trueblue32

Tom Fox removed UB from his social media bios which is expected with another DOBO being announced yesterday. I will assume that Foley and Fitzpatrick are sticking until we see something suggesting otherwise. I'm guessing the 3rd assistant will be an Associate HC with head coaching experience similar to Whitesell joining Oats' staff.

Head Coach: George Halcovage III
Associate Head Coach: ?
Assistant Coach: Calvin Cage
Assistant Coach: Brendan Foley (?)
Director of Basketball Operations: Tim Saunders
Video Coordinator: Jack Fitzpatrick (?)

Hardnett is visiting Arkansas State

Just now, MuchMany said:

Great call. That roster was STACKED. We should expect the DMV-to-UB pipeline to flow. 

Wow no kidding, even the lesser known players on that team that started at mid-majors are now at high majors. EJ Jarvis (Yale->Florida), Josh Oduro (George Mason->Providence), Jahmir Young (Charlotte->Maryland). 10 high major players, two others that went to Ivys. That is a hell of an AAU program

Canisius has a 6'10" big man who can shoot a bit in the portal. Not sure if he wants a bigger role, but as a depth piece it'd be a good start
https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/jacco-fritz-1.html

I feel like the suggestion here by Goodman is that Oats' has extremely good assistant coaches (which may be true), but it seems apparent they are just trying to wipe their hands clean of the murder. 3 assistants take jobs at middling mid-major programs, one player involved in jail, one player involved to the NBA, the third player involved hitting the transfer portal despite likely being the star player next year.

27 minutes ago, UBinMD said:

A little surprised if he wouldn't have wanted Jack, Villanova has bigs, but maybe Jack didn't like the prospect of his contribution level under the new coach.

Every team has bigs. It doesn't matter if you're big if the offense is predicated around the bigs being able to shoot. Villanova's center is 6'8" and shoots 39.6% from 3. Since Halcovage started as an assistant in 2017 there was only one contributor who didn't make at least 10 3s on the season. By comparison UB has had 7 such contributors in the same time span

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/play-index/psl_finder.cgi?request=1&match=single&year_min=2018&year_max=2023&class_is_fr=Y&class_is_so=Y&class_is_jr=Y&class_is_sr=Y&pos_is_g=Y&pos_is_f=Y&pos_is_c=Y&school_id=villanova&games_type=A&c1stat=mp_per_g&c1comp=gt&c1val=15&c2stat=g&c2comp=gt&c2val=15&c3comp=gt&c4comp=gt&order_by=fg3

I expect everyone he brings in to be a capable to proficient 3 point shooter which will be a different approach than we have had in recent years.

8 minutes ago, Tee4three said:

Would much rather have seen a post about a player leaving the portal to come back

Having to re work the entire roster is no easy task

In today's day and age it's definitely easier than having to overhaul your scheme to fit the players.

There are only a few players from last year's team that I envision having roles on a winning team next year, Curtis Jones, Isaiah Adams, and LaQuill Hardnett. Maybe Jo Smith as a backup big, but he has the same non-shooting issue as Jack (although he flashed a little bit of a mid range game). Those guys can fit with mostly anyone I think. They're not high usage guys who need the ball, they shoot and they also defend. Other than that I can take or leave most of the guys on the roster. Let Halcovage get his guys in

Jack to the portal. I didn’t want to rain on the Jack love but it felt like he wasn’t going to be a fit if Halcovage runs his offense like Nova. They’re similar to McCollum’s offenses in that they value skill and shooting over size. Best of luck to him

Not MAC but I didn't think it justified it's own thread

Curran is a pretty well regarded assistant. I'm surprised to see him leave a basketball powerhouse like St. Bonaventure (/s) for another job in the same league

1 minute ago, everlast2504 said:

I know nothing about the NBA. 

How good is this for his chances to be on an actual NBA roster for the long term?

IMO the most likely scenario is he finishes the season with the Blazers (who are tanking) then they waive him because the second year is non-guaranteed. That said, he profiles as a 3 and D wing and NBA teams are always looking for someone to fill that role on the cheap. While he's playing with G-Leaguers on a tanking team, they beat a playoff team in his first game and gave another playoff team a run for their money in game 2. He is playing against legitimate NBA players and he's been active on defense with the 3 steals and 2 blocks (I also thought he had a block in the first game that he's not credited for). He's only 1-4 from 3, but he shot over 40% from 3 in the G League. Basically he's a 24 year old undrafted rookie, I don't think any team is going to commit much to develop him, but he's getting his shot to be somebody's cheap roster filler next year.

4 minutes ago, UBinMD said:

We had our moments and I think we actually played well in that game for the most part.

To be fair UConn was missing two of their best players in that game (Andre Jackson and Jordan Hawkins), but it was also on their home court. UB had a decent effort but I was in on UConn since that game, such a deep team that they handled UB without either Jackson or Hawkins. Tristen Newton had a triple double in that game. Congrats to UConn

17 minutes ago, bullsbball said:

There has been a lot of negative comments about the UB Basketball program lately (up until the new coach was hired), but I'd be interested in what people think are UB's (basketball) positives that could be used to sell this program to somebody (i.e. coach, player, or fan). 

Is it the Arena, history, fan base, True Blue?

While the last four years (3 tournaments, we were already eliminated but that doesn't have to be in the slideshow) have felt like a lifetime, in the grand scheme of things that's not a long time to be away from the NCAA tournament for a mid-major. We have a lot of recent success, we now have a recent NBA player and Halcovage has coached many more at Villanova, our other professional alums just won the TBT. I think winning and professional opportunities are the draw against mid-majors we recruit against. The arena is fine but I don't think it's a major value add. Show them the crowds from when our teams were good, and maybe that helps, last year's attendance certainly wouldn't lol

9 minutes ago, rma said:

Agreed. It seemed odd that we were supposedly offering 1-2 per day for a couple days. Nothing involved with the state of New York goes that fast. Maybe an informal offer, but pen to paper probably not. 

Yeah I agree, I wasn't sure if maybe there was a backlog of news that someone leaked. At this point it appears to me that those accounts probably do have sources (probably interviewees or agents), but the trade off is that it feels very editorialized to promote the source. Calhoun maybe being the most blatant, he was revealed as a random candidate, he interviewed, "turned it down" (because Youngstown St has better NIL?), then ends up with an extension all within a short timeframe.

4 minutes ago, rma said:

I’d be inclined to believe Alnutt since it would be FOIA-able but he’s obviously biased

Yeah that was my thought as well, and it's hiding behind "extending offers" when it seems possible that people were removing themselves before it got to that point. It's hard to say what happened in between there but I got the feeling a chunk of the "candidates" were there for leverage at their current jobs and nothing else, the number/timing of leaks surrounding them was strange. Either way it's good to hear that we were not in as dire of straits as it seemed

Keeping discussion of re-recruiting players in the portal in house, which is fair, but also reads to me like not everyone is going to be re-recruited lol (which is probably for the best)

Halcovage thanked the current players for meeting him on Friday, and said he's looking forward to talking more with them "and some other guys who are already here" (paraphrasing), maybe he already has some unannounced recruits? Or maybe I'm reading too much into wording

44 minutes ago, capencaper said:

Think he'll see any minutes this season? 

Like others said they’re tanking and the season is nearly over so likely yes. I will buy a Blazers Jeenathan Williams jersey if he plays even one second if that incentivizes them at all lol

Maybe Whitesell’s crowning achievement during his time here was Jeenathan’s development. Good 24 hours for the #brand with Halcovage’s boy Jalen Brunson scoring 48 last night too

58 minutes ago, MuchMany said:

Haha my second cousin. Resisted posting it because I need to recuse myself. Would obviously be crazy but I imagine he lands at Georgetown or a big-centric P5 like Kansas. 

We can do one of those deals where we get you an assistant coaching gig if you get him to come. We have a few openings

18 minutes ago, DocCas86 said:

I take it if Foster was further out, potential for a pass to him, then to Jones for higher pct 3.

Ideally yeah, on this play not shown in the screenshot was Foster was driving and kicking it out to Powell. Maybe if we had better spacing Foster is able to get all the way to the rim for a layup. There's only so much you can do to space the floor when you're playing 3 non-shooters (and none of them are a real post presence either), which was my point on roster construction as well.

33 minutes ago, DocCas86 said:

I am no expert, so trying to get more informed. Was Zid hurt somewhat by his poor outside shooting as his defender could focus on stopping the drive to the hoop? 

Yeah this was his first 3 in the Akron game. His defender was in the paint helping off of him and he ends up missing the shot. It was a recurring theme by the end of the season. If he’s not on-ball and can’t stretch the D you’re just playing 4 v 5. I do think whitesell tried to rein him in, he stopped starting and his minutes were significantly reduced for parts of the season. He has his strengths and in the right role I’m sure he will be productive but I don’t envision him taking well to a smaller role here and I think it’s best for everyone to get a clean start.

Also as a general comment on the Whitesell era look at that spacing. It’s poor offense and poor roster construction. Hoping Halcovage takes a more balanced approach to recruiting more polished shot makers as well as a few upside athletes. It felt like we were just always swinging on upside and not developing them enough once they got on campus

We'll see how much Halcovage sticks to Villanova principles, but I don't imagine him fighting too hard to re-recruit a shooting guard who shot 17% from 3

It appears we have hired George Halcovage III, George Halcovage Jr. (his dad?) is in the headlines for his own reasons

I don't know how to feel about him but I'm glad this search is over