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A10 Talk Write Up


Taj79

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https://www.a10talk.com/the-good-bad-and-goals-for-all-14-teams/

The author is a definite Dayton homer but so is Daisey for Richmond and Morelli for St. Joe's.  It's good to be passionate about your subject matter.  My thoughts on the material:

Davidson:  agree that they are meat if Grady goes down.  Disagree that Brajkovic and Bates Jones are 'coming into (anyone's) own."  Let's see how Lee does his second year now that folks know about him.  Davidson should be top half of the A10 if Grady stays healthy.

Dayton:  the hype on Crutcher is a little over the top.  All-American?  NBA draft pick?  He's good, but not that good.  He's right to state Dayton was more than Toppin and again the key there to mew were the intangibles Mikesell and Landers brought to the floor.  Dayton has neither that nor a proven front line.  Dayton will not win the A10.

Duquesne:  good assessment.  Their first five are as decent as most but the lack of bench will hurt them.  Top four finish would be about as high as they can shoot but unless they win the autobid, it's another year without an NCAA appearance for the Dukes.  And then Weathers and Hughes and Dunn-Martin are gone.  I think Sincere Carry will GT then.

Fordham:  we suck ... but everyone's back.  Then they fire Neubauer and its starting over again time.

Mason:  always seem to underachieve under Paulsen.   I agree they have decent parts but another team with no real point guard to lead them.  I think the Paulsen era will end this year at Mason.

GeeDubya:  agree with the assessment.  Two good building blocks in Nelson and Battle.  They need their transfers to get COVID-waived to be better.

La Salle:  they might surprise some people if they stick to Howard's style of play.  These guys and Fordham need to find a better conference for themselves to be more consistent and competitive.

Umass:  reads like what we all know .... Tre Mitchell, Carl Pierre and TJ Weeks.  As noted elsewhere, the lack of a true PG will hinder this team but if they start out strong, look out.  Success will breed confidence going forward.  L:et's see if Kolton Mitchell can run this team.

Rhode Island:  good write up focus where it should be ----- do the newcomers gel and make things better?  The Mitchell twins were a coup when they signed at UMd and fizzled there.  Rumor is strife between the UMd staff and the entourage, especially the mother.  The one twin is supposedly much better than the other but a package deal is a package deal.  With the waiver, mom is happy right now.  If that stays, URI will sneak up on people because Fatts is Fatts.

Richmond: in a separate article, the bulk of the A10-biased guys have the Spiders winning it all.  Not us --- even though we beat then by 20 at their place last year.  This is the best starting five in the A10 bar none.  But the bench is weak with the only hope being Tyler Burton getting better hsi sophomore year.  Kid shows promise.

Bonaventure:  as noted, the team has unproven depth.  They are offensively challenged in my book because Lofton can't score AND distribute and Osunniyi has no real offensive game outside of putbacks and dunks.  If this were a normal season, I could see the crush the NY state circuit in the OOC and come into the A10 confident and dangerous.  But where do they go if it is a bubble battle concept?

St. Joes:  I hate to say this but don't sleep on the Joeys.  They added two former 4-star recruits in Foster and Bishop and if both live up to those ranks, this team will be interesting.  We all know what Ryan Daly can do.  He'll go back and play his natural thee spot.  Billy Lange's offense and roster is constructed right now to play five out.  If the shots go down,  this could be a collegiate version of the Splash Brothers.

The Bills:  The writer is right on with our weakness --- free throws.  You have to figure we will be better right?  Going to be interesting to see how Ford handles late game, close game situations on the offensive end.

VCU:  Scoring remains the issue.  And while the backcourt seems stocked, the front court is weak.  A pressing style doesn't help with Douglas and Stockard as the front line IMHO.  

These are the best teams I have ever seen at SLU, Richmond ans Umass.  The Bonnies will be solid if things work out.  Dayton, Davidson, Duquesne, VCU and Mason are all above the middle.  The Joeys could be ovewrlooked.  The rest are all decent PIG candidates in my book.

 

 

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Far be it from me to question our resident expert on the A10, the magnificent Taj Mahal 79, but I do take exception with your “Richmond has the best starting 5.” I’d argue that nod should go to SLU. 
With Perkins in the starting 5 we have become a matchup nightmare. No longer can teams pack the inside to stop French and JGood. Plus with Yurimania at the point, he will find the open man who has the open shot. My argument is also based on the assumption Jimmy has improved,  and therefore the sardine defenses we usually see can no longer just focus on stopping French for inside shots. In fact, I’d argue if we start Linssen over Jimmy, we might even be more flexible. Or put Gibby in the starting 5 along with the Perkolator and it’s game over. You might think rebounding will suffer,  but we’ve still got two guys who pulled down double digit boards almost every game. I’ll take our guys over the UR five every time. 

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13 minutes ago, slu72 said:

Far be it from me to question our resident expert on the A10, the magnificent Taj Mahal 79, but I do take exception with your “Richmond has the best starting 5.” I’d argue that nod should go to SLU. 
With Perkins in the starting 5 we have become a matchup nightmare. No longer can teams pack the inside to stop French and JGood. Plus with Yurimania at the point, he will find the open man who has the open shot. My argument is also based on the assumption Jimmy has improved,  and therefore the sardine defenses we usually see can no longer just focus on stopping French for inside shots. In fact, I’d argue if we start Linssen over Jimmy, we might even be more flexible. Or put Gibby in the starting 5 along with the Perkolator and it’s game over. You might think rebounding will suffer,  but we’ve still got two guys who pulled down double digit boards almost every game. I’ll take our guys over the UR five every time. 

It should but technically, one of our big three comes off the bench.  

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26 minutes ago, slu72 said:

I think u can take your pick of those 3 and insert any one of them as a starter, and we’d still be better than UR’s starters. 

Exactly but that's the point - Perkins doesn't start.  The starting five being compared is one that includes Jacobs and Bell.  If we were comparing the top 7 then we clearly have the edge.  In fact, that's how we wore them down at their place.

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1 minute ago, 3star_recruit said:

Exactly but that's the point - Perkins doesn't start.  The starting five being compared is one that includes Jacobs and Bell.  If we were comparing the top 7 then we clearly have the edge.  In fact, that's how we wore them down at their place.

Let’s stop acting like Perkins, potentially our best player, won’t start next season.

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If free throws are the biggest problem I we are in pretty good shape because I really believe that we will see a big improvement.

Jimerson will be a big help.

I think Thatch can hit at a 70 percent clip.

I think Goodwin will improve.

Yuri will be better now that he can feel the ball.

Perkins is good

French will struggle but he can be avoided in the final minutes.

 

Free throws drove me crazy last year. This year I see them being much much better.

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32 minutes ago, dlarry said:

If free throws are the biggest problem I we are in pretty good shape because I really believe that we will see a big improvement.

Jimerson will be a big help.

I think Thatch can hit at a 70 percent clip.

I think Goodwin will improve.

Yuri will be better now that he can feel the ball.

Perkins is good

French will struggle but he can be avoided in the final minutes.

 

Free throws drove me crazy last year. This year I see them being much much better.

Also, Jimmy Bell and Marten Linssen give us other big man options late in games to knock down free throws. I love Has. I want him playing late in close games. But if we have a lead with a minute or 2 left, we finally have other options down low to take Hack-A-Has out of the equation. That’s gonna help dramatically as well.

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50 minutes ago, BilliesBy40 said:

Let’s stop acting like Perkins, potentially our best player, won’t start next season.

if your above statement was "potentially our best scorer" i would agree.   

however it is my opinion that there are other aspects to playing basketball that makes french and goodwin both better players.  

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53 minutes ago, dlarry said:

If free throws are the biggest problem I we are in pretty good shape because I really believe that we will see a big improvement.

Jimerson will be a big help.

I think Thatch can hit at a 70 percent clip.

I think Goodwin will improve.

Yuri will be better now that he can feel the ball.

Perkins is good

French will struggle but he can be avoided in the final minutes.

 

Free throws drove me crazy last year. This year I see them being much much better.

In some ways, Goodwin's free throw woes frustrate me more than HF. JG shot nearly 70% his freshman year, but dropped to around 50% the next two years. There is no reason he can't climb back up to around 65%, which would be really helpful. 

I'm not too worried about Yuri at this point. His form looks good. I would expect he could get his percentage up around 70%.

If those two improve, then HF is really the only outlier on the roster for bad free throw shooting. Would love to see Has get up around 50%, but I don't see that happening.

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5 hours ago, 3star_recruit said:

As long as he plays about 30 min a game I don't think it matters.

Glad I read on a little as I was about to post the same thing. I don't know Javonte but get the feeling that he's one of the rare players that doesn't really care. Give him his minutes and if him playing 6th man is better for the team... so be it

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@slu72 ---- Perkins won Sixth Man of the Year, did he not?  Therefore, he's not a starter and no part of the discussion.  

For SLU, you have Goodwin French, Bell, Collins and Jacobs.  For Richmond, you have Golden, Sherrod, Francis, Gilyard and Cato.  Richmond's starting lineup combined for 65.4 of their 73.5 ppg.  In other words, 89% of their entire scoring.  This is why that if they blow a tire (or two) on that starting five, they are meat.

Conversely, our starters went for 43.7 of our 71.7 ppg.  or 61% of our scoring.  Granted this is just scoring but we are only talking about starters.  And it's purely arguable.

Right now, I don't think Perkins starts.  We shall have to see.  I like what he brought off last year's bench and the A10 is such that there is hardly anyone elsewhere coming off any bench that can match him.  He'll be there at the end when it counts.  I'd expect  a final five of Collins, Perkins, Thatch, Jimmmerson and Hargrove to close out games.  WHAT!?!?!?!  No Goodwin, no French?  Not if they are still the liability they were.  If nothing less, you can put either in to inbound the ball.  Then they can't be fouled much there to hurt the cause.  I do expect Goodwin's FT numbers to come up.  French?  Who knows.

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2 hours ago, Taj79 said:

@slu72 ---- Perkins won Sixth Man of the Year, did he not?  Therefore, he's not a starter and no part of the discussion.  

For SLU, you have Goodwin French, Bell, Collins and Jacobs.  For Richmond, you have Golden, Sherrod, Francis, Gilyard and Cato.  Richmond's starting lineup combined for 65.4 of their 73.5 ppg.  In other words, 89% of their entire scoring.  This is why that if they blow a tire (or two) on that starting five, they are meat.

Conversely, our starters went for 43.7 of our 71.7 ppg.  or 61% of our scoring.  Granted this is just scoring but we are only talking about starters.  And it's purely arguable.

Right now, I don't think Perkins starts.  We shall have to see.  I like what he brought off last year's bench and the A10 is such that there is hardly anyone elsewhere coming off any bench that can match him.  He'll be there at the end when it counts.  I'd expect  a final five of Collins, Perkins, Thatch, Jimmmerson and Hargrove to close out games.  WHAT!?!?!?!  No Goodwin, no French?  Not if they are still the liability they were.  If nothing less, you can put either in to inbound the ball.  Then they can't be fouled much there to hurt the cause.  I do expect Goodwin's FT numbers to come up.  French?  Who knows.

That would be a small closing lineup. I think Bell disrupts a lot on defense and can hit his free throws. I think end game lineups will be dictated by matches and the situation, what team is up and by how much and who is hot.  Ford has a lot of flexibility.

 

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46 minutes ago, Aquinas said:

That would be a small closing lineup. I think Bell disrupts a lot on defense and can hit his free throws. I think end game lineups will be dictated by matches and the situation, what team is up and by how much and who is hot.  Ford has a lot of flexibility.

 

Bell seems like the obvious choice at the end of game.  JB has a nice stroke from the line and is tough to score over.  The only exception would be against UMass.  French is the only one we have that has any chance of guarding the inside/outside game of Tre Mitchell.

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31 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

Bell seems like the obvious choice at the end of game.  JB has a nice stroke from the line and is tough to score over.  The only exception would be against UMass.  French is the only one we have that has any chance of guarding the inside/outside game of Tre Mitchell.

Linssen might surprise. Let’s wait and see. 

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Many, many good points.

Aquinas = I agree that's small closing lineup but, as you say, Ford will have the situation dictate what happens on our end.  If we are up by five or three and have the ball, I'd go small and insert my shooters.   I would expect an immediate foul and use the foul time to sub defense for offense ... i.e. French or Bell. 

3 star =agree, Bell has shown a nice stroke at game's end.  Not a bad option.  And miracle of miracles, French does improve so as not to be our liability.  I also agree with French on Mitchell but I'd run a double at Mitchell, guard Weeks and Pierre, and force someone else to beat me.

slu72 = no sleeping on Linssen just yet. Agree.  You can sub in whomever you want as a starter now .... Perkins, Thatch, Hargrove it does not matter. The comparison is returning starters and that takes Perkins and Thatch out of this discussion.  The bottom line is that I think as a team we are five or six guys BETTER than Richmond.

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18 minutes ago, Taj79 said:

Many, many good points.

Aquinas = I agree that's small closing lineup but, as you say, Ford will have the situation dictate what happens on our end.  If we are up by five or three and have the ball, I'd go small and insert my shooters.   I would expect an immediate foul and use the foul time to sub defense for offense ... i.e. French or Bell. 

3 star =agree, Bell has shown a nice stroke at game's end.  Not a bad option.  And miracle of miracles, French does improve so as not to be our liability.  I also agree with French on Mitchell but I'd run a double at Mitchell, guard Weeks and Pierre, and force someone else to beat me.

slu72 = no sleeping on Linssen just yet. Agree.  You can sub in whomever you want as a starter now .... Perkins, Thatch, Hargrove it does not matter. The comparison is returning starters and that takes Perkins and Thatch out of this discussion.  The bottom line is that I think as a team we are five or six guys BETTER than Richmond.

In other words, we have a deeper bench than Richmond.  But there will be games that their top 6 guys account for 80 points.  I think our demonstrated ability to defend them is a bigger deal than our bench.  It's what makes Richmond a more favorable matchup than say, Duquesne, who we haven't defended well in two years.

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8 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

In other words, we have a deeper bench than Richmond.  But there will be games that their top 6 guys account for 80 points. 

right.  And things like that will make you mad because they may get the W, but in a marthon season it doesnt work in their favor. 

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