Zink

Yeah, I'd just tend to value on-court performance more than fan hype... Josiah hasn't done anything as a college hoops player. he could become a stud. He could wash out. Just way harder to count on versus someone like Thames who has shown us that he can be an above-average player even on a pretty bad team.

This guy looks like he'll be a stud... would be wild to land him. Too perfect tbh.

I'd put Thames over Dotzler tbh - I think Thames could make a leap this year. He is an athletic freak who figured out his shot. Plus, he was a 1 in HS and has solid court vision, so I think he'll fit the pass and move offense incredibly well and really break out. His trouble has been that he doesn't really have the ball-handling to go with his vision, but I think that the more ball movement pass & cut oriented way that Schertz's team runs (versus dribble-drive) will be to his benefit.

Feel like Turnbull could’ve got minutes here, both spelling Avila and as a corner sniper. No reason you can’t play two bigs in a 5-out, so long as both can shoot.

Agree that you can never have too many of those kinds of players, but: McCottry is a Freshman, and therefore hard to rely on. Hughes is a great teammate, but ultimately his underlying stats are not very impressive. On a bad team overall, so hopefully we see some improvement with better players around him, but again, we have no evidence that he is even an average A10 player thus far in his career. I hope he dominates under Schertz, but very TBD. Swope is the only player of this type that we actually have on the roster with the proven ability to perform at the desired level.

Maybe Swope will help Zyree see what he can do in this offense...

Swope has played as a 1 before, and he has solid ball-handling skills... he's really more of an undersized 2 though. Having such a small 2 limits the kind of player who can play at 1 though. I don't think there will be a meaningful difference between 1-3 (1-4?) in the half court under Schertz, though.

Current roster broken out by G/F: G - Jimerson, Swope, Thames, McCottry, Hughes F - Avila, Pikaar Probably need one more proven guard, ideally someone who can serve as a primary ball-handler. As others have pointed out, Schertz's offense is not reliant on an individual playmaker at the 1, but their PG last year (Larry) did still manage to have 5apg. Also, definitely need another big to complement/spell Avila and a swingman who is solid on the boards (could be Thames?). Edit: ACE saying more or less the same thing

Assuming Curcic is here on a student visa, he likely can’t receive NIL funds in the usual manner. Feel like solid international players are quickly going to be the “Moneyball” strategy for those whom NIL has left behind.

Seems very similar to Nitu. Wonder if Schertz wants both or if Nitu will be going elsewhere.

Yeah, agree. Just saying that the inverse (NCAA respecting Federal laws) has decidedly not always been the case.

Yeah, just saying that it seems like NCAA and the US Govt are aligned on this. I could have seen the NCAA trying to call NIL a form of work-study or stipend or something if they wanted to try to get away with it, like they did with “amateurism” for decades. Instead, it looks like everyone is ok with not paying student visa holders (for now).

Quick note/thought on the NIL/recruiting situation. At present, I believe international players here on student visas are unable to be paid using NIL. At least in an above board manner. Wonder if that will become a common way to round out rosters, and keep a supply of “free” labor available… several of these latest rumors involve international students, so wondering if that will be a way to funnel higher amounts to a smaller portion of the roster. Also feel like this will be the hot new NCAA violation, but unlike with some of the older ones the courts will probably be on the side of the NCAA.

Random Note - the recruits listed above (Nitu, Alderink, Birmingham, and Williford) are all lefties... unless every piece of film on each of them is mirrored or something...

Yeah, this roughly aligns to Box Plus/Minus on cbref.com; basically, how far above or below average were you on offense and defense in your minutes. Pretty solid advanced metric to use to evaluate players. Definitely seems like advance stats show Swope as the lowest rated Sycamore starter, with Avila>Conwell>Kent>Larry. Swope is rated similarly to Hargrove.