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Atlantic 10 and National College Basketball Rumor Mill


Taj79

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Approaching under a month to the next school year and still no landing place for Jalen Johnson or Marko.  I am more and more inclined to believe that Jalen got bad advice.

Around the A10, Josh Ayeni has landed out of Olean and transferred to South Alabama.  Rothstein reported he was offered just yesterday and then signed earlier this morning.  After a promising freshman year, Ayeni regressed last year dropping from 17 mpg and 7 ppg to 15 and 5.  I thought when coupled with fellow sophomore Amadi Ipkeze, they appeared to give the Bonnies a nice combo, albeit in development, for their co-inciding terms at Olean.  Not now.  Currently, SBU is two scholarships short of a full bench with five open offers out there.  And from ym perch, they are woefully lacking experience going forward.  They return three gusy from last year's roster in Kaputo, Griffina nd the afrorementioned Ipkeze.  They also welcome UNLV transfer Jalen Poyser to the court.  The only other guy with any D1 experience is a freshman who played like 4 minutes per gam ein 18 games last year.  Brownindian should be incredibly quiet this year.

On a surprise, Rhode Island announced earlier this week that rising senior Nicola Akele is foregoing his senior year to turn pro.  After doing a double-take on that news, I realized Akele is originally from Italy so this is in no way an NBA move.  I think it s a safe bet to say we'll never see ol' Nicola gracing the court with the Lebron's of the world.  But stranger things have happened.  Akele was never a mainstay on the Rams teams these past three years .... over his three years he average about 3, 3 and 2 ppg.  What his leaving does do is weaken an already weak area for the Rams.  His experience would have added to a frontcourt of Cyril Langevine and Mike Layssard which will now have to stand on its own.  Only other big on returning roster, 6'10" Nigerian Michael Tertsea only saw action in 13 games last year before redshirting on an injury claim.  That's going to put a lot of pressure on four-star freshman Jermaine Harris to perform and perform right out of the gate.  If this is only a move to free up an additional scholarship, that might not work.  Currently, the Rams are two schollies shy of  a full boat and of the extended offers, both are to guards.  This team lost a lot in Matthews, Robinson, Terrell, Garret and Berry.  I think they'll be ranked top three but more on rep ---- they could just as easily go south as north.

Landing spots are still open for other A10 transfers besides our two.  Those still searching include Chris Baldwin (Umass), Gerald Blount (St. Joe's), John Crosby (Dayton), and Perris Hicks (Fordham).  Of the 750+ transfer being tracked this year, 172 or 23% (166 not counting the A10 six) still are in need of landing sports. 

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True.  I was always under the impression that Bartley gave Ford a chance, didn't like it, then bolted.  Which is always the player's perrogative given a coaching change IMO.  I guess the smaller schools could come calling but like roy and some others, I kind of assumed it was LSU in Baton Rouge that must be in JJ's plans.  I also believe given this late of a date, JJ is now looking at fall back options.  No concrete proof one way or the other.

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This is an example of someone (me) taking an innocuous web post (Jalens' departing tweet about his transfer being best for his family) and drawing the line that he wanted to get closer to home.  That's how I took "best for me and my family" when he said he was transferring.  I assumed "family" meant closer to home ala the speculation (by some) on Mickey' Pearson's decommitment.  So -- shame on me. 

Still, a guy with that talent, a guy I see much better than just about every other A10 transfer, has still not landed.  That is a truth anyway.

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1 hour ago, Taj79 said:

This is an example of someone (me) taking an innocuous web post (Jalens' departing tweet about his transfer being best for his family) and drawing the line that he wanted to get closer to home.  That's how I took "best for me and my family" when he said he was transferring.  I assumed "family" meant closer to home ala the speculation (by some) on Mickey' Pearson's decommitment.  So -- shame on me. 

Still, a guy with that talent, a guy I see much better than just about every other A10 transfer, has still not landed.  That is a truth anyway.

This is all about his Dad, who believes he can get to the NBA.

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LaSalle vs. Nova on 1 DEC at Palestra is pretty cool for the conference.  A10 needs to represent in noncon to help out SLU's RPI.

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1 hour ago, TheA_Bomb said:

LaSalle vs. Nova on 1 DEC at Palestra is pretty cool for the conference.  A10 needs to represent in noncon to help out SLU's RPI.

Don't the 5 Philly teams play each other every year? (Nova,Lasalle,Penn,Temple and-I'm drawing a blank on the 5th one)

Edit:  Sorry the 5th is St Joe

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8 hours ago, bauman said:

Good story in A-10 Talk, which is linked on the front page of this Board.  A few omissions (1,2 and 3 spot depth, e.g Wiley, Thatch and/or Jacobs) but you can't cover everything.  Worth a read.

I can't see a position we don't have backed up by a very good sub. Again, if these guys mesh and egos are stuffed in their lockers this could be a very special season. 

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Yes the Philly Big Five play every year.  What's sad about La Salle and St. Joe's in this city rivalry is neither the Gola Mausoleum nor the Hagard Arena is large enough to foot a crowd, ergo may times home games with a power like Nova get shifted to the venerable Palestra --- Penn's home court.  As is the case with La Salle/Nova this year.

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I checked the website of the U. of Louisiana Lafayette, basketball. They list their roster for 2018 as having 15 players, everyone has a number assigned with the exception of Jalen Johnson. They may be over the limit by 2 unless they include a couple of walk ons.

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Well, this seems like a big deal:

We were going to see him at Seton Hall, and now we'er going to face him against St. Joe's. Solid power forward who had offers from Illinois, Syracuse, Wake Forest, Temple, DePaul, Rutgers, Memphis, and Rhody. There are already some college basketball writers saying he'll be the best newcomer in the A10 next season. I'd like to pass that memo along to our team and see what they have to say about it, but he is a good player and changes things for St. Joe's quite a bit.

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27 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Well, this seems like a big deal:

We were going to see him at Seton Hall, and now we'er going to face him against St. Joe's. Solid power forward who had offers from Illinois, Syracuse, Wake Forest, Temple, DePaul, Rutgers, Memphis, and Rhody. There are already some college basketball writers saying he'll be the best newcomer in the A10 next season. I'd like to pass that memo along to our team and see what they have to say about it, but he is a good player and changes things for St. Joe's quite a bit.

He is already practicing calling Carteare daddy.

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6 minutes ago, brianstl said:

He is already practicing calling Carteare daddy.

He has a size edge on CG at 6-9, 225 but I'll take our guy's athleticism. Really looking forward to seeing this matchup with our bigs. CG and HF can get him in foul trouble early, and if not, Santos can push him around.

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7 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

If I had to pick an A-10 team to be good at the same time we are and develop into a rivalry every year as we are fighting for A-10 titles, it would be St. Joe's.   I think a good St. Joe's program brings notoriety to the league.

I'd love to see St. Joe's get strong again. I don't think we're going to see another 2004 squad anytime soon, but a St. Joe's team that's regularly in contention for the Tournament would indeed be a good thing. I'll say the same for VCU, Rhode Island, Dayton (ugh), and Davidson. Given the dynamics in college basketball right now, I tend to feel pretty strongly that stronger conference opponents are a good thing, especially when you're not in a power conference. Sure, a clear road is tempting and Gonzaga, with apologies to St. Mary's, has made it work. But give me a stronger conference over a one-power-program league.

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