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GDT - A10 Media Day


Pistol

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1 minute ago, HoosierPal said:

Stockard plus another starter were hurt the first 1/4 of the season.  They lost a bunch early, but they also got a lot of playing time for their younger players.

St Bonnie has only one senior on this year's squad, back up C Ipkeze.  I'm calling it right now, if that squad stays together after this season, they are A10 Co-champs (with the Bills) in 2020-21.

You do have to respect Schmidt as a coach. He's probably got the toughest school to recruit to in the A10 unless the recruit loves snowmobiling. But he always puts a tough squad on the floor. They give us fits every year. 

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57 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Here are my rankings:

1. VCU
2. Davidson
3. Dayton
4. Rhode Island
5. Duquesne
6. SLU
7. St. Bonaventure
8. Richmond
9. George Mason
10. UMass
11. George Washington
12. La Salle
13. Fordham
14. St. Joe's

The biggest sticking point for me is the 5-9 range, especially as it relates to SLU, Richmond, and Bonaventure - I could put those in any order, all at about .500 or a game above. We finished 6th last year with a 10-8 record, and I think that's reasonable again, maybe 9-9. I just don't know how much confidence I have in Richmond taking a big step or St. Bonaventure losing 2 of its top 3 and staying put, so I'll homer it by a game or so.

Here comes a book:

We talked about this on the podcast today. I homered it even more because I'm not sure I buy that Duquesne is significantly better than us. I would guess we play them to a 1-1 series split in conference, but I also would like to believe we post a better conference record. Dukes lost their best statistical player in Eric Williams Jr. to Oregon, so now it's Sincere Carry, who will still be a nightmare to deal with for the next 3 years I have a feeling, and then it's a pair of Juniors Michael Hughes (11.2 PPG, 6.5 RPG in '18-'19) and Marcus Weathers (10 PPG, 6.4 RPG in '18-'19). So what I am getting at in the most round about way is we are probably very even with Duquense, should be a great matchup with them this year. I personally would like to say we are definitely better because I know the talent we possess, but haven't seen the Billikens actually play yet and it's very young talent.

Anyone putting Bonaventure above SLU, after losing 3 of their top 4 guys in averages for scoring from '18-'19 (Stockard, Griffin, Poyser) is disappointing but not incredibly shocking if you really break it down. They will be leaning on new young guys as much as SLU, where we return two high level Juniors in Goodwin and French, Bonaventure returns two high level Sophomores in Lofton and Osunniyi. Bonaventure went out and got a transfer Junior from Miami of Ohio Jalen Adaway who averaged 7.5 ppg (8 ppg according to the Bonnies website, 7.5 according to Miami U) and 5 rpg, but will be sitting out this year for transfer rules. Amadi Ikpeze is the lone senior for Bonaventure. Standing 6'10 240, he averaged 2.7 ppg and 2.4 rpg in only 11 minutes per game last year, so not a huge upperclassmen factor. This biggest factor to how good the Bonnies will be comes down to Junior transfer guard Matt Johnson who transferred from Howard University, where he 14.3 ppg and 4.3 rpg in '18-'19. It does not appear he will be sitting out, so he could be adding the boost to their rankings, but still a little surprising.

Richmond features 4 returning  juniors who all averaged double digits in points, with Grant Golden being one of the better players in the conference period, but maybe not the most athletic, impressive, etc. Would be shocked if Richmond doesn't finish top 8, but as you can see between the Dukes, the Bonnies, the Bills, and the Spiders there is a middle of the pack log jam with some really good teams, not to mention VCU, Davidson, Dayton, and Rhode Island. Tough Conference this year.

Biggest takeaway here is that I'm probably too over confident and we are way too young for any preseason rankings to actually matter. I'll take the under on 7 losses in conference personally, not objectively. Objectively, I still don't see this team going sub .500 in conference, but 9-9 or 10-8 seems fairly realistic for such a young team. Very much middle of the pack, but still very much competitive. This year will be a learning curve.

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31 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

Stockard plus another starter were hurt the first 1/4 of the season.  They lost a bunch early, but they also got a lot of playing time for their younger players which benefited them later on.

St Bonnie has only one senior on this year's squad, back up C Ipkeze.  I'm calling it right now, if that squad stays together after this season, they are A10 Co-champs (with the Bills) in 2020-21.

richmond will be starting five seniors next season. watch out

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@The House That Rick Built I agree with your takeaway, that these rankings don't matter and that we have a young team with a lot of question marks. That middle tier in the A10 is so hard to predict this year because all of those teams have big question marks. To build on what you wrote:

Duquesne - They return the bulk of their roster, but they lost their best player. Does someone else step up? How does it change what they run?

Richmond - They're going to start 5 juniors, with Gilyard and Golden leading the way. But does putting largely the same team with more experience (and strangely no seniors) back on the floor give them enough to flip a 6-12 record from last season?

St. Bonaventure - They lost the #1 and #3 guy and they're relying on a core of sophomores this season. What kind of leap do those guys make? Do they have enough depth, with only 1 senior and 1 active junior (Adaway sits this year) on the roster?

George Mason - Could they be a spoiler in this middle tier? There are only a couple games that will separate these teams. They'll have one of the league's top scorers in Justin Kier. I have them at the bottom of this group but an upset here or there and they could shake things up.

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28 minutes ago, The House That Rick Built said:

Here comes a book:

We talked about this on the podcast today. I homered it even more because I'm not sure I buy that Duquesne is significantly better than us. I would guess we play them to a 1-1 series split in conference, but I also would like to believe we post a better conference record. Dukes lost their best statistical player in Eric Williams Jr. to Oregon, so now it's Sincere Carry, who will still be a nightmare to deal with for the next 3 years I have a feeling, and then it's a pair of Juniors Michael Hughes (11.2 PPG, 6.5 RPG in '18-'19) and Marcus Weathers (10 PPG, 6.4 RPG in '18-'19). So what I am getting at in the most round about way is we are probably very even with Duquense, should be a great matchup with them this year. I personally would like to say we are definitely better because I know the talent we possess, but haven't seen the Billikens actually play yet and it's very young talent.

Anyone putting Bonaventure above SLU, after losing 3 of their top 4 guys in averages for scoring from '18-'19 (Stockard, Griffin, Poyser) is disappointing but not incredibly shocking if you really break it down. They will be leaning on new young guys as much as SLU, where we return two high level Juniors in Goodwin and French, Bonaventure returns two high level Sophomores in Lofton and Osunniyi. Bonaventure went out and got a transfer Junior from Miami of Ohio Jalen Adaway who averaged 7.5 ppg (8 ppg according to the Bonnies website, 7.5 according to Miami U) and 5 rpg, but will be sitting out this year for transfer rules. Amadi Ikpeze is the lone senior for Bonaventure. Standing 6'10 240, he averaged 2.7 ppg and 2.4 rpg in only 11 minutes per game last year, so not a huge upperclassmen factor. This biggest factor to how good the Bonnies will be comes down to Junior transfer guard Matt Johnson who transferred from Howard University, where he 14.3 ppg and 4.3 rpg in '18-'19. It does not appear he will be sitting out, so he could be adding the boost to their rankings, but still a little surprising.

Richmond features 4 returning  juniors who all averaged double digits in points, with Grant Golden being one of the better players in the conference period, but maybe not the most athletic, impressive, etc. Would be shocked if Richmond doesn't finish top 8, but as you can see between the Dukes, the Bonnies, the Bills, and the Spiders there is a middle of the pack log jam with some really good teams, not to mention VCU, Davidson, Dayton, and Rhode Island. Tough Conference this year.

Biggest takeaway here is that I'm probably too over confident and we are way too young for any preseason rankings to actually matter. I'll take the under on 7 losses in conference personally, not objectively. Objectively, I still don't see this team going sub .500 in conference, but 9-9 or 10-8 seems fairly realistic for such a young team. Very much middle of the pack, but still very much competitive. This year will be a learning curve.

Saying that lost 3 of their top four scorers is accurate, but it is sort of misleading.  When the Bonnies got good, Poyser was pretty much a non factor.  He only averaged 5.3ppg after January 1.  Their two best players throughout conference play were Lofton and Osunniyi.

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1 hour ago, Littlebill said:

richmond will be starting five seniors next season. watch out

I used to be a big Moody fan.  He always seemed to get more from less.  Last few years it seems like he has got less from more. I know the last couple of years they have been young, but they had about four disappointing (not bad) seasons before that.

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10 minutes ago, brianstl said:

I used to be a big Moody fan.  He always seemed to more from less.  Last few years it seems like he has got less from more. I know the last couple of years they have been young, but they had about four disappointing (not bad) seasons before that.

-I agree

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15 minutes ago, brianstl said:

I used to be a big Moody fan.  He always seemed to more from less.  Last few years it seems like he has got less from more. I know the last couple of years they have been young, but they had about four disappointing (not bad) seasons before that.

If twitter is any indication, Richmond fans have definitely turned on Mooney.

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average top 10 from about 5 different sites I pulled together.   So sounds like A10 media days had it pretty close. 

 

1) vcu

2) Davidson

3) Dayton

4) Rhode island

5) St. Bonaventure

6) Richmond

7) Duquesne

Saint Louis

9) George mason

10) George Washington

 

 

Also no-shoe in for last, last 4 spots are pretty jumbled up. 

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, brianstl said:

Saying that lost 3 of their top four scorers is accurate, but it is sort of misleading.  When the Bonnies got good, Poyser was pretty much a non factor.  He only averaged 5.3ppg after January 1.  Their two best players throughout conference play were Lofton and Osunniyi.

Fair point, but still lost heavy contributors. Point being in that rant, Bonaventure and the Billikens aren't that much different, and if you are ranking teams it can go either way. At this point, any ranking out there is fairly subjective outside of maybe the top four and bottom 2? Its a competitive league to say the least.

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I think the top three teams are VCU, Davidson and Rhodey --- on the fact that they essentially have everyone back.  While I truly despise SVU, I hesitate on giving them top three because it remains to be seen just how well their four transfers fit in and adapt to the universe that is four returning starters.  And they have really a fifth new guy in Martos who was hurt all last year.  But on paper alone, Dayton is top two … displacing Davidson even in my book.  VCU will tough as usual.  Davidson still only goes five deep and an injury, especially two, would really hurt.  But these are the top four.

Sophomore slumps happen all the time and with Lofton, Welch and Ossunniyi there are three sophomores would could be candidates fore such.  Ossunniyi is a shot blocker, his offense is seen as gravy.  Welch and Lofton are exterior players, who's going to keep the defense honest inside?  We shall see as they developed no one to replace Stockard and Griffith last year.  Richmond is hard to gauge because of that hybrid Princeton offense and confounding match-up defense they play.  Having Sherrod back will pay dividends but they really don't have much once you get past Gilyard, Golden, Cato and Sherrod.  Their bench, while it played last year, wasn't that good to begin with (although they sure gave us tough games).  With Duquesne's loss of Eric Williams, I don't hold much love fore their overall position as some might.  They are a bunch of guards with Michael Hughes in the middle and quite frankly I'm not impressed.  Dare I ask if Mason might surprise?  Last year, they were the sexy pick to rise to the top but failed.  Now, with Otis gone and Ruetter also leaving, maybe this is a good thing in term so potentially being overlooked.  We shall see.

As for the teams …. six men per team?  Interesting.  Then only fiv eon the defensive team and no Goodwin.  Or thatch.  And I'm obviously biased but I can't see how Evans bounces to that team over them.  Gilyard I get as a conference steals leader but Evans?  Oh well, we'll let it play out.  There isn't a single new guy on any of the all conference teams and that includes Tre Mitchell.of Umass.  Something will pop there --- Jordy Tishmanga, Chase Johnson, someone else.  Given that Goodwin didn't make A10 Talk's preseason top 25, he should be lucky to see himself here.  I think he belongs here but they didn't aks me for a vote.  More motivation to feed the fire but someone somewhere once said Jordan Godwin's game needs work.  Let's see him shoot th eball from range and the line to be sure.

 

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7 minutes ago, Taj79 said:

Given that Goodwin didn't make A10 Talk's preseason top 25, he should be lucky to see himself here.  I think he belongs here but they didn't aks me for a vote.  More motivation to feed the fire but someone somewhere once said Jordan Godwin's game needs work.  Let's see him shoot th eball from range and the line to be sure.

A10 talk has made some interesting decisions on their list so far, but oh well. Based on T Ford's interview with Frank for the Hit and Run with Frank Cusamano, I would bet that Goodwin has improved on his free throw shooting as much as anyone else, but he will never truly be a three point shooter nor would I want him sitting out there. Would love to see his midrange game become more consistent. 

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8 minutes ago, The House That Rick Built said:

A10 talk has made some interesting decisions on their list so far, but oh well. Based on T Ford's interview with Frank for the Hit and Run with Frank Cusamano, I would bet that Goodwin has improved on his free throw shooting as much as anyone else, but he will never truly be a three point shooter nor would I want him sitting out there. Would love to see his midrange game become more consistent. 

he only needs to shoot 30%ish from 3 for defenders to play into his style.   He'll never make it anywhere if he cant at least get to 30% from 3. 

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4 minutes ago, wgstl said:

he only needs to shoot 30%ish from 3 for defenders to play into his style.   He'll never make it anywhere if he cant at least get to 30% from 3. 

For the record, Jordan improved his shot from 3 last year to 26.3%, up 3% on a higher volume of shots (19-81 in '17-'18, 25-95 in '18-'19), so it does stand to reason he will continue to marginally improve his three point shooting to the 30% you ask or close to it. I just don't want to see that become a primary focus of his game and I don't believe it will. He is his most successful in short corner, finding gaps for the offensive rebounds, or most importantly cutting to the basket. But I believe it was the George Mason game at home last year where he put up 24 points on 9/15 shooting, some of which came from midrange shots and not just 2 footers. There's more than one way to force the defense to come out and guard you.

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12 minutes ago, The House That Rick Built said:

For the record, Jordan improved his shot from 3 last year to 26.3%, up 3% on a higher volume of shots (19-81 in '17-'18, 25-95 in '18-'19), so it does stand to reason he will continue to marginally improve his three point shooting to the 30% you ask or close to it. I just don't want to see that become a primary focus of his game and I don't believe it will. He is his most successful in short corner, finding gaps for the offensive rebounds, or most importantly cutting to the basket. But I believe it was the George Mason game at home last year where he put up 24 points on 9/15 shooting, some of which came from midrange shots and not just 2 footers. There's more than one way to force the defense to come out and guard you.

you're right, its not the only way to get defenders to guard that way.  I prefer the 3 point threat just so a player can draw defender out of the lane more. 

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2 hours ago, slubillikens43 said:

Any notes from Ford's press conference?

His chat with Katz, or was there another one? See the link for my post on the previous page summarizing his and Schmidt's time with Katz.

 

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The thought that anyone doesn't want Jordan Goodwin to become a great shooter or wouldn't want him to add that to his game is crazy. Becoming a great shooter doesn't mean he'll just sit out there. Adding 1 skill doesn't subtract from the others. I'd say if Goodwin can hit above 35% from 3 with 120+ taken it'll make the rest of his game that much better and easier to come by

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Adding first place votes and points to the Preseason Poll for context.  Two votes per team....I wonder if those were consistent across the board.  I'm somewhat surprised Davidson was voted significantly higher 8 first place (and 359) to 1 (and 341) over Dayton.   I found it interesting that St. Bonnie was only three points behind Rhody.  The biggest gap in these results was between Dayton and Rhode Island with 58 points.  You can draw a line between Dayton and Rhode Island, and then another between George Mason and LaSalle, and have three tiers out of this poll.

PRESEASON POLL (First-place votes in parenthesis)

1. VCU (19) ............................................................ 381

2. Davidson (8) .................................................... 359

3. Dayton (1) ......................................................... 341

4. Rhode Island ................................................... 283

5. St. Bonaventure .............................................. 280

6. Richmond ......................................................... 248

7. Saint Louis ........................................................ 225

8. Duquesne ........................................................ 196

9. George Mason ................................................ 185

10. La Salle .............................................................. 133

11. Massachusetts ................................................ 103

12. George Washington ..................................... 93

13. Saint Joseph’s ................................................. 65

14. Fordham ........................................................... 48

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8 minutes ago, slufanskip said:

The thought that anyone doesn't want Jordan Goodwin to become a great shooter or wouldn't want him to add that to his game is crazy. Becoming a great shooter doesn't mean he'll just sit out there. Adding 1 skill doesn't subtract from the others. I'd say if Goodwin can hit above 35% from 3 with 120+ taken it'll make the rest of his game that much better and easier to come by

If he does that he'll be all conference. Possibly even MVP.  I'm sure he feels slighted by these forecasts. I expect his competitive fire to be really stoked. Not that those fires will improve his shot, but he'll be a force at his own game. You can't forecast where his shot skills are at this point, because we just haven't heard. 

The one thing this team needs more than anything are 2 or 3 or 4 shooters. Take your pick or take all 4; Jimerson, Jacobs, Perkins (?), and Hankton. Possibly the biggest addition would be Hankton becoming a stretch 4, because if we don't open up the inside for French to roam free, we're going to be hurting. But really anyone that can shoot from beyond the arc will be welcome. We'll stop seeing those packed in zone defenses plus trading 2 points to the other teams' 3's. 

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