[olldflame]

THE SKY IS FALLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Cider Jim]

Is it too early to project a starting 5?

1--Jesse
2--Evan
3--Jeremy
4--Antwan
5--Carter

Top subs--John Caleb & Joel

Am I counting 7 of the team that didn't see any minutes last year?
http://www.libertyflames.com/index.cfm? ... 1&TeamID=6

[jcmanson]

John Brown will likely factor into the rotation. You don't typically waste a scholly on a JUCO unless they are going to see time.

From what I've heard, Chene Phillips will push for time in the backcourt.

[olldflame]

Jesse, Evan and Antwan are pretty much set. I think small forward will be between 2 very different players; Jeremy and John Brown. Who plays may depend on whether we need rebounding or shooting. At center, I really think Layer would like to establish more of a post presence, which would point to JVP over Carter, but I think that job is up for grabs in fall practice. Another possibility that has been discussed before is that if JC Sanders and/or Chene Phillips prove to be too good to sit, we could go small with Jesse playing the 3, but still running the point much of the time on offense.

[TDDance234]

Jesse, Evan and Antwan are pretty much set. I think small forward will be between 2 very different players; Jeremy and John Brown. Who plays may depend on whether we need rebounding or shooting. At center, I really think Layer would like to establish more of a post presence, which would point to JVP over Carter, but I think that job is up for grabs in fall practice. Another possibility that has been discussed before is that if JC Sanders and/or Chene Phillips prove to be too good to sit, we could go small with Jesse playing the 3, but still running the point much of the time on offense.

JVP is a complete unknown at this point. I think you'll see Carter get the nod at C at the beginning of the season and we'll work in JVP slowly.

[olldflame]

JVP is certainly an unknown to most of us, myself included, but some of the guys here who were able to see him practice last year think he will give us a post presence we have lacked since Ace graduated. Of course some of the people who saw Minaya in practice 2 years ago thought he would be our best player going into last year.

[prototype]

Is it too early to project a starting 5?

1--Jesse
2--Evan
3--Jeremy
4--Antwan
5--Carter

Top subs--John Caleb & Joel

Am I counting 7 of the team that didn't see any minutes last year?
http://www.libertyflames.com/index.cfm? ... 1&TeamID=6

I do not see Jeremy getting this spot...

[SuperJon]

Joel's about a year away from being really good. That doesn't mean he won't be a contributor this year, but he's about a year from being a sure-thing.

[olldflame]

To me, our best case scenario at the 3 has Brown winning the job based on his athleticism, rebounding and defense and Jeremy fully regaining his 3 point touch to come off the bench and provide an offensive spark like he did as a Freshman.

[prototype]

To me, our best case scenario at the 3 has Brown winning the job based on his athleticism, rebounding and defense and Jeremy fully regaining his 3 point touch to come off the bench and provide an offensive spark like he did as a Freshman.

Or to just hit the rim - so it will give Brown a chance to rebound and put it back in...

[olldflame]

To me, our best case scenario at the 3 has Brown winning the job based on his athleticism, rebounding and defense and Jeremy fully regaining his 3 point touch to come off the bench and provide an offensive spark like he did as a Freshman.

Or to just hit the rim - so it will give Brown a chance to rebound and put it back in...

Based on what the Citadel fans who came on here when we signed him said, I think we may see a good bit of that. Apparently he is an absolutely relentless rebounder.

[prototype]

That would be a great asset to have on the floor this year.

[Schfourteenteen]

Of course some of the people who saw Minaya in practice 2 years ago thought he would be our best player going into last year.

I never said I knew anything about basketball

I saw two practices and he looked really good in both of them.

[Cider Jim]

Apparently he is an absolutely relentless rebounder.

Which we haven't had since Ace. Yea, the biggest question mark seems to be the 3 slot, but Jesse might work out well there on defense. And if Jeremy gets his 3-ball back, he was absolutely dead-on his freshman year.

[ToTheLeft]

The problem with Jeremy is that he's completely useless when he's on the floor for a while, especially if he's a starter, because his man only has to slide under the handoff screens (or fight through them) and get a hand in his face, he'll just pick up his dribble and spin around and pass it or turn it over. He isn't very good at using screens, a lot of times he actually moves away from the basket as he uses them and is forced to pick up his dribble. He can't do anything but catch and shoot, or some off of a good screen and shoot. (And play some defense if his man isn't too fast for him, he's a good defender who's just not very athletic.)

That's why he's best off the bench. When you get into a rhythm defending him, he's useless, and a wasted player on the floor. When he comes in as a sub and the defense is focused on guys like Evan and Jesse who take it to the basket, they might give him the room he needs to get open. He could still play good minutes, but I don't think he should play too much because, once you key in on him, he can't do a thing unless there's a breakdown or his man leaves to help on a guy like Jesse who can find him despite a double team.

Unless of course his defense improves even more, in which case there's a reason to start him despite his rather weak offense. If he can cover the other team's 2 or 3, then he should play, even if his offense isn't very good. And obviously if we play a strict zone defense team he should play a little more and we should work to get him good looks by opening the zone up with the drive and kicking it out to him.

This all assumes he's learned how to shoot again. If he hasn't, then he'll need to be really good on defense to merit playing time.

[jenkins]

juco kid better be the best guy for the job. Both of their profiles made them sound like terrific rebounders for their size and i think we will need that being undersized at PF and C. Ohman was a good rebounder last year at that spot. JA is a good bench player to use in spurts but if he's starting then we are in trouble.

[olldflame]

What makes you say we are undersized at PF and center? Not a lot of bulk, but we will not be starting a lineup with noone over 6'6" like we did last year, with a wannabe guard playing power forward.

[jenkins]

did you watch the same team i watched last year. We were under sized almost all of the time unless it was someone like vmi where it doesn't matter. Just because you have height doesn't mean your not under-sized.

[ToTheLeft]

Undersized compared to who?

G-W had some of the most useless bigs ever. Other than Parakhouski, we really weren't "out sized" by a Big South team. We might not have been as strong and athletic in the post area as say John Williams or Joe Harris or Chad Gray, but neither of those guys "out size" us. Not even Coleman from PC is going to "outsize" us, they're just more talented bigs than what we have. But if Antwan keeps developing, he could become a nice answer for those guys.

VMI had the huge kid who is terrible at basketball. HPU had Cruz who was pretty solid against us, but then they have a bunch of 6'5-6'7 guys who are just athletic and get after the ball. CSU doesn't have a big that's any better than ours, and they certainly don't outsize us. Am I missing a team that just blows us away in terms of overall size?

[SuperJon]

The Big South isn't about huge big guys. It's about 6'6-6'8 guys who are athletic and can jump.

[ToTheLeft]

The Big South isn't about huge big guys. It's about 6'6-6'8 guys who are athletic and can jump.

And we have one in Antwan. As he develops more and more, he'll be very beneficial for us.

[olldflame]

I would say that when we were going with Antwan in the post last year with Konan at the 4 and Kyle at the 3, we were undersized. We have more options this year, and I doubt we will go that small often.

[olldflame]

The Big South isn't about huge big guys. It's about 6'6-6'8 guys who are athletic and can jump.

And we have one in Antwan. As he develops more and more, he'll be very beneficial for us.

Hopefully we have another one in Sommy.

[jenkins]

im not talking about the big south. I'm talking about a basketball team in general and i believe we are under sized as a basketball team. WE rarely won the battle on the boards last year which to me proves my statements. So you can prop it up with who in the BS has a good big men if you want too but that isn't the argument. If we win the rebounding battle at all this year then i would reconsider my statements but i just dont see it happening.

[ToTheLeft]

What big men are we going to get? There aren't that many big built 6'8+ guys out there that are good at basketball that everyone can just go get one. Sure we'll look undersized against a guy like Harangody at ND, or other top schools, but for mid-major and below, we're not undersized. As olldflame mentioned, running Konan and Kyle at the 3/4 made us a bit undersized, but compared to most mid majors, we're not that small.

I think you're expecting us to have Greg Oden or Zoubek or Blake Griffin, or Cousins/Orton from Kentucky and that's just not happening. I mean, if we were a top mid major we could pull a guy like that once in a while, but those players to go big schools. even bad big men get schollies at big schools just in case they're good. Parakhouski is probably going to net Radford some NCAA violations eventually, and other than that, mid majors (low majors especially) don't get prototype 4/5 guys with NBA size.

Winning the rebound battle doesn't really have to do with having true bigs, it's a whole team effort. And we were 114 out of 334 in rebounding margin (3rd in the BSC behind Radford who had the best rebounder in the nation in terms of numbers, and CCU who had tall skinny Gray and short athletic Harris). So I'm not even sure what you're upset about. We averaged 2 more boards a game than our opponents. Turnover margin is the battle we lost on the year.