(10-06-2022 08:08 AM)dan10 Wrote:  No doubt. But it is also a wonder how he is rated so highly. He has done just about nothing since leaving here. You would think doing so little for so long would come with a pretty low coaching rank. Good for him to keep it going though.

For those who didnt click, NC A&T coach at the top is the lowest rated coach in all of DI, which is not a good look for the CAA (despite their tough circumstance that led to him getting the job late)

i just posted...in maybe a more polite way...that this is worthless. how do you consider all the factors at the different levels of college basketball? they obviously started with name and program recognition which is why patrick ewing isn't dead last. holloway's huge jump showed they miscalculated last year...or another way to look at it...does one cinderella year make a career?

As I said, its heavy on recency bias (and also conference bias) but is fun. Not that it should be taken as serious.

Former final four announcer Billy Packer passed away. He was 82. Certainly was not a mid major favorite, but certainly had a long successful career.

Something I was thinking about recently. Theres been plenty of discussions about how weak the CAA is and how it wont ever get back to where it was with multiple bids or multiple bid scares and how we are solidly a single big league now. I dont think anyone is going to argue that those comments are likely facts. The bigger drawing schools moved on and the replacements are not similar to those who left. CofC has been on a nice run overall this year even though the at large hopes are still rather non-existent. That said, we also know that the transfer portal has mostly hurt non power conference schools. I think this is also a fact. But pondering the what could have been's:

Imagine a league this year where:
Tyson Walker, Shaq Walters was still playing for Northeastern
Andrew Carr at Delaware (Obviously it goes both way so a Jameer Nelson Jr and Jaire Davis may not be at UD)
TJ Bickerstaff, Cam Wynter (Even Xavier Bell) at Drexel
Hunter Woods at Elon
Julian Lewis, Connor Kochera, Luke Loewe at W&M
Brendan Tucker, Zep Jasper at CofC

My point was pondering that this league still gets really good players and this league could have been a crazy strong league. The portal will continue to limit this league. But I think it is showing how difficult life will continue being to raise the overall profile of the league because those under rated players that are highly skilled wont stick around. The 2nd point is that as a league we have got to do a better job hitting the portal and finding those same players we find during recruiting and getting them to come to our league. But I still think this league can be a really high end resume building league in this new NCAA. I am ok if we accept our spot at a minor league for the power conference teams. I dont have to like it, but reality sucks sometimes.

Id rather us have a more consistently strong league than a league where we have a really strong team and several that are some of the worst in division 1. The CAA was strong in those mid 2000's because of player retainment while bringing in good talent. I think we can get back to a similar model as long as our coaches learn how to find those same gems in the portal. We clearly still have highly talented players going through this league.

One other note, the coaches around the league should also really be pointing to some of these same players in showing that the grass is indeed not always greener on the other side as a ploy to try and get some high end talent to stay.

I have been meaning to go look up the ex-Drexel players to see how they're doing.

Wynter and Bickerstaff are kind of in the same boat: Playing a decent number of minutes on major conference teams that aren’t going to the NCAA tourney.

Bell is only getting 14 minutes a game on a 6th-place Wichita State team, but at least he’s at home and still has eligibility.

Hofstra has had many transfers in both directions, and has had great transfers in. As long as Aaron Estrada stays healthy, this will be the fifth time in twelve seasons that the CAA's Player of the Year and/or scoring leader was a transfer to Hofstra. Hofstra has only three players from last season (excluding players who had redshirts). Transfer in Tyler Thomas is an improvement over transfer out Omar Silverio. Among forwards, transfers in Nelson Boachie-Yiadom and Warren Williams combine to be a little worse than transfer out Abayomi Iyiola and Kvonn Cramer. Jaquan Carlos, who played 165 minutes last season, is an improvement over transfer out Caleb Burgess.

I didnt name them all because there are far too many. My point was we could have been a really strong league and we still get very talented players here. Cant keep them. But can recruit them. So I was saying if the coaches could recruit the portal like they do normally we can still have an extremely talented league.

From the Drexel standpoint, I hope Spiker has our guys numbers plastered all over the locker room showing that the grass is not always greener, no matter your talent level. They are all under achieving or in TJ's stance, he is still playing in a system that doesnt fit his skillset

On the topic of transfers, former Elon player Hunter Woods had one of the plays of the season for Portland State to beat Northern Arizona. With 0.4 seconds left, he threw the inbounds pass all the way down the court to a teammate who made the winning shot. If Northern Arizona's players and home fans thought they were out of the woods (pun intended) with a win, they were wrong.

That was a crazy shot for sure. If thats what beats you you have to just tip your hat

In the coaching carousel so far this offseason:
Georgetown hired Cooley from Providence.
Providence in turn hired Kim English from George Mason
George Mason hired former player Tony Skinn (to Loren Stokes dismay somewhere, I am sure)

Notre Dame hired PSU's Micah Shrewsbury
PSU hired Mike Rhoades from VCU
VCU hired former UMBC/Utah State coach Ryan Odom

St John's hired Rick Pitino from Iona
Iona hired FDU's Tobin Anderson

Ole Miss hired Chris Beard
McNeese State hired Will Wade
Georgia Tech hired Damon Stoudamire
Holy Cross hired former Mason coach Dave Paulsen

Not really off topic, but NC A&T hired...Monte Ross. No seriously, they did. So I guess that means A&T really is not on the rise. I feel they could have done better in their hiring. But it should open up some new rivalry opportunities for ole Mon-Tee

TIL Monte Ross was teammates with Stephen A. Smith.

Interesting choice. Makes me think NC A&T isn't piling a lot of money into their MBB coach's salary.

Not so off topic, but didnt want to create a new thread. This is awfully impressive.

Twitter Link

I'm glad Amari will be back. I just hope this experienced team can put it all together next season.

The big, but unsurprising news of the day.

Link

Alternate Link

UMass moving to the MAC in all sports. Opens up a spot or 2 in the A10, which is figured to be filled by Charleston.

I'm not saying anything new here, but it's a shame what football is doing to college conferences.

The A-10 is clearly one of the top mid-major basketball conferences in the country. And UMass gets to trade that for weeknight football games, CAA-level basketball and a slate of schools, mostly from Ohio and Michigan. Good luck trying to fill the Mullins Center vs. any MAC school. (FWIW, the MAC used to be a really good mid-major, but it's been heading downhill for several years.)

The A-10 could decide to stand pat, but they have a record of being aggressive so I don't really expect that. The list of schools that might have a shot is very small, and you have to think Charleston is on it. Maybe Belmont?

I would note that the A-10 has a recent history of only taking schools who actually advanced very far in the NCAA tourney in lesser leagues. That's not Charleston. So we'll see.

Seems to me like they need to form a Division 1 all sports conference for the northeast and Mid-Atlantic. They'd have the perfect home for UConn, UMass, Temple, Delaware, JMU, ODU, and I'm sure a bunch of others who want Division I football but aren't viable for a Power 5 conference. I'm sure some of the other CAA football schools might decide to make the jump to Division I FBS if a conference like this existed.

I should add: I do actually expect A-10 to add Charleston. It will be a loss for the CAA, but hopefully not one that leads to rash decisions.

(02-26-2024 03:49 PM)J.B. Wrote:  Seems to me like they need to form a Division 1 all sports conference for the northeast and Mid-Atlantic. They'd have the perfect home for UConn, UMass, Temple, Delaware, JMU, ODU, and I'm sure a bunch of others who want Division I football but aren't viable for a Power 5 conference. I'm sure some of the other CAA football schools might decide to make the jump to Division I FBS if a conference like this existed.

I just don't think they have the numbers for teams who would actually be interested in that. UConn would not trade the Big East for that group. JMU and ODU have a good thing going in the SBC East. Temple should be interested but they keep wanting to make the AAC a thing.