We need added talent. This team was below .500 in the BIG. I don’t see race and tjd back. If TJd isn’t back we need a list who can play right away
W. Virginia Transfer, Sean McNeil has IU in his final 6....
- Thread starter MTBRider22
- Start date
1 and 2 spots. And 3 when we go quicker and smaller.
3 spot is hopefully Jordan's, it would mean he improved, and Kopp as his backup.
JG needs to improve his handle to play on the wing. He plays more like a small 4
that's what "it would mean he improved" means.
It happens... and his handle isn't that much worse than Kopp's. Kopp just makes less mistakes.
I see a lineup of
X
Hood
Bates
JG
Race or TJD (1 will leave)
dept: galloway, leal, dunscomb, banks
We shouldn’t be turning away anyone that is an upgrade to the current roster, though. Our roster still has many holes and is not where it needs to be in order to compete at the national level.
I agree except replace Bates with Galloway. No way Bates jumps Galloway after one summer. I just hopes Bates sees the floor for 10-13 mins a game.
I'm really skeptical of this building by the portal stuff. The portal will be going away soon and same as the players that come through it that will only see 1 or 2 years of eligibility.
I'm not totally against it temporarily, in fairness to the cohort that lost a year, but the good portal players will gravitate to the good programs and that is not us at this point.
Sustaining mid to low level mediocrity (like we'd be happy to just make the tourney or come close) is all that will result from that strategy of program building. At some point we're going to have to take lumps and develop players that we recruit. Even if we suck for yet another year, throwing the recruits we have in there to develop is much better than speculating about such and such talent in the portal that typically wouldn't flee a better program (at present that would include WVA) to come here. They're either a problem, didn't get along with coach, or got over recruited, we need high character players that fit into a system that we don't even know what is yet
This is a pretty good summary of the portal rules:
What the NCAA Transfer Portal Is... and What It Isn’t
The concept seemed simple: an online interface that helps athletics compliance officers do their jobs efficiently. But for sports fans hungry for information on lineups, the Transfer Portal has become so much more.
s3.amazonaws.com
Last edited:
Where is the portal going? Portaling is here to stay and the new big thing. Not utilizing the portal would not be a smart decision, if you are a head coach.
I'm sorry, did you say WV is at present a better program? You do know what the definition of present is, right?I'm really skeptical of this building by the portal stuff. The portal will be going away soon and same as the players that come through it that will only see 1 or 2 years of eligibility.
I'm not totally against it temporarily, in fairness to the cohort that lost a year, but the good portal players will gravitate to the good programs and that is not us at this point.
Sustaining mid to low level mediocrity (like we'd be happy to just make the tourney or come close) is all that will result from that strategy of program building. At some point we're going to have to take lumps and develop players that we recruit. Even if we suck for yet another year, throwing the recruits we have in there to develop is much better than speculating about such and such talent in the portal that typically wouldn't flee a better program (at present that would include WVA) to come here. They're either a problem, didn't get along with coach, or got over recruited, we need high character players that fit into a system that we don't even know what is yet
This is a pretty good summary of the portal rules:
What the NCAA Transfer Portal Is... and What It Isn’t
The concept seemed simple: an online interface that helps athletics compliance officers do their jobs efficiently. But for sports fans hungry for information on lineups, the Transfer Portal has become so much more.
It should not be used to replace recruiting and it has consequences for the scholarship players that aren't picked up:
"If student-athletes withdraw from the portal, the original school can return them to the roster and restore athletics aid if it chooses."
It has consequences for the player and hand ties the school that doesn't know what is going to happen and thus impacts recruiting for a replacement. It's basically the equivalent of a trade request in pro sports and a big mess that's just going to cause so many problems they'll have to get rid of it and, in general, just dilutes the quality of teams and consistency.
It also kind of legalizes what would be called tampering in the pro's, because if you don't know you got a deal, both the in-coming school and the transferring player are taking a big risk to commit to it and have one party back out. The only way you can get an assurance in that is if you've got plans made before a player announces ... sort of like looking for a new job without telling your current employer. It's not a perfect analogy though because there are dates and deadlines around sports for players and teams, whereas in a regular job your employer can just go recover from it whenever they can get a replacement (mid season, whenever)
Last edited:
Yes, Huggy Bear is a very good coach and has had a lot more success (typically top 25 or with a realistic expectation of that every year for the last 20 years, sometimes very good there). In a state of the program sense for the last 20 years is what I would consider as present, if I would have suggested generally, which in my mind would be all time, that would be incorrect
Totally agree, only that I feel like Kopp is 0.5 dimensional, this guy might qualify as 1.0 dimensional
The state of the program presently is that they fell way short of sniffing the tournament, and that player is leaving that present team. One that presently has no significant recruiting momentum and has five players exiting through the portal (including their second and fourth leading scorers, while also losing their leading scorer to graduation). All on a team that finished dead last in the Big 12. Yep, sounds like we're in a dead heat with their program. Nothing good of consequence going on here.
West Virginia has been about the same as IU the last 8-10 years. Sad honestly
Lets say Race TJD JG all come back. Do you start those three, Tamar and X. or JHS and X.
If Tamar isn't starting I will be shocked.
I know current players aren't likely to go for it but being the leader of the 2nd team vs 4th or 5th on the starting team and having a 2nd team that can really put a hurt on the opponent is a good thing if winning is your goal. Would depend on some defensive matchups in some games of course. Kevin McHale started out as the top 6 th man
I suspect you are on to something.
I expect any returning starter to again “start”. That doesn’t mean they will finish.
I expect the starters to be:
X
Galloway or Hood
Kopp
Race
Trace
I see Geronimo and Bates getting plenty of minutes off the bench.
I know many here are writing off Kopp, but it’s clear that Woodson trusted him last year, why wouldn’t he do so again? While fans percolate each time he misses an outside shot, I suspect our staff has a good handle on what they can trust him to do (and to them it may not be all about “making” 3s).
Last edited:
Statistically, very close to Kopp's #s. Per 40M played per career:
McNeil: 15.3 ppg; 3.0 rebs; 1.4 assists; 1.2 TOs; .451 on 2s; .368 on 3s; .861 on FTs
Kopp: 13.1 ppg; 4.3 rebs; 1.7 assists; 1.8 TOs; .416 on 2s; .360 on 3s; .853 on FTs
Biggest difference between the two is that McNeil shoots about 4 times more often per 40M played than Kopp:
McNeil----5.5 2 pt atts/40M; 7.2 3s......12.7 total
Kopp----2.5 2 pt atts/40M; 5.6 3s.....8.1 total
So....if nothing else, being less afraid to shoot than Kopp would be helpful. But I won't lose sleep if we don't get him.
For sure. JG with all that physical talent still looks raw to me, like he hasn’t been playing ball for long. Probably another year away from being a really good player. BTW saw on another site’s thread that Trayce and Race signed another year lease on their Btown apartment. Interesting.
I don’t think starting those 3 helps our issue we had this year…shooting. I think we need to play 1 of TJD or Race.
X if here will start and so will Hood.
mid Bates improves a ton i go small
X, Hood, Bates, JG and TJD or Race
I don't think you are going to see JHS start.
If I had to guess right now based on the current roster, I would go:
XJ
Bates
Kopp
Race
TJD
The weakness of our team is guard play and we have the number 4 guard in the country comjng in and you don’t think he starts? #16 player overall.
IMO, the weakness of our team is shooting/scoring on the perimeter. JHS doesn't solve those issues. Bates is our best and most versatile perimeter scorer, and I expect him to make a big jump this year. Bates was the 6th ranked shooting guard a year ago, so simply stating that JHS is the 4th best SG (even though he isn't a SG) doesn't hold much weight.
Bates will be a starter. XJ will be a starter. JHS could slide into the 3rd guard role over Kopp, but for now, the smart money is on Kopp starting at the 3. If we were to land McNeil, I could see him starting over Kopp.
He was a freshman. JHS will not be producing at a high level next year either. There is a learning curve.
Possibky, hood plays against the top talent in the country and has a college body. I could be wrong but he looks like the real deal to me.
What do you think Bates did? He played for IMG!!!! He also had a college body at 6-5 190 lbs. You didn't even know JHS was a PG, so it was clear you had never watched him play. You are basing it solely on his rankings.
Had Bates been given adequate time last year, he would have broken out. For some reason Woodson stopped playing him after Christmas break. Compare Bates' stats with Branham's from OSU over the first 10 games of their career. I think you may be shocked to learn that Bates had way better numbers.
Playing time for both Bates and H-S will be largely based on their ability to defend. Woodson has been crystal clear about defense from day one. It is the primary reason Kopp and Stewart played more than Bates and Geronimo this year - and rightly so. While neither were elite defenders, they were competent (barring some temporary matchup issues in certain games). JG and TB struggled to guard on the perimeter (JG was satisfactory defending the post). Hopefully, both will make significant leaps defensively with a year under their belts. At every level, experience makes a huge difference in most players' ability to defend.
Wise coaches understand. A mistake on the offensive end results in a lost possession but doesn't usually lead directly to points for the other team. A mistake on the defensive end usually does.
We will see. Woodson has to play the guys that give the best opportunity to win the game. Playing the better defensive player is not always automatically the correct call. Bates and Geronimo are our two highest ceiling players. They should be played no matter what, because they won't develop on the bench. Woodson needs to learn to let players play through mistakes.
Actually I watched a lot of his highlights. He shared the point on his team. Read the article about him also it sheds light on him playing off guard quite a bit. Tamar shot 33% from the field and played zero defense. I have a hard time sheeting Hood not playing a ton given how bad our guards are.
If it was up to me, the nonconference starting lineup would look like this...
X
Tamar (needs to be given 25+ minutes during non-conference)
JHS (unless Galloway fixes his broken shot)
JG
TJD
I really want to see if Tamar, JHS, and JG can be consistent contributors if given the opportunity. Race was our most consistent player for most of the season, but JG's ceiling is just so much higher. I would love to see Race backup the 4 and 5, still getting 22+ minutes a game.We really need Tamar to improve during the offseason and JHS to not play like a freshman if we want to improve considerably from last year. While I would love to see JG improve to the point he could play the 3, he is too far away right now on both sides of the ball. We need a 3 that is a threat to shoot, drive, and can guard the opposing team's 3.
Who I think Woody will start:
X
Tamar
Kopp
Race
TJD
Last edited:
Similar threads
