Interested to see where we go with the final scholarship now that we have addressed the SG position. I think this is a positive pickup for ferry, as he gets a SG with size and experience. It also balances out our scholarship distribution since Lewis was our only senior

Like what I read about this guy.  

ElDuque wrote:

Duques102 wrote:

Hell yes! I think this more than covers the loss of gill. His impact and whoever we plug in at the four will probably be solid.!i was hoping we got him, good size and can score in a lot more ways than just behind the three point line

 How does this offset losing your best returning front court player?

This is an oustanding addition. It bridges the gap to Littleson and brings in a high scoring big sized SG, our biggest weakness. Great job by Ferry to get this guy.

Dukes2012 wrote:

ElDuque wrote:

Duques102 wrote:

Hell yes! I think this more than covers the loss of gill. His impact and whoever we plug in at the four will probably be solid.!i was hoping we got him, good size and can score in a lot more ways than just behind the three point line

 How does this offset losing your best returning front court player?

Blackman will help pick up some of the scoring lost by gill's departure, but we will need Robinson and sanders to hit the boards. Gill was an underrated rebounder

Sanders had something like 40 D1 offers. I'd say get him in there. He was highly recruited.

YES YES YES 
Happy with this pickup.

Ferry always said he wanted to attack the rim. Well, he's got some guys to do that now. Time to show and prove.

But my point is that he's a guard. Unless you buy into the Ferry philosophy that the more stalls you put on the court the better, and unless you think one year rentals are a better fit for your system than kids who have been here for three years, the actual answer is that he doesn't replace Gill.

He's simply an acknowledgment on Jimmy's part that Castro, Steele and Jackson aren't far enough ahead to start.

How many recruiting classes does it take?

Remember, as good as Soko was, he wasn't enough to win.

We're still looking at a bottom four finish in the A10. I'm not buying hope. I want to see players develop, and play well. Ain't seen it yet.

ElDuque wrote:

But my point is that he's a guard. Unless you buy into the Ferry philosophy that the more stalls you put on the court the better, and unless you think one year rentals are a better fit for your system than kids who have been here for three years, the actual answer is that he doesn't replace Gill.

He's simply an acknowledgment on Jimmy's part that Castro, Steele and Jackson aren't far enough ahead to start.

How many recruiting classes does it take?

Remember, as good as Soko was, he wasn't enough to win.

We're still looking at a bottom four finish in the A10. I'm not buying hope. I want to see players develop, and play well. Ain't seen it yet.

This was the weakest spot on the team. Major major upgrade. He won't stunt eric james who plays an entirely different position. So he will continue to develop. Bridges gap to Littleson, the future SG. This is a great move. We now have one of the top backcourts in the league.

Any way you cut it, this is a high impact player.

Last edited by WEB (4/18/2016 6:07 am)

WEB wrote:

ElDuque wrote:

But my point is that he's a guard. Unless you buy into the Ferry philosophy that the more stalls you put on the court the better, and unless you think one year rentals are a better fit for your system than kids who have been here for three years, the actual answer is that he doesn't replace Gill.

He's simply an acknowledgment on Jimmy's part that Castro, Steele and Jackson aren't far enough ahead to start.

How many recruiting classes does it take?

Remember, as good as Soko was, he wasn't enough to win.

We're still looking at a bottom four finish in the A10. I'm not buying hope. I want to see players develop, and play well. Ain't seen it yet.

This was the weakest spot on the team. Major major upgrade. He won't stunt eric james who plays an entirely different position. So he will continue to develop. Bridges gap to Littleson, the future SG. This is a great move. We now have one of the top backcourts in the league.

Any way you cut it, this is a high impact player.

We were told Castro was a great impact player too. Pardon my skepticism.

ElDuque wrote:

duq81 wrote:

Ferry always said he wanted to attack the rim. Well, he's got some guys to do that now. Time to show and prove.

 
I still say that's BS. He wants guys to cross midcourt and heave. Makes me want to heave.

Watch next season and see if I'm not right. I was spot on with everything I said about this season with the exception of 10 wins. Everything else, dead accuracy.

Everything except they almost doubled your win total. Anyway, I'm not trying to say he's a straight up replacement, he's a shooting guard and Gill was a 3/4 and should be a 4. That was very obvious before you pointed it out. What I meant is the impact Blackman can bring to the team I feel can more than make up for the loss of impact Gill had, especially considering the fact that you have sanders and Robinson ready to step in. And as repeated many times nakye has so much more talent and potential than Gill did, which can be reflected in the fact that he held multiple offers from power 5 schools (over 40 total d1 offers) and gill had Radford and James Madison.

And you say Jackson and Steele haven't worked out? They were both 18 year old freshman last year, which I hope you understand equates to the fact that production in the first year is limited, but what was positive was both showed flashes and signs of promise. All of a sudden you think freshman should be huge contributors? Literally how often does than happen in this league, especially with us? Castro was a total disaster, but with his resume and pedigree you take a flyer on a guy like that every time, everybody was excited when we got him if you don't remember.

And how can you sit here and act like getting a proven scorer with size at the guard position is not a huge help to this team for next year? Who cares if he's rented, look around everyone is doing this now in college basketball. The shooting guard position was a huge question mark with this team and now that Blackman is locked up, you have a polished veteran presence for a year that guys like Steele and Jackson can sit behind and develop. This did nothing but help us.

Smith, ?, James/Mike, gill, Lewis
Smith, Blackman, James/Mike, sanders/Robinson, Lewis

The second lineup clearly has the potential to be solid compared to the first.

And if you really want to get technical about replacing someone; 2016 stats sir:

Gill : 30 mins, 10.1 pts, 6.5 rebs, 43% fg, 34% from 3
Blackman: 33 mins, 15.8 pts, 3.5 Rebs, 43% fg 29% 3

Your really going to sit here and act like that production plus what either sanders and Robinson can contribute cannot make up for the loss of LG?

Can't make a value judgment on either Steel or Jackson after the little that they played last season but believe that Jackson has the higher ceiling and could play much more at the 3 moving forward. Blackman fills a gaping hole at guard without a doubt. This seems to be the way to go right now. Let's get one more GT for the frontcourt for added depth.

Duques102 wrote:

Dukes2012 wrote:

ElDuque wrote:

Steele and Jackson are role players. Leaves opportunity for the freshmen to get some PT this year.

Unless Jimmy Ferry's the coach. Then Smith and Blackman will play 38 minutes a night and burn out during the A10 schedule.
 

I will say that if ferry gets into the habit of playing anybody for 38 minutes again I will lose a lot of faith in his abilities. My point is that if ferry learned his lesson about not doing that again, having Blackman provides a security blanket for the the young guards' development while greatly increasing the talent level on next year's team. If Blackman plays 25-28 minutes a game, that leaves plenty of time for the aforementioned young SGs to see the floor. I believe Jackson will get some time at SF too

In all of his year's here, last year was the first time the two starting guards played that much. So, why? lack of depth behind the starters, injury to Jeremiah Jones, Castro a total bust, no real backup pg on the roster. To me, I think that he played those guys so much out of necessity. Like I said before, besides the starting guards, nobody on this team looked confident enough to even put the ball on the floor and dribble, much less create anything on offense, aside from flashes from Eric James. That being said, this year we have two legitimately talented starting guards (Smith and Blackman will be a much better tandem than Colter and Mason, no disrespect to those two) with more size and athleticism, coupled with much improved ability to drive to the rim and the offensive opportunities that creates. The only thing the last two guys did better was shoot three's, and we saw how effective that was. On top of all that this year our guard depth consists of Steele and Jackson with another year under their belts, a highly touted and rated shooting guard with size and is a lights out shooter in Littleson, and a point guard at a big time program that was overshadowed by having the #2 ranked player in the nation on his team in Lewis. Oh yeah and probably the highest rated recruit we've had in years in Mike who has a guard skill set and is 6'8".

Back Court situation: ++++++upgrade to last year.

Oh yeah, still got one more schollie to bring in a big guy. 

I agree. I'm saying I don't believe he will do it again but I will be greatly disappointed if it does happen.  I, too, believe that there will be much better depth at guard this year with Steel and Jackson both being a year older, and the installation of smith, Blackman, and the two freshmen. Castro can be a major wildcard in all of this if the kid who dominated the pro/am decides to make an appearance

Last edited by Dukes2012 (4/18/2016 10:45 am)