bit more tempo and scoring...but for the last 3-4 seasons this team has had a true identity unlike anything else in my time watching the program, despite coaching changes and massive player overhaul. "UNT Basketball" legit means something to our opponents. tough to want to stray too far from something so hard-nosed and largely successful.

Censored by Laurie · November 5

27 minutes ago, NT80 said:

Players that aren't contributors are more likely to just hit the Portal again than just wait till their time and develop. It's really difficult for coaches now to keep all roster players happy about their roles and return the next season.

sure...but you can't play 13 dudes a night nor just hand out PT to someone not ready/not contributing just out of fear that they'll bolt next season.

bigs especially tend to develop slower so I'm going into the year assuming Vice and Smith get very little run.

based on nothing but intuition, I do think Mason will contribute significantly this season...he just looks college game ready.

Shark84 · November 5

2 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

Will we see a faster tempo, or will we continue to grind teams down?

As long as Hodge is here, if you don't work hard on the defensive end, you won't play much so I think we will continue to be a defense first squad. We seem to have more depth so I would like to see us press a little more this year and create easy baskets off turnovers.

NT80 · November 5

2 hours ago, Censored by Laurie said:

sure...but you can't play 13 dudes a night nor just hand out PT to someone not ready/not contributing just out of fear that they'll bolt next season.

bigs especially tend to develop slower so I'm going into the year assuming Vice and Smith get very little run.

Yes, obviously you can't play all 15 players every game. But a player like Brock Vice, the #32 ranked center in the country in 2022-23, saw no game time last season at Creighton. He's not coming to UNT to sit another full year on the bench, otherwise he will be back in the Portal.

Son Of A Flying Worm · November 5

5 hours ago, Censored by Laurie said:

entirely based on previous season stat lines and presumed fit, I mentally have Massie starting at the 4...he seems to bring a little bit more offensive game than Newell, and while he gives up some inches he did average more boards and he's pretty range-y and like Walker, averaged over a steal/game last season.

plus assuming Vice and Smith aren't contributors this season, Newell and Lorient off the bench can give enough height to sort of combo man the 4/5 spot...neither is really a 5, but together you can get a rotation with Sissoko

Massie is intriguing at the 4, but I don't know if he can hold up defensively/rebounding against more traditional lineups. Maybe it works against small ball lineups. His defensive rebounding at Longwood was way higher than previous years. How much of that was his improvement, scheme, randomness, etc? I haven't watched enough to know. Good call on the steal numbers. He's had a steal percentage of at least 2.5% each year. I agree that he's likely a better offensive option than Newell --- better at ball handling, shot creating for himself and others, and more reliable shooting year to year.

Vice is a huge wild card and maybe the biggest upside play for this roster. I really hope he can ball this year.

Edited November 5 by Son Of A Flying Worm

Son Of A Flying Worm · November 5

NT80 · November 5

Censored by Laurie · November 5

1 hour ago, Son Of A Flying Worm said:

Massie is intriguing at the 4, but I don't know if he can hold up defensively/rebounding against more traditional lineups. Maybe it works against small ball lineups. His defensive rebounding at Longwood was way higher than previous years. How much of that was his improvement, scheme, randomness, etc? I haven't watched enough to know. Good call on the steal numbers. He's had a steal percentage of at least 2.5% each year. I agree that he's likely a better offensive option than Newell --- better at ball handling, shot creating for himself and others, and more reliable shooting year to year.

Vice is a huge wild card and maybe the biggest upside play for this roster. I really hope he can ball this year.

Massie is basically listed at the same build as both AScott and TBell…our starting PFs for the last four seasons. That’s at least part of the reason I see Massie as a fit at our 4…so much of our defense is built around switching, denying entry and team rebounding…so we’ve never needed 6’8” 250 at the 4.

I agree Vice is such a big wildcard. If it’s literally just him and Sissoko sharing minutes at the 5 and giving say 12/12 collectively, this squad could be a monster and legit ten-deep.

this level of pre-season speculation is pretty darn fun. We are not have like three dudes on the roster we’re pretty well confident in knowing what they’ll give us…Walker, Sissoko and Stone…everyone else is kinda up in the air.

personally…I think Wright is knocking on the door of 20ppg…with Floyd, Josell, Massie all around double-figures…balanced by Walker, Newell and some center combo giving 7-8/game.