I agree with you, Cyben5150. I go 10-0 with that schedule, I'm going to have a top 5 RPI going into conference play.

But from a pure ratings point of view (which can be misleading), I'll be the favorite in all my non-conf games this year. And that theoretically means that I should go 10-0 this season. Of course, if it were the case that the favorite always wins, there would be no reason to sim the games.

Most of you guys probably don't need to be reminded of this, but three seasons ago I scheduled a pretty difficult schedule and ended up going 3-7 in non-conference play. Two seasons ago I scheduled even harder and ended up going 0-10. And last year with Cyben5150 coaching while I was in Israel, we went 5-5 -- but with the #1 SOS.

So for me to be entering a season where I'll probably be the favorite in each and every one will be very odd. That's pretty much while I made that post on the forum board. I don't see us going 10-0 as I indicated over there. I think there is a win or two in there that should be all but in the bag. But the other eight games are going to be ones where I can easily lose if thing don't go right and most of the eight are going to be ones that I need things to go my way in order to win.

I'm hoping for 8 wins myself. Not predicting 8, hoping for 8. 8 wins should allow me to make the NT even if I slip up a bit in conference play. (And we have enough good teams this year that I could see us going 8-8 even though my bunch is going to be pretty good as well.) I'll be satisfied with 7. If I get 6 like Cyben5150 is predicting, I think I'm going to feel like I a win on the table.

If you only win 6, we car going to label you a choker. Just kidding. I remember your non conf woes. Hey, I root for all conference foes in the non conf schedule...may we all go 10-0.

/agree

not sure on too many of the improvement gains, but Truex increased his stamina a bit, so now hopefully he will be able to stay on the floor and use his skills. Also what do you guys think about cutting Mincy because he certainly does not fit the mold of good perimeter shooter and he does not have great speed/ath

ok, yeah i know I can't even remember his name, but I thinking that maybe I will just wait and see in recruiting and maybe just stick with the lineup I have.

ok, yeah i know I can't even remember his name, but I thinking that maybe I will just wait and see in recruiting and maybe just stick with the lineup I have.

Who's doing our recruiting breakdown?

Actually, I'll do my team.

The lasers might have been spoiled from last year, because this year it seems like the talent was horrible to choose from, and the fruit never fell.

Darrel Moore PF: With us losing 2 bigs next year but having 2 to replace them, this kid is a will ride the pine for few years and be a good backup. His Reb/Def/SB/LP are nothing to write home about, but his Ath/Sp is. Should help with the FB and transition to the Press. WE a little low for my tastes.

Joel Cole SG: This kid has potential, he plays D, is fast, and has decent WE. He might be able to shoot by his Jr or Sr year.

Dustin Griffin SF: This kid is a speedster, with just enough points (30+) in all his stats to be able to raise them, he may amount to something someday.


All in all, these guys will back up last years class. The drop downs didn't seem to drop this year and I was hanging on the final day.

Yeah I thought the dropdowns never dropped and the few that were interested in me never dropped and I ended up with a horrible class with one walkon and a pretty good ballhandling/passing prospect, but not much else.

I’ll play along with my recruits this year. It’s an interesting foursome coming to Thomas this year. (For me at least.)

Dennis Davis is probably the class headliner, especially since he was willing to redshirt. Davis is an ok prospect, but with five years might turn into something pretty good. He’s listed as a PF, but his ratings are more of a SF and that’s where I will likely play him. His 61 rebounding rating is excellent. Nothing else is special but he should have improvable ratings in all of the SF categories. Of slight concern is that his ball handling and passing are both rated at 20. I thought that should be a good enough starting point so that he’d be able to improve both. As of now, he’s yet to show any improvement in those categories despite five days of practice while his low post rating of 30 and perimeter of 38 have each gone up a point despite an equal amount of practice minutes in the four categories. He has a decent work ethic of 53 so I think he’ll be ok. The other concern is that his stamina is a 49. I’m hoping that five years of practice will fix that. However, since he’ll be practicing in more categories than a typical player, I won’t be able to pump in the conditioning minutes and he might never be able to play a full game. Overall, I feel pretty good about Davis’ future at Thomas.

Domingo Diaz wasn’t exactly what I was looking for in this year’s recruiting class. However, none of my primary dropdown targets for post players fell to me and he was the only secondary one that did. It was sign Diaz or no post player whatsoever. Given my lack of a recruiting class the year before, it seemed a bit risky to go two years without a post player so Diaz it was. Diaz is very similar to where Randy Meader was when I recruited him two seasons ago. Both player had below average post games – both in LP and REB ratings. And both had very good athleticism and speed ratings for a PF. Not your typical post player but one that can be effective. Meader had the advantage of getting to start as a Freshman, and he’s turned into a pretty good player by the start of his Junior year. I’m hoping that Diaz can come close to following in Meader’s footsteps. It’d be nice to have a more typical post player recruit that came in with high LP and REB ratings, but Diaz is an ok second choice.

Mitchell Cummings is my worst recruit long term but he might also be the most important in the short term. Cummings is a SG with good – but not great – ratings. And given that his work ethic is 26 it is very unlikely that he can become a good player. However, he has pretty good starting ratings and I was unable to find a dropdown candidate that was much better. More importantly for me in the short term, he came to campus knowing my offensive and defensive sets. Next year, I’m going to have four pretty good seniors and I’ll need a fifth player to step up in the starting lineup. I’m hoping that Cummings can be that guy. I fully expect that he’ll get passed on the depth chart as he becomes an upperclassman. But as we start play next season, it will be nice to have Cummings as a starter with non-terrible ratings as well has having a B-/B- IQ. Thomas won’t be too good next year with just the four upperclassmen. But if Cummings turns out ok, there might be a chance to make the Postseason Invitational.

George Kennedy might actually end up being worse than Cummings. I’m already starting to have buyer’s remorse. Kennedy actually has the potential to be an outstanding player. He’s a SG but has SF skills. He has fantastic athleticism and speed to go along with ratings in the other five SF categories that can be improved. The problem with Kennedy is threefold. First and foremost, he WE is 18. After five practices, he has shown no improvement in any category. He has fantastic baseline ratings, but if they don’t move, he’s not going to be any good. Second, he’s dumb. With a 2.5 GPA I’m going to have to pump study hall minutes into him and that means less practice minutes that were already being divided pretty thin with all of the SF categories. And third, he might not ever get the playing time to improve his WE. He’s not going to play this year with Thomas having eight upperclassmen. And while there is playing time available next season, Kennedy is probably going to be third in the depth chart at SF behind Meader and Davis. Kennedy could probably be a phenomenal player on a team where he redshirted and then started for four years. Since Thomas isn’t that team I suspect he might end up being a wasted recruit.


I’d give this recruiting class a C+ grade. Davis was a pretty good recruit and Diaz has the potential to start for two years. Throw in a year of Cummings starting and it isn’t a terrible class. That said, you’d like to recruit guys you see starting as seniors. I don’t see Cummings starting as a senior unless I blow recruiting next year. And Kennedy doesn’t look like he will improve nearly enough to hold off his younger competitors.

It’s a recruiting class that should help Thomas stay better than most DIII Allen teams. But it’s a class that did little to catch up with Lasell and Husson. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to catch up with those two programs … but we took a small step back in our attempt to do that this time around.

don't really even have to ask me... just watch my record over the next couple of years :(

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Wow, that is really cool. Thanks, ku