BillySee58

Yeah but it also seemed to be a soul searching loss that led to a real solid improvement in play after. We immediately smoked UAB at their place (without Jelly) and we’re 13-2 since then. Sucks that it took a loss to get there but I’m happy with the progression the team has made.

Rice finishes with 19 wins. They are the only team to beat us this season that failed to reach 20 wins.

I am hoping to spend a few days in Denver before driving to Laramie for the game Saturday. Wife and I got married in Colorado. Looking forward to this trip.

For sure. Anytime we bring in someone 6’5”-6’7” I expect them to play 4 until I see them playing primarily on the wing, which hasn’t really happened with the guys we have brought in previously. Not that we have brought in a ton of guys in that height range. Maybe we start bringing some more size at the wing in the AAC, but it seems like Mccasland’s formula is 3 guards, a decently skilled 6’6”/6’7” guy at the 4, and then more of a traditional big man at the 5.

Wow. Didn’t realize it was that bad.

Every time we’ve gotten these bigger “guard/wing” type guys, Mccasland has seemed to stick them almost exclusively at the 4. I do think we’ll see some more size at guard in the AAC, so maybe that’s what the plan is. But anytime I see Grant going after a 6’5”-6’7” dude I immediately think that’s going to be a 4. That being said, I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to having more of those type of guys on the wing. Would definitely be a direction that makes sense.

Just looking at his numbers, I think Austin would be primarily a 4 here if not for Scott. Over 2 blocks a game each of the last two seasons, and was at 8 rebounds per game as a freshman. With Scott being in the fold, maybe they envision Austin playing more 3 to have them both on the court, but to your point, I think that’s the kind of guy you would want next to Scott when you do go small. A guy who can rebound and offer some rim protection, despite giving up some height. There was another 6’7” dude we were reported to have reached out to. Forgetting who. Either way, definitely don’t think we are looking for a primary starting 4 to push Scott to the 5, but at least the versatility to go that route when the matchup or game calls for it.

Yeah it’ll be interesting to see. There have been a couple guys we have been reported to have reached out to who, while not true 5s, would probably carve into Abou’s minutes. Aaron Scott is so hard to take off the floor at the 4, so if we landed someone like Zack Austin, that would make us even less reliant on Abou. Still expect him to start but maybe instead of keeping him on the court through these 2-10, 5-15 type performances he has had, we just utilize our other options. Sort of like tonight

We are the 2 seed. Per the official NCAA website https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2023-03-15/2023-nit-bracket-schedule-tv-channels-mens-tournament?amp

Perry could definitely come back but Huntsberry does appear to be done. He played in 18-19 and 19-20 at the JUCO level, then in 21-22 at U of Mary and 22-23 here. He is listed as a Senior rather than “5th” or “6th” because he didn’t actually play during the COVID year (20-21) so he’s not taking advantage of the extra year. He just played 4 regular seasons of college basketball outside the COVID season.

It sucks. Anyone else sitting at 111-127 after 8 years and I’d say get em out. Right answer is probably that the bar should be the same for her.

Kai’s situation is weird because he missed the COVID year. So while it does appear he won’t have any eligibility remaining, he isn’t listed as “5th” or “6th” because he isn’t playing in his 5th or 6th season. It’s his 4th. Played 18-19 & 19-20 seasons in JUCO, 21-22 last season at U of Mary, and 22-23 here.

Christian Moore 30 piece incoming.

Rubin is playing nothing short of all-conference defense on the perimeter. Elite stuff.

Good luck to them both. Hope Cam Robertson turns the opportunity into something special. Kadren Johnson is no slouch either

We had non-conference games scheduled with Memphis and SMU. Those are now conference opponents. Non-conference schedules are filled years in advance, so not like a bunch of schools just had open spots on their 2023/2024 schedules hoping we’d come calling.

We know all of our non-conference games and dates at this point. Cal 9/2/23 @ FIU 9/9/23 @ La Tech 9/16/23 Abilene Christian 9/30/23 https://fbschedules.com/2023-north-texas-football-schedule/ So once these drop we should have ourselves a full schedule.

We held firm at 46. Charlotte is up to 111, which is the 4th highest NET in CUSA. A Quad 2 win would be nice here, especially if we could win by a decent margin.

Tied last year’s mark for most regular season wins in school history with 23. Also clinched at least the two seed in Frisco tonight.

To answer this question, because it’s not a shot. It’s a fact that we haven’t seen Grant get to work with an NBA player on the roster. Saying it’s easy to see how a guy who has maximized every team’s success could take an NBA talent and reach the Top 25/Sweet 16 isn’t controversial. It’s not mutually exclusive to say an NBA talent would probably would get us to that level, and that we could still get there without it. Also not mutually exclusive to say he hasn’t gotten an NBA talent and he still has recruited well. I think your and Emmitt’s responses seem to imply these notions are in direct opposition, but they are not.

This was his extra year due to COVID. He was a 6th-year Senior. The question is will the NCAA give him a 7th season on top of it.

St. Joseph’s, not St. John’s. And they did make it past the 2nd round with West and Nelson. They made it to the Elite 8. https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/saint-josephs/men/2004.html Again, we can play the outlier game and the say this team did this and that team did that, the point is “imagine what Grant could do if had even more talent to work with?” It’s really not any deeper than that. Not saying he can’t make the Sweet 16 with the talent level he has or he can’t have success in the AAC, or anything else.

Love the way we’re playing our best ball heading into the final stretch.

I think you are getting wrapped up in thinking that we are saying it has to be a big splash at the time of signing. The point is that getting a guy that actually ends up on NBA draft boards is what It usually takes to push top Mid Majors over that edge from good Mid Major to actual ranked/Sweet 16 caliber. Regardless of where that player is out of High School. Mccasland is a great coach. Not exactly a controversial statement to think he could push us to a higher level with a higher-end talent than what he has previously worked with.

I gotcha. I think they have a pretty clearly better group of shot makers. They shoot about 5% better from the floor, and they have more dynamic athletes. Michael Forrest was their leading scorer last year and he is not a starter or in their closing lineup. They have a really impressive talent pool on their team, even if they don’t have individuals who stand out as potential draft picks. But yeah, to greenminer’s point, getting an elite talent to go along with the gritty defensive focused player would propel us from a top 50-60 team to a potential top 25 team. And that’s what we have seen over the years with a lot of the Top 25 Mid Majors over the years. Guys like Jameer Nelson and Delonte West at St Joe’s, Hayward at Butler, Korver ant Creighton, even Courtney Lee at WKU in their Sweet 16 run in 08. That’s typically how you see good Mid Majors make that jump to national prominence.