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Post by elcoyote on Mar 24, 2020 12:12:19 GMT -6
Hunkered down at home and was peeking through our men's basketball roster. With Caden Hoffman and Matt Johns leaving, there will be an extremely unbalanced roster next season: 2 seniors (Umude and Chisom) 0 juniors, and 7 sophomores (Jovic, Plitzuweit, Perrot-Hunt, Goodrick, Koster, Kamateros and Heiman). I went by years of eligibility left, not by what level they are in school. I know we have the one freshman coming in, but that only gives us 10 players and three open scholarships. It'll be interesting to see how these are filled especially with the current recruiting moratorium in effect. The junior gap can easily be explained as that was Smith's last recruiting class all of which decommited, Greisel going to NDSU and Knight and Fakira following Smith to Utah State basically leaving Coach Lee in the lurch for that season's recruiting. Interesting to note that neither Knight nor Fakira remain on USU's roster after their first year there. Seems like Smith did them no favors luring them to Utah and they would have been better off in the long run remaining with USD. There's a lot of talent in that sophomore class although it might take a year or two for it to gel and all come together. If all seven stay the course, for better or for worse, in a few years we'd have an extremely senior heavy team again.
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Post by danceswithyotes on Mar 24, 2020 12:41:54 GMT -6
Good stuff Elcoyote. It looks like some offers have been for JUCO guys, that would be juniors in most cases. Coach Lee commented this winter that the scout team was pushing the starters. Most people will forget, AJ, Koster and Heiman all played as freshmen, so they have more real game experience than your typical sophomores. Will be interesting to see what kind of leader Umude can be and how much the year playing scout team together benefits the younger guys. I think they will be overlooked in the preseason. Would be nice to steal a gem or two with those remaining spots to add more depth.
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Post by Cousin Eddie on Apr 6, 2020 9:25:17 GMT -6
Boogie Anderson will be a Junior. We also have a couple JUCO offers out still. Wouldn't be surprised if the next one was going to be a junior as well.
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Post by elcoyote on Apr 6, 2020 12:53:05 GMT -6
Although disco music makes me cringe, I sincerely hope we get the rights to play "I'm Your Boogie Man", by KC and the Sunshine Band at home games. We could use the Rob Zombie version, but that might be a little much.
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Post by notkiotees on Apr 6, 2020 13:15:34 GMT -6
If the Covid doesn't take you out... A bad case of "Boogie Fever" will!
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Post by captaincoyote on Apr 7, 2020 19:58:49 GMT -6
Next year's roster competition was already looking wide open. Now, with the three JUCOS, we will have up to 8 guys who legitimately have a chance at making the starting 5. Umude is probably the only guaranteed starter. It will be entertaining to see how this plays out.
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Post by danceswithyotes on Apr 23, 2020 19:13:06 GMT -6
Of note, the Yotes will play at Kansas St. and Iowa in non-conference this fall.
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Post by kiyoat on Apr 25, 2020 7:10:39 GMT -6
Boogie Anderson will be a Junior. We also have a couple JUCO offers out still. Wouldn't be surprised if the next one was going to be a junior as well. This was a good call. Roster: balanced
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Post by kiyoat on Jul 27, 2020 8:21:18 GMT -6
Here is an "experience" breakdown of our men's roster: Class | Name | Pos | Ht | Wt | 2020 min. | other exp. | Sr | Stan Umude | G | 6-6 | 210 | 30.5 | | Sr | Ty Chisom | G | 6-4 | 190 | 12.9 | JUCO | - |
| | | | | | Jr | Mason Arch. | G | 6-1 | 185 |
| JUCO | Jr | Boogie Anderson | G | 6-4 | 200 |
| JUCO | Jr | Xavier Fuller | G | 6-5 | 185 |
| JUCO | Jr | Damani Hayes | G | 6-5 |
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| D-II | - |
| | | | | | R/So | A.J. Plitzuweit | G | 6-2 | 170 | Sat out | D-II | R/So | Kanon Koster | G | 6-4 | 220 | Sat out | D-II | R/So | Brady Heiman | F | 6-11 | 210 | Sat out | D-I | - |
| | | | | | So | Hunter Goodrick | F | 6-7 | 215 | 12.3 | International | So | Kruz Perrott-H. | G | 6-3 | 195 | 9.6 | International
| So | Tasos Kamateros | F | 6-8 | 240 | 6.0 | International
| So | D.J. Dial | G | 5-8 |
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| JUCO | - |
| | | | | | Fr | Max Burchill | G | 6-4 |
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| | Fr | Edin Smjecanin | F | 6-8 |
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| | Fr | Nikola Zizic | F | 6-11 |
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| International |
(Hayes will sit out this season)
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Post by kiyoat on Jul 27, 2020 8:30:29 GMT -6
We lost a lot of experience from the last senior class. Five of the top-six by minutes. Coach Lee and crew seem to have done a good job trying to balance classes, at least by roster numbers. Even outside of the graduating seniors, we have had a huge amount of turnover, though. Only five on the team that played last year at all, only 8 that were on the team last year, and seven newcomers.
Even having said all that, ... this is basketball. If we can find a handful of great players emerging from this mix, it's possible we could contend. Of course, that goes against Lee's mantra of "at the mid-major level, you win with old guys". What do you guys/gals all think of what our lineup might look like? I'll take a stab...
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Post by kiyoat on Jul 27, 2020 8:55:17 GMT -6
Here's a wild stab in the dark:
1 PG: A.J./Kruz/D.J. 2 SG: Ty/Mason 3 SF: Stan/Kanon 4 PF: Hunter 5 C: Tasos/Brady/Nikola
A.J. could play SG, too He might be our best perimeter shooter? Wish we had more of those pure shooters. Stan has played Center and Forward before, but I think Lee likes him better as a Guard/Forward for the size mismatch. Kanon is a big-bodied guard. No idea where to put some of the new players, just going off of Lee's few comments on the ones I placed. Boogie could play at a few spots.
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Post by elcoyote on Jul 27, 2020 13:07:57 GMT -6
Good stuff, kiyoat! I'll bite:
SF Umude PF Goodrich C Heiman SG Fuller PG no idea
One thing we should have is depth. Be interesting to see how Coach Lee utilizes and who steps up among all the new players.
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Post by captaincoyote on Jul 27, 2020 20:03:19 GMT -6
I honestly think the only "guaranteed" starter is Umude. We will likely see many different starting lineups which will vary based on our opponentand willingness to play D.
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Post by gopheryote on Jul 28, 2020 6:03:08 GMT -6
My guess: 1 Chisom 2 A.J. 3 Umude 3 Fuller 4 Goodrick
That would be a small lineup, but all but Goodrick can create their own shot and/or get to the rim. I'm nervous about how many minutes Stan will be called on to play - especially when you consider he already played over 30 last year.
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Post by kiyoat on Jul 28, 2020 7:40:21 GMT -6
My guess: 1 Chisom 2 A.J. 3 Umude 3 Fuller 4 Goodrick That would be a small lineup, but all but Goodrick can create their own shot and/or get to the rim. I'm nervous about how many minutes Stan will be called on to play - especially when you consider he already played over 30 last year. Good points. I remember Lee talking about how he wanted to get Stan more into a guard position, but in year 1 he (and TBM) were forced to play posts. Now without Hags in the post, I hope our bigs can hold down those post positions well enough to let Stan do his thing. Playing small ball can work, but I think Lee prefers to always have some length in the paint. Lee also tends to play the sh!t out of his experienced players, especially guards. I think he has trust issues with younger players. As to PG, I'd be surprised if Chisom plays much 1. He turns it over too much. LY he had 26 assists to 31 turnovers for an A/TO of 0.84..... not great. He is a slasher and a shutdown defender. Looking at our guards with high A/TO numbers from the last year they played: name | Asst | TO | A/TO | A.J. Plitz. | 104 | 53 | 1.96 | D.J. Dial | 148 | 82 | 1.80 | Kruz P-H | 24 | 14 | 1.71 |
I realize this is an unfair comparison, with AJ at the D-II level, DJ at the JUCO level, and Kruz as a backup. but A/TO is a normalized stat that eliminates play time bias. All three guys could fairly be described as good PG prospects, at least in this one stat that approximates ball control/handling. I wonder which one of them is the best floor general, or defender?
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