Topic: Bennett and Watson

[carolinaherdfan]

Anyone know the details? The article says he was suspended to "departmental rules", maybe it was academic related? You have to attend class if you attend WFU.

https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2015/10/31/wake-forest-basketball-cornelius-hudson-rondale-watson-suspended
[/quote]

Since you confess knowing The D/Deacons requirments as above; I would suggest your asking those Folks board and not The Universities... Your question...?

[herd2win]

There should be checks and balances to make sure a player is eligible if possible...should not be any grey area.

[coalherd]

It's Just my opinion. But doc proved he could win when the best teams left cusa and the conference was gutted. He didn't win the 3 yrs before and now that the conference brought in wku, mtsu and a couple others it has collapsed again. Look at the timing of those 3 seasons and the jr and Sr laiden teams. Along with catching lightning in a bottle with cato and shuler. Before and after has been disastrous. And I have seen way to many things out of doc to make me shake my head. But that is just my opinion and I will be their cheering on the herd 9-2-17.

Only thing, herdorbust, is that Danny D. has also played against a watered down, if not gutted, CUSA.  NO Houston. NO UCF.  NO Tulsa.  AND NO Memphis!!

And as for attrition.  Well, with 13 schollies in BB it doesn't take much in the way of defections to severely weaken, perhaps cripple a team. In 2 or 3 seasons, we've now lost Nikolic and Thompson, with eligibility left.  We've also lost scholarship players who HARDLY played:  Allison and Dozic.  We got one super year from a grad transfer, Kelly.  Now we're losing at least a half year with Watson. We've gained nothing except for Coach's stroking some in state HS coaches egos by lauding in state players and then bringing them in as walk-ons:  Kilgore, Ot Elmrore, Frampton, and Browning from Wyoming County.  All of whom, game wise, contributed a big NOTHING to the program - - and, No, we didn't get Frampton's brother.

I disagree with Danny D's approach in several areas.  First, I would go after solid Junior College players from good junior college programs who have at least 2 years of eligibility left over a one year only grad transfer, except in the case of an exceptional talent (and don't tell me that Danny and any of his staff had ANY IDEA that Kelly would have the year he had).

Second, swallow a little of the in state pride bit and expand the Herd's geographic recruiting area a little bit more.  Don't tell me that this state produces real quality big men that often; it doesn't.  The big kid at WVU last year from Morgantown and Ross Patten at MU about a decade ago are the exceptions, not the rule.

So now, we are basically entering 2017-18 season with a 10 man roster.  VERY THIN and inexperienced up front:  Behind Penava, who was recently noted to weigh 212 pounds, so much for his extensive off season weight and conditioning program, we have a totally inexperienced red shirt, untested freshman, also a little thin, and a juco.  Any serious foul trouble, and we'll have seldom used senior, Milan, with the mobility of an iceberg.  Other up front slot will be manned by either the aforementioned juco, with Bledsoe and/or Theineman as back ups.  One of those, hopefully both, need to have a series spike in their caliber of play, a break out year, so to speak, if we are to find continuing success, IMO.  The true frosh forward from VA may be a good talent but, again, is a little thin and also inexperienced.

As for 2018-19, I'll refrain from saying it will be a super season, only for the reason that we can't tell yet whether Elmore will be back.  Yes, should have both Iran and Watson.  Don't look for that much right away from Robinette.  He played at a very small Virginia HS against very weak competition.  After a year at Hargrave and a red shirt, he will be an untested frosh, still learning the college game.  And who's to say if Penava has a solid season, gets his degree, that he will return to MU?

Definitely hoping for continued improvement from the Herd in the upcoming season.  That will require a great uptick in road success for beginners.  Whether we will be deep enough by season's end to contend again in Conference tourney is anyone's guess, and will be dependent a lot on whether we have any serious injury bugs through the year.  As for down the road, I'll temper my enthusiasm somewhat based on 30 years of Herd basketball futility and REALISM and not allow myself to get overly excited by others' continuous and glowing "practice reports"!!!

[iherdya]

There should be checks and balances to make sure a player is eligible if possible...should not be any grey area.

in theory yes. in practice we can afford like 5-6 academic counselors for 300+ student athletes.

[QuickStrike]

Can't see the b-ball team being improved more than last season.  Losing Seniors Taylor, Browning, Loop, with Thompson transferring, and now Watson ineligible the 1st semester.

[herdman22]

Did he say Browning contributed zero?

[parshall2marshall]

Now it does look like rebounding, and interior defense will continue to be a problem. I thought for sure when Thompson transferred that somehow, behind the scenes, it meant in my little mind that IB would be eligible.

Turned out there was no relationship there, just another case of the NCAA being harsh on the little guy, with the UK's and UL's
churning out another full team of 1-and-done's with little to no academic quals.

p2m

[TeaysValleyThunder]

Did he say Browning contributed zero?

Probably meant Bowling.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[jocktalker]

There should be checks and balances to make sure a player is eligible if possible...should not be any grey area.

Indiana lost a freshman wide receiver this year because the kid received the wrong information from the IU Compliance Office.  It happens.

[NerdHaitian]

DD gets a pass from the fanbase because 1) he's a former Herd player and 2) in the end, we don't really care about basketball.  Not like we do about football, anyway.

Try this: name Dan D'Antoni's biggest accomplishment at Marshall that isn't a loss.

[Luke80]

Only thing, herdorbust, is that Danny D. has also played against a watered down, if not gutted, CUSA.  NO Houston. NO UCF.  NO Tulsa.  AND NO Memphis!!

This is a BS statement. CUSA is really no better or worse than it was before those teams left. I realize Memphis was really good from 2006 through 2008, but if you compare MT, WKU, ODU, and LA Tech to the 4 AAC teams you mentioned you will find the current CUSA teams had better RPIs over the past 3 years, despite having to play some in conference dregs. Maybe you should have thrown in SMU (who stunk in BB when they were in CUSA).  CUSA was a one bid conference before the big shift and its still a one bid conference now. Also the CUSA tournament team has now won its first round NCAA game 3 years in a row - last time that happened - Memphis 2006-2008.

The way the CUSA scheduling has worked over the past few years has left Marshall playing home and away against WKU, UAB, MT, ODU and Charlotte with single games against the rest of the league.  I think that scheduling quirk might have made our overall conference schedule more challenging than back when we played ECU twice a year.

[MUonium]

still a doable season if they give 110%

i'm sure there'll be a little crossover 2 thru 5, some more than others

1 Elmore, West
2 Burks, Theineman, Villers, Reed (Watson later)
3 George, Bledsoe, Fenton
4 Koljanin, Williams
5 Penava, Mijovic

[coalherd]

Probably meant Bowling.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Yes, my bad.  Meant Bowling from Wyoming County, not Browning from Logan.

[coalherd]

Only thing, herdorbust, is that Danny D. has also played against a watered down, if not gutted, CUSA.  NO Houston. NO UCF.  NO Tulsa.  AND NO Memphis!!

This is a BS statement. CUSA is really no better or worse than it was before those teams left. I realize Memphis was really good from 2006 through 2008, but if you compare MT, WKU, ODU, and LA Tech to the 4 AAC teams you mentioned you will find the current CUSA teams had better RPIs over the past 3 years, despite having to play some in conference dregs. Maybe you should have thrown in SMU (who stunk in BB when they were in CUSA).  CUSA was a one bid conference before the big shift and its still a one bid conference now. Also the CUSA tournament team has now won its first round NCAA game 3 years in a row - last time that happened - Memphis 2006-2008.

The way the CUSA scheduling has worked over the past few years has left Marshall playing home and away against WKU, UAB, MT, ODU and Charlotte with single games against the rest of the league.  I think that scheduling quirk might have made our overall conference schedule more challenging than back when we played ECU twice a year.

UAB has been about the same our whole tenure in CUSA, pretty solid program.  Same goes for UTEP.  You can debate some of the newer schools versus the older ones:  UTSA, NTSU, FIU and FAU vs. SMU, Tulane, ECU.  However, Tulsa and Houston were definitely as good or better than ODU and Charlotte have been thus far.  WKU has been on a downturn for a couple of seasons and anyone's guess how good or bad they'll be this year. LA Tech and MTSU have been very good since coming into CUSA, but not, IMO, in Memphis' league while it ruled the league.  Southern Miss has been a yo-yo program ever since MU has been in CUSA and you can just about put Rice into that category.

[herdorbust]

I don't think the interior defense will be any worse than last year. And I actually think it will be better, and here is why. Our inside guys (Taylor was undersized, Thompson wasn't a great defender, and Peneva who will be back this year bigger and stronger with more experience) So we had Taylor and Thompson we lost. Put in Koljanin and Williams and you probably drop off a little although both are more athletic than Taylor and Thompson. But here is the big key.... Guard play!!!! Like I said I loved Stevie and Loop. But they could not stop dribble penetration and it made it much tougher on our bigs. We will have better guard play on defense even while Watson is out. There won't be as much penetration from opposing guards as last year and that will help our bigs out a lot.

[Herdalum83]

that's a bit of hyperbole. if the kids were remotely good enough to play d1 basketball they would be somewhere playing, not the rec. i mean jon played rec basketball in his year sitting out and had a game where he scored over 100 points, in like 15 minutes halves with a running clock. it's an entirely different level.

And Kareem Canty, Ryan Taylor and Tyquan Goard had a rec center league team the year they were sitting out and got washed in the finals by Andy Burns (SVHS All State Selection a few years back) and some other nobodies. There are some pretty solid players in the MU rec center, a lot of guys that could be playing college ball, playing in there for whatever reason.. Now, most of those guys would be at the D2 or NAIA level but there are a handful of guys in the rec center that could have played D1 ball at least there was when I was at MU.

There are also lots of trash players too. One team, I played against was terrible.  I dropped 54 on them and I'm not near a D1 player. The talent level is pretty all over the place in the MU rec center.