2024-25 Portal

[baggerbob]

Yes, a very tall team at every position but center, where it seems we were focused on length and athletic ability.

Even there, Tiefing really helps the average height at center.

And long arms can block shots and deflect passes which lead to fast breaks.
And we have guys who have shown they can finish above the rim.
Plus we should have an advantage going after loose balls with size and speed.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Red has been doing this. Last year 10 players averaged over 12.4 minutes/game with 9 players playing in over 26 games. Only Donnie and Naheem played in less than 26 games because of injuries. We didn’t have any player who averaged over 30 minutes a game - not one 30 minute player though Eddie Lampkin sure came close. (29.9) See the individual stats.

Men's Basketball Cumulative Statistics

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cuse.com

Good info to share. Thanks, Cherie.

I think the perception is because he would play guys for really long stretches at a time,12-16 minutes straight sometimes.

And on the other end of the spectrum, guys would get one rotation and disappear for the rest of the game, even if they were playing well.

I think if guys play shorter rotations in terms of how many minutes at a time, they can play with more effort.

 

[bnoro]

I hope that Red plays 10 guys regularly. We have an array of talent and it is up to Red and staff to get guys ready to play hard and be locked in whether it be for 5 minutes or 30 minutes.

Coach has been up and down the past 2 seasons, but it appears that he and Kline carefully researched and constructed this roster after last year’s unbalanced lineup. I applaud them for being able to snag key pieces from the portal - getting some top choices and then seeming to have backup plans of other pieces that fit when we missed out on certain targets.

Now that the roster is complete, it’s time to get to work!

Everyone was mad last year about his substitution patterns last year because we had entirely too many guys. The best college teams are playing 8 guys. 9-10 when the game is out of reach or if there's serious foul trouble.

I'd be very concerned if we are playing 10 guys regularly as it would mean we don't have the top end talent to win.

 

[Dmcnabbrules]

Everyone was mad last year about his substitution patterns last year because we had entirely too many guys. The best college teams are playing 8 guys. 9-10 when the game is out of reach or if there's serious foul trouble.

I'd be very concerned if we are playing 10 guys regularly as it would mean we don't have the top end talent to win.

Thank you. The only teams that truly “play” 10 are the high energy pressing teams. What’s crazy is Boeheim would have been great in this era. Pay and find your 7 guys and who cares about the rest.

 

[Niastri]

Three out of four Final Four teams followed the 7-8 player rotation. Duke was the exception, playing ten players ten minutes a game.

I think their average margin of victory in a bad conference had everything to do with that, since their best player, Flagg, played almost exactly 30 mins/game. When your average margin of victory is first in the country by 4 points over second place (20.5 compared to second place Gonzaga 16.5), you are going to have lots of minutes inflation for your bench players.

At any rate, it seems finding your JB style 2 centers, 3 Forwards and 3 guards might be the way to go. Everybody else plays only in practice, blowouts and emergencies.

Let’s figure out our 8, for fun.

Definitely in the 8 man rotation: Kyle, Freeman, Starling, George

Self explanatory, these guys are the core of the team, with Freeman, George and Starling in competition to lead the team in minutes. Kyle is far and away our most athletic and experienced center.

Probably in 8 man rotation:
Kingz, Betsey

I had Kingz in the first group, but then thought Red might give the taller, true forward Betsey a lot of chances to win the small forward spot instead of playing three guards to start.

Competing for roles in top 8
Souare, White, Anthony, Fennell

Souare almost has to win a spot, unless Freeman becomes our second center, and White our third forward. It might come down to who fits better between Anthony and Fennell when George needs a rest. Does anybody have the punt guard skills to give George a minute or two of rest a couple times per half? George played 36 minutes for Georgia Tech last season, do we want him playing that much again?

My guess:

Kyle, Souare
Freeman, White, Kingz
Starling, George, Fennell

Betsey and Anthony are 9 and 10 in the 8 player rotation. Kingz proven shooting ability beats out Betsey’s height because Betsey still plays like a guard at 6’8, so Red goes with the proven shooter in Kingz.

Fennell being a point guard (at least kind of) gets him the extra minutes ahead of Anthony.

I think Red gives all the players a lot of chances to earn minutes in the first months of the season. Hopefully we win enough where we don’t get buried while he’s figuring it out.

The other scholarship players play sparingly or not at all after the cupcake portion of the schedule. Unless we, like Duke last season, lead the league in average margin of victory.

 

[tptcuse]

I hope that Red plays 10 guys regularly. We have an array of talent and it is up to Red and staff to get guys ready to play hard and be locked in whether it be for 5 minutes or 30 minutes.

Coach has been up and down the past 2 seasons, but it appears that he and Kline carefully researched and constructed this roster after last year’s unbalanced lineup. I applaud them for being able to snag key pieces from the portal - getting some top choices and then seeming to have backup plans of other pieces that fit when we missed out on certain targets.

Now that the roster is complete, it’s time to get to work!

I hope that Red only plays as many players as it takes for the team to play good defense.

 

[Cheriehoop]

Good info to share. Thanks, Cherie.

I think the perception is because he would play guys for really long stretches at a time,12-16 minutes straight sometimes.

And on the other end of the spectrum, guys would get one rotation and disappear for the rest of the game, even if they were playing well.

I think if guys play shorter rotations in terms of how many minutes at a time, they can play with more effort.

“I think if guys play shorter rotations in terms of how many minutes at a time, they can play with more effort.”

That was my assumption but seriously I didn’t really see it. I had hoped we could press, platoon players who were guaranteed some minutes every game if they put out the energy and intensity on the floor. No one would get tired, everyone would get a break, stay engaged and be rewarded for their intensity and effort. I was hoping that practices would be intensely competitive that would carry over into games for these players, most in their last year wanting and needing to prove and challenge themselves against tougher competition. Being a coach is not easy with each player having different goals, weaknesses, strengths, levels of confidence, skill sets, ability to handle pressure, not even counting different NIL value etc into a single cohesive team mindset. We hear about team culture - tough to develop year to year without experienced examples to lead the new entries.

 

[Zelda Zonk]

Three out of four Final Four teams followed the 7-8 player rotation. Duke was the exception, playing ten players ten minutes a game.

I think their average margin of victory in a bad conference had everything to do with that, since their best player, Flagg, played almost exactly 30 mins/game. When your average margin of victory is first in the country by 4 points over second place (20.5 compared to second place Gonzaga 16.5), you are going to have lots of minutes inflation for your bench players.

At any rate, it seems finding your JB style 2 centers, 3 Forwards and 3 guards might be the way to go. Everybody else plays only in practice, blowouts and emergencies.

Let’s figure out our 8, for fun.

Definitely in the 8 man rotation: Kyle, Freeman, Starling, George

Self explanatory, these guys are the core of the team, with Freeman, George and Starling in competition to lead the team in minutes. Kyle is far and away our most athletic and experienced center.

Probably in 8 man rotation:
Kingz, Betsey

I had Kingz in the first group, but then thought Red might give the taller, true forward Betsey a lot of chances to win the small forward spot instead of playing three guards to start.

Competing for roles in top 8
Souare, White, Anthony, Fennell

Souare almost has to win a spot, unless Freeman becomes our second center, and White our third forward. It might come down to who fits better between Anthony and Fennell when George needs a rest. Does anybody have the punt guard skills to give George a minute or two of rest a couple times per half? George played 36 minutes for Georgia Tech last season, do we want him playing that much again?

My guess:

Kyle, Souare
Freeman, White, Kingz
Starling, George, Fennell

Betsey and Anthony are 9 and 10 in the 8 player rotation. Kingz proven shooting ability beats out Betsey’s height because Betsey still plays like a guard at 6’8, so Red goes with the proven shooter in Kingz.

Fennell being a point guard (at least kind of) gets him the extra minutes ahead of Anthony.

I think Red gives all the players a lot of chances to earn minutes in the first months of the season. Hopefully we win enough where we don’t get buried while he’s figuring it out.

The other scholarship players play sparingly or not at all after the cupcake portion of the schedule. Unless we, like Duke last season, lead the league in average margin of victory.

I won’t argue the logic in following the most successful models, but… those final four teams could possibly do what they do because they have the talent and coaching/preparation to do that. We don’t have final four talent or coaching. So, winning a maximum number of games at our level might require a different model.

This is like saying one Kenyan can run a marathon in a time of x, but to cover the same ground, it would take twenty schmucks running shorter relay sprints to do the same time.

Another way to put it is that if you’re not sure who your stars are, you don’t have any. And yet another, more practical way—one of the guys we thought was just a roster filler last year ended up starting a good number of games. If he hadn’t gotten any minutes until he was ‘forced’ into usefulness, would he have been as prepared?

 

[IthacaMatt]

Three out of four Final Four teams followed the 7-8 player rotation. Duke was the exception, playing ten players ten minutes a game.

I think their average margin of victory in a bad conference had everything to do with that, since their best player, Flagg, played almost exactly 30 mins/game. When your average margin of victory is first in the country by 4 points over second place (20.5 compared to second place Gonzaga 16.5), you are going to have lots of minutes inflation for your bench players.

At any rate, it seems finding your JB style 2 centers, 3 Forwards and 3 guards might be the way to go. Everybody else plays only in practice, blowouts and emergencies.

Let’s figure out our 8, for fun.

Definitely in the 8 man rotation: Kyle, Freeman, Starling, George

Self explanatory, these guys are the core of the team, with Freeman, George and Starling in competition to lead the team in minutes. Kyle is far and away our most athletic and experienced center.

Probably in 8 man rotation:
Kingz, Betsey

I had Kingz in the first group, but then thought Red might give the taller, true forward Betsey a lot of chances to win the small forward spot instead of playing three guards to start.

Competing for roles in top 8
Souare, White, Anthony, Fennell

Souare almost has to win a spot, unless Freeman becomes our second center, and White our third forward. It might come down to who fits better between Anthony and Fennell when George needs a rest. Does anybody have the punt guard skills to give George a minute or two of rest a couple times per half? George played 36 minutes for Georgia Tech last season, do we want him playing that much again?

My guess:

Kyle, Souare
Freeman, White, Kingz
Starling, George, Fennell

Betsey and Anthony are 9 and 10 in the 8 player rotation. Kingz proven shooting ability beats out Betsey’s height because Betsey still plays like a guard at 6’8, so Red goes with the proven shooter in Kingz.

Fennell being a point guard (at least kind of) gets him the extra minutes ahead of Anthony.

I think Red gives all the players a lot of chances to earn minutes in the first months of the season. Hopefully we win enough where we don’t get buried while he’s figuring it out.

The other scholarship players play sparingly or not at all after the cupcake portion of the schedule. Unless we, like Duke last season, lead the league in average margin of victory.

Those first 10 guys are all going to play this year.
Who are you going to sit among those last 4 guys?
I don't see how Soare - our 2nd center, and Fennell - our 2nd PG, don't get to play at least 5-10 minutes a game.

Anthony is going to play. A McDonald's AA (White) is going to play.
He just has to make them understand how he plans to do it, and what he wants from them all, what he sees their role as.

 

[orangefog]

Those first 10 guys are all going to play this year.
Who are you going to sit among those last 4 guys?
I don't see how Soare - our 2nd center, and Fennell - our 2nd PG, don't get to play at least 5-10 minutes a game.

Anthony is going to play. A McDonald's AA (White) is going to play.
He just has to make them understand how he plans to do it, and what he wants from them all, what he sees their role as.

Every guy on this roster can play. It's an open competition for playing time. I can see any guy on the roster stepping up and contributing. This is what a roster should look like. It's encouraging.

 

[cliftonparksufan]

Every guy on this roster can play. It's an open competition for playing time. I can see any guy on the roster stepping up and contributing. This is what a roster should look like. It's encouraging.

A lot can depend on match ups and hopefully riding a hot hand vs having to sit guys due to bumps and bruises.

 

[Niastri]

Those first 10 guys are all going to play this year.
Who are you going to sit among those last 4 guys?
I don't see how Soare - our 2nd center, and Fennell - our 2nd PG, don't get to play at least 5-10 minutes a game.

Anthony is going to play. A McDonald's AA (White) is going to play.
He just has to make them understand how he plans to do it, and what he wants from them all, what he sees their role as.

I agree… I just played the mental game of “if I absolutely had to guess” and pulled the trigger.

 

[bnoro]

Those first 10 guys are all going to play this year.
Who are you going to sit among those last 4 guys?
I don't see how Soare - our 2nd center, and Fennell - our 2nd PG, don't get to play at least 5-10 minutes a game.

Anthony is going to play. A McDonald's AA (White) is going to play.
He just has to make them understand how he plans to do it, and what he wants from them all, what he sees their role as.

They are all going to play, but in a game against a ranked team where it's within 5 points, there's no chance we're playing 10. So our best 7-8 will be important to figure out.

 

[Dmcnabbrules]

I see it in terms of levels
Level 1 major minutes in every game.
George
Freeman
Starling

Level 2 will play consistent minutes based on matchups variation of 6mpg
Kingz
Kyle
White
Anthony

Level 3 wildcards might not play every game but will be contributors
Ibrahim
Beaty
Fennell

Level 4 unknowns might sit most of the season
Womack
Diawara

Edit:had JJ twice, put Donnie in.

 

[ar inj]

I see it in terms of levels
Level 1 major minutes in every game.
George
Starling
JJ
Level 2 will play consistent minutes based on matchups variation of 6mpg
Kingz
Kyle
White
Anthony

Level 3 wildcards might not play every game but will be contributors
Ibrahim
Beaty
Fennell

Level 4 unknowns might sit most of the season
Womack
Diawara

I would move both JJ and Starling down a level and Freeman would be a Level 1

 

[Dmcnabbrules]

I would move both JJ and Starling down a level and Freeman would be a Level 1

Fixed. I think this is what will happen not necessarily what I want.

 

[orangefog]

I see it in terms of levels
Level 1 major minutes in every game.
George
Freeman
Starling

Level 2 will play consistent minutes based on matchups variation of 6mpg
Kingz
Kyle
White
Anthony

Level 3 wildcards might not play every game but will be contributors
Ibrahim
Beaty
Fennell

Level 4 unknowns might sit most of the season
Womack
Diawara

Edit:had JJ twice, put Donnie in.

I think one of Souare or Diawara is going to have to play in every game, because I don't think Donnie or Sadiq should be playing center.

 

[Dmcnabbrules]

I think one of Souare or Diawara is going to have to play in every game, because I don't think Donnie or Sadiq should be playing center.

How do you find minutes for White if Freeman doesn’t play center?
I can’t see White on the floor with Kyle/Souare for more than 2/3 minutes. There isn’t enough shooting.

 

[orangefog]

How do you find minutes for White if Freeman doesn’t play center?
I can’t see White on the floor with Kyle/Souare for more than 2/3 minutes. There isn’t enough shooting.

Personally, I would prefer to see Donnie and Sadiq at the forward spots together rather than either of them at center. But, against some teams Donnie could probably play a few minutes at center. I also like Betsey, so I want to see him get minutes. Having a complete roster is a great problem to have.

 

[Niastri]

How do you find minutes for White if Freeman doesn’t play center?
I can’t see White on the floor with Kyle/Souare for more than 2/3 minutes. There isn’t enough shooting.

In White’s high school video, he often goes to the left corner, so he can wait for lobs of dribble penetration, or kick out passes where he can drive or shoot that corner three.

He does have some three point makes out there in his video, but of course they only show his made shots, and finding a reliable three point percentage for White seems to be difficult. He doesn’t have a reputation as a shooter, but teams would still be hesitant to just let him shoot open threes.

With that in mind, I could see offensive sets with White in the left corner, George and Kyle/Souare running the high pick and roll, with Kingz in the right corner, and Anthony/Starling/Fennell on the other wing, above the foul line.

Lots of spacing, and White might be enough of a threat in that corner to prevent help defense from doubling from White’s corner to smother George on the pick and roll.

Really, you just trust that George is going to make it to the basket, or find the open man, whether it’s Kyle on the job (this should happen a lot this year) or one of the three guys on the perimeter.

It also gives you White and Kyle as offensive rebounders while the perimeter players get back on transition defense.

I think that play would hold up, as long as you have two competent shooters in addition to White, George and a center. Nobody is going to want Kingz, Fennell and Anthony taking open threes. They don’t even really want Starling taking open threes, but they might have to accept a lot of Kyle dunks off the lob to prevent us getting open threes. George is really good finding the open man.

 

[Hopkins16]

Everyone was mad last year about his substitution patterns last year because we had entirely too many guys. The best college teams are playing 8 guys. 9-10 when the game is out of reach or if there's serious foul trouble.

I'd be very concerned if we are playing 10 guys regularly as it would mean we don't have the top end talent to win.

I don’t disagree with you. Words matter and I should not have used the word “regularly” without expounding on how the back end of the bench should be used as you did.

Keeping the 9th through 12th guys ready and engaged is important so that they will be effective when called upon in blowout games, and might help them stay with the team and not portal. Towards the end of last season when we had no chance of sniffing the tournament, a lot of us couldn’t understand why guys like Moore and Petar, who had the option to return were not getting starter minutes.

 

[baggerbob]

They are all going to play, but in a game against a ranked team where it's within 5 points, there's no chance we're playing 10. So our best 7-8 will be important to figure out.

Actually it should vary from game to game depending on matchups. That's what good coaching is about. Also if player is dinged up let him play less in a game.

 

[IthacaMatt]

They are all going to play, but in a game against a ranked team where it's within 5 points, there's no chance we're playing 10. So our best 7-8 will be important to figure out.

I agree. But for a small-ish handful of games you do that.
You can't do it for over 30 games without guys getting hurt.
I think we have more than enough evidence of that over the last 10-15 years.

 

[RyanCuse44]

This is ridiculous -

 

[Niastri]

This is ridiculous -

It just goes to show how much money was made from the players activities for all these decades.

A quick google search shows that the television rights to just the NCAA Tournament is worth $1.8 billion annually. The NFL players get 48% of that revenue. If the rosters of the 68 teams in the NCAA tournament got 48% of just the TV rights revenue, they would be paid over $977k per player. That doesn’t count any other source of revenue… The players are dramatically underpaid, even now.