BASKETBALL IS BACK! Been waiting a long time for this...Still have a bitter taste in my mouth from last year. This year's team has a ton of depth; Coach Shaver did a great job at getting a lot of the boys in last year, providing them valuable playing time for several younger players. It's time to see if that'll pay off this year, but we have as good a shot as any in the league to make a deep run this season.

Check out our in-depth preview for the season below. We combined a couple pieces we've written in the past to create an "Everything You Need" article for this year's squad, including player-by-player analysis and overall outlook. Enjoy! GO TRIBE!!!

Article: http://wmsportsblog.com/2015/11/10/2015-...-you-need/

(11-10-2015 07:42 PM)WMSportsBlog Wrote:  BASKETBALL IS BACK! Been waiting a long time for this...Still have a bitter taste in my mouth from last year. This year's team has a ton of depth; Coach Shaver did a great job at getting a lot of the boys in last year, providing them valuable playing time for several younger players. It's time to see if that'll pay off this year, but we have as good a shot as any in the league to make a deep run this season.

Check out our in-depth preview for the season below. We combined a couple pieces we've written in the past to create an "Everything You Need" article for this year's squad, including player-by-player analysis and overall outlook. Enjoy! GO TRIBE!!!

Article: http://wmsportsblog.com/2015/11/10/2015-...-you-need/

Good preview, thanks! I think Rowley will see significant time off the bench and make a splash. Tribe has great guard depth and a number of players that can handle the ball. I think Schlotman and Burchfield will have a hard time making it onto the court due to the depth. I think one of the biggest keys to the season will be the play of Whitman. He has the potential and has shown flashes, but he's been hampered by injury and had surgery in the off-season. If Whitman and Sheldon end up close in minutes per game and Whitman can provide a boost of low-post offense while raising his defensive game it would be a huge boost to the squad. In addition to Whitman, I look to Malinowski and Tot to take their games up a level after solid freshmen campaigns. Very excited to see what unfolds.

I'd group the players like this by minutes played:

30-35 mpg:
Prewitt
Dixon
Tarpey

20-30 mpg
Cohn
Sheldon

15-20 mpg
Malinowski
Whitman

~10 mpg
Rowley
Tot

0-10 mpg
Schlotman
Burchfield
Seacat (or redshirt)
Jamison Glover

That's my guess for where the season averages will end up. In reality, Shaver will likely play 10-11 players in the early contests and then quickly settle on a fairly consistent 8-9 player rotation. Good news is Shaver will have plenty of options on any given night to find the hot hand or exploit the right match-ups given the depth.

I am hearing that it is still very close between Schlotman and Cohn for starting PG. Both have looked good. Neither one has really grabbed the reins and said this is MY job yet.
Will be interesting to see who does the better job on Friday.

(11-11-2015 05:05 PM)billymac Wrote:  I am hearing that it is still very close between Schlotman and Cohn for starting PG. Both have looked good. Neither one has really grabbed the reins and said this is MY job yet.
Will be interesting to see who does the better job on Friday.

That is interesting. Schlotman is the one player we did not get to see at the open scrimmage held before the homecoming game. I was basing my opinion of him from last year's play. Has Tot been able to practice and is he in the mix at PG?

Tot has been back to practice this week after missing over two weeks with ankle injury.

Schlotman/Cohn battle has been interesting:

-Schlotman has grown an inch (he's now officially 6'5"), lost the baby fat he had, and is a rock physically. He's been playing well after missing about 12 days with a concussion suffered in practice. He's been very good, very aggressive defensively and does a very good job in directing the offense offensively. Still not scoring much, but has shown a proclivity now to penetrate with the ball.

-Cohn is an aggressive offensive player, a scoring threat always looking for an opening
to drive or shoot. Not a great shooter, but a decent one. Good with the ball and bringing ball up court. Still appears to get lost at times defensively. All over the court and verbal during game action.

-Before his injury Tot was right in the mix, too. He would look bad one play, then make a sensational pass. His size and bulk are impressive at the point guard position and he is very aggressive defensively.

With an emphasis this year on getting the ball up court as coaches anticipate lots of pressing defenses to wind down the 30 second clock, all of these guys will see lots of action. Who plays majority of minutes may change game to game with who looks good that night.

Two random comments prior to the opener:

I think that all of our point guards will bring a dynamic this year that we have not been accustomed to; the ability to penetrate and dish in the paint to our post players. If Sean and Jack keep their heads up, I think both are going to get plenty of opportunities for easy buckets in the paint.

The success of this team will come down to how good of defense that we are willing to play. In fact I will argue that, in retrospect, we would have probably cut down the nets at least once in Baltimore the last two years if we had just been a little bit better defensively. The truth of the matter is, we have everything we need in order to be one of the best defensive teams that we have ever had. Reasonably quick guards, long and athletic wings, and, at least in the case of Sean, a strong interior presence. If we see a strong defensive effort on a consistent basis, I think that this will be our year to finally go dancing.

It wouldn't surprise me to see Schlotman start because of defense and running the offense to be able to set the table for DD, OP, and TT, and Cohn come in for an offensive spark to help generate offense when TT, DD, or OP are resting.

I still say that Tot, Dixon, Prewitt, Tarpey, and Sheldon is a defensive lineup with no passing lanes. Four ball hawks and a center, and I bet they'd block 8-10 shots a game.

While our offense revolves around the perimeter, penetrating either by drive or passing makes it so much better. When the defense has to collapse their will be shooters open on the perimeter. If the defense doesn't collapse, their are chances to score in the interior. I would really love to see more dribble penetration to open things up.

That being said, defense is what will or won't differentiate this team from its predecessors with regard to putting on dancing shoes at the end of the year.

Agree about the defense.

My bet is that we'll see some weird rotations this year where Rowley plays the high post and we have three guards on the court with Tarpey.

It won't matter on offense because we're not going to pound it down low anyway. Having Rowley, Tarpey, Dixon, Tot, and Schlotman on the court all at once may be a decent idea.

Rowley is going to cause a lot of match up problems for other teams as long as he can be physical enough on the boards on defense.

I was too high up in the arena to really observe the substitution patterns Friday night so I went back and looked at the minutes played in the box score. The math turn out to surprisingly straightforward:

Point guard: Cohn (29) and Schlotman (11) combined for 40 minutes. Both had solid games. Cohn is certainly an offensive spark but whoever suggested he would struggle defensively was right. No turnovers for Schlotman was a big step forward for him.

Off guard: I guess I should call this shooting guard but I still think of Dixon as a defensive specialist, which he is NOT. Dixon (32) and Burchfield (8) combined for 40 minutes. I now think of Burchfield as this team's Boatner but perhaps a better athlete. Shaver wants him to shoot when he is out there.

Center: Sheldon (22), Whitman (9) and Seacat (9) combined for 40 minutes. Sheldon rebounded well, the others not so much (especially Whitman). I really like Whitman's size and mobility but if he plays as "log" Whitman, I think he will lose his minutes to Seacat.

Forward: This was a three-man rotation Friday night: Tarpey (30), Prewitt (32) and Malinowski (18) played 80 minutes.

Other observations:

Coach went to his bench early, often and throughout the game.

I assume Tot will eat into the guard minutes. I am less sure about Rowley (I don't know about his health on Friday) but I guess he would eat into the forward minutes.

Shaver has always said he likes an 8-man rotation. He has a long way to go to get down to eight, if that is indeed his intention this year. The point of OOC games is to find the right rotation for the conference season; any RPI-enhancing wins are nice but not as crucial as developing the rotation.

We learned something Friday night and still have 10 more OOC games to learn more.

I think we wouldn't have seen Seacat if not for Whitman's foul trouble, although Seacat looked pretty good for a freshman. Coach does prefer an 8 man rotation, but tribeinexile's breakdown is an established rotation that wouldn't stray far from that and with any luck could keep our starters from playing 35 minutes a game and wearing down at the end of the season. I'm okay with 30-32 on average, but 35 on average is a lot of extra minutes. 30-32 is also better on a per-game basis, because I know that we had guys taking some offensive possessions off last year to conserve energy for the end of games.

Seacat could still redshirt, you can play in a few games and still redshirt. I forget what the rules on that are, but I don't think he will anyway.

(11-16-2015 09:58 PM)hktribefan Wrote:  Seacat could still redshirt, you can play in a few games and still redshirt. I forget what the rules on that are, but I don't think he will anyway.

I think that's only for Medical Redshirt

Ah yeah I think you're right. For some reason it sticks in my mind you could play a little, but I have nothing to back that up. I know medical has the 20% rule though.

We had a pretty extensive discussion (with links) here last year or the year before. Search "redshirt" on this forum and you'll probably find it.

Tribe friends,

Well, I'm stoked to see my first game at Zable tomorrow night. I have a question though. I have season tickets, but haven't received them. Do I pick them up at Will Call every game night or do I need to call and figure it out tomorrow?

-CG Hawk

Don't go to Zable or you may catch the end of football practice. Kidding aside, you should call the ticket office tomorrow and see where your tickets are. They usually mail them out, but if they still haven't done that you can pick them up there. My mom just got hers yesterday in person.

(11-18-2015 05:36 PM)Tribe32 Wrote:  Don't go to Zable or you may catch the end of football practice. Kidding aside, you should call the ticket office tomorrow and see where your tickets are. They usually mail them out, but if they still haven't done that you can pick them up there. My mom just got hers yesterday in person.

Hahahahaha. Nice. Yeah, I'll stay away from Zable then. I'm new 'round here, I'll make sure I get the names of the place right eventually. Thanks for the heads up. I just purchased them yesterday so I'll call tomorrow and see what the deal is. Thanks again.