MU men's hoops
Confirmed with Calloway today, 8-am blue-white scrimmage Sat is open to the public. But, he says, space to view will be limited especially later in the morning when the football teams check in. But it is open and will give folks a chance to see the team under game conditions..albeit against each other
Went to MU hoops practice today for about 45 minutes. Mainly was watching some 2 on 1 drills. Was very sloppy at times.
John Bunch, meanwhile, looked good in that he was moving well and dunking to finish some breaks.
Everyone practiced.
A person with substantial knowledge of MU hoops today expressed these concerns about the team:
1) outside shooting
2) depth
Am not overly concerned with outside shooting as this isn't going to be a team depending on the 3 anyway..if it shoots 15-20 3's per game that's waaay too much..though the long range percentages of the returnees could be better....Alex Nunner, and I look for freshman Yaniv Simpson to be good from deep ...
Whitney Coleman, Deki, Marques can hit the 3
SCORING GP FG-FGA FG% 3FG-FGA 3PT% FT-FTA FT% PTS PTS/G
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ALSTON, Marques..... 34 145-304 .477 23-77 .299 81-113 .717 394 11.6
DELIC, Dejan........ 31 120-311 .386 67-204 .328 74-103 .718 381 12.3
KENNY, Chris........ 34 97-248 .391 47-142 .331 52-66 .788 293 8.6
COLEMAN, Whitney.... 34 88-194 .454 25-58 .431 31-43 .721 232 6.8
AZZARELLI, Tyler.... 24 75-165 .455 28-82 .341 42-69 .609 220 9.2
BUNCH, John......... 25 76-144 .528 0-0 .000 47-89 .528 199 8.0
HALLETT, Corey...... 34 75-166 .452 1-6 .167 17-29 .586 168 4.9
SHIPMAN, Mike....... 27 52-106 .491 10-31 .323 34-49 .694 148 5.5
WILSON, Brent....... 33 32-72 .444 0-1 .000 13-20 .650 77 2.3
NUNNER, Alex........ 27 13-33 .394 10-25 .400
As for depth..the concern here is more valid, I think, in that while there is young talent it is young.
Unless fifth-year senior Steve Bazaz (the pride of Shore Regional) moves into the fringe rotation (not that remote a possibility) all the top reserves are first-time college performers...""Rickie the Rookie', Jhamar ("The Jet) and Sean Barlow....Here is where perhaps they could have used a Tyson Johnson. This remains to be seen.
There will be no seniors on the team next year as there are no juniors this year. Somehow MU went blank on a whole class of recruits.
e-mail tonygsports@aol.com
Went to MU hoops practice today for about 45 minutes. Mainly was watching some 2 on 1 drills. Was very sloppy at times.
John Bunch, meanwhile, looked good in that he was moving well and dunking to finish some breaks.
Everyone practiced.
A person with substantial knowledge of MU hoops today expressed these concerns about the team:
1) outside shooting
2) depth
Am not overly concerned with outside shooting as this isn't going to be a team depending on the 3 anyway..if it shoots 15-20 3's per game that's waaay too much..though the long range percentages of the returnees could be better....Alex Nunner, and I look for freshman Yaniv Simpson to be good from deep ...
Whitney Coleman, Deki, Marques can hit the 3
SCORING GP FG-FGA FG% 3FG-FGA 3PT% FT-FTA FT% PTS PTS/G
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ALSTON, Marques..... 34 145-304 .477 23-77 .299 81-113 .717 394 11.6
DELIC, Dejan........ 31 120-311 .386 67-204 .328 74-103 .718 381 12.3
KENNY, Chris........ 34 97-248 .391 47-142 .331 52-66 .788 293 8.6
COLEMAN, Whitney.... 34 88-194 .454 25-58 .431 31-43 .721 232 6.8
AZZARELLI, Tyler.... 24 75-165 .455 28-82 .341 42-69 .609 220 9.2
BUNCH, John......... 25 76-144 .528 0-0 .000 47-89 .528 199 8.0
HALLETT, Corey...... 34 75-166 .452 1-6 .167 17-29 .586 168 4.9
SHIPMAN, Mike....... 27 52-106 .491 10-31 .323 34-49 .694 148 5.5
WILSON, Brent....... 33 32-72 .444 0-1 .000 13-20 .650 77 2.3
NUNNER, Alex........ 27 13-33 .394 10-25 .400
As for depth..the concern here is more valid, I think, in that while there is young talent it is young.
Unless fifth-year senior Steve Bazaz (the pride of Shore Regional) moves into the fringe rotation (not that remote a possibility) all the top reserves are first-time college performers...""Rickie the Rookie', Jhamar ("The Jet) and Sean Barlow....Here is where perhaps they could have used a Tyson Johnson. This remains to be seen.
There will be no seniors on the team next year as there are no juniors this year. Somehow MU went blank on a whole class of recruits.
e-mail tonygsports@aol.com
posted by Tony Graham at 11:52 PM
9 Comments:
Tony,
You actually think Bazaz may get into the 'fringe rotation' this year? If so, we're in trouble!
What happened to all those scholarship recruits to add to our depth -- Crews, Simpson, Barlow, Youngblood, Dobriansky, Gately (probably missed someone else)???
We don't have enough depth there?
As for 2 years from now, if you're right about our depth problem and we're thin this year, unless our 4 recruits for next year are terrific 'gets' (so far not looking that way), we'll be looking at lean times again in WLB. In that scenario, with zero recruits coming in that year, and a weak bench this year, our 4 recruits for next season would have to be major contributors. I'm not holding my breath for that one.
Tony,
No seniors in 2 years is bad for a couple of reasons: lack of leadership that season, plus (and more importantly) missing an entire high school recruiting crop -- bad planning by Calloway & company. He has to take a hit for that.
Furthermore, unless it's broken somehow, this cycle will repeat itself every 4 years, giving us the same problem over & over. Teams have to be able to constantly bring in new blood.
Only way I see to correct this would be to either recruit some JC players who would come in for 1 or 2 years and graduate when we would otherwise have no seniors graduating, or some year (like this year?) not give out all the 4 scholarships we have, saving some for the following year.
Tony,
I feel that outside shooting should not be a major concern for this team. Deki, Marques, Coleman, Shipman, Nunner and Simpson should all be good or very good outside threats this year. However, depth could be a question mark. A starting 5 of Hallet, Alston, Delic, Coleman, and Shipman looks very solid so far. A bench consisting of Bunch, Crews, Youngblood and probably Simpson seems to be very promising; however very unpolished and untested. BUT, if the starting 5 is solid like it should be and Bunch takes the next big step in his maturation process, followed by these three highly touted freshman all coming through (which would be a minor-miracle considering the last few freshman MU signed that I was excited about were named Tyson Johnson, Tyrone Hanson and Chris Shovlin- nowhere to be seen on the roster), this year could be superb. Also, don't sleep on Nunner, he could develop into a Chris Kenny-like bench player this yr or next.
Chris Shovlin..now there's a name from the past. He was on the Wilkes, Pa. D3 roster last season. Tried to find out how he fared but their stats page wouldn't load up.
Anyway..considering their two prize recruits going into last year Hanson and Johnson fizzled out that blow was softened considerably with the emergence of Shipman and Coleman.
Sure Dave takes the "hit" but I know he was concerned about the lack of juniors ..it just didn't work out....MU doesn't take that many JCs anwyay which is a good thing though one or two here and there never hurts. Brent Wilson was servicable but never became they player they hoped he would be
I'm trying to think of who they recruited that one year along with Shovlin....don't have that year's media guide on hand as we speak.
Anyway I don't see the "lean" years returning ..next year you've got Ship and Coleman and Youngblood and Crews...I am assuming here that Youngblood and Crews are going to be impact players either this year or next and you still have Simpson, Nunner and the big kids (Gaitley and Dobs) and Barlow and all have a chance.
The jury is very much out on Barlow. I think he will be Ok in the limited role he will take this season.
Gaitley "knows how to play" to borrow an old Wayne Szoke phrase and is probably more advanced than Dobs at this stage but will sit out this year and Dobs should.
They have got one commitment for next year (the 6-8 forward Nick Del Tufo from Mendham) and I believe have a recruit scheduled to visit this weekend.
Now..this assumes..always dangerous to do that..there are no major injuries or other issues to affect the 2007-2008 roster but I still see them being among the top teams in the NEC...
However.. this year could be special ..if..some of the newcomers contribute, and I feel they have the talent do that.
Remember - you can probably not expect to see more than one or two of the new guys on the floor at the same time in most situations and they will be blanketed by seniors..
And who dissed Bazaz..?? He's made a lot of improvement and is not going to hurt the team though I don't see him in any major role.
By the way.. they have this 5-8 or so walk on, T.J. Tibbs from Staten Island . Very quick...but he is a walk on.
Yu want to see this team for yourself? Be there 8am Saturday!!! Bring me coffee please.
Tony,
I just finished getting my tickets/reservations for the COX CLASSIC, and I will be there on saturday morning to get my sneak-peak. I am hoping to be impressed and excited for my 7 hour drive come Novemeber 10th.
I think they can win at least one game at the COX. And Clemson may have problems attacking the matchup in the mode of S. Carolina last year.
Tony,
I feel that MU can compete with all three teams at the COX CLASSIC. ODU is nowhere near as good as last year's team, Arkansas St. wasn't that good last year and one of their starting guards is out for this game(probably longer) and I agree that Clemson is the type of team that could have problems competing with MU's style. I am very very optimistic for my trip. What a way to start off the year, winning a season tournament and beating teams from the Colonial and the ACC. Just a pipedream now, but what a weekend it'll be if it becomes a reality.
Tony,
On a bit of an unrelated topic --
Is there any buzz on the campus about this week's court ruling giving MU permission to go ahead with a new dorm & parking lot? Is this thought to be the predecessor of approval for the field house?
I will check with our newsroom on the court ruling.
However..it seems to me that the dorm issue was delaying (like for two years!) MU's bringing the MAAC before the zoning board..however it does not directly affect its potential approval as far as I understand it.
Now that the MAAC has been brought before the zoning board the next move is a vote by it vote on approval (or rejection) ..a matter that has been held up by some guy making a big issue over a potential traffic problem that might occur in the dead of winter - NOT.
MU's latest hope, far as I know, is to get approval by December and to break ground in the spring.
But it seems something or someone always comes along to delay it.
I have said this before..if I was directly involved one way or the other with this issue (and I am not) I would attend one of these meetings and ask what the heck is going on?!
Oh, by the way, I think the next meeting is Thursday night, however I also do not believe the issue is scheduled for a vote at that meeting. But if I was going (and I am not) I would check.
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