What are ya'lls hopes/expectations for the season? I'm hoping to see continued development (and many more minutes) for the young core of the team. Not to mention excited to see what the transfers can bring as well.

The team obviously graduated some standout players and going to miss seeing those guys take the court, but I'm not entirely convinced the team will lose a step this year. Yes a ton of scoring to replace, but presuming Kerns is placing a similarly high level of emphasis on defense/pacing, it's entirely plausible that the team will be competitive all season.

The team went 3-7 in OOC to start last season (with a tough slate obviously) and looking at the team's schedule this year it's very plausible they'll win the majority of those games.

agentpaul001 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 26, 2022 11:12 am

What are ya'lls hopes/expectations for the season? I'm hoping to see continued development (and many more minutes) for the young core of the team. Not to mention excited to see what the transfers can bring as well.

The team obviously graduated some standout players and going to miss seeing those guys take the court, but I'm not entirely convinced the team will lose a step this year. Yes a ton of scoring to replace, but presuming Kerns is placing a similarly high level of emphasis on defense/pacing, it's entirely plausible that the team will be competitive all season.

The team went 3-7 in OOC to start last season (with a tough slate obviously) and looking at the team's schedule this year it's very plausible they'll win the majority of those games.

I just hope to see consistent progress. Yeah, we lost lots of scoring, but a couple of those guys were at times questionable decision makers. What I like about Kerns’ staff is that every single player got way better under their tutelage. They are obviously really good at player development. The maturity of Delph, Forrest, and Lewis over their last couple years was pretty remarkable to me, compared to when they were with the prior staff. Kerns brought his coaches with him, they know each other’s tendencies/strengths and it shows.

We will be longer and more athletic than the past and should be a really good defensive squad. The biggest question mark for me is who will the consistent shooters be since kerns’s teams tend to shoot lots of threes. I’m guessing Huntley, Eads, Boykin, Teasett, Mantis, and Harcum will have plenty of looks from deep, we just haven’t seen any of them as consistent scorers in our system yet. We also have big guys who can shoot. Walker was 5 for 5 from deep in one of the Bahamas games.

I predict losing Delph will be a massive hurdle to this team. We have to see someone step up quick to be that "takeover" guy. It doesn't matter how great of a defense you have if you put up less than 50 points a game.

ArmantiWaterSafety wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 26, 2022 11:35 am

I predict losing Delph will be a massive hurdle to this team. We have to see someone step up quick to be that "takeover" guy. It doesn't matter how great of a defense you have if you put up less than 50 points a game.

Delph was a reliable clutch player last year, no doubt. Gregory will be the veteran with the ball in his hands a lot this year according to Kerns, although he’s not the shooter that Delph was. I predict to see more scoring by committee than usual, with maybe 5-6 guys scoring between 8 and 15 points per game. If there’s a player who will average more points per game, I have no idea who it might be. The potential is there for Huntley, Gregory, Eads, Mantis, Harcum, and a few others to be consistent scorers…just lots of unknowns with the new guys and how they fit in to the picture.

Offense shows up in first half of games

If someone could steal Donovan's breakfast or maybe punch him in the arm before a game and make him mad, I feel like he could be a leader unlike any we have had in awhile....I'm not saying play hard, I'm saying play angry. For that matter same thing with Huntley. I just see so much potential in the two of them. I hope they can both find that MJ, I am going to take over, we will win mentality.

Xavion Brown has a real chance to lead this team, and conference, in scoring.

Does anyone care to give a guess as to the starting 5 - 7

Losing Delph will definitely be a massive hurdle as well as losing 65% of our scoring. I do think we will be competitive in the conference this year

My Prediction for starting 5 - top 7 guys in minutes goes as followed:

Tamell Pearson - In terms of frontcourt players, we are thin again at this position. The grad transfer will play a key role in solidifying the post for us this year. UMASS transfer Walker will provide some depth at this spot, and Huntley could play some small ball 5, but both of those guys are stretch big men that like to play on the perimeter. Pearson is our lone banger down in the post.

CJ Huntley - Huntley really broke out last year in conference play and I hope to see even more strides made this year. With Delph gone someone will need to step up offensively, Huntley wont be a 20 ppg guy but I can see him being a key 12-15 ppg weapon for us.

Donovan Gregory - Our lone returning starter from the NCAA tournament team. I think we all know his talent and impact for us.

Tyree Boykin - Boykin had tremendous success at the D2 level, and I can see his play translating well to the Sun Belt. I think he will be our primary ball handler and facilitator offensively. Almonacy and Forrest for as important as they were the last few years... really struggled offensively last season, if Boykin can be just average offensively I actually think he could be an "upgrade" over both super seniors we lost.

Carvell Teasett - LIGHTS OUT SHOOTER, the Northwestern St transfer averaged 13 ppg 3.2 apg and shot 37% from deep last year while taking 7 3's a game (For comparison Justin Forrest took 6 3 point attempts a game during his career in Boone at a 31% clip). I think the combo of Teasett, Boykin, and Huntely are capable of replacing Delph's offensive output, the real question mark is can any of them do it in a isolation take over kind of way Delph was capable of.

Dibaji Walker - Mentioned above, he will likely be our main frontcourt rotational guy off the bench. Athletic power forward with a pretty outside jumper. Very excited to see his contributions this year.

Michael Eads / Xavion Brown - In my opinion these two guys are fighting for a starting spot in the rotation as well as the 6th man role if the transfers I mentioned above both replace J Fo/M Al in the starting line up. Eads is the better perimeter shooter and has proven to be more durable, while Xavion is the most explosive athlete on the roster and a tremendous defender. Arguments for either I could support and seeing both in the starting line up would not be surprising

In non conference I expect us to be in the 7-6 range depending on how quickly our vets + transfers mesh. Could be significantly better as both our "buy" games this year are to weak ACC teams (Wake and Louisville).

When it starts clicking for TH , watch out.

Big year for Kerns. He's done a good job getting more out of the last coach's players. Now it's finally time to start seeing what he can do with his own.

I'm sure a lot of parity. In the SunBelt most teams can win on any given night it seems like.

Louisville lost to Lenoir Rhyne in their exhibition earlier today

We have realistic chance to go 2-0 against the ACC this year, both Louisville and Wake should be down

Final four

Hopes--12-6 Conference Record, play with the same grit the previous Kerns teams have exhibited and that our students continue to build a home court advantage that inspires more alumni and locals to attend games.

Out of conference, win 1 of the ACC games and beat UNCC, Furman and ETSU.

A better winning percentage than football…

Just wanted to bump this thread since I feel like moving on from football season. Our bball team currently shows much more grit and heart than our “flagship” sport. I think we’re a basketball school this year.

I would put my emphasis on our Defense . It’s starts there. The defense has kept us in more games than I can count over the years. Not so much now. I’ve lost all faith in stopping anyone on any down. Build off of that. I’ve never seen such a regression in a team and coaching staff as I have with this one. The vast majority of our players that went to the NFL are on the defensive side. Just sad to see how far we’ve fallen.

We have a good coach and the team will get better as the season goes with all the new faces. Abson can be special.

mountaineerman wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 12, 2022 10:37 pm

I would put my emphasis on our Defense . It’s starts there. The defense has kept us in more games than I can count over the years. Not so much now. I’ve lost all faith in stopping anyone on any down. Build off of that. I’ve never seen such a regression in a team and coaching staff as I have with this one. The vast majority of our players that went to the NFL are on the defensive side. Just sad to see how far we’ve fallen.

???

Abson is a man!!

Really excited about a chance at Louisville.

Campbell will be a huge test too. They looked really good against State.

Although we like the 3 and I agree we need to continue to take them instead of jumpers, we really have been best playing inside out and having a few passes trying to get inside and kicking instead of just pulling up a 3. We almost never just make a 3 without the ball moving first.