Originally posted by IUPalum
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Re: Iup basketball
He gets free tuition. He's still on the hook for all the fees, books, and housing and meal plan if he lives on campus...but basketball money could pay for all that. -
Re: Iup basketball
If Dante is there for free that would put them to 9 scholarships instead of the 10 I listed.
That's probably accurate. They've fluctuated between 8 to 10 depending on the year.
Certainly none of the deep bench was getting money.Leave a comment:
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Re: Iup basketball
I think you're forgetting one thing... Doesn't Dante get a free ride because Joe works for the university? So that technically opens another scholarship if that is the case. Now let's discuss the recruiting...Leave a comment:
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Re: Iup basketball
There should be another Scholarship, since Dante goes to IUP for free I think - though I haven't looked at the coaches contract in a while.Originally posted by IUPbigINDIANS View Post
Vaughns has to be the biggest question, why he didn't play in the Edinboro game is a mystery.Leave a comment:
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Re: Iup basketball
Every program has a different recruiting philosophy.
Whatever the amount of money is the program has ... they can spend it in different ways. For example, IUP likes to give full rides. They have enough money to probably cover 8-10 on a given year. If they keep missing NCAAs ... the donor money is going to start to shrink. The IUP bench, beyond the players they invest in, is just, in many cases, guys they take off the intramural courts -- walk-ons. Not joking.
Some schools in the PSAC don't give full rides. They'll give two guys half rides instead of one guy a full ride. Others can't even do that ... they can maybe divide one ride three ways. Some like building that deep bench by recruiting well and spreading the money. IUP essentially has an unwritten law they aren't allowed to ever have more than an 8-man rotation. Great in theory ... have 8 full-ride players play. But, it really stinks when stuff goes wrong. And, boy oh boy, did stuff go wrong.
To answer your question: Take this season as an example:
I'll call them the 'believed to be' (10) full ride scholarship players on this year's roster:
Anthony Glover
Cobo Diaz
Willem Brandwijk
Dante Lombardi
Blake Danielak
Ayron Hutton
Jalen Vaughns
Dom Keyes
Armoni Foster
Malik Miller
Right away, Armoni Foster is gone for the season with a should injury in the last week of camp. At that point, they are down to four guards. He later becomes a scapegoat of sorts although many question if he'd have redshirted anyway. A week before the season it gets announced Dom Keyes will redshirt (to the surprise of everybody). Now you're down to 8 scholarship players and the intramural gang. By mid-November, Vaughns is in the doghouse. By mid-January, he's in Siberia. You're down to 7 scholarship players and the intramural gang.
Hang in there. The story gets worse.
Then, Malik Miller has the unfortunate grease fire accident. Fluke but it still happened. He misses 3-4 weeks. Now, you're down to 6 scholarship players and the walk-ons. They played 5-6 games with this lineup. Amazingly, this could have been the time Vaughns could have re-emerged from the doghouse ... but he hurt his ankle in practice.
Several weeks go by. Malik returns. Things look bright again. They did OK in his time out but accumulated two devastating losses.
Last game of the regular season. They are back up to 7 scholarship players (technically 8 but Vaughns is long out of the picture). Glover gets the infamous two technicals (suspended first game of PSAC Tournament). Lombardi breaks his wrist (done for season). Back down to five players and the walk-ons.
This was an extreme example of unbelievable events that all happened in one season but that's how they got to the point of playing their final game with 5 players.
This isn't a one-year thing, though. It's becoming the norm. They are always one fluke injury or something away from catastrophe. That's the problem with putting all your eggs in one basket. Some of them break.Leave a comment:
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Re: Iup basketball
Speaking from watching them regularly, using a lot of guys isn't his style. He likes to start the year playing 8-9 guys, but after about 10-11 games, he plays 7. Since I've watched IUP, that's what he's done. You can't argue with the success Joe has had, but the last 2-3 years has been atrocious from a depth perspective. This year it finally got him. He had injuries, guys in his doghouse, a grease fire to deal with, and guys he wanted to redshirt. You could argue he really only enter the year with 8 guys. And that in and of itself is a different discussion.Originally posted by WCU007 View PostLeave a comment:
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Re: Iup basketball
Honest question on the depth. I can't believe the lack of a bench. You'd think during the season, a couple players would be able to progress into a 10 minute contribution.Originally posted by IUPbigINDIANS View Post
As someone who watches WCU, Coach Blair goes to his bench, especially in the first half(probably more than he should).
Or is Joe not hitting on the recruits out there.Leave a comment:
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Re: Iup basketball
Originally posted by IUPbigINDIANS View Post
Great piece of writing...insightful, objective, fair, sprinkled with opinions and I enjoyed that.... Not a fluff / cheerleader piece..Leave a comment:
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Re: Iup basketball
LOL .. for trying to 'avoid rematches' ... there's more this year than ever.Leave a comment:
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Re: Iup basketball
The IUP vs. Cal ladies game has been set for 12 p.m. Friday.Leave a comment:
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Re: Iup basketball
If Dustin Sleva played at IUP he'd have been the D2 version of Christian Laetner.
It would have been incredibly entertaining to watch ... Certainly the one who got away.Leave a comment:
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Re: Iup basketball
I've had nearly 24 hours to digest. I thought a lot today about this team, the last 3 years, and the overall direction and state of the program as it compares to when I first stepped foot on campus (Fall 2011). Here is my take... IUP doesn't need to get better players. They need to get tougher players. And maybe some guys that are a little more focused.
Let me preface what I just said...
When I arrived on campus as a freshman in the Fall of 2011, I look back and realize that was a fun and interesting time to be introduced to IUP basketball. It was a changing of a guard of sorts. It was sort of the end of Joe's first great team. Julian Sanders and Ashton Smith remained from that 2009 team. If there were others, I forget, but those were the contributors. Scooter Renkin was on that team, but he redshirted during my freshman year. I saw the 11-12, 12-13, 13-14, and 14-15 teams while I was on campus. Each of those groups were unique and vastly different than what I can gather now. Granted, my perception might be totally off. I'm not on campus. I'm not tuned into the team daily. I don't have my finger on the pulse of the program the way I did a few short years ago. Either way... I look back at what each of those groups accomplished..
2011-2012: 1st round exit after losing to Shaw. That's certainly forgivable. It was a young team. Two starters returned. Marcel, Anthony Wells, Devante, Josh Weigand, etc., were all newcomers or filling new roles.
2012-2013: Lost in the Regional Championship at West Liberty, PSAC West Champs, PSAC Tournament champs. You finally started to see that program get back to what they were a few years prior. Mathis Keita had arrived and was as advertised, Marcel was a player, Devante had a role, Anthony Wells was steady as a rock at PG, Scooter proved to be so valuable to that group as a RS Senior, Weigand and Cottrell were tough in the post. That sure was a team. They weren't fast or explosive enough to hang with WLU, but that was a good team.
2013-2014: 3OT thriller in the second round against WLU. That was the end of a couple great careers, but a lot of those underclassmen truly learned what it took. Those guys like Devon, Devante, Norfleet, and Jeffers. You knew there was something in that core.
2014-2015:I don't need to say too much about this group. The core I mentioned above. Add Shawn Dyer.
So what's my point? If I look at each and every one of those teams, specifically the last 3 that I mentioned, they all have a common denominator. Sure, they were talented, but that doesn't even scratch the surface. Those teams were all tough as nails. They were focused. Most importantly, those teams were driven by guys who everybody knew were incredible leaders. With as young as IUP was in 2011-2012, there wasn't much else Sanders and Smith could do. But the other teams I mentioned... They oozed leadership and intangibles. IUP has lacked that, and severely, the last 3 seasons.
One of the things that we've talked about a lot, this year in particular, is why in the last 2-3 years IUP has struggled so much in the big games. Why when the lights get bright does this program now seem to shrivel in the moment? They used to be automatic. What changed? The more and more I think about it, the more and more I realize the answer. It's makeup and leadership. That's the common denominator between all of those great teams. They all had focus and drive. They all had a killer instinct. These last three years, they haven't had that.
And I'll again say it, those teams had talent, sure. But those teams were led by leaders. True leaders. Anthony Wells doesn't get the credit he deserves, but he was the glue to that 2013 team. He was such a communicator on and off the court. And he taught Devante a lot. Even up to when Chance graduated, he still talked about his relationship with Anthony Wells. Take a look a Wells though.. Kid from inner city Cleveland, OH. Went to a D1 program, but never played. Devante Chance was undersized and from inner city Philly. He had one scholarship offer. You think those guys didn't have something to prove? You think those guys didn't have a massive boulder on their shoulder? The guy running the point guard position now got taken out of Indiana HS and placed in Kiski Prep. The circumstances are different, and so are the attitudes.
Shawn Dyer came into that program in 2014 and he had been there. He won. He knew what it took to win. While he was quiet to many of us on the court, every guy on that team listened to him when he spoke. He wanted to win so bad that when he beat his former team in the NCAA Tournament, he collapsed on the court after the game and was sobbing. I'm not sure any of these guys want to win that badly. I'm thinking long and hard and I can't think of one guy on this team that would collapse on the court in the manner that Dyer did that night.
Mathis Keita was new to the program in 2013, but you saw so quickly how guys just gravitated to him. He hit big shots, he directed traffic on the court, he knew when to slow it down, and he knew how to lead. Even though he never played a role for them, he talked all the time about how much he learned at Gonzaga. He said that made him the leader and the player that he was.
Those teams had such a blend of talent, ferocious tenacity, and leadership. It's tough to find that and it's tougher to replace it to the same level. The last three years, IUP has had trouble with slow starts. They've struggled with blowing big leads and letting teams back into games. They've had issues playing down to their competition to a degree. That's not an anomaly. That's been a trend. That didn't seem to happen with Devante's teams. Or when Anthony Wells was running the show. Those guys had a killer instinct. When they were up 12, they wanted to run it to 24. When they had Seton Hill on the road in Greensburg, they slit their throats in the first ten minutes. They smelled blood in the water, and when the winless football team wanted to harass them from under the basket, they ended their party real fast. That's not just what good teams do. That's what focused teams and tough teams do. When the lights came on, those guys were ready. They talk in baseball about big game pitchers. They often times say that a guy is "built for the moment." Those IUP teams were "built for the moment." They last three... They weren't.
We were hard on this group because they talked a lot. So did the other teams. Devante ran his mouth a good bit. The difference was that he could back it up. Hutton couldn't. This team wanted to act like a tough guy, but they were like a weightlifter who is built primarily with creatine and other supplements. Strong appearance, but when you poke them they're pretty soft. The teams when I was on campus had a swagger when they walked off the bus and when the stepped on the court. That swagger never left them either. They knew they were better than you, and they were going to show you how by how much. They talked the talk, but they even more so could walk it. Killer instinct. They had that.
My theory is that after 2015, there was a big turnover and much of that leadership was lost. And frankly, never replaced. It's okay for an individual player to not be a great leader or a guy that has leading in his nature, but that can't be your whole team. And I think IUP is close to that currently. I feel like Cobo and Glover are great players, but I don't see the killer instinct in them. For lack of a better phrase, they're too nice when you watch them play. When up 12, you couldn't feel either of them pushing the rest of that team to push it to 20. I don't sense that either of those guys would confront a teammate in the locker room or in practice when the train got off the tracks. That doesn't seem like it's in their DNA. And that's okay... I'm not blaming either of them. If that's not their personalities, that's not their personalities. Some guys are just better being "a guy" rather than "the guy" even if they have immense talent. I kind of felt like Norfleet was that quiet guy too. Great player, but not the aggressive alpha like Anthony Wells, Devante Chance, Mathis, Marcel to a degree, etc. The fact is, IUP doesn't have any sharks to smell blood in the water. And they need that. A lot of it. There isn't an alpha on that team to stand up in practice or in the locker room and say, "this is how this is going to go..." At least it doesn't seem that way.
Maybe Dom Keyes would have been that guy on this team. We'll never know. As a program, IUP is hated. But right now, they're made up of a bunch of nameless gray faces as Mike Tomlin would say. Not a single guy on that team individually plays the role of the villain for the opposition and their fans. Again, some guys talked and yapped, but they didn't have the talent to fill that role. How good would Dustin Sleva have been in that role for IUP this year? How about Micah Till? That's what this program is missing. Guys to fill those roles. And that comes down to the types of players Joe is recruiting. The talent is/was on the roster. The intangible qualities are missing. And the hole is massive.Last edited by IUP24; 03-05-2018, 07:44 PM.Leave a comment:
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Re: Iup basketball
Not going to comment on the lack of an invitation. When you put yourself in that position ... you deal with the consequences.
There are some problems in the program. It's hard to use the word 'regression' when talking about the past three years if you solely look at records. During this three-season window, IUP went 21-8, 28-4 and 22-8. While the 28-4 record of a year ago looks great on paper, there are some factors. The West was historically awful last season. IUP also went 0-4 against Shippensburg and Fairmont State (3 of the losses at home).
So, they have a three-year record of 71-20 with one NCAA appearance and one NCAA win. The latter part is the problem. They have some West titles, sure. Hate to say winning the West is the expectation but that's the expectation.
Issues:
* You could list a whole litany of items from this past year but they all keep coming back to one thing: Depth. The lack of depth has crushed this program now for three straight seasons. It happened in Brandon Norfleet's senior season when they had to play (and sometimes start) a walk-on in the post. Depth devastated the entire season this year.
* Cobo Diaz and Anthony Glover together for three seasons ... only one NCAA. Hard to believe.
* Blake Danielak and Dom Keyes were both brought in as juniors. Both redshirted. The question becomes if they weren't ready to play or there weren't enough minutes for them ... why bring them in at all rather than solidify other weaknesses? Danielak sat and watched a walk-on play his first year. Keyes was signed to be a defensive specialist in the low post. He sat and watched one injury after another all year on a team that was, frankly, not very defensive in the low post. IUP was routinely out-rebounded by smaller teams this year while having a 6'8" rebounding specialist watching in a warm-up suit.
* East Stroudsburg played more players last night than IUP usually even dresses. Why does a fully-funded program routinely have nobody on the bench?
* Yes, the Anthony Glover suspension was unfortunate. Did it change the season? It sure didn't help. In reality, it's almost miraculous IUP made it that long without a major discipline issue/suspension. This team was involved in at least 4-5 other altercations this season. Every team will have one during the season. The amount IUP had wasn't a coincidence. Is it time to stop slapping floors, all the taunting hand claps and scale back the talking? Probably. If you don't ... this stuff isn't going away.
* The 'hero' schedule has to go. It's not working. SOS is overrated. IUP loves to schedule signature games. Going 1-3 in those games isn't worth it. Play one big one. No reason to play four of them. Get a home-and-home with a Wheeling Jesuit or keep the Fairmont State series going. Play three average teams this year instead of Findlay, Ferris and Virginia State ... and we're having a much different conversation this morning.
On the positive, they return a very strong core. Dante, Cobo and Willem will be seniors and Malik will be a junior. Keyes and Armoni Foster come off redshirt. Many in the West are going to be gutted this off-season and will be rebuilding. Gannon, UPJ, SRU and Edinboro are taking some heavy losses. IUP should be a big favorite to win the West come next October.
Three full rides open up (Glover, Hutton, Danielak). Most assume Vaughns won't return so that's a fourth full scholarship. With that premise, they have 3 guards and 3 post players returning. They will have incredible size with Keyes, Cobo and Willem. I'd like to see them add 3 guards and 1 'bruiser' of a post player. With the group coming back this is a 'go for it' recruiting class. They need ready-to-play imports -- preferably with 2 years' eligibility. If the right one-year-wonder is available ... take him. Next year is the year they've been building for ... and there could be a dip after it. Joe needs a home run this off-season.
This was a fun year as a fan at times. Awful at others. There were some really good moments. IUP/Boro Round 2 at the KCAC was one of the better atmospheres I've ever seen in there. The win at SRU was a great memory. Unfortunately, history will likely not remember this team well. This was an ultimate 'what if' team. When Malik's fluke accident happened the whole season changed. With Malik, I don't think they lose to Gannon and certainly not UPJ. But, it's in the books now. As I always say ... when one season ends ... a new one begins. They aren't going away. But, man, this was tough to swallow.Leave a comment:
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