trueblue32

I think it's fine to say Curtis Jones is a P5 talent, but not a P5 level playmaker. He has good size, shoots the hell out of the ball, takes care of the ball, passes well, and defends. If he goes to ISU and plays next to Tamin Lipsey where he's not being relied on to create for others I think he is going to excel. That said I'd like to see him do all that in Buffalo lol

I also read that he'll be graduating at 17 which is pretty young for a recruit. Often times D1 recruits repeated a year or do a prep year. Brandon Miller for example at Alabama is a freshman but he's 20. It suggests to me that Fields may have some latent size/strength/athleticism that he hasn't even tapped into yet. Definitely an interesting prospect

Some of the guys they just missed landing have also been big hits. We were finalists for Antonio Reeves before he went to Illinois State then on to Kentucky where he averaged 14.4 PPG this year, and finalists for KD Johnson before he went to Georgia then on to Auburn where he's been a key contributor on two tourney teams. I'm not going to rehash my thoughts on the last staff but I think they did mostly fine identifying talent and recruiting it but it was after they got on campus that there were issues.

I think he is a legit 6'6", his teammate (#32) that he high fives early in the clip is listed at 6'11". If they're a loaded high school team I don't think 6'6" would necessarily be one of the taller players Edit: Yeah here are some of his teammates: James Evans 6'5" #104 in 2024 https://247sports.com/Player/James-Evans-46117606/ Andrew Meadow 6'6" 3 star commit to Boise State https://247sports.com/player/andrew-meadow-46117805/ Jazz Gardner 6'11" #119 in 2023 https://247sports.com/Player/Jazz-Gardner-46114377/ Darrell Morris 5'9" 2024 recruit with offers to NIU and NAU

Potentially a diamond in the rough as we are apparently are his first offer but I don't think those stats are accurate. He probably has 12 games on his max preps schedule with 1 or 2 box scores uploaded so the per games look weird. From a MaxPreps top 25 article his team was ranked 17th and was "led by senior Isaiah Fields (12)" https://www.maxpreps.com/news/Rw015V5PuEa58xjjtIvUPg/high-school-basketball-rankings-no-20-sierra-canyon%2c-no-24-roselle-catholic-and-no-25-myers-park-re-enter-maxpreps-top-25.htm

The only other mention I really see of him is getting D3 offers and a preferred walk-on spot at UC Davis. I'd be surprised if we're recruiting him as a scholarship player (if this is even the current staff's work)

And Sy Chatman AFAIK. Williamson is the only one of that group who didn't transfer here from another D1 which means he could transfer without having to sit out. I'm surprised he hasn't hit the portal but Villanova does love their small ball 5s so maybe Halcovage thinks he can get something out of him

I was searching around trying to find out what's going on with Curtis Jones. Sounds like he is visiting Iowa State and their fan forum is pretty confident he will commit (I have no idea what that's based on, I don't see anything on Twitter) https://cyclonefanatic.com/forum/threads/iowa-state-transfer-recruiting-class-2023.277819/page-47 Clearly a step up and only a few hours from his hometown of Minneapolis so it could make sense for him. Hopefully Halcovage gives him a good pitch before any decisions are made

This is unrelated but I saw today that Binghamton might be adding a D1 hockey team I wish we could get one lol

And he said he made his money at Villanova + on TV so he will do it for free 🤣

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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