Offseason Hoops Speculation

Forum Forum Lehigh Sports Lehigh Men’s Basketball Offseason Hoops Speculation

This topic contains 27 replies, has 11 voices, and was last updated by  TMH 9 years ago.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 28 total)
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  • #18890
    StablerBum
    StablerBum
    Participant

    Now that the season is wrapped up, I’m hoping for an uneventful offseason. We are losing Corey, Stefan, Conroy, and Khalid.

    Any speculation on players or coaches leaving the program? I hope all the players return, and I don’t see too much staff turnover. I think Kroogs could be a candidate to move since he is essentially stuck in his role at Lehigh unless Wyche leaves. I personally hope not as Kroogs seems to be great at skill development, a good recruiter, and really connect with the guys. Would Wyche leave if the right opportunity came?

    On the players, just the fact that Alston bounced around so much in high school (which has been statistically proven to be an indicator of college transferring) scares me. Also, Jenkins got very little run for a scholarship guy. I wonder if he would look elsewhere since he has Ross in his class, as well as Price and MS a year above and Leufroy coming in. He seems like a great kid with good athleticism and work ethic, so I hope he stays. Maybe Cole would looked to drop down a level to play or he enjoys Lehigh and and the team. Hope he stays as well.

    #18891

    toddcudd
    Participant

    Don’t have it in me yet. I’ll check back in after the binge and hangover…

    #18893

    TMH
    Participant
    #18899

    LU08
    Participant

    Hello all! I am a graduate who likes to keep up with the team. I make the games that I can and read the blog to feel informed when work intervenes. Now that our season has ended, I wanted to give my “1 cent” on the season : ).

    I believe this year, LU had the strongest roster in the league. We had the rookie of the year and the MVP of the league. On top of that, we boasted 3 big men that could compete with the best of any team (a convenience that not many mid-majors can say).

    We had 5 guards that deserved minutes every game (KR, AP, CS, BA, MS). KR did a great job this year but honestly, I believe we give him too much of a load. First we expect him to play one of the highest minutes in the league. Next, we expect him to be the sole handler of the basketball and make more assists than turnovers in a pretty stagnant offense. Lastly we expect him to score and knock down his free throws (mostly at the end of games). I don’t believe any other freshman in college basketball was given this type of responsibility and his production this year greatly warrants the accolades.

    With the other 4 guards: AP, CS, BA, MS I believe we had 4 guards that are better than any 4 in the league. However, I question substitutions and lineups. We had an unimpressive year last year with AP and CS and after starting this season slow (0-4) and starting the conference slow (1-5) it is intriguing that we never attempted to change the starting lineup. Doc changed JG for JC after a very low shooting percentage by JC and JG was playing one of the best in the league (leading league in blocks and shooting over 60% from field). However, we never changed our starting guard lineup in 2 years. AP is a skilled shooter but a volume shooter whose percentage doesn’t warrant the multitude of 3s taken and the lack of production anywhere else on the court. Doc has not found a way to emphasize his skill as a set shooter. I love who CS is- A guy who will bleed Lehigh Brown. You always know you are getting his best! However his lack of production this year was embarrassing. As a senior he averaged 4.7 points in 25 minutes and his average and percentage dropped come conference play. CS played 241 more minutes than BA and BA scored 11 more points on the season. MS averaged .5 less points than CS in 9 minutes less playing time per game (Conference Play)….As younger players we never allowed one of these guys to grow. BA scored 11 points in first half in Stabler and Miles lead the charge with 18 points in the 103 win over Army (only 100 point PL win since 2010).

    In our final game we got no production, offensively or defensively from AP or CS. 1/9 for AP (before last .5 second where he made another 3) and 0/2 from CS (0 points in last 45 minutes of his career).

    With CS gone and AP now a junior. It will be interesting to see what lineups we will play next year. I do not see any of the freshman leaving with the optimistic future expectations of the team.

    GO HAWKS!!

    #18900

    lehigh90
    Participant

    ’08-

    I agree with much of what you wrote. We got great PG play and great play from our bigs, TK and JG, but the wing play was suspect all season. Sometimes very good, and sometimes very poor. I thought preseason that the key to the season was going to be consistent wing scoring, and we never really got it. We knew we had a stud in TK, and we basically knew we had a very talented young PG. They both performed, but we could not get that consistent scoring option from the wing. AP had his moments, but he gets lost for long stretches, and lacks that scorer’s mentality, always looking to throw the dagger.

    The biggest disappointment for me, for the season, was that we did not win the regular season title or the conference tournament when we clearly had the most talented roster. I watched the 2 semis yesterday, and it is really apparent that those 4 teams do not have the athletes that Lehigh does. Lafayette has a really solid roster (and are similar to Lehigh in that they get a lot from their 1 and 5) but they are far from athletic. Solid basketball team for sure, with a lot of senior leadership, well coached, and I expect them to win PL title, but we should be able to run a team like that off the floor. When you are the most talented and you don’t win, you have to lay a fair bit of the blame at the feet of the head coach.

    I think BR has done a great job building a really solid program with increasing longevity. He continues to bring in good talent, with not a lot of fan support. But, his X’s and O’s are suspect. He usually gets outcoached by the better coaches in the league. He seems, from the outside, like a really nice coach to play for, supportive, etc., but he relies on his players and older players to motivate. I don’t see him as a real motivator, or tough task master, and I think college players respond to that type a little better. I am saying this from a distance, so I don’t really know but that is how it appears. When you have athletes, you need to exploit your strengths and we never do that. Put your athletes on the floor, push tempo and dictate to your opponent. Press full court when you have plus athletes, we never do that. We are just so one dimensional, no versatility, suspect substitution patterns, nothing out the box. Man to man, high pick and roll, it is all so vanilla.

    I think we are clearly the favorite next season, with Bucknell. They should be 1-2 for the title next year. Anything less than that and 20 wins is a disappointment. We should be NCAA or NIT next season. We aren’t losing much, return 90% of everything, and have talent coming in. So, we are in great shape. No excuses left. Only change I see is a possible BA transfer. He never looks comfortable out there in his role.

    #18962
    StablerBum
    StablerBum
    Participant

    Reed being mentioned in connection to Penn job. No idea if it is legit or not:

    http://boards.basketball-u.com/showtopic.php?tid/17696/

    #18964

    lfnadmin
    Keymaster

    Happily for us, Steve Donahue got the call at Penn instead:

    http://www.csnphilly.com/ncaa/penn-basketball-report-steve-donahue-hired-quakers-head-coach

    Glad Penn is blind :)

    #18965
    StablerBum
    StablerBum
    Participant

    Crazy to me. Donahue is a career loser (200-214 as a HC) and that would be MUCH worse if were not for one amazing class at Cornell that resulted in 3 straight 20 win seasons (he’s never had another one).

    Andy Toole, Jim Engles, or even Langel seem like much better choices to me.

    #18967
    Bison137
    Bison137
    Participant

    Agree on Donahue. Also two of the three great players in that class (Foote and Dale) recruited themselves. The Penn fans are understandably not happy with the selection.

    #18968
    jimk72
    jimk72
    Participant

    The analysis/thread on the Bucknell forum (linked above) is generally on point. We’ve been mediocre at best the last two years based on the raw record. However I do believe it was difficult to recruit better than mediocre talent while CJ, Gabe & Holden were here. You couldn’t promise immediate playing time, which in my mind is a real key to recruiting at our level. TK, Miles, and AP’s class is the first out of the shadow of the big 3. This year, the Patriot league rookie of the year. And according to Verbal Commits the incoming class is (on paper) the most heralded ever. We will always remember CJ and Duke, but how this group develops (PL titles!) will have a lot to do with how we evaluate coach Reed’s overall Lehigh career. And perhaps his future.

    #18970

    TMH
    Participant

    jimk72,
    I’m not so sure I agree with if being difficult to recruit mediocre talent while CJ etc were here. CJ, GK and HG only represented 3 out of 8 positions. There were still plenty of minutes to go around and we were on to something big. Remeber that in CJs freshman year we won 20+ games and gave Kansas all they can handle. Next year, we will again have the POY and the ROY back and it did nothing to reduce the quality of next year’s class. If everyone can mesh and stay healthy, there is a huge amount of potential going forward.

    #18971
    van
    van
    Participant

    have to agree with JMK, big man and point guard positions are filled for the next 2 and 3 years, but we sure could use some wings

    #18972

    TMH
    Participant

    Coming right up. I think we have a pair of wings that have the potential to chew up a lot of minutes next year. The question may be how those minutes get distributed.
    Next up is to recruit a couple of bigs to replace JG and JC after next season.

    #18996

    lfnadmin
    Keymaster

    Some big new vacancies to (perhaps) be concerned about, most notably Tom Pecora being relieved of his duties at Fordham.

    #19000

    lfnadmin
    Keymaster

    Bill Carmody has been hired by Holy Cross, according to sources on Twitter. Interesting hire by Crusaders and gives their purple pudding a theme.

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