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Post by durhamgsoaggie on Apr 18, 2013 15:47:09 GMT -5
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Post by marchingband1969 on Apr 18, 2013 18:13:52 GMT -5
Man next year is going to be exciting. Too bad everyone in the league will be gunning for us. Won't sneak up on anyone this year.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2013 18:45:04 GMT -5
We recruited young men who know how and expect to win. We even got someone from my HS in LA (Nick Reese)! Now all we need to do is either recruit a PG or find someone to coach up Underwood in the summer.
Underwood has the potential to be a top PG in the MEAC.
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Post by durhamgsoaggie on Apr 20, 2013 12:59:12 GMT -5
We recruited young men who know how and expect to win. We even got someone from my HS in LA (Nick Reese)! Now all we need to do is either recruit a PG or find someone to coach up Underwood in the summer. Underwood has the potential to be a top PG in the MEAC. I certainly appreciate the special championship season that our 7 seniors provided to the Aggie Nation. They will always have a treasured spot in Aggie Sports History. A couple will end up in the Aggie Sports Hall of Fame at some point in the future. That said, barring some serious injuries/academic issues, it appears that the 7 recruits brought in represent a significant upgrade in basketball talent over the departing seniors. Coach Cy (when asked) said our weakenesses were offensive post play, offensive rebounding and transition offense during this year's chalk talks before the games. Anyone watching the games could see that pretty clearly. His recruiting has addressed all of those issue with championship caliber players who know how to WIN. It's a young squad, but I trust his staff's ability to get the buy-in on defense and coach/create competition on offense with all this new talent. The 3 primary returning players bring in a WINNING experience as key contributors. That's huge. Underwood will make it happen at PG. I have no worries about that. We went from 1 player at 6'8" or taller to 3 (potentially 4 because Beckford still may be growing since he doesn't turn 19 until this October). We're now a lot bigger and stronger on the wings as well, and collectively more skilled. This squad has the potential to go 9-10 deep like Louisville to apply major pressure on defense without a fall-off on offense. I can't wait for football and basketball to get here...
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Post by cnixon79 on Apr 21, 2013 7:34:49 GMT -5
durhamgsoaggie, good post. I agree talent wise this recruiting class maybe all around be more talented then the Sr, class from this last year. However, it sitill believe this team will be a work in progress and not as successful as this year's team. I see several wholes with next years roster.
1). No Shooters, Powell, Louisme, and Witter were our shooters. I don't see quality replacements of shooters.
2.) No depth in the backcourt, out side of Underwood and Middleton there are no other guards on the roster. Both Underwood and Middleton turned ball over a lot last season. The potentiial backups scholarships were taken for more size Stewart and King.
3.) In experienced post players, this isn't HS any more and there will be a learning curve.
The teams in the MEAC will pressure this team defensively and I'm concerned that with the lack of depth in the back court and inexperienced post players that this team won't do as well a people think. Now, I will say this roster will be pretty impressive in 2 years if no one leaves or players being released from there scholarship.
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DECKS
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Post by DECKS on Apr 21, 2013 8:38:11 GMT -5
I agree a lot with Cnixon. I doubt if we' ll be picked to finish higher than 7th place during pre-season polls.
Sent from my SPH-L900 using proboards
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oleschoolaggie
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Apr 21, 2013 9:09:05 GMT -5
durhamgsoaggie, good post. I agree talent wise this recruiting class maybe all around be more talented then the Sr, class from this last year. However, it sitill believe this team will be a work in progress and not as successful as this year's team. I see several wholes with next years roster. 1). No Shooters, Powell, Louisme, and Witter were our shooters. I don't see quality replacements of shooters. 2.) No depth in the backcourt, out side of Underwood and Middleton there are no other guards on the roster. Both Underwood and Middleton turned ball over a lot last season. The potentiial backups scholarships were taken for more size Stewart and King. 3.) In experienced post players, this isn't HS any more and there will be a learning curve. The teams in the MEAC will pressure this team defensively and I'm concerned that with the lack of depth in the back court and inexperienced post players that this team won't do as well a people think. Now, I will say this roster will be pretty impressive in 2 years if no one leaves or players being released from there scholarship. i wouldn't say we don't have any shooters returning next season. underwood's 3 point shooting percentage is just as good as powell's, albeit he didn't shoot as many 3's as powell did. and middleton isn't a bad 3 point shooter either, his shooting percentage is as good if not better than both witter and louisme. so we have adequate shooters returning and we'll be just as capable from behind the arc next season. now, i do agree that depth will definitely be an issue considering we'll have at least 7 freshmen on the team. but the 6'9" post player from maryland is a juco, so he'll have more maturity and experience than the freshmen recruits and should provide an inside post presence immediately. plus, i believe we'll have additional help in the back court that coach cy has in his back pocket who already has experience and will provide some back court depth. i wouldn't dwell on losing stewart and king because if coach cy felt they could do a better job than the kids he's bringing in, he would've kept them. our post play should be fine with beckford having a year's experience under his belt and the juco post player coming in. plus, its easier for freshmen post players who have size to come in and have impact immediately. i mean, beckford is a prime example of that. offensively, he was our best post player as a true freshman last year. i think any true freshmen who already has a d1 body can also have an immediate impact in year 1. former eaves' recruit, justin black at morgan state is an example of that. black had immediate impact during his freshman year and even started several games. so i don't think the prospect for next season's team is so doom and gloom. obviously we won't be the odds on favorites to win the meac next season. but if our best two players (middleton, beckford) improve this summer as i would expect and we get major contributions from just a couple of freshmen, i think we'll be fine next season. with the size and length we will have, we will cause a lot of problems defensively for a lot of meac teams. we can now matchup favorably (in terms of size) against morgan state's tall team. any team that can defend and rebound well, which our team should be capable of, always has a fighting chance to succeed despite it's youth...
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Post by durhamgsoaggie on Apr 21, 2013 9:11:57 GMT -5
durhamgsoaggie, good post. I agree talent wise this recruiting class maybe all around be more talented then the Sr, class from this last year. However, it sitill believe this team will be a work in progress and not as successful as this year's team. I see several wholes with next years roster. 1). No Shooters, Powell, Louisme, and Witter were our shooters. I don't see quality replacements of shooters. 2.) No depth in the backcourt, out side of Underwood and Middleton there are no other guards on the roster. Both Underwood and Middleton turned ball over a lot last season. The potentiial backups scholarships were taken for more size Stewart and King. 3.) In experienced post players, this isn't HS any more and there will be a learning curve. The teams in the MEAC will pressure this team defensively and I'm concerned that with the lack of depth in the back court and inexperienced post players that this team won't do as well a people think. Now, I will say this roster will be pretty impressive in 2 years if no one leaves or players being released from there scholarship. 1. I'll grant you Powell, who shot 36.5% from 3-pt range.... but he was very streaky and went MIA in a lot of games, which is why he only averaged 12 ppg for the season. Louisme? He hit 28.9% of his 3s... and nearly 2/3s of all his shot attempts were from 3. Witter? 26.9% from 3-pt range... nearly 50% of his shot attempts. Even CBS said we were a bad 3-pt shooting team during the tournament. If you haven't seen the YouTube clip of James Whitaker, check it out.... I'm pretty sure he will surpass Louisme and Witter's 3-pt shooting by the time he's done. www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAsH8SLzHyEThe most critical outside shooter that you didn't mention was Jeremy Underwood, who shot 36.5% from 3-pt range (tied with Powell for the team high) and was the team's most consistent free-throw shooter at 80%. Thank goodness he is still on the roster (and poised to have a big season). 2. The wildcards in this situation for now are Maurice Taylor and Whitaker. Check out the clip of Taylor: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOGpzkHOsc4Getting Taylor to commit early in the fall was a huge step for our program. The key is how fast he is playing. He is a coach's son. He plays with decisiveness and intent along with size and speed. That means he's mentally processing the game at a pretty high rate for a youngster to play that fast. It's why Coach Alexander said in the fall press release that he could play a little at the 1 in addition to the 2 and 3. He has good hands, and he finishes strong at the rim, which is a combo that we simply did not have from anyone last year (which is part of the reason we averaged more turnovers that assists last year). This was an issue with Powell's game as well. Underwood and Middleton are going to have fun getting him the ball in transition, and Reese, too. Louisme was very timid handling the ball in the halfcourt and in a lot of full-court situations. I believe you'll see more attacking of the rim and less 3-pt shooting this year because of the overall talent upgrade. This will be better going forward, because that's more high-percentage basketball. It is not a stretch to say that Taylor and Whitaker will be more effective than Louisme and R.J. Buck in their overall game this season. I agree with you on the need to cut down on turnovers. Middleton averaged 2.2 assists/g and 2.8 turnovers/g. Underwood averaged 1.8 apg and 2.6 TO/g. Some of that was due to situational awareness. A lot of that is due to bad hands and lack of shot making ability across the team (we only shot 40% from the field as a team, which is not good). You're also making the assumption that Underwood and Middleton won't be hungry and working really hard on their ball-handling and situational awareness this off-season. When I asked Coach Cy who he felt his team leaders were back in January at a "chalk talk" session prior to a game, I was expecting him to say 1-2 of his seniors. To my surprise, he said Middleton and Underwood right off the bat. That was a tell-tale sign of the results of the previous 3 seasons versus the end result this year. Leadership matters. A winning attitude matters. Middleton and Underwood had that attitude even when they WEREN'T winning. I expect Middleton and Underwood as leaders to be much better than they were last year, especially now that they've tasted the championship. If Underwood has a stat line of 10 ppg, 5 apg and 2.5 tpg this season, this offense will be in great shape, even if Middleton backs up Underwood as the PG. And, honestly.... If Coach Cy felt that Stewart and King were going to be potentially better than the guys he was bringing in, he would keep them. Coach Cy hasn't won 6 MEAC titles by misevaluating talent, so we probably need to table our experiences of the previous decade in this regard. 3. Beckford is the starter at 4. Period. He is the foundation of the team going forward, per Coach Cy. Everything else in the frontcourt is extra. While Witter played amazing for us at the 5 on defense, he never really committed to the post on offense. That was a trade-off that Coach Cy was willing to make this year considering that Witter was a senior to get his buy-in. Brian Akinkugbe, the 6'9", 225 lb JUCO transfer that Coach Joyner and Coach Alexander coached for 1 season already, is a true post guy. He will probably start, which will allow Coach Cy to develop Burrough and Simmons into future starters. But, know that they will get run as reserves in this potential 9-10 man rotation. It is not a stretch to say that young Burrough at 6'9", 220 and Simmons at 6'8", 230 will be more effective as reserves than DaMetrius Upchurch at 6'7" 210, Lawrence Smith at 6'5" 200, or Dominique Behohn-Tolly at 6'6" 210 in the post. Sure, teams will try to pressure us. But most of them only go 7-deep in a quality rotation (they fall off if they go to the 8th/9th man). Even we went to a 7-man rotation by the end of the season due to Buck's health issues and offensive limitations. But I'm predicting we will be be in a 9-10 man rotation situation next year. What does that mean? By the end of this season, we will have the capability of putting out MAJOR full court pressure on teams. I'm not worried about them pressuring us. They're going to have to deal with us pressuring THEM.... and that is a fun position to be in. When I push nostalgia aside, the biggest difference in next year's roster versus this year's is the talent coming off the bench. It is my hope/prayer that this team surprises everybody and finishes top 3 in the MEAC (along with probably Norfolk St. and NCCU). I do not believe it is a stretch at all.
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oleschoolaggie
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Apr 21, 2013 9:20:54 GMT -5
durhamgsoaggie, good post. I agree talent wise this recruiting class maybe all around be more talented then the Sr, class from this last year. However, it sitill believe this team will be a work in progress and not as successful as this year's team. I see several wholes with next years roster. 1). No Shooters, Powell, Louisme, and Witter were our shooters. I don't see quality replacements of shooters. 2.) No depth in the backcourt, out side of Underwood and Middleton there are no other guards on the roster. Both Underwood and Middleton turned ball over a lot last season. The potentiial backups scholarships were taken for more size Stewart and King. 3.) In experienced post players, this isn't HS any more and there will be a learning curve. The teams in the MEAC will pressure this team defensively and I'm concerned that with the lack of depth in the back court and inexperienced post players that this team won't do as well a people think. Now, I will say this roster will be pretty impressive in 2 years if no one leaves or players being released from there scholarship. 1. I'll grant you Powell, who shot 36.5% from 3-pt range. Louisme? He hit 28.9% of his 3s... and nearly 2/3s of all his shot attempts were from 3. Witter? 26.9% from 3-pt range... nearly 50% of his shot attempts. Even CBS said we were a bad 3-pt shooting team during the tournament. If you haven't seen the YouTube clip of James Whitaker, check it out.... I'm pretty sure he will surpass Louisme and Witter's 3-pt shooting by the time he's done. www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAsH8SLzHyEThe most critical outside shooter that you didn't mention was Jeremy Underwood, who shot 36.5% from 3-pt range (tied with Powell for the team high) and was the team's most consistent free-throw shooter at 80%. Thank goodness he is still on the roster (and poised to have a big season). 2. The wildcards in this situation for now are Maurice Taylor and Whitaker. Check out the clip of Taylor: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOGpzkHOsc4Getting Taylor to commit early in the fall was a huge step for our program. The key is how fast he is playing. He is a coach's son. He plays with decisiveness and intent along with size and speed. It's why Coach Alexander said in the fall press release that he could play a little at the 1 in addition to the 2 and 3. He has good hands, and he finishes strong at the rim, which is a combo that we simply did not have from anyone last year (which is part of the reason we averaged more turnovers that assists last year). This was an issue with Powell's game as well. Underwood and Middleton are going to have fun getting him the ball in transition, and Reese, too. Louisme was very timid handling the ball in the halfcourt and in a lot of full-court situations. I believe you'll see more attacking of the rim and less 3-pt shooting this year because of the overall talent upgrade. This will be better going forward, because that's more high-percentage basketball. It is not a stretch to say that Taylor and Whitaker will be more effective than Louisme and R.J. Buck in their overall game this season. I agree with you on the need to cut down on turnovers. Middleton averaged 2.2 assists/g and 2.8 turnovers/g. Underwood averaged 1.8 apg and 2.6 TO/g. Some of that was due to situational awareness. A lot of that is due to bad hands and lack of shot making ability across the team (we only shot 40% from the field as a team, which is not good). You're also making the assumption that Underwood and Middleton won't be hungry and working really hard on their ball-handling and situational awareness this off-season. When I asked Coach Cy who he felt his team leaders were back in January at a "chalk talk" session prior to a game, I was expecting him to say 1-2 of his seniors. To my surprise, he said Middleton and Underwood right off the bat. That was a tell-tale sign of the results of the previous 3 seasons versus the end result this year. Leadership matters. A winning attitude matters. Middleton and Underwood had that attitude even when they WEREN'T winning. I expect Middleton and Underwood as leaders to be much better than they were last year, especially now that they've tasted the championship. If Underwood has a stat line of 10 ppg, 5 apg and 2.5 tpg this season, this offense will be in great shape, even if Middleton backs up Underwood as the PG. And, honestly.... If Coach Cy felt that Stewart and King were going to be potentially better than the guys he was bringing in, he would keep them. Coach Cy hasn't won 6 MEAC titles by misevaluating talent, so we probably need to table our experiences of the previous decade in this regard. 3. Beckford is the starter at 4. Period. He is the foundation of the team going forward, per Coach Cy. Everything else in the frontcourt is extra. While Witter played amazing for us at the 5 on defense, he never really committed to the post on offense. That was a trade-off that Coach Cy was willing to make this year considering that Witter was a senior to get his buy-in. Brian Akinkugbe, the 6'9", 225 lb JUCO transfer that Coach Joyner and Coach Alexander coached for 1 season already, is a true post guy. He will probably start, which will allow Coach Cy to develop Burrough and Simmons into future starters. But, know that they will get run as reserves in this potential 9-10 man rotation. It is not a stretch to say that young Burrough at 6'9", 220 and Simmons at 6'8", 230 will be more effective as reserves than DaMetrius Upchurch at 6'7" 210, Lawrence Smith at 6'5" 200, or Dominique Behohn-Tolly at 6'6" 210 in the post. Sure, teams will try to pressure us. But most of them only go 7-deep in a quality rotation (they fall off if they go to the 8th/9th man). Even we went to a 7-man rotation by the end of the season due to Buck's health issues and offensive limitations. But I'm predicting we will be be in a 9-10 man rotation situation next year. What does that mean? By the end of this season, we will have the capability of putting out MAJOR full court pressure on teams. I'm not worried about them pressuring us. They're going to have to deal with us pressuring THEM.... and that is a fun position to be in. When I push nostalgia aside, the biggest difference in next year's roster versus this year's is the talent coming off the bench. It is my hope/prayer that this team surprises everybody and finishes top 3 in the MEAC (along with probably Norfolk St. and NCCU). I do not believe it is a stretch at all. durham, i'm with you. i think we're on the same page...
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Post by durhamgsoaggie on Apr 21, 2013 9:37:47 GMT -5
oleschool, we are on the same page.... but go ahead and let the prognosticators pick us to finish 7th....
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Post by marchingband1969 on Apr 21, 2013 11:41:32 GMT -5
Thank you guys for breaking down the numbers. What I got from you guys was we now have better talent and the potential to be even better in the fall. Based on Coach Cy's long track record I know he get the most out of the talent and we will see that early in the season. In Cy I trust!
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Post by cnixon79 on Apr 21, 2013 12:23:29 GMT -5
Good Post, I'm glad percentages were brought up. Regardless of Louisme's percentage he was considered a shooter by the opposing teams scouting report. Underwood is a decent shooter but doesn't have a scorers mentality which doesn't make him such a threat from three. It's hard to say look at this HS kids highlights and say he'll be a knock down shooter at this level. Lousime averaged 19 ppg at his JUCO in Florida before coming to NC A&T with a reputation as major shooter. Witter had a reputation as a major shooter in HS. I just don't trust Freshman, especially 8-9 of them. I think any one that saw A&T play last year would say that Lamont Middleton is a threat going to the basketball not a 3 point threat though he's a decent shooter. I also hope Beckford will room to work down there. Remember, He played in the post with Witter who was hovering around the 3 pt line alot on offense which gave Beckford the room to go work. I just don't see a player on the roster were the scouting report would be "watch him, he's a shooter".
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2013 14:13:15 GMT -5
If I recall, we ranked around 310th for scoring and FG percentage. If coached up correctly, having the size on the inside and improvement with defensive rebounding and defense in general should help these things go up even with the holes cnixon79 pointed out.
Also, we need some SERIOUS help with Free Throw shooting! That will be the difference from a 7th place finish in the MEAC to winning the MEAC regular season and grabbing a few upsets in our OOC schedule.
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Post by aggypryd on Apr 21, 2013 14:30:25 GMT -5
Was just watching Jerome Simmons on Youtube. He's very, very, VERY raw. He needs to work a lot on his shooting, passing, and ball-handling. If he's willing to work, and we have some folks in place to teach him, he'll be able to seriously contribute by his junior year.
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Post by pj on Apr 21, 2013 20:22:18 GMT -5
Good Posts
I have to wait and see.
Rebounding and inside scoring is what I hope that we have.
Does the board think that Wayland will work into the lineup?
Powell will be missed on those nites that we cant get inside. Lamont & Underwood grew a lot near the end of the year. Shucks Cy was posting up Lamont in the MEAC Tourney. Underwood is tough, he stays on the floor after balls. On top of that he has hit some Big shots. The game comes to him.
This stamp of Defense that Cy has put on the program looks so good. The Aggie Nation/Dawg Pound cant help but to look forward to new things.
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