Best summer off season since? Ever?

[ceharv]

I went into this off season with pretty low expectations. I figured that with everyone coming back, and after the recruiting success of last summer, it was going to be a quieter recruiting year as things would cool off a bit this summer. Boy was I ever wrong! With recent recruiting success and now the addition of Valentine as an assistant, my revised thinking is that this is one of the best off-season/summers ever! Can anyone think of a better summer than this one? Last summer was pretty special with he almost constant good recruiting news, but this summer IMO has been better, to my surprise. The hard part is going to be the months of waiting before we get to see these new guys play.

[bubbaw]

Happy youre excited but this is a bold claim considering what they did in the 2014 and 2018 spring and summers, just to name a few

[BONA82.5]

Love the optimism ceharv ...

NOW its time to Pump the Brakes just a bit - or as Butthead would say "Settle down Beavis."

[Chuck]

2018.....2014
Kyle......Jaylen...............Mika
Osun.....Idris..................Charles
Dom.....Marcus Posley.....Duane
Alpha....Jalen Adams.......Noah
Melki.....Jordan Tyson......Miles

To be fair you need to hold the 2014 and 2018 to the same standard as this class. Looking back we know they were great recruiting classes, but at the time did they measure up to this incoming class?

What we know of this class before the start of practices.
— Mika had 3 P-6 offers. 4 year starter at Cincinnati. Cincy is a high major school. 9 of the last 14 seasons they have been ranked in the top 20. 2017-18 they finished ranked 6th in nation.
— Charles is Bryant’s 4th all time leading scorer and 2nd in rebounds.
— Duane has 2 P-6 offers. He was a junior at Putnum and mostly would have received more P-6 offers if Duane stayed for his senior year.

Of the above players only Osun had P-6 offers and a profile that compares to Mika, Charles and Duane. Impressive profile as Osun received offers from Syracuse and Georgetown and was MVP of National Prep championship game. Jaylen and Marcus were stars for the Bonnies, but were not highly recruited.

For the big picture, we can only hope they have the same success as the 2014 and 2018 class.

[Chuck]

May 17, 2023 20:44:40 GMT -5 ceharv said:

I went into this off season with pretty low expectations.

My feelings on May 1st was even more worrisome than what ceharv expresses above. Bonnies final record is 14-18 and even worse they lost 7 of their last 8 games. On May 1st, Bonnies have 2 recruits. Miles a low rated recruit, with potential and Noah a backup center for Chad. Recruiting season is close to being over. I would say it looked like desperate times.

Now I am excited for the upcoming season and it is all because of Dana Valentine's last minute recruiting. I'm excited for this season and looking forward to future recruiting classes from the Bonnies.

[bonaforeva]

It is a good offseason don’t get me wrong, I think we can be a lot like Fordham was last year with experienced guys coming at you

I do think though that the enthusiasm this off-season is ticked up a notch because last year was a hard one

[thecoach]

I'll have to go with last year being the best. They replaced a whole team last season and started from scratch. They played well at times but without last year's recruiting it could have been really bad last season.

[ceharv]

When I made my observation I wasn’t thinking so much about the quality of the recruits in comparison with other years as I was the regular news about one recruit after another and now the new coach. That they are all high quality is a definite bonus and increases the excitement about the upcoming season(s) especially when combined with the quality from last year who will be returning with a year in the Program which is huge with Schmidt. Yeah I get it that we gotta see the results on the court, but I was pretty much expecting that 23-24 would be played with basically the same group, which would bring limited expectations after the way things finished. Now the excitement level is up considerably, at least for me. I agree the ‘18 recruiting class was at least as exciting, if not more, what with Kyle, Osun and then the addition of Dom, who it seemed like we’d been recruiting since he was in grade school. We really haven’t had that many years like these, so I suggest we start expecting better, what with two in a row.

[BONA82.5]

The 2018 recruiting class came on the heels of an NCAA birth and a win in the DANCE. That group came within a missed 3 pointer of returning to the DANCE the following year, and ultimately returning in 2 more years. I think this group has the pedigree to get back to the DANCE - the difference being is that 4 key players that will be moving on after this season (Banks/Flowers/Pride/Adams-Woods).

The BIG 3 in 2018 held the promise of 4 years. Optimism for the current group - absolutely ! Just more of a short term expectation at this point. Perhaps - that is all we can expect to see going forward in this new NIL world of college hoops.

[Chuck]

Last year was a really bad season. 18 losses was the most since Anthony Solomon was a coach. I thought last year’s recruiting class is the most disappointing since Schmidt has been at Bona. Daryl, Kyrell, Moses, Anquan and Barry all came to Bona with impressive credentials. I thought they had either a disappointing season or a horrible season.

Disappointing group
— Daryl was expected to be the star. Did not expect him to have the 2nd worse shooting percentage on the team at 38.7%. Just barely edging out Kyrell at 38.2%.
— Kyrell had worse shooting percentage on the team. Can’t count the number of times Kyrell drove to the basket without any hope of scoring. Kyrell shooting 35.9% from inside the arc was the worse on the team. Then again Daryl was extremely close behind at 36.0%. Saw very few drives where the ball was kicked out for open jumpers. This season the Bonnies has the 2nd least assists in the A-10.
— Moses probably had the best season of the disappointing group. Moses first 10 games were horrendous. He shot 16-46 for 34.8%. In hindsight it is not that much worse than Daryl and Kyrell shooting for the season. To Moses benefit he had an impressive turned around making 89-187 for 47.6% for the final 21 games. Unlike Daryl and Kyrell, Moses had a impressive shot inside the arc making 45.1%. Only Chad had a better shooting percentage inside the arc. Moses had struggles on defense, but many games he was defending players who were significantly taller and stronger. Moses would be a much better fit at SG or how about at the point.

Horrible group
— Anquan is a player that looked a lot better during practices than games. During practices he displayed ball handling skills, nice looking stroke and shot blocking skills. At the time didn’t realize his lack of offense and defense near the basket would define his season. Anquan actually had a good shooting percentage inside the arc at 46.3% but had too much faith in his 3 pointer attempting 23 for a team low 17.4%.
— Barry Evans scoring 3.0 ppg is not what we were expecting. Despite Barry’s impressive ball handling skills, I question Barry playing at SF. Barry rarely takes it to the basket on drives. Has a very questionable jump shot, shooting 25% from 3s. Wonder if Barry would be better at PF, but he needs to add muscle for PF. Interesting to note as a senior at Putnam Barry was listed at 185 pounds, while as a sophomore Duane Thompson was 200. Also consider Duane is credited with finally adding muscle to his body this past season. I’ve seen Duane listed at 220 (Putnam roster attached page 22). Barry shot a horrific 28.6 from the line. In high school at Oak Hill, Barry shot 44% from the line. Barry needs a lot of work on his foul shots.

Great additions
— Yann proved he was worthy of his accolades.
— Chad lacked press clippings, but was a solid A-10 center. Offensively best center for Bonnies since Andrew.

www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/st-bonaventure/men/2023.html
gobonnies.com/documents/2023/3/4/22-23_MBB_A10_Only_Stats.pdf
irp.cdn-website.com/0909e9e1/files/uploaded/21-22%20Mustang%20Program.pdf
www.maxpreps.com/md/columbia/oakland-mills-scorpions/athletes/barry-evans/basketball/stats/?careerid=a748k6uue2511

[ceharv]

Chuck - I respectfully disagree that last year’s recruiting class can be labeled as really bad or disappointing. Sure, last year’s finish was bad and disappointing but having to replace all the team’s starters and key reserves was a huge task, probably too much to have high expectations about. Yet the new group started out pretty well, which sort of reset the expectations at an unreasonably high level, then when things leveled out late we were all disappointed. As I look back on the wind up to last season it seems to me that the key point was the correct overrule of Annouk’s last second tip in against the Dukes here in Pittsburgh. If that shot is a fraction of a second earlier, or if we got an unwarranted break and the wrong call was allow to stand, or if we had made a couple more baskets in the last five minutes of that game and we end up winning, I think that would have changed the entire end-of-season picture. I know it’s only one game but a road victory that day may well have gotten us the double bye, and would have lifted the team attitude considerably going into the final few games and tourney.

But back to the point, the ‘22 class still has the chance to redeem itself and provide critical components to a very successful team this year and beyond and be considered a success. You may be right, but I think you’re a bit premature with that conclusion.

[Chuck]

Ceharv my favorite debates are intelligent debates with posters who have different opinions. It would be a boring board if everyone had the same opinions. Ceharv you bring up good points with large number of players being lost and too high expectations. You are correct. My expectations were too high, but take a look at Duquesne this season.

With 3 players, Duquense returned the same number of players as Bona. A red shirt, deep bench player and a starter. With 10 new players, starter Tre Williams actually sees his playing time decrease. His scoring average also declines from 10.8 to 6.6 ppg. Duquesne rebuilding their roster is very similar to Bona. Difference is Duquesne goes from 6 to 20 wins, while Bonnies having a losing record at 14-18.

How can we explain Duquense having a much better record. It can’t be coaching. Even the posters on the Duquesne message board state Schmidt is a superior coach. Probably have to accept Dambrot brought in more talented players.

Chad and Yann were quality additions. Rest of the newcomers had a disappointing season with the Bonnies. With their impressive accolades and Schmidt being the coach, I was expecting a much better record from the Bonnies.

I’m hopeful Mika makes a big difference.
— Solid stroke from 3s. Significantly better than Daryl and Kyrell last year.
— Has the height and skill to shoot a high percentage inside the arc. A whole lot better than Daryl and Kyrell.
— Very impressive assist/turnover ratio. Better than 2 to 1.
— Most of all provide veteran leadership that is critical in close games.

Also Charles provides high percentage shots from both 3s and inside the arc. Scoring inside along with high percentage jump shooting from our stars was lacking last year.

www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/duquesne/men/2023.html
www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/mika-adams-woods-1.html

[dadster81]

" A camel is a horse designed by committee" Sir Alec Issigonis

Last year, on paper, we brought in alot of players who "on paper" looked terrific - Rookies of the Year, a NCAA tournament star, two frosh who had alot of accolades, etc. But we ended up with more a camel than a horse. I really think the players we brought in this year are alot better fits for our program than last year's recruits. I see this group being a "horse" - but the season will tell us the truth.

[zorro (res)]

May 20, 2023 15:31:31 GMT -5 dadster81 said:

I see this group being a "horse" - but the season will tell us the truth.

Yes, to everything after the hyphen. Until we see them play 1/3 the season, cautious optimism is as far as I will let myself go.

[agoo]

If Venning learns to pass, there’s no reason why this team won’t be top 4 in the conference.