2024-2025 Rosterbation Thread

[GMU79]

Of course we need bigs, but shooters have killed us for years. How many times since L left have guys had career nights against us? You gotta put the ball in the basket to win.

 

[Verdad]

Yep - need a consistent shooter to compliment Maddox. Need a guy that can go off and score a ton like him so that the opponent can't deny Maddox and shut the whole game plan down.

I do think that Baraka is going to improve his ability to shoot from deep which will change things but you still need that consistent shooter like Maddox. Newton is a nice piece and can show glimpses but was very inconsistent this year. He is a piece to the puzzle and I love his energy, ability to get to the rim and how he plays defense.

Bring me a shooter, bring me an experienced guard who can play some point behind Okojie and Begg, bring me a big to backup Haynes, bring me a stretch 4/big guard/3 guy.

I have no doubt that the staff is going to bring in another group of excellent talent to supplement our expected retained core (Okojie, Maddox, Newton, Haynes, Ball, Begg, Billups), plus we'll see if we need to replace or we will keep Polite and Henry.

Both Billups and Okojie are ~26% 3pt shooters (giving Billups credit for a slightly higher percentage last year at Sienna on higher volume). Given the form on their shot, I think there is realistic hope that they can at least increase into the low 30's next year and be guys that other teams won't intentionally sag off of.

Everything else mentioned still stands, but them improving (or at least Okojie) would help.

 

[mkaufman1]

Both Billups and Okojie are ~26% 3pt shooters (giving Billups credit for a slightly higher percentage last year at Sienna on higher volume). Given the form on their shot, I think there is realistic hope that they can at least increase into the low 30's next year and be guys that other teams won't intentionally sag off of.

Everything else mentioned still stands, but them improving (or at least Okojie) would help.

No disagreement, even if they can be that 30-35% guy, I still think we need another Maddox. I just dont know if its realistic to expect another Maddox to come to Mason. We generally don't even get a guy like him so getting a second is going to be interesting.

Definitely need Billups and Okojie to improve though from deep, and I'm sure they both know that. I have full confidence they will put in a lot of work.

 

[Verdad]

No disagreement, even if they can be that 30-35% guy, I still think we need another Maddox. I just dont know if its realistic to expect another Maddox to come to Mason. We generally don't even get a guy like him so getting a second is going to be interesting.

Definitely need Billups and Okojie to improve though from deep, and I'm sure they both know that. I have full confidence they will put in a lot of work.

Just watched the presser - CTS mentioned they were sliding under our ball screens all night and Baraka appeared to be pissed and promised teams won't be able to guard him like that next year

 

[gmujim92]

People sleeping on AB. He is a big-time shooter — no surprise for a freshman to take time to adjust to the speed of college hoops, but I would expect a big jump from him next season. He’s gonna be a good one for us.

 

[Dawgs99]

IMO Billups' shot is totally broken. The ball spins like earth on its axis when he shoots it......no bueno.

 

[mkaufman1]

People sleeping on AB. He is a big-time shooter — no surprise for a freshman to take time to adjust to the speed of college hoops, but I would expect a big jump from him next season. He’s gonna be a good one for us.

No doubt he’s going to be solid and put in work to improve. But if we can get another 1-2 year guy who already has proven to be consistent, let’s get him.

 

[GMU79]

A shooter, a shooter, my kingdom
such as it is for a shooter!

 

[gmujim92]

No doubt he’s going to be solid and put in work to improve. But if we can get another 1-2 year guy who already has proven to be consistent, let’s get him.

I have no doubt they will, there are always tons of 2s and 3s in the portal, but there still needs to be some emphasis on player development to win at our level.

Rebuilding the roster every offseason and using the OOC to get everybody on the same page is not a recipe for success.

 

[GMU79]

I have no doubt they will, there are always tons of 2s and 3s in the portal, but there still needs to be some emphasis on player development to win at our level.

Rebuilding the roster every offseason and using the OOC to get everybody on the same page is not a recipe for success.

Yep, I would love some stability. You can tell teams that have been together for awhile...Screens, cuts, ball movement many times leading to easy baskets.

 

[Walter]

Rebuilding the roster every offseason and using the OOC to get everybody on the same page is not a recipe for success.

Unfortunately, that is where we are. Unless we can pay our top performers to stay, they will always be looking for a better payday. And who can blame them? Why wouldn't every player jump in the portal every year to see what their market value is?

I always advise early career professionals to constantly be on the lookout for a new job to get the big bumps in pay. Why wouldn't my advice be the same for D1 athletes?

 

[Verdad]

Unfortunately, that is where we are. Unless we can pay our top performers to stay, they will always be looking for a better payday. And who can blame them? Why wouldn't every player jump in the portal every year to see what their market value is?

I always advise early career professionals to constantly be on the lookout for a new job to get the big bumps in pay. Why wouldn't my advice be the same for D1 athletes?

Yea - but would you advise them to jump to a new job every year over a 3-5 year period?

 

[gmujim92]

Unfortunately, that is where we are. Unless we can pay our top performers to stay, they will always be looking for a better payday. And who can blame them? Why wouldn't every player jump in the portal every year to see what their market value is?

I always advise early career professionals to constantly be on the lookout for a new job to get the big bumps in pay. Why wouldn't my advice be the same for D1 athletes?

Agreed and this is why we all need to jump into the NIL pool. Every little bit helps and might make the difference between being able to keep developing 2-3 promising young players or losing them to the portal.

 

[dr. gunnie]

Some stability in our coaching staff will help where we might not have to rebuild the roster as much, although it will always be a thing in the new college landscape. It doesn't help to have 3 coaches in 4 years who ran off what turned out to be some pretty good players like Xavier Johnson and Otis Frazier. Hopefully a player like Ball can be someone who develops over time like those former guys did.

 

[mkaufman1]

Yep, I would love some stability. You can tell teams that have been together for awhile...Screens, cuts, ball movement many times leading to easy baskets.

I can’t think of very teams or any teams that don’t have much turnover in this era. Do you have a good example of a team that does this?

Most teams in the a10 are very year to year.

 

[GMU79]

I can’t think of very teams or any teams that don’t have much turnover in this era. Do you have a good example of a team that does this?

Most teams in the a10 are very year to year.

Not off the top of my head, and it is probably not going to happen, but I would still love to see it. Oh well.

 

[gmubrian]

I have no doubt they will, there are always tons of 2s and 3s in the portal, but there still needs to be some emphasis on player development to win at our level.

Rebuilding the roster every offseason and using the OOC to get everybody on the same page is not a recipe for success.

Unfortunately, that is where we are. Unless we can pay our top performers to stay, they will always be looking for a better payday. And who can blame them? Why wouldn't every player jump in the portal every year to see what their market value is?

I always advise early career professionals to constantly be on the lookout for a new job to get the big bumps in pay. Why wouldn't my advice be the same for D1 athletes?

Outside of coaching changes, we have yet to see any concrete examples of having to rebuild our roster every offseason, nor have any of our players left primarily for the bigger paycheck.

 

[GMUgemini]

I can’t think of very teams or any teams that don’t have much turnover in this era. Do you have a good example of a team that does this?

Most teams in the a10 are very year to year.

Dayton, and St. Joes both kept their core together.

 

[GMUgemini]

Unfortunately, that is where we are. Unless we can pay our top performers to stay, they will always be looking for a better payday. And who can blame them? Why wouldn't every player jump in the portal every year to see what their market value is?

I always advise early career professionals to constantly be on the lookout for a new job to get the big bumps in pay. Why wouldn't my advice be the same for D1 athletes?

Money isn’t everything. Fit and culture are also incredibly important. Just read what Bamisile said about playing at Oklahoma.

Hall, as an example, could get paid but he really should consider the trust and freedom Skinn gave him here and whether a P5 coach is going to give him that. If his goal is to play in the NBA (and it seems like it is) he should be looking at which program can develop and showcase his skillset more than which collective is going to toss the most dollars at him. And maybe that’s not here, but he certainly had a damn fine season here and we seemed to have a good plan for him.

 

[GreenLantern]

This is the first time in a while that we have stability at coaching and no complete turnaround in the roster. Truly something to build on

Remember. Rosterbation may lead to blindness!