Iup basketball

[IUP24]

It's really changed. These guys (like McGee) that are probably seen as fringe players to move up but huge D2-to-D2 targets ... are all finding homes up a level. When this all started a couple years ago it seemed like the vast majority of those moving up from D2 to D1 were post players. Now, we're losing a ton of guards, too.


I would say the 'panic button' is starting to go off inside the KCAC. Joe used to land transfer targets with relative ease. If the 'grapevine' is accurate this off-season, it sounds like he's batting about .100

Not necessarily a knock on Joe, but perhaps, should he be more willing to do things that would prevent total roster depletion? Meaning, that, maybe it's not a great idea to ship the Kyle Polce's of his roster to Siberia anymore. There was likely no keeping Tomiwa. And I understand that the others were down the line walk on types. That said, this team is better with Polce on it than without. If I'm to believe that "all these transfers are not the players just deciding to leave," then I'm also of the opinion that Joe has some to do with the predicament that he's in. You probably aren't reloading quickly via the portal or transfer route now the way you used to at this level.

This may be a tough lesson for Joe this offseason. Not saying you abandon your method entirely, but perhaps you tweak it some.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Not necessarily a knock on Joe, but perhaps, should he be more willing to do things that would prevent total roster depletion? Meaning, that, maybe it's not a great idea to ship the Kyle Polce's of his roster to Siberia anymore. There was likely no keeping Tomiwa. And I understand that the others were down the line walk on types. That said, this team is better with Polce on it than without. If I'm to believe that "all these transfers are not the players just deciding to leave," then I'm also of the opinion that Joe has some to do with the predicament that he's in. You probably aren't reloading quickly via the portal or transfer route now the way you used to at this level.

This may be a tough lesson for Joe this offseason. Not saying you abandon your method entirely, but perhaps you tweak it some.

Like I said a couple weeks back, Joe didn't have a good year in the coaching box. I know his worshipers will say he was 32-2. He was. I also think you or I could have probably went in the 30-4 range coaching that lineup.

His refusal to use his bench past January ultimately just wore his starters down to nothing by the end. That team was dang lucky to get out of Round 1 (and probably shouldn't have). They got past Round 2 pretty easily because that was probably the one team in the Atlantic that somehow actually shot the ball worse than they did.

Ousmane Diop, Jaheim Bethea and Kyle Polce should have been in the rotation all season long. Even in limited roles, it would have helped keep people fresh while at the same time engaging them in the program and developing them.

Joe's won with very small rotations just about his whole career, but there was something different with this team. Most of Joe's teams have all gotten much better in February. This team got much, much worse as the season went along. The (mostly narrow) winning masked many of these issues to the outside world. If fact, you could tell who on this board actually watched every game because those were the people not all warm and fuzzy about what they were seeing night after night.

This group was nowhere near an elite team down the stretch. I could easily point out 6-7 games they could have -- or, should have -- lost. They found ways. I'll give them that. But, it's no secret this wasn't a strong PSAC this year. Let's keep in mind this 32-2 team had major struggles with hapless Gannon, was in a war with hapless Edinboro inside the KCAC, needed a miracle comeback to win at Clarion after getting blasted for 32 minutes, etc. The timing was good for this team. In a strong PSAC year, they'd have probably lost 7-8 games.

What happened in mid-January? We can only speculate. But, that's about when it started to become a one-man show. The crisp offense we've come so accustomed to seeing vanished -- and warped in to some hybrid version of AAU meets Playground. One could say that happened because they couldn't make any deep shots. But, they kept chucking all year, anyway. Night after night of 5 for 34 from outside. Two of the alleged best deep shooters on the team (Dillard and Stewart) were rarely given shots. It was the most predictable offense I've ever seen. They ran the same inbound plays game after game. They ran the same 'last shot before half' play at least 17 times this year. They were so easy to scout but nobody else in the PSAC had the power to match-up with them. But, of course, we saw what happened when a hungry, deep team finally got them.

Maybe there's a reason Joe cleaned house. Just sayin'

We can't really make any assumptions until we see who these next three players are going to be. Three good transfers and they may come out of this stronger. Three high school players and, well, it's a rebuild. I surely don't think he's going to waste Ethan's last year on a rebuild.

[IUP24]

Like I said a couple weeks back, Joe didn't have a good year in the coaching box. I know his worshipers will say he was 32-2. He was. I also think you or I could have probably went in the 30-4 range coaching that lineup.

His refusal to use his bench past January ultimately just wore his starters down to nothing by the end. That team was dang lucky to get out of Round 1 (and probably shouldn't have). They got past Round 2 pretty easily because that was probably the one team in the Atlantic that somehow actually shot the ball worse than they did.

Ousmane Diop, Jaheim Bethea and Kyle Polce should have been in the rotation all season long. Even in limited roles, it would have helped keep people fresh while at the same time engaging them in the program and developing them.

Joe's won with very small rotations just about his whole career, but there was something different with this team. Most of Joe's teams have all gotten much better in February. This team got much, much worse as the season went along. The (mostly narrow) winning masked many of these issues to the outside world. If fact, you could tell who on this board actually watched every game because those were the people not all warm and fuzzy about what they were seeing night after night.

This group was nowhere near an elite team down the stretch. I could easily point out 6-7 games they could have -- or, should have -- lost. They found ways. I'll give them that. But, it's no secret this wasn't a strong PSAC this year. Let's keep in mind this 32-2 team had major struggles with hapless Gannon, was in a war with hapless Edinboro inside the KCAC, needed a miracle comeback to win at Clarion after getting blasted for 32 minutes, etc. The timing was good for this team. In a strong PSAC year, they'd have probably lost 7-8 games.

What happened in mid-January? We can only speculate. But, that's about when it started to become a one-man show. The crisp offense we've come so accustomed to seeing vanished -- and warped in to some hybrid version of AAU meets Playground. One could say that happened because they couldn't make any deep shots. But, they kept chucking all year, anyway. Night after night of 5 for 34 from outside. Two of the alleged best deep shooters on the team (Dillard and Stewart) were rarely given shots. It was the most predictable offense I've ever seen. They ran the same inbound plays game after game. They ran the same 'last shot before half' play at least 17 times this year. They were so easy to scout but nobody else in the PSAC had the power to match-up with them. But, of course, we saw what happened when a hungry, deep team finally got them.

Maybe there's a reason Joe cleaned house. Just sayin'

We can't really make any assumptions until we see who these next three players are going to be. Three good transfers and they may come out of this stronger. Three high school players and, well, it's a rebuild. I surely don't think he's going to waste Ethan's last year on a rebuild.

I'm not disputing anything you say here, but if Joe's cleaning house like this, does that not fall on him in some capacity? He brought in these guys he's (supposedly) booting from the program. If 50% of your roster transfers because you make them, that's not exactly a great look currently on your recruiting or evaluation skills. And if you need to do that to try to land a big fish, that's a really, really risky lifestyle you are living in today's NIL and portal era.

I'm not being hard or critical of Joe. Having a down year was bound to happen regardless simply given the experience they had on this most recent roster and how graduation was going to hit them. But I'm also growing rapidly tired of the young players who could be helping the program and growing simply getting cast off and ultimately transferring, whether by their own choice or not.

Bathea had a ton of hype coming in. Was that overblown some? Perhaps. But was he that bad that they needed to give up on him in just one year. He was the first guy off the bench against Syracuse for goodness sake. Polce could shoot it and was an aggressive defender, but he was nowhere to be found down the stretch. Is Kyle Polce as good as Mathis Keita? No. But I'm not sure why he's gotten so against "role players."

[Ship69]

Like I said a couple weeks back, Joe didn't have a good year in the coaching box. I know his worshipers will say he was 32-2. He was. I also think you or I could have probably went in the 30-4 range coaching that lineup.

His refusal to use his bench past January ultimately just wore his starters down to nothing by the end. That team was dang lucky to get out of Round 1 (and probably shouldn't have). They got past Round 2 pretty easily because that was probably the one team in the Atlantic that somehow actually shot the ball worse than they did.

Ousmane Diop, Jaheim Bethea and Kyle Polce should have been in the rotation all season long. Even in limited roles, it would have helped keep people fresh while at the same time engaging them in the program and developing them.

Joe's won with very small rotations just about his whole career, but there was something different with this team. Most of Joe's teams have all gotten much better in February. This team got much, much worse as the season went along. The (mostly narrow) winning masked many of these issues to the outside world. If fact, you could tell who on this board actually watched every game because those were the people not all warm and fuzzy about what they were seeing night after night.

This group was nowhere near an elite team down the stretch. I could easily point out 6-7 games they could have -- or, should have -- lost. They found ways. I'll give them that. But, it's no secret this wasn't a strong PSAC this year. Let's keep in mind this 32-2 team had major struggles with hapless Gannon, was in a war with hapless Edinboro inside the KCAC, needed a miracle comeback to win at Clarion after getting blasted for 32 minutes, etc. The timing was good for this team. In a strong PSAC year, they'd have probably lost 7-8 games.

What happened in mid-January? We can only speculate. But, that's about when it started to become a one-man show. The crisp offense we've come so accustomed to seeing vanished -- and warped in to some hybrid version of AAU meets Playground. One could say that happened because they couldn't make any deep shots. But, they kept chucking all year, anyway. Night after night of 5 for 34 from outside. Two of the alleged best deep shooters on the team (Dillard and Stewart) were rarely given shots. It was the most predictable offense I've ever seen. They ran the same inbound plays game after game. They ran the same 'last shot before half' play at least 17 times this year. They were so easy to scout but nobody else in the PSAC had the power to match-up with them. But, of course, we saw what happened when a hungry, deep team finally got them.

Maybe there's a reason Joe cleaned house. Just sayin'

We can't really make any assumptions until we see who these next three players are going to be. Three good transfers and they may come out of this stronger. Three high school players and, well, it's a rebuild. I surely don't think he's going to waste Ethan's last year on a rebuild.

Good post. It was a funny year for the league as most teams seemed to have their ups and downs (as you said IUP had the talent to mask their downs until they ran into WL). Mercyhurst was fairly steady in the West, but their lack of size and depth caught up with them at regionals. UPJ and Slippery Rock matched up decently against some teams, not so much against others. East Stroud has a good season, but I think it's safe to say more was expected of them, certainly by those of us in the Eastern Division. For the second year in a row, Shippensburg was weirdly erratic. They dominated decent West Chester and Lock Haven teams, but were blown out by an East Stroud team that had losses to both West Chester and Lock Haven. They dropped their opening two games with CIAA teams in close fashion and three excruciatingly close loses to Fairmont State and Millersville (twice) kept them out of NCAA consideration. It was a good season for the Raiders, but for the second straight year it feels like it could have been better. Lack of experienced depth certainly hurt them. Millersville mugged its way to some wins, but definitely fell off from the previous season.

And now, with the portal, who can tell about this season. As you say, it might be a rebuild with high school players and for Ship that would be more of a rebuild than IUP this season. Chris Fite has mostly gone with high schoolers, and it's been great to watch the career arcs of guys such as the Sleva brothers, Carlos Carter, Jake Biss and others in recent years. But he'll probably have to pull something out of the transfer hat to be competitive this coming year. There's a lot more uncertainty for all of us PSAC watchers than there used to be.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I'm not disputing anything you say here, but if Joe's cleaning house like this, does that not fall on him in some capacity? He brought in these guys he's (supposedly) booting from the program. If 50% of your roster transfers because you make them, that's not exactly a great look currently on your recruiting or evaluation skills. And if you need to do that to try to land a big fish, that's a really, really risky lifestyle you are living in today's NIL and portal era.

I'm not being hard or critical of Joe. Having a down year was bound to happen regardless simply given the experience they had on this most recent roster and how graduation was going to hit them. But I'm also growing rapidly tired of the young players who could be helping the program and growing simply getting cast off and ultimately transferring, whether by their own choice or not.

Bathea had a ton of hype coming in. Was that overblown some? Perhaps. But was he that bad that they needed to give up on him in just one year. He was the first guy off the bench against Syracuse for goodness sake. Polce could shoot it and was an aggressive defender, but he was nowhere to be found down the stretch. Is Kyle Polce as good as Mathis Keita? No. But I'm not sure why he's gotten so against "role players."

Joe was surrounded by great assistants for years. Last year not so much. Fudala was their star recruiter for five years. He's long gone. I don't think Joe's done much actual recruiting the past 8-10 years. He's doing it now.

Bethea will likely come back to haunt them. Polce won't be that hard to replace. He had potential but was hurt (or in Joe's dog house) far too frequently.

Joe has money and a lot connections. Those are two very important items.

The lack of news is causing most of the panic. His returning core is still pretty good. If Ethan is actually healthy that is a major boost.

[Chuck Norris]

According to Twitter, IUP has signed Garvin Clarke, a guard who played three years at Akron. His stat line, particularly the shooting percentage, doesn’t really excite, but maybe D2 is his true home. We’ll see.

Edit: Looking a little closer at the numbers it does appear he missed a chunk of time this season so he could’ve been dealing with an injury that hampered his play. I imagine this info is out there somewhere, I just don’t feel like diving that deep.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

According to Twitter, IUP has signed Garvin Clarke, a guard who played three years at Akron. His stat line, particularly the shooting percentage, doesn’t really excite, but maybe D2 is his true home. We’ll see.

Edit: Looking a little closer at the numbers it does appear he missed a chunk of time this season so he could’ve been dealing with an injury that hampered his play. I imagine this info is out there somewhere, I just don’t feel like diving that deep.

He's not a deep shooter, that's for sure. But, he's a very good rim attacker and defender. He was injured for a duration last year. I'd assume he's the new starting PG. Appears to be a pretty good addition.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Not counting the walk-ons Joe will eventually add, there should be coin available for two more scholarship players.


I'd say ride out the BC3 train. Guard Kevaughn Price (JUCO All-American) and PF Jason Baker are still available (although both have many offers).

Price was the leading scorer in the country at the JUCO level for much of the season. He's a big, physical guard. He has offers from Walsh and West Chester (among others). Our old friend Ron Fudala also just offered him.

Baker is a legit 6'10" and led the country in blocked shots this past year. Very athletic. He can also handle the ball well and is very aggressive. He's also from nearby Vandergrift, which is about 30 minutes from the KCAC. He has several D2 offers including Slippery Rock and Fairmont State.

Joe has a very good relationship with the coach at BC3. These guys are both ready to play.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

It appears Greg Bearer has left IUP to join Lamberti's staff at Western Colorado.

Greg played at IUP and was a volunteer assistant this past season. He likely has a bright future ahead of him in the coaching industry.

[hawks16]

He's not a deep shooter, that's for sure. But, he's a very good rim attacker and defender. He was injured for a duration last year. I'd assume he's the new starting PG. Appears to be a pretty good addition.

I think the timeline works out, otherwise, it's just a coincidence: Gavin Clarke played his senior year of high school at Cleveland Heights HS, which is coached by former Celtics and St. Bonaventure player JR Bremer, who interned on Joe's staff a few seasons back.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I think the timeline works out, otherwise, it's just a coincidence: Gavin Clarke played his senior year of high school at Cleveland Heights HS, which is coached by former Celtics and St. Bonaventure player JR Bremer, who interned on Joe's staff a few seasons back.

That is probably not a coincidence.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

The third transfer guard should be announced soon.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

We have the return to weekend tournaments at IUP this coming season.


Tip-off:

Concord (Opening Night)
Alderson Broaddus


Thanksgiving:

St. Thomas Aquinas
Frostburg State


As usual, Pitt-Johnstown will attend both.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

IUP signed its transfer post player today. Appears to be a one-year guy (possibly two).


Gabriel Romero-Sanz (6'8", 220 lbs) played last year in England (Bracknell and Wokingham College). He went for 22 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 steals in the CBL Finals.

Joe should have some fun with this guy. He actually played a combination of guard and forward, and should pair very nicely with Ethan Porterfield.


The other (or, rather, next) transfer guard they are anticipating to sign is set to announce this week. There is also one other post player they are targeting.

He's putting together a pretty talented roster. Hopefully they are all here this summer to start playing together.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Updated (known) roster as of May 17:

* Recently signed


Guards

Dallis Dillard
Jaylen Stewart
Garvin Clarke *
Anthony Watson *



Forwards

Ethan Porterfield
Gabriel Romero-Sanz *
Damir Brooks
Dolan Waldo



Unknown

KJ Rhodes (just graduated ... may not be staying)


Notes:

Expect another transfer guard to sign - possibly today. This is a player they went after very hard. They are also likely going to announce the signing of another power forward by the end of the week. From there, I'd suspect one more transfer guard and that should about max out the salary cap. The deep bench will then be filled in with some walk-ons.

Of the three signed recruits thus far, Clarke and Romero-Sanz are Day 1 starters. Watson will likely spend '23-'24 as the backup PG.