A Sea Of Red

rogers3 wrote:Silly question, but will we just switch schedules with USC Upstate?

Good question but i wouldn't think so since we're not the only school joining the A-SUN for 2018-19 year.

For all intents & purposes, it did turn out to be a swap. Not a very equitable trade, but a trade nonetheless.

Sly Fox wrote:For all intents & purposes, it did turn out to be a swap. Not a very equitable trade, but a trade nonetheless.

True; even Northern Alabama was a better deal for the A-SUN than keeping USC Upstate.

There's a lot of talk about how bad Upstate is in basketball in this thread..and last year was awful. It was also a season that saw their long time head coach retire 5 weeks before the season started and with other turmoil going on in the athletic department (which led to their AD getting fired less than a year after he got the job). Not saying they are a long term great program (their facility will limit them in that respect), but I think judging them on this latest season is possibly a mistake. They had a four year stretch not that long ago (2012-15) where they finished in the Top 200 in KenPom...that may not sound like much, but the only Big South team to accomplish four straight years of Top 200 KenPom finishes in the last 15 years has been Winthrop (they are on a current four year run...and also did it 2005-08). Asheville has never done it (they are on a 3 year stretch now), Coastal never did it...most Big South teams have never even strung together two such seasons like that over the last 15 years (Liberty, Radford, Campbell, Gardner-Webb, Longwood, PC, and you can even throw VMI in there as well). Of the current ASUN teams, FGCU is on a 6 year run of top 200 finishes and Lipscomb also did 6 straight years in the past (2006-11)...

Will Upstate return to that level? Who knows..they have a new coach (and a new AD), and they are coming off a historically bad season, but their program isn't that far removed from a pretty solid run of decent basketball, so they are probably a safer bet to be at least decent than some other schools in the Big South and ASUN (including a transitional D2 school like North Alabama).

McKay´s camping season starts Monday, which I believe means most, if not all of the team will be arriving to help out. Summer classes have already started.

oldflame wrote:McKay´s camping season starts Monday, which I believe means most, if not all of the team will be arriving to help out. Summer classes have already started.

The camps will be even more beneficial for us when the stadium is here in 2020 Lord willing.

There´s no doubt actually having it built will be a plus, but you can bet we are already using it in recruiting.

According to the local paper, Zach Farquhar was awarded another year of eligibility and offered another year of scholarship. Game On even did a short video about it that involved the LUPD:

Cider Jim wrote:According to the local paper, Zach Farquhar was awarded another year of eligibility and offered another year of scholarship. Game On even did a short video about it that involved the LUPD:

So he gets to celebrate two senior nights for his career. I bet that's a first.

Freshmen have arrived and the whole team is now in town.



The one player missing from the picture is Georgie Pacheco, who was in Lynchburg earlier. I can only speculate he is now with the Puerto Rican national team.

I have no idea why, but strangely enough, after awarding our last schollie for this season to Zack Farquar (complete with video of the elaborate prank they pulled off to inform him posted on twitter), the roster has been updated, and Zack is not on it.

http://www.liberty.edu/flames/index.cfm ... 9&teamID=6

BTW, Georgie must have been unavailable for some reason when the picture I posted earlier was taken. He is with the team, which would seem to indicate he is not going to be involved with team Puerto Rico this summer.

Great article about Gumbs in today's paper:

Maturity, leadership and all-in-for-the-team disposition were the first things McKay said of Gumbs before adding, “He’s got a utility belt,” referencing the DC Comics character Batman “because [Gumbs] can do a lot of different things.”

...“I played on the wing my whole time at Schreiner,” Gumbs said before Tuesday’s practice. “I was definitely sometimes probably the second tallest dude on the court at times, but for the most part there are some bigger dudes out there, but it’s not like Division I where you’ve got a 6-10 freshman [Blake Preston] and a 7-2 sophomore [Brendan Newton]. It’s not like that. I’m used to playing on the wing. Here we go four guards sometimes, too, so it’s nothing that I’m not used to.”

https://www.newsadvance.com/sports/libe ... b70e3.html

Coming from a D3 program, I was surprised to see how seriously jacked Gumbs is. He definatly likes everyone to know the ¨gun show¨ is in town when his picture is taken. That alone doesn´t mean much except it´s unlikely he will be pushed around, but apparently he has plenty of game to go with it. If Newton and Preston are ready to contribute, this could be the deepest in talent we have ever been.

I attended one of the basketball camps this summer, and Gumbs was always smiling ear to ear. He seems like such a positive force on the team. And, yeah, his "guns" look like Ralph Sampson's in his prime at UVa.

Cider Jim wrote:I attended one of the basketball camps this summer, and Gumbs was always smiling ear to ear. He seems like such a positive force on the team. And, yeah, his "guns" look like Ralph Sampson's in his prime at UVa.

When I first heard we were recruiting Keenan, I did a search and found an interview he did which I posted here. You could tell justfrom that he was a smart, funny and articulate young man who was loving life.

Newcomers hope to push Flames over the top

http://www.aseaofred.com/newcomers-hope ... r-the-top/

A Sea of Red wrote:Newcomers hope to push Flames over the top

http://www.aseaofred.com/newcomers-hope ... r-the-top/

I know he has been on campus for a year, but having redshirted, Brendan Newton will also be a newcomer to the lineup, and he may have the biggest impact of all of them.

oldflame wrote:Brendan Newton...may have the biggest impact of all of them.

I hope that is the case. It will be a plus for LU to own the teams who were at the top of the ASUN(Lipscomb and FGCU).

Cider Jim wrote:

oldflame wrote:Brendan Newton...may have the biggest impact of all of them.

To me he’s the player I’m most interested to watch

Brendan can be good in a packline defense as a rim protector. Will we be able to hide him in the offense, setting screens, not clogging up the middle, and getting his points on the offensive boards ? I seriously doubt it.

I think he will be a good player, but not this year. Not enough of an impact offensively. Teams already average like 37 points against us, how much of a defensive impact can Brendan make ? Offensively its just not there for him.

R i wrote:Brendan can be good in a packline defense as a rim protector. Will we be able to hide him in the offense, setting screens, not clogging up the middle, and getting his points on the offensive boards ? I seriously doubt it.

I think he will be a good player, but not this year. Not enough of an impact offensively. Teams already average like 37 points against us, how much of a defensive impact can Brendan make ? Offensively its just not there for him.

Tell that to VCU.

Having a rim protector would enable us to play the pack line the way it is actually intended. What we have been doing is somewhat of a modified version. We would not have to help as much on players driving to the hoop, which improves perimeter defense, which is what often killed us last year.

R i wrote:Brendan can be good in a packline defense as a rim protector. Will we be able to hide him in the offense, setting screens, not clogging up the middle, and getting his points on the offensive boards ? I seriously doubt it.

I think he will be a good player, but not this year. Not enough of an impact offensively. Teams already average like 37 points against us, how much of a defensive impact can Brendan make ? Offensively its just not there for him.

Unless he's significantly developed, this is where I stand. Coming out of high school, the report I heard from people who saw him up close is that he was a project but could be a contributor as an upperclassman. That'll continue to be my expectation until I see otherwise.

The other 7-footer that verbaled with us who had the Oral Roberts offer, where did he end up going and how did he do his first year? (Sorry, but I can't remember his name).

Cider Jim wrote:The other 7-footer that verbaled with us who had the Oral Roberts offer, where did he end up going and how did he do his first year? (Sorry, but I can't remember his name).

Hayden Koval ended up at Central Arkansas. He started as a Freshman last year and finished 3rd in the nation in blocked shots. He wanted to come to Liberty, but we didn´t have a scholarship for him because we signed Josiah Talbert. Obviously a recruiting mis-judgement.