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Nesbitt!


BJK

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I don't know what Nesbitt's situation was at Memphis specifically. When Nesbitt transferred there midseason, it's clear that Penny wasn't quite ready for him. He even told the press at the time that even though he thinks Nesbitt is an incredible talent, he doesn't know how much he'll play this season, but supports the move so he can practice, get on campus, take classes, etc. Even if he thought he was a one-and-done, that didn't apply to a single spring semester. It would've been next year.

Penny promised a lot of guys a lot of things and his roster was oversubscribed. But Nesbitt, Jeffries, Baugh, and Ellis are all transferring so he has a couple spots open now. Nolley, Williams, Cisse, and Quinones all could test the draft waters. Penny was counting on having multiple guys go pro so that spaces would naturally open up for incoming players. With all of his potential pro prospects looking like second rounders at best (IMO) and suddenly a logjam in younger classes and certain positions, it looks to me like a bunch of guys are suddenly not interested in fighting for spots. The interesting thing is that with four transferring in a relatively short time frame, there are now spots available.

Regardless of where things stand with Memphis' roster right now, it clearly was not a healthy situation to have that many talented players within a year or two of each other all at once, when all of them expect to play in the NBA someday. And clearly they didn't want to hang around and see what happened. I'm not going to pile on Nesbitt before knowing any details of his specific situation. As far as I'm concerned, it's not that different from the rest of them unless we find out otherwise.

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Nesbitt's commitment certainly changes our roster dramatically. He's the guy we wanted in the fall, and now here he is in the spring. A 6-6 guard who can do a bit of everything. I'm thinking Williams is the sixth man for now, with Collins, Nesbitt, Perkins, and Okoro sure thing starters and maybe Thatch as the other. This seems to bump Jimerson down a spot or two, and Hargrove could maybe also be that other starter depending on matchups. I also hope this isn't a setback for Strickland, who I want to see make a jump this year. Lorentsson appears to be the odd man out.

I think this leaves us with 1 scholarship to give. It could go to Russell. I have to think if we get another commitment out of this transfer pool, we're going to see more exits.

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1 hour ago, billiken_roy said:

however, if he truly was a one and done talent as penny claimed, wouldnt that be good enough to work into the rotation asap?   something doesnt add up imo.  i am hoping i am wrong and we all arent just drunk with his potential and ignoring other issues.  i do not want gordon 2.0.   not saying there is any issues, but something isnt right.   and if people think it was just a matter that penny had over promised roster spots, well if that was true, are you telling me as a projected one and done talent, nesbitt wasnt one of the 13 best players?   

crossing my fingers and hoping this works.  

Other than watching some YouTube videos, I haven’t seen him play, so I can’t truly comment on him being a one-and-done. I thought some people here had suggested that he could be in the NBA in 2-3 years. 
 

Anyway, an additional issue I’ve considered is that while Penny’s sales pitch may have interested Jordan, I think that there’s a real chance that SLCA was pushing him to go somewhere other than SLU. That school is trying to gain a national basketball reputation, and they probably felt that they’re better off nationally getting a player to go to Memphis to play for Penny. He may have felt pressured to go somewhere SLCA wanted, and with Penny’s sales pitch added in, he went to Memphis. Remember, there was a time in late summer last year where there were several indications that Nesbitt was going to commit to SLU, so unless those were entirely baseless, the idea of playing in his hometown likely had some appeal to him. Put him in Memphis and away from the people pushing him away from SLU, maybe he thinks about it again and decides what is actually best for him.

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1 minute ago, DeSmetBilliken said:

Other than watching some YouTube videos, I haven’t seen him play, so I can’t truly comment on him being a one-and-done. I thought some people here had suggested that he could be in the NBA in 2-3 years. 
 

Anyway, an additional issue I’ve considered is that while Penny’s sales pitch may have interested Jordan, I think that there’s a real chance that SLCA was pushing him to go somewhere other than SLU. That school is trying to gain a national basketball reputation, and they probably felt that they’re better off nationally getting a player to go to Memphis to play for Penny. He may have felt pressured to go somewhere SLCA wanted, and with Penny’s sales pitch added in, he went to Memphis. Remember, there was a time in late summer last year where there were several indications that Nesbitt was going to commit to SLU, so unless those were entirely baseless, the idea of playing in his hometown likely had some appeal to him. Put him in Memphis and away from the people pushing him away from SLU, maybe he thinks about it again and decides what is actually best for him.

if we are going to guess, i like this theory as much as anything anyone has thrown out so far.   

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2 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Nesbitt's commitment certainly changes our roster dramatically. He's the guy we wanted in the fall, and now here he is in the spring. A 6-6 guard who can do a bit of everything. I'm thinking Williams is the sixth man for now, with Collins, Nesbitt, Perkins, and Okoro sure thing starters and maybe Thatch as the other. This seems to bump Jimerson down a spot or two, and Hargrove could maybe also be that other starter depending on matchups. I also hope this isn't a setback for Strickland, who I want to see make a jump this year. Lorentsson appears to be the odd man out.

I think this leaves us with 1 scholarship to give. It could go to Russell. I have to think if we get another commitment out of this transfer pool, we're going to see more exits.

With a pretty full roster and everyone chomping for playing time, I'm now a pretty big proponent of leaving a scholarship unused and holding that for a mid-season transfer. 

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4 minutes ago, Pistol said:

 

I think this leaves us with 1 scholarship to give. It could go to Russell. I have to think if we get another commitment out of this transfer pool, we're going to see more exits.

Two

 

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The Nesbitt-Perkins-Williams combo has explosive potential. As in, we could be scoring 100+ multiple times next season or it could be volatile in that one or more guys isn't getting fed enough and things go south.

When you look at it on paper:
Outgoing: French, Goodwin, Jacobs
Incoming: Okoro, Nesbitt, Williams

Doesn't look like we're losing much, if at all. It just comes down to Ford getting them to play together.

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2 minutes ago, drkelsey55 said:

Two

That's right, because Perkins won't count against the total. So we have 14 to give and 12 used. I think I'd give one to Russell for sure if he wants to stay, and then I'd really think hard about using that last one. I guess our coaches know where everyone's at right now, what the needs are, and how they'd use it if they need/want to.

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6 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Nesbitt's commitment certainly changes our roster dramatically. He's the guy we wanted in the fall, and now here he is in the spring. A 6-6 guard who can do a bit of everything. I'm thinking Williams is the sixth man for now, with Collins, Nesbitt, Perkins, and Okoro sure thing starters and maybe Thatch as the other. This seems to bump Jimerson down a spot or two, and Hargrove could maybe also be that other starter depending on matchups. I also hope this isn't a setback for Strickland, who I want to see make a jump this year. Lorentsson appears to be the odd man out.

I think this leaves us with 1 scholarship to give. It could go to Russell. I have to think if we get another commitment out of this transfer pool, we're going to see more exits.

Agree on all of the above points, but I am fairly certain that there are 2 scholarships to give still. The 3 seniors + Jacobs gave us 4 to work with. The addition of Nesbitt and Williams brought it back to 2. The last 2 could certainly go to developmental players or maybe one goes to Phil and it really only is 1. The staff has options, and that is always encouraging when the talent pool is deep. 

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9 minutes ago, kshoe said:

With a pretty full roster and everyone chomping for playing time, I'm now a pretty big proponent of leaving a scholarship unused and holding that for a mid-season transfer. 

Or I would think there are going to be some underrecruited high school seniors out there. A project type that might typically be a redshirt candidate would be nice to add to give a bit of balance. 

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6 minutes ago, Pistol said:

The Nesbitt-Perkins-Williams combo has explosive potential. As in, we could be scoring 100+ multiple times next season or it could be volatile in that one or more guys isn't getting fed enough and things go south.

When you look at it on paper:
Outgoing: French, Goodwin, Jacobs
Incoming: Okoro, Nesbitt, Williams

Doesn't look like we're losing much, if at all. It just comes down to Ford getting them to play together.

In Yuri We Trust. He'll certainly have his work cut out for him, with a puncher's chance to lead the country in assists 

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42 minutes ago, Pistol said:

I haven't been able to find last season's stats yet.

This year, before he went to Memphis, Nesbitt was 5-24 (.208) from the 3-point line in 9 games for STLCA. He was .846 from the FT line and averaged 15.8 PPG on .317 overall shooting (dragged by his 3P%). I'll try to find last year because I'm positive he was better than that.

Thanks. 

While 9 games is perhaps a small sample size, 2.67 three's per game is somewhat indicative of not a high volume three point shooter.  For comparison, Goodwin shot 3.3 three's per game but connected on 31%.

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You guys worry too much about players' feelings about PT.  The top programs are filled with talented players all the way to the end of the bench.   If SLU is going to get there we need depth too.

The attitude we need to cultivate is that I'm going to work as hard as I can because I want to play and win.  If I'm not playing that much, I work harder and my chance will come.  Winners have confidence in their abilities to beat out others.

To quote Eddie Reese 14 time NCAA Champion Swim Coach, "80% of athletes like to win,  20% hate to lose."  It's those 20% you want.  So you can go to a good team that wins and you may not play as much as you want or you can go to East Bum F#%& Polytechnic and play all ya want but lose.

Fill all scholarships with the best you can that fit what you need and coach em up.  It'll all shake out in the end.

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1 minute ago, TheA_Bomb said:

You guys worry too much about players' feelings about PT.  The top programs are filled with talented players all the way to the end of the bench.   If SLU is going to get there we need depth too.

The attitude we need to cultivate is that I'm going to work as hard as I can because I want to play and win.  If I'm not playing that much, I work harder and my chance will come.  Winners have confidence in their abilities to beat out others.

To quote Eddie Reese 14 time NCAA Champion Swim Coach, "80% of athletes like to win,  20% hate to lose."  It's those 20% you want.  So you can go to a good team that wins and you may not play as much as you want or you can go to East Bum F#%& Polytechnic and play all ya want but lose.

Fill all scholarships with the best you can that fit what you need and coach em up.  It'll all shake out in the end.

Earl Austin had a nice quote on this:  "It's not the coach's job to make the players happy.  It's the players job to make the coach happy."   

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2 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

Earl Austin had a nice quote on this:  "It's not the coach's job to make the players happy.  It's the players job to make the coach happy."   

Everybody feels better when you win.  Winning solves a lot of problems. 

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6 minutes ago, TheA_Bomb said:

Everybody feels better when you win.  Winning solves a lot of problems. 

Sooo...let's take Strickland for example.  You recruit him with the pitch that there will be time available on the wing do to graduation.  You then recruit over him.  First two years will consist of limited playing time.  With those same players slotted ahead of him for future playing time.  Where does the "coach em up" philosophy come into play? 

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43 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Nesbitt's commitment certainly changes our roster dramatically. He's the guy we wanted in the fall, and now here he is in the spring. A 6-6 guard who can do a bit of everything. I'm thinking Williams is the sixth man for now, with Collins, Nesbitt, Perkins, and Okoro sure thing starters and maybe Thatch as the other. This seems to bump Jimerson down a spot or two, and Hargrove could maybe also be that other starter depending on matchups. I also hope this isn't a setback for Strickland, who I want to see make a jump this year. Lorentsson appears to be the odd man out.

I think this leaves us with 1 scholarship to give. It could go to Russell. I have to think if we get another commitment out of this transfer pool, we're going to see more 

GOt 2 scholarships to give (French. Goodwin, Jacob and yes, get to fill one for Perkins even though he's staying.

And use all 14 scholarships, stuff happens.  

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8 minutes ago, Coach314 said:

Sooo...let's take Strickland for example.  You recruit him with the pitch that there will be time available on the wing do to graduation.  You then recruit over him.  First two years will consist of limited playing time.  With those same players slotted ahead of him for future playing time.  Where does the "coach em up" philosophy come into play? 

I agree with your point. If you recruit kids with the promise of playing time and then recruit over them, it will lead to difficulties in the program. The example of Strickland is a little bit difficult because (i) we were always already recruiting Nesbitt, so it's not like the staff changed it's mind after getting Strickland, and (ii) Perkins coming back could not have been anticipated. In other words, we haven't brought in anyone new at Strickland's position other than Nesbitt, who Strickland likely knew about and who was always a priority.

I think the fact that the staff didn't make a harder push for Kern (who you and I both know is more than talented enough to play at this level), does speak to your point of them being careful about possibly recruiting over guys already in the program like Strickland and Hargrove. 

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6 minutes ago, A10Ref said:

We’re legitimately going to be able to matchup against anyone... also, imagine this lineup if we want to go big - Okoro, Linssen, Perkins, Hargrove, and Nesbitt at the point. Smallest guy out there would be Hargrove.

this would be average 6'7" 220 lbs coming at you

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4 minutes ago, A10Ref said:

We’re legitimately going to be able to matchup against anyone... also, imagine this lineup if we want to go big - Okoro, Linssen, Perkins, Hargrove, and Nesbitt at the point. Smallest guy out there would be Hargrove.

To your point, and what Pistol said about the direct incoming-outgoing comps, I don't see Hargrove's minutes getting squeezed too much. Okoro only averaged 17, Linssen 12. When Ford wants that smaller, faster look I can see TJ in a position to at least get the 10mpg he saw this season. 

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2 minutes ago, Compton said:

To your point, and what Pistol said about the direct incoming-outgoing comps, I don't see Hargrove's minutes getting squeezed too much. Okoro only averaged 17, Linssen 12. When Ford wants that smaller, faster look I can see TJ in a position to at least get the 10mpg he saw this season. 

TJ's gonna play... I think he's going to be one of our most important players these next two-three seasons.

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34 minutes ago, Coach314 said:

Sooo...let's take Strickland for example.  You recruit him with the pitch that there will be time available on the wing do to graduation.  You then recruit over him.  First two years will consist of limited playing time.  With those same players slotted ahead of him for future playing time.  Where does the "coach em up" philosophy come into play? 

This is absolutely a fair question. We recruited experience and instant offense this season from the transfer portal instead of youth to develop. I'm guessing this is the case at a lot of schools, given the glut of transfers this season. 

But I really don't want Jimerson and Strickland to go anywhere.

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