BillySee58

Tight ends had 12 catches for 117 yards in his offense last year and 7 catches for 56 yards the year before that. Maybe selfishly we would love to keep him, but would he serve as more than Gumms insurance? 10 personnel is usually Morris’ base offense.

It’s all about who goes to the line. When it’s Perry and Huntsberry getting to the stripe, we’re going to have a good percentage. When it’s Martinez, Scott, and Abou, it won’t be as pretty. That being said, Abou has taken a good step forward there lately. His form is decent. Just seems like he’s more in rhythm. In the past he has gone up too fast. Now it looks more smooth and in sync between his top half and bottom half of his body.

Agreed

Seems to me like we are clicking the same way we were last year. Grinding teams down defensively, not being pretty offensively. I know you’re referring more to team chemistry but it feels like we are where we were last year at this point (maybe a little ahead), but the biggest difference to me is that we have more capable players who seem to be playing below their proven offensive capabilities. Last year’s team it felt like we had as good a season as we possibly could have had with that group (save for the CUSA tourney). This year it feels like we have some space between where we are at and our ceiling. So I don’t think it is so much panic as it is seeing how scary we can be if guys like Huntsberry, Eady, and Rubin just start hitting at the same clips they had been at historically.

The boys haven’t played a home game since December 3rd against Omaha, and that is the only home game they have played in the last month. They have really been impressive road/neutral court warriors. Hoping that shooting on their own rims with a strong crowd behind them can be enough to lift them over a tough opponent.

Kai and Rubin. I believe Kai still has another year of eligibility. He is listed as a senior, just like Perry who has another year. The guys listed as “5th” or “6th” are the guys in their last year of eligibility due to currently utilizing their extra year of eligibility due to COVID.

Eh, that saying is very flawed. What if something is breaking? Do we wait until it has fully broken to address fixing it? What if just a part of something is broken but it doesn’t prevent the whole system from working? Our offense is probably the thing holding us back from being a legit top 25 team. Doesn’t mean we need to fire Mccasland or change everything up, but maybe consider a little bit of tinkering instead of ignoring players coming here and becoming much less effective offensively just because we are winning.

This is absolutely true. We also don’t have a tremendous group of ball handlers so asking them to hold the ball/move the ball around that long is also going to lead to more turnovers than if you let a good shot fly with 18 seconds on the shot clock.

Rubin Jones was a 36.6% three-point shooter entering the season and is at just 21.7% from three this year. Tyree Eady was a 38.6% three-point shooter entering the season and is at just 25.8% from three this year. Kai Huntsberry shot 39.8% from three at his JUCO and 41% at his D2 school but is shooting just 22.4% from three this year. Jayden Martinez is shooting okay from three, but his shooting percentage for his 4-year career at UNH was 45% from the floor and he is shooting just 30% from the floor this season. Part of this you can really argue is an indictment on Mccasland’s offense. It’s not the easiest offense to be efficient in when you play hot potato for 20 seconds before really making a move with the shot-clock dwindling sometimes. But to a certain degree you have to expect these percentages to correct themselves and progress back towards the mean. If they can, that completely changes the game on what caliber team we can be.

See Vito’s tweet above. Sounds like we have a chance for the February NSD.

What makes you say that? His QBs, Copeland and Ward, have not been dual threats.

I am eagerly awaiting when Rubin Jones starts to make his shots. Same for Eady, Huntsberry, and Scott

Not to mention San Antonio with Morris and some UIW guys.

Judging by his comments last year and the fact that he has purchased a house, it seems likely he has. Also when you consider 1 mil after taxes is more like $650K, and that was 10 years ago.

Not only was Gray offered by us, but he was committed to UNT for a while.

What is vague about it?

This is beautiful information

Yeah, that and the fact that there are a lot more factors going into those results than just the position coaches. It wasn’t an entirely bad basis for choosing coaches, just overly simplistic and flawed, as I said.

Right. It just seems a solid step more nuanced than the “three phases” non-sense. I know every coach wins the press conference, but this was something in particular that I was looking for going into the press conference and I thought he sounded competent addressing the topic.

I’m not normally a huge fan of these comparisons but this really stood out to me. During Littrell’s opening press conference he said that he hired defensive coaches based on whose defenses were the toughest to score against, from his experience. I remember not liking that comment and feeling it was overly simplistic. Later, during I believe the 2020 season, our defense was struggling and he was asked by Vito or someone else specific questions about the defense and his response was “I’m not a defensive coach. You’d have to ask them.” Coming from the head coach that is an atrocious response. Today Eric Morris, when speaking about defense and special teams talked much more in depth about how he learned in his previous HC role how important it was to put a solid game plan together there and what it takes to really be effective there. That was arguably the most impressive thing he said today IMO. We hire HCs to win games, not just score points. Morris has really said the right things to understand he is coming here to run the whole program, not just “tee it high and let it fly.”

Again, we’re talking about operating based on something that is not happening. Maybe it does, but we’re not seeing it and I don’t see the value in operating like it is occurring until we actually see it happen.

Players like KD and Shorter just gave us 5 seasons in Green. Mose gave us 6. Brammer went P5 but only after he had given us 5 years and only had an extra year to go P5 because of the extra COVID year. The twins are the only starters we have lost to P5s in this portal era who actually hadn’t already given us 4 seasons. We even saw KD hit the portal, get P5 interest, and come back. There just doesn’t seem to be evidence yet of this “P5 farm system” where the high school players we develop leave us after they become starters to go P5, unless there’s a coaching change or something drastic. I will say, you bring guys in with connections and that increases our chances at hitting on P5 offers. Guys like Morris and Gilbert who have actually coached P5 guys hitting the portal, there is value there. Otherwise, I just don’t think the odds are good or the ceiling is higher than an average player when you go after these P5 third stringers.

Same reason Umoja Gibson didn’t have to sit out after transferring to DePaul this year. It appears as though they are letting grad transfers have as many sit out free transfers as they want. In other words, I think you would have to sit out if you transfer a second time as an undergrad (and you actually played right away).

Yeah I think we can get contributors from P5s. I just think that if we forego HS recruiting as our primary source of additions in favor of P5 transfers, you’re going to have a team without stars. A team of Enoch Jacksons, Latrell Nevilles, and John Davis type players is going to struggle. Add them, sure. But mix them in, not make them the primary type of signing