This post could not be converted. To view the original post's thread, click here.

UMPI Recruiting - Season 30



So those were the players we signed. I managed to avoid costly battles and I have enough over cash to take some risks next recruiting season. It certainly wasn't my best class ever, but its also not my worst. All in all, I'd say it was a solid but mediocre effort.

Quote: Originally posted by cyben5150 on 9/26/2008UMPI Recruiting - Season 30



So those were the players we signed. I managed to avoid costly battles and I have enough over cash to take some risks next recruiting season. It certainly wasn't my best class ever, but its also not my worst. All in all, I'd say it was a solid but mediocre effort.

rofl

classic

This post could not be converted. To view the original post's thread, click here.

I see Kujayhawk brought his "A" game. Good stuff.

agreed. a very entertaining read Coach KUjayhawk! I think you are being a little pessimistic on how far your "Four Packhorses" can carry you.

Quote: Originally Posted By nickdiesel on 9/27/2008agreed. a very entertaining read Coach KUjayhawk! I think you are being a little pessimistic on how far your "Four Packhorses" can carry you

Nick, that's his MO. He's always a little on the pessimistic side.

Normally my pessimism is probably (false?) modesty.

This time that isn't the case. I actually think I'm pretty good. In some conferences I think I could win it all and in all of Allen I think I'm a borderline NT team.

But ....

1. I scheduled too hard in non-conference play. I play a regular group of teams season after season and this time around they are all better than me. I would have been smart to take a season off the rivalries.

2. You guys are really good. Like I said, I think I can win some conferences in Allen. But not this conference. And definitely not this year. As good as we were last year I really think we're going to be better this year. Maybe not in RPI but at least in talent on the court.

So the bad W/L prediction is more a reflection of the fact that I see myself on the losing end of a lot of tight games. Hope I'm wrong but the bottom line is that I should not have scheduled so hard.

Another go around for the semi-popular class rankings:

SEASON 26 FRESHMEN REDSHIRT – 1st Team
PG: Shawn Jones, Becker
SG: Wendell Foster, Elms
SF: Michael Ingram, Mount Ida
PF: Paul Redford, Husson
C: Clifford Robinson, Lasell

SEASON 27 FRESHMEN – 1st Team
PG: David Howard, Elms
SG: Wendell Foster, Elms
SF: Paul Redford, Husson
PF: Clifford Robinson, Lasell
C: Tyrone Cobb, Thomas

SEASON 27 FRESHMEN – 2nd Team
PG: Leonard Rees, Husson
SG: Shawn Jones, Becker
SF: Ron North, Elms
PF: Carl Preston, UMPI
C: Vincent Severino, Husson

SEASON 28 SOPHOMORES – 1st Team
PG: David Howard, Elms
SG: Wendell Foster, Elms
SF: Ron North, Elms
PF: Clifford Robinson, Lasell
C: Vincent Severino, Husson

SEASON 28 SOPHOMORES – 2nd Team
PG: Leonard Rees, Husson
SG: Shawn Jones, Becker
SF: Paul Redford, Husson
PF: Carl Preston, UMPI
C: Tyrone Cobb, Thomas

SEASON 29 JUNIORS – 1st Team
PG: Shawn Jones, Becker
SG: Wendell Foster, Elms
SF: Paul Redford, Husson
PF: Clifford Robinson, Lasell
C: Vincent Severino, Husson

SEASON 29 JUNIORS – 2nd Team
PG: Lucas Johnson, MMA
SG: David Howard, Elms
SF: Ron North, Elms
PF: Carl Preston, UMPI
C: Tyrone Cobb, Thomas

SEASON 30 SENIORS – 1st Team
PG: Shawn Jones, Becker
SG: Wendell Foster, Elms
SF: Ron North, Elms
PF: Clifford Robinson, Lasell
C: Tyrone Cobb, Thomas

SEASON 30 SENIORS – 2nd Team
PG: David Howard, Elms
SG: Don Doering, Becker
SF: Paul Redford, Husson
PF: Carl Preston, UMPI
C: Vincent Severino, Husson

SEASON 27 FRESHMEN REDSHIRT – 1st Team
PG: Dale Peterman, Lasell
SG: Larry Denmark, MMA
SF: Jake Watlington, Husson
PF: Lawrence Wolinski, Elms
C: Christopher Norman, Thomas

SEASON 28 FRESHMEN – 1st Team
PG: Dale Peterman, Lasell
SG: Larry Denmark, MMA
SF: Jake Watlington, Husson
PF: Lawrence Wolinski, Elms
C: Christopher Norman, Thomas

SEASON 28 FRESHMEN – 2nd Team
PG: Dustin Clifford, Lasell
SG: David Hollowell, Thomas
SF: Curtis Binder, UMPI
PF: Ervin Mason, UMF
C: Eric Markey, Elms

SEASON 29 SOPHOMORES – 1st Team
PG: Dale Peterman, Lasell
SG: Larry Denmark, MMA
SF: Jake Watlington, Husson
PF: Lawrence Wolinski, Elms
C: Christopher Norman, Thomas

SEASON 29 SOPHOMORES – 2nd Team
PG: Dustin Clifford, Lasell
SG: David Hollowell, Thomas
SF: Curtis Binder, UMPI
PF: Ervin Mason, UMF
C: Eric Markey, Elms

SEASON 30 JUNIORS – 1st Team
PG: Dale Peterman, Lasell
SG: Larry Denmark, MMA
SF: Curtis Binder, UMPI
PF: Lawrence Wolinski, Elms
C: Christopher Norman, Thomas

SEASON 30 JUNIORS – 2nd Team
PG: Dustin Clifford, Lasell
SG: David Hollowell, Thomas
SF: Jake Watlington, Husson
PF: Eric Markey, Elms
C: John Mooney, Lassell

SEASON 28 FRESHMEN REDSHIRT – 1st Team
PG: Jack Duggan, Elms
SG: Brian Allen, UMPI
SF: Arthur Boissonneault, Husson
PF: Bradford Vinson, MMA
C: Seth Irvin, Lasell

SEASON 29 FRESHMEN – 1st Team
PG: Jack Duggan, Elms
SG: Brian Allen, UMPI
SF: Arthur Boissonneault, Husson
PF: Bradford Vinson, MMA
C: Seth Irvin, Lasell

SEASON 29 FRESHMEN – 2nd Team
PG: Robert Schick, Lasell
SG: Herbert Molinaro, UMF
SF: Richard Boles, Castleton State
PF: Marcus Godfried, UMPI
C: Floyd Graham, UMF

SEASON 30 SOPHOMORES – 1st Team
PG: Jack Duggan, Elms
SG: Brian Allen, UMPI
SF: Richard Boles, Castleton State
PF: Bradford Vinson, MMA
C: Seth Irvin, Lasell

SEASON 30 SOPHOMORES – 2nd Team
PG: Herbert Molinaro, UMF
SG: Kenneth Grider, MMA
SF: Arthur Boissonneault, Husson
PF: Chad Burns, Thomas
C: Floyd Graham, UMF

SEASON 29 FRESHMEN REDSHIRT – 1st Team
PG: Richard Jenkins, Elms
SG: Richard Maye, UMPI
SF: Eugene Laubach, Castleton State
PF: [no post player eligible]
C: [no post player eligible]

SEASON 30 FRESHMEN – 1st Team
PG: Richard Maye, UMPI
SG: Richard Jenkins, Elms
SF: Eugene Laubach, Castleton State
PF: Clyde Lee, UMPI
C: Charles Hunter, Castleton State

SEASON 30 FRESHMEN – 2nd Team
PG: Donald Capozzi, Elms
SG: Ralph Gray, Thomas
SF: Cedric Miller, Thomas
PF: Derrick Potter, Lasell
C: Cory Rainey, Castleton State







SEASON 30 FRESHMEN REDSHIRT – 1st Team
PG: Jacob Furstenberg, Husson
SG: James Waltman, Castleton State
SF: Anthony Clark, UMF
PF: James Hively, Thomas
C: Eric Cobb, Johnson State

Nice work, as always. Good to see some UMPI guys starting to show up on the lists.

Attention fellow NAC brothers. The North Atlantic Conference in the Wooden World is on the verge of becoming a major power broker in the world known for having the best D3 hoops there is. We currently have 7 coaches sticking around for 10+ seasons building very good programs. We also have 2 dynasties (Mt. Ida and Becker) that will be available at season's end, and 3 SIM AI teams that could be great after putting in a few years of good recruits.

We all talk on the boards, schedule well, recruit well. We were 11th in Conference RPI last season, and 11th again this year. Next year we'll be between 5 and 7 minimum. Keep the NAC tradition alive!

Ok -- I'd appreciate some of you experts in the conference to learn me right on what's going on in our conference for defense.

BACKGROUND: Most of the vets here know that I almost willfully ignored defense for the longest time. Doing that was one (of many) reasons why I struggled to make it to the NT and once I got there I was a quick exit. So two recruiting classes ago I decided I needed to pay attention to defense. Eight have graduated since then and the eight new guys that I've brought in have much better defensive ratings ... probably about 4 times greater than I had before. But ... last year with my semi-super class at Thomas I had a very good defense despite not having anybody with good defensive ratings. And I never got burned like I had in seasons before by it.

Additionally, I'm running a man defense for the first time over in Knight so I've really been trying to pay attention to how defense works.


So with that in mind, what's been going on this season really has me confused. My Knight team is of trying to pattern the team after MMA with my twist on beachedwhale's success. (Tip of the cap to you, beachedwhale.) And while it's a complete rebuild of a program and I'm playing a very young team, I actually have a very respectable defense. It really has surprised me. Which leads me to thinking that defense is important. And I was already thinking that based on MMA. I hope beachedwhale doesn't get offended if reading this, but I've never been overly impressed with much about that team except for the defense and the free throws. And I was hoping to build on that model for my Knight team.

But Salem State's lack of success this year really has me discouraged on how much a defense can do for you. And I really don't get how their defense isn't doing better. Salem State should theoretically be having the best of both worlds -- press and man. And they all are now pretty much at A IQ and I think they all started the season at A-. That's an IQ advantage that I doubt any other team in this world can match. But the man defense isn't really working that well.

MMA and Salem State have pretty much the same SOS and I'd argue the same defense. (Salem State is .12 better from the field and MMA is .29 better from threes.) But Salem State has them well beat in IQ and in speed and in athleticism and has them dominated in defense. That doesn't make much sense to me.

Salem State is playing the press in addition to the man and MMA is not. Salem State forces 19.2 turnovers a game with 8.9 steals. MMA forces 17.4 with 7.4 steals. Husson with a very close SOS only plays press and while they aren't in the same league as Salem State with regards to field goal percentages, they come close with turnovers and steals (17.8 and 7.2) despite the fact that Husson isn't as good with regards to IQ/speed/athleticism/defense plus doesn't play at the same tempo as Salem State. I'm inclined to think that if Husson had gone uptempo all season, they would have killed Salem State in the turnover categories. On a per possession basis, Husson is forcing 20% more turnovers than Salem State. When you factor in huge difference in turnovers, I think it's safe to say that Husson is playing better defense than Salem State too.

None of that really makes any sense to me. Which really leaves me confused. My concern is defense as I'm really starting to question if what I'm trying to do with Thomas makes any sense or not. I'm trying to reconcile MMA's success and Husson's success with Salem State's lack of it. And while Salem State obviously has some offensive problems that shouldn't mean that they are an undefeated team, I just don't get they aren't the best defense of these three teams (and the best defense in the country for that matter).

Bottom line is that I really can't reconcile the defenses of Husson, MMA, and Salem State.

I feel like I was a lot better off when I simply ignored defense. Now that I'm trying to pay attention to it, I seem have no idea how it works.

Thoughts?

I think you are partly getting bogged down in specific numbers when this game is run on random numbers being generated that will skew those. The best thing you can do is try to put yourself in the best position to succeed both offensively and defensively. You also can't simply look at stats to see who has down well. It matters who they have played, adjustments they have made, and how teams play them.

I've found that you can ignore defense a little bit when in a zone or press, but will benefit from having one or two killer defensive players (only DE attribute) to help hide the poorer defenders. The more important attributes with press and zone are speed and athleticism which also help in man. Rebounding plays a big role in defense as well as it reduces the number of second and third chances you'll face per possession.

I'll look a little more closely at it and give you a more educated opinion, but without knowing those three teams settings for the year, it might be hard to fully understand it.

I think Chris is hitting on a good point here. Salem State is certainly proving something about the HD engine this season, whether Lucky is paying attention or not. Having just scouted Salem State, I know there are a few things that stood out to me statistically. Salem State is holding opponents to something like 10 points under those teams averages (which is significant), and they're forcing opponents to turn the ball over around 4 times more than teams typically do. However, they're under performing in other areas due to a lack of core ratings across the roster. Unfortunately, I don't have my handy dandy team analyzer here at the office, but I'll pull exact numbers later this evening.