(12-29-2018 03:27 PM)tribeinexile Wrote:  I think the lineage is Tarpey to Prewitt to Pierce. It’s a key role for us and the quality of the players we’ve been able to field in it has been a major factor in our recent success. And it seems to me each of those players has had to wait patiently for his predecessor to graduate.

A recent post in another thread referred to Cameron Brown’s strength which makes me wonder if he and Blair won’t be competing for that spot when Pierce graduates.

Agree with this. I like Quinn’s game but next year all we lose is Rowley and we insert Andy VV for one year in Paul’s place.. Not sure how much Quinn will play in the front court next year, and that it’s not because he isn’t a good, but rather we will have three well-established all conference caliber senior front court players playing those two positions ahead of him already in a year that has been targeted as “the year” for us. We are going to want to ride those horses as as far and as long as we can.

I think Cam Brown has the potential to have a Chase like impact On the wing next year. But he will be competing for minutes with Milon, Audige, and Owens in the 2/3 spot.

I think we will get a ton from Quinn Blair his junior and senior years though in the 4 position.

(12-28-2018 10:21 PM)bubbadog57 Wrote:  You are right re attendance! 3690 outstanding for a holiday Friday night and no students.
There was a large walk-in crowd that piled in ten minutes before the tipoff.

Crowd very supportive and really into it at the end. Kudos to the two cheerleaders who hung in there all night and kept t-shirts flying out to crowd.

This is great news!

Last year’s opener against Hofstra drew a comparable crowd of 3794. I gather from a comment on the JMU board that their attendance was pretty sparse. This suggests we are starting to build a pretty solid floor on our basketball attendance.

(12-29-2018 01:18 PM)tribeintexas Wrote:  

(12-29-2018 01:15 PM)Zorch Wrote:  

(12-29-2018 01:09 PM)WM Beancounter Wrote:  It might have been wise to redshirt Harvey this year, particularly with so many other scholarships assigned to the 2022 graduating class.

I would worry that a kid from California would get homesick and would also be fretting about having to sit out a whole year ---- and bolt.

Harvey will play when we get into the heart of CAA schedule. Knight will get into early foul troubles and Rowley cannot handle the upper echelon big men. Harvey is all we got so we need him.

I respectfully disagree, based on what I've seen so far. I expect a 6'6" Blair will get minutes as Knight's backup before a 6'9" Mehkel will in conference play. The difference is in offensive ability and court awareness. Blair has it, and Mehkel just doesn't at this stage.

(12-29-2018 05:41 PM)WM Beancounter Wrote:  

(12-29-2018 01:18 PM)tribeintexas Wrote:  

(12-29-2018 01:15 PM)Zorch Wrote:  

(12-29-2018 01:09 PM)WM Beancounter Wrote:  It might have been wise to redshirt Harvey this year, particularly with so many other scholarships assigned to the 2022 graduating class.

I would worry that a kid from California would get homesick and would also be fretting about having to sit out a whole year ---- and bolt.

Harvey will play when we get into the heart of CAA schedule. Knight will get into early foul troubles and Rowley cannot handle the upper echelon big men. Harvey is all we got so we need him.

I respectfully disagree, based on what I've seen so far. I expect a 6'6" Blair will get minutes as Knight's backup before a 6'9" Merkel will in conference play. The difference is in offensive ability and court awareness. Blair has it, and Merkel just doesn't at this stage.

Agreed, but should we expect the 64 year old German Chancellor to understand how our offense works?

That's one of the better posts of all time one these boards.

(12-29-2018 07:56 PM)Tribe32 Wrote:  That's one of the better posts of all time one these boards.

I have to agree. Solid post.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Damn autocorrect

(12-30-2018 07:47 AM)WM Beancounter Wrote:  Damn autocorrect

You're a beancounter. You're vocation demands you comb through every detail to uncover anomalies, glitches, and irregularities. Do not hide behind the vail of "autocorrect;" you're better than that.

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Vail?

Yes, we are all nerds here! (Insert Sheldon Cooper quote.)

(12-30-2018 09:03 AM)tribeinexile Wrote:  Vail?

Yes, we are all nerds here! (Insert Sheldon Cooper quote.)

"I'm not crazy; my mother had me tested."

(12-29-2018 03:56 PM)Zorch Wrote:  

(12-29-2018 03:27 PM)tribeinexile Wrote:  I think the lineage is Tarpey to Prewitt to Pierce. It’s a key role for us and the quality of the players we’ve been able to field in it has been a major factor in our recent success. And it seems to me each of those players has had to wait patiently for his predecessor to graduate.

A recent post in another thread referred to Cameron Brown’s strength which makes me wonder if he and Blair won’t be competing for that spot when Pierce graduates.

Not sure how accurate that is in Prewitt's case. He played significant minutes as a freshman.

And, in fact, he was CAA ROY in 2013-14. I had totally forgotten that.

On the other hand, he only started 8 games, playing behind Tarpey and Gaillard, both of whom got more minutes than he. That is where I got the impression that he "waited" his turn.

Interestingly enough, neither Thornton nor Knight were ROY.

Omar and Daniel Dixon played perhaps the most significant minutes of any freshmen we have had. They were both fantastic 5 years ago on that night in March except for a missed one in one that I cannot seem to forget. I like where this year's team is going right now and I hope they continue to build on it. As we all learned in 2015, there is no year that is automatically "the year". So, it seems to me that they might as well keep battling and improving and win in Charleston this season. Rocco's analogy of Groundhog Day still plays over and over. When you look at the potential foes in Charleston, Northeastern and Hofstra right now, it seems impossible to imagine winning over 2 of them unless you find a way to slow Riller, JWF and Pusica and rebound the ball on the defensive boards. The weekend was encouraging, especially from Audige, Knight and Pierce. Some good defensive plays also created some good offensive opportunities. But, there is a long way to go to getting the big stops and making the big shots in a couple months.

I hope the team can focus on each week as its own mini 2 game tourney. This week it is a road tourney and next week a very tough CAA tourney preview.

Finally, I am pulling for Matt Milon. While I too am enamored with the freshmen, Matt is still the guy I want with the ball at the line in a key spot and I trust him to hit the big shot. Obviously, defense is a significant issue and critical to his being able to be on the floor in those big moments.

Let's look at what we have. Juniors are stronger than most classes we have here. Two freshmen look like the real deal. Hopefully we gel and do something great this year. Add a big Belgian in place of Rowley next year and we may be on to something.

(01-01-2019 06:34 PM)TribePride91 Wrote:  Finally, I am pulling for Matt Milon. While I too am enamored with the freshmen, Matt is still the guy I want with the ball at the line in a key spot and I trust him to hit the big shot. Obviously, defense is a significant issue and critical to his being able to be on the floor in those big moments.

I agree with this 100%.