Iup basketball

[IUPbigINDIANS]

What's funny about that assumption is with the three Penn West campuses, the frequent partiers: frats, club teams, etc are all WAY down. Edinboro started the year with two frats. Two. When I was there I think there were at least a dozen. They've lost the middle of the bell curve students. Everyone is either an athlete or socially strange and attracted to the online classes & sit in your dorm room lifestyle. Everything is grab & go or GrubHub, no dining hall socializing and people watching (they're the people to watch). So there are virtually no parties. Some people popping gummies and playing XBox Live against their friends at another school.

Lol. Man, times have changed. Halloween used to be off the charts on our campuses.

[Fightingscot82]

When I first saw that I was thinking it would be cool. Night game. Halloween.

Then, of course, you realize nobody will attend.

Thursday night Halloween on a college campus ... huge party night. Families will be out.

What's funny about that assumption is with the three Penn West campuses, the frequent partiers: frats, club teams, etc are all WAY down. Edinboro started the year with two frats. Two. When I was there I think there were at least a dozen. They've lost the middle of the bell curve students. Everyone is either an athlete or socially strange and attracted to the online classes & sit in your dorm room lifestyle. Everything is grab & go or GrubHub, no dining hall socializing and people watching (they're the people to watch). So there are virtually no parties. Some people popping gummies and playing XBox Live against their friends at another school.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

As great as Clarion scheduling a game on Halloween night????

When I first saw that I was thinking it would be cool. Night game. Halloween.

Then, of course, you realize nobody will attend.

Thursday night Halloween on a college campus ... huge party night. Families will be out.

[Fightingscot82]

Joe's home opener (Game 5) is on the same night (and at the same time) as the Indiana Holiday Parade. This is a massive event in Indiana.


Can't make this stuff up. That will be wonderful for the KCAC gate.

As great as Clarion scheduling a game on Halloween night????

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Joe's home opener (Game 5) is on the same night (and at the same time) as the Indiana Holiday Parade. This is a massive event in Indiana.


Can't make this stuff up. That will be wonderful for the KCAC gate.

[EyeoftheHawk]

Joe says the whole roster is going to play.

Lol.

Give that until halftime of the second game.

No way in Hades!

[Cobra Hawks]

Rumour is Joe is going to break the mould and try the Gannon/Nova/WL style of play.

This is why he is saying that all the roster will play. They will have to.
Saying Sarp Furton is an aggressive player was over stating things by some margin

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Joe says the whole roster is going to play.

Lol.

Give that until halftime of the second game.

[Ship69]

Well I for one am hoping that Ship have a great season

Thanks. Well, we certainly hope that, especially the way the football season is going.

[Ship69]

Carter and Biss were both on very strong teams, though, as freshmen. Those Ship teams had a lot of mouths to feed. Frank essentially had to be 'the man' as a freshman on a pretty rough team.

I'm looking forward to watching him in December.

If he stays in D2 (beyond this year) and Fite can build around him, he'll be something to watch the next few years. If he blows up this year I could certainly see him following the recent trend and going up.

Frank could possibly go up, but I don't know is his physical stature and style of play would transfer well to a major D1 school. He gets shots in the PSAC that he might not get against D1 behemoths. He might have a shot at a smaller D1 program. He still needs to work a bit on his outside shot, although it was decent last year, and cut down his turnovers. Because the team wasn't good last year, he appeared to try and take too much upon himself at time. Ship's turnover stats last year were pretty shocking for a team that usually takes care of the ball. Hopefully, bringing in more height and a couple of guards who've seen plenty of college action will help.

Carter and Biss did come in on better teams, but the improvement of Carter from his freshman year to his senior year was something to see. He was basically no threat from three-point range as a freshman, but had developed into the most reliable three-point shooter on the team by his senior season, which made his slashing game that much more effective. He was basically a perfect player for the Chris Fite system. Biss was held back some by the talented guards we had them, but I doubt he'd have put up Frank-like numbers in his freshman year even if the situation had been different. His positional responsibilities likely would have precluded that.

It will be interesting to see how Frank and all the new pieces develop this year. I suspect some of our more talented freshmen will see quite a bit of playing time. We'll also need some upgraded play from some of the returnees such as Martin and Hill.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

One of IUP's early opponents, Charleston, had a very 'big' late addition. Zach Loveday, formerly of Baylor and more recently of Samford, was signed just as classes started.

He's a big boy at 7'0", 240 lbs.

He came off the bench at Samford last year. We'll see how he transitions to the D2 game. He was recruited to Baylor when they were really humming a few years back.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Markus Frank was not a typical freshman at Ship. Carlos Carter was the East Division Player of the Year for us a couple of years back and he wasn't having 20- and 30-point games his freshman year. Neither was Jake Biss, who also turned out to be a pretty decent player. I'll be happy if we have a couple of competent freshmen who can compete. Some of the recruits seem to have good resumés and all-around potential, but how that plays out remains to be seen.

Carter and Biss were both on very strong teams, though, as freshmen. Those Ship teams had a lot of mouths to feed. Frank essentially had to be 'the man' as a freshman on a pretty rough team.

I'm looking forward to watching him in December.

If he stays in D2 (beyond this year) and Fite can build around him, he'll be something to watch the next few years. If he blows up this year I could certainly see him following the recent trend and going up.

[Cobra Hawks]

Markus Frank was not a typical freshman at Ship. Carlos Carter was the East Division Player of the Year for us a couple of years back and he wasn't having 20- and 30-point games his freshman year. Neither was Jake Biss, who also turned out to be a pretty decent player. I'll be happy if we have a couple of competent freshmen who can compete. Some of the recruits seem to have good resumés and all-around potential, but how that plays out remains to be seen.

Well I for one am hoping that Ship have a great season

[Ship69]

Don't think Marcus Frank had played college basketball prior to being awarded freshman of the year and he seemed to do alright!

Markus Frank was not a typical freshman at Ship. Carlos Carter was the East Division Player of the Year for us a couple of years back and he wasn't having 20- and 30-point games his freshman year. Neither was Jake Biss, who also turned out to be a pretty decent player. I'll be happy if we have a couple of competent freshmen who can compete. Some of the recruits seem to have good resumés and all-around potential, but how that plays out remains to be seen.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Interesting. What’s made things turn so potentially dire?

The Bad News:

* Two key returning guards (Dallis Dillard and Denzel Kabasele) are both coming off ACL surgeries. Both are about 9 months removed. That's a somewhat quick turnaround. We've seen some come back the following year as good as new (Shawndale). Some don't (Tommy Demo). I'd say these two are question marks.

* Joe's top two returning scorers from last year are ... Damir Brooks (3.2 ppg) and Sarp Furtun (1.3 ppg).

* Joe has too many players he can redshirt -- and, we know where this story will end.

* The stretch between Opening Night and Christmas isn't an easy one. This team is going to get tested immediately (the first four games are on the road). And, we all know Joe's teams are famous for growing pains. There's a whole lot of moving parts to this (essentially) totally rebuilt roster.



The Good News:

* Joe did pretty good in the transfer portal. I think he could have done more, but, ...

- Christian Moore (New Hampshire) has star potential at this level. He's a very dynamic scoring guard. Best comparison is probably a mix between Malik Miller and Anthony Glover.

- Alfonso Pickens Jr. is a lightning fast guard and an elite defender. I'd compare him to Brandon Spain (only a little bigger).

- Luke Triggs won't replace the offense lost by Ethan Porterfield, but he will be an upgrade on the defensive end. He's a big body (6'7", 225 lbs), very strong and runs well. He's a tenacious rebounder and is hard to defend around the basket. He's also a strong defender. His weakness is staying out of foul trouble.

* Dillard and Kabasele return. Both were MAJOR losses a year ago. Kabasele was lost for the season in camp. Dillard in the 10th game. If both are healthy, it gives Joe two big guards (both are about 6'4"). Dillard is a known shutdown defender and an elite rebounder.

* Ian Herring has Freshman of the Year potential. He's a year removed (he played a post-grad year at Kiski Prep) so he's a little further along than most freshmen. He's in the 6'5" - 6'6" range and will play both SF and G at IUP this year. He's an extreme high-flyer and is very dynamic getting to the basket. He can also shoot from the outside.

* Anthony Watson returns after missing all of last season. He will likely be the backup PG. He's pretty solid.

* The West -- top to bottom -- is kind of unknown at this point. It's safe to assume SRU, Cal and Gannon will be pretty good.


The Returners:

* Brooks is a well-known enigma. He's a freak athlete for his size. He's also a Gold Member of the Lombardi Doghouse. Less is usually more with Damir. Too many minutes and he's in foul trouble. His best role -- if he can stay in it -- is a spark plug off the bench.

* Furtun would have never played as a true freshman in a normal year. We all know last year was far from a normal year. He wasn't ready and got thrown to the wolves. He had some moments as the season went along -- good and bad. He has some upside and good size. I do question, however, if he will redshirt this season. Minutes will be scarce at the guard position.

* Callum MacNamara missed the entire second half last season (non-basketball injury). He was just starting to see non-garbage minutes when he was injured. He gives Joe a big 6'8", 230 lb forward off the (deeper) bench.

The Freshmen:

* Bautista Rodriguez looks the part. He's a jacked up 6'7", 215 lbs. He's a 'Euro Big' and runs the floor very well.

* Tyler Grove (SF) was one of Joe's perceived top recruits. He will likely redshirt this season.

* Kymani Merraro is a true freshman from Toronto. It's highly likely he redshirts.



My 'guess' at a Starting Five and Rotation:

G - Dillard
G - Pickens
G - Moore
F - Triggs
F - Herring

Rotation (at least early until Joe takes it down to 6 or 7)

G - Kabasele
G - Watson
F - Brooks
F - Bautista




So, I just went over the whole roster. It could be a good team. It's deeper than usual (not that it really matters). There's a ton of speed (way more than last year). Size is decent. We'll see.