Iup basketball

[Chuck Norris]

You're preaching to the choir.

I think it's simply a matter of the way he's going to coach and that's that.

Polce, Bethea and Diop this past season are perfect examples. Had he played them more his team wouldn't have been playing at turtle speed by the end.

Who knows. Perhaps barely winning Round 1 and then getting waxed in Round 3 finally woke him up. This is certainly a very different recruiting class by Joe's typical standard. These aren't kids coming in this year. This is a group of older players who can all score the basket. Hopefully Joe's theory of only letting three guys shoot the ball will look much different.

On paper, I really like the look of this upcoming team. He got much faster and bigger. They now have an actual (natural) point guard, multiple shooters, big and quick guards, etc. They also have (4) forwards that can all (and will) play. His 'rotation' will have an extra guard (or perhaps two) than a year ago.

But, as we always say, a deep bench doesn't help when you play 7 guys (and the first 5 play 30 mpg or more).

Honestly, I think Joe just knows what's coming so he loaded up as much as he could (and appears to have done a great job of it). Everybody knows Cal is loaded (and just a hunch Joe doesn't want to lose to Danny). He's also now going to get Gannon's up-and-down twice a year (at least). But, he still has to have the muscle to tangle with SRU and Mercyhurst.

It's going to be an interesting year. He has enough talent. Getting all these guys ready to play together by early November is the big challenge.


Ask yourself this: Joe's team went 32-2 last season. But, among Joe's best teams, where would you rank them?

Interesting question. I think they’d have to find their place behind all these teams:

’09-10 Still Joe’s best imo
‘10-11
’14-15
’19-20
’21-22

[IUPbigINDIANS]

He needs to simply empty the bench and play them all, whatever minutes he can. There's no reason to save anyone's eligibility anymore, even a true freshman. And the likelihood that any player leaves the roster after next year anyway is very high. If a star gets mad that their minutes are cut due to Joe playing the 7th or 8th guy, then so be it. Chances are that star player probably spring boards to Northern Kentucky or Marist in the offseason anyways, so why does it matter?

You're preaching to the choir.

I think it's simply a matter of the way he's going to coach and that's that.

Polce, Bethea and Diop this past season are perfect examples. Had he played them more his team wouldn't have been playing at turtle speed by the end.

Who knows. Perhaps barely winning Round 1 and then getting waxed in Round 3 finally woke him up. This is certainly a very different recruiting class by Joe's typical standard. These aren't kids coming in this year. This is a group of older players who can all score the basket. Hopefully Joe's theory of only letting three guys shoot the ball will look much different.

On paper, I really like the look of this upcoming team. He got much faster and bigger. They now have an actual (natural) point guard, multiple shooters, big and quick guards, etc. They also have (4) forwards that can all (and will) play. His 'rotation' will have an extra guard (or perhaps two) than a year ago.

But, as we always say, a deep bench doesn't help when you play 7 guys (and the first 5 play 30 mpg or more).

Honestly, I think Joe just knows what's coming so he loaded up as much as he could (and appears to have done a great job of it). Everybody knows Cal is loaded (and just a hunch Joe doesn't want to lose to Danny). He's also now going to get Gannon's up-and-down twice a year (at least). But, he still has to have the muscle to tangle with SRU and Mercyhurst.

It's going to be an interesting year. He has enough talent. Getting all these guys ready to play together by early November is the big challenge.


Ask yourself this: Joe's team went 32-2 last season. But, among Joe's best teams, where would you rank them?

[IUP24]

He did go heavy on guards. I think even Joe realized he ran his guards last year in to the ground by playing them way too much.

His issue now will be getting them all enough minutes to stay happy. That said, I suspect 2 of the 7 guards will redshirt.

I do fully suspect we'll see 'some' 4-guard lineups at times. Depending on the grouping he could have (4) 6'4" guards on the floor so they'd still have some decent size.

He needs to simply empty the bench and play them all, whatever minutes he can. There's no reason to save anyone's eligibility anymore, even a true freshman. And the likelihood that any player leaves the roster after next year anyway is very high. If a star gets mad that their minutes are cut due to Joe playing the 7th or 8th guy, then so be it. Chances are that star player probably spring boards to Northern Kentucky or Marist in the offseason anyways, so why does it matter?

[Ship69]

He did go heavy on guards. I think even Joe realized he ran his guards last year in to the ground by playing them way too much.

His issue now will be getting them all enough minutes to stay happy. That said, I suspect 2 of the 7 guards will redshirt.

I do fully suspect we'll see 'some' 4-guard lineups at times. Depending on the grouping he could have (4) 6'4" guards on the floor so they'd still have some decent size.

They have had some good size at guard out there, which isn't always the case for D2 teams.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Really heavy on guards. They certainly won't want anything to happen to Porterfield.

He did go heavy on guards. I think even Joe realized he ran his guards last year in to the ground by playing them way too much.

His issue now will be getting them all enough minutes to stay happy. That said, I suspect 2 of the 7 guards will redshirt.

I do fully suspect we'll see 'some' 4-guard lineups at times. Depending on the grouping he could have (4) 6'4" guards on the floor so they'd still have some decent size.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I feel like one more big could help. Very thin if there was an injury.

Agreed, but the coin has to be pretty thin at this point. I'd have to guess Joe's between 9-10 equivalencies right now. Of course, if anybody is on academic money, etc., that could help free some cap space. I'd still prefer another forward added -- even if it's a high school big to develop and redshirt ... he'd still be on the roster if needed.

[Ship69]

Roster update:


Guard

Dallis Dillard
Jaylen Stewart
Garvin Clarke
Josh Petteno
Denzel Kabasele
Anthony Watson
Jordan Lambert




Forward

Ethan Porterfield
Damir Brooks
Dolan Waldo
Gabriel Romero-Sanz



Of note:

* Lambert signed over the weekend. He is a high school recruit from Hopewell High School in Hopewell, VA.

* No confirmed status on whether KJ Rhodes is staying or not. He did graduate a few weeks back.

* Other than adding a couple walk-ons, that's probably the roster.

Really heavy on guards. They certainly won't want anything to happen to Porterfield.

[IUPalum]

Roster update:


Guard

Dallis Dillard
Jaylen Stewart
Garvin Clarke
Josh Petteno
Denzel Kabasele
Anthony Watson
Jordan Lambert




Forward

Ethan Porterfield
Damir Brooks
Dolan Waldo
Gabriel Romero-Sanz



Of note:

* Lambert signed over the weekend. He is a high school recruit from Hopewell High School in Hopewell, VA.

* No confirmed status on whether KJ Rhodes is staying or not. He did graduate a few weeks back.

* Other than adding a couple walk-ons, that's probably the roster.

I feel like one more big could help. Very thin if there was an injury.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Roster update:


Guard

Dallis Dillard
Jaylen Stewart
Garvin Clarke
Josh Petteno
Denzel Kabasele
Anthony Watson
Jordan Lambert




Forward

Ethan Porterfield
Damir Brooks
Dolan Waldo
Gabriel Romero-Sanz



Of note:

* Lambert signed over the weekend. He is a high school recruit from Hopewell High School in Hopewell, VA.

* No confirmed status on whether KJ Rhodes is staying or not. He did graduate a few weeks back.

* Other than adding a couple walk-ons, that's probably the roster.

[TheBigCat2192]

In the long run that's bad for the league as a whole, including top squads, because they get used to ho-humming their way past inferior competition in the area and then get hammered when they get out of the region and face opponents with fully their resources (or more.

You might call this “Super Region 1”.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

This will be a good litmus test for Joe and the future of the program in regard to the transfer portal. Tort came flat out and said players are free to test the waters of the portal, but if you do you're not coming back to the IUP team. Will Joe have that same mantra? Does it matter if the guy is the conference player of the year? Not saying Tomiwa wants to come back to IUP, but it's a good conversation starter. His future is as an overseas pro, which he can accomplish doing so from IUP. But if he wants to go to March Madness...then maybe the Northeast Conference is the way to go?

Well, just remember that Tort has said that about players in general. He hasn't been tested yet with one of his stars wanting to test the waters. Had Duane Brown entered the portal and then decided to stay ... do you really think Tort would have turned him down? I sure don't. Shepherd sure didn't turn away Tyson Bagent after he tested the waters.

Regardless of coach speak, all players aren't created equal -- nor is their value. Joe, my opinion, would have taken Tomiwa back in a second.

As for Tomiwa, most close to the Towson program think he's going to be a rotation player but not a starter. I wouldn't completely rule out the possibility he could be back to IUP after next year if things don't work out. Just a hunch. He does have two years left.

[hawks16]

To remotely even think IUP shouldn’t take this guy back, you’d have to be a complete moron!

I highly doubt he comes back but I’d certainly welcome him back with open arms as a fan. He’s a talented star that brings winning energy game in and game out!

This will be a good litmus test for Joe and the future of the program in regard to the transfer portal. Tort came flat out and said players are free to test the waters of the portal, but if you do you're not coming back to the IUP team. Will Joe have that same mantra? Does it matter if the guy is the conference player of the year? Not saying Tomiwa wants to come back to IUP, but it's a good conversation starter. His future is as an overseas pro, which he can accomplish doing so from IUP. But if he wants to go to March Madness...then maybe the Northeast Conference is the way to go?

[Ship69]

The 70s and 80s are starting to go pretty far back but IUP's run started in the early 90s. Aside from Joe's first two teams, they've been a pretty consistent power within the PSAC since around 1993 or so. I do agree the league was much more balanced back then. I've said forever the 94-95 team would have beat any of Joe's teams, and also a couple of Gary Edwards' teams would have also beat some of Joe's better teams.

For purposes of this conversation, I don't want to confuse (or, rather, mix) scholarships and NIL. Obviously they are very different things.

If you can land one die-hard, business-owning booster ... you can change the landscape of how you recruit -- and the level of whom you recruit. And, it's not the under-the-table style deals from Blue Chips in the 90s. It's all perfectly legal.

So, if (as an example) I wanted to offer each of Joe's scholarship players $10,000 each for each season they play here through the NIL arrangement ... that's all perfectly legal and would be a tremendous tool for Joe to use on the recruiting trail.

To put it in perspective from a local example, Akron's starting group and rotation were said to all have made around $30,000 each in NIL last year for men's basketball. That's in the MAC. Imagine what Kentucky's rotation made last year.

Part of this is just something to talk about in late May ... but, it is coming to D2.


If you want to be sick, look up what the Bayou Barbie and the gymnast made down at LSU from NIL's last year -- upward of 7 figures each.

I'm not arguing that IUP didn't have good teams some years back, but the continual dominance of the PSAC by 2-3 teams is a relatively recent occurrence. In football, although Ship hasn't won a title since 2009, I felt the Zulli and Zapoticky teams could be competitive with about anyone in the league on a given day. It's been a while since I've had that feeling. Basketball, even with the recent IUP surge, has been somewhat more competitive as you can put together a decent BB team with 2-3 studs and some good role players. But it's becoming almost impossible for the Mansfields, Clarions, and Lock Havens to build consistent teams. If they do get good players, they're gone in a year or two. While of course all of us want our teams to be successful I can handle Ship not being in the hunt every year if the teams are somewhat competitive. I got no real pleasure from watching Ship demolish Lock Haven last year as I knew we had a so-so team. It was just that Lock Haven was good deal worse. I think there are liable to be more shakeups in the PSAC before long.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Jack reported on the radio this morning IUP has signed (6) players.

Our count is at (5) players.

Some of us were assuming there was another post player close to signing. Perhaps Jack knows and slipped up a bit before IUP formally announced it?

[Ship69]

I agree NIL will appear in D2. The question is to what degree and what will be the impact on the competitive landscape? D1 athletic donations are an order of magnitude higher than d2.

In d1, in the past, boosters donate to the university athletic dept. for various projects, such as facility improvements or non revenue sports. The open question is: will these donors shift their gifts to NIL and earmark it for fb or bb specific players?

And actually, NIL for high school players has been approved in Pa. and many other states. Pure amateur sports at any level are largely a thing of the past, and of course it wasn't always that clean in the past.