Gannon Basketball 🏀

[boatcapt]

I'm not so sure about that. One interesting thing I have caught recently was Fee's father, as you likely know, was a well regarded boy's BB in Western PA with over 400 wins. He pretty surprisingly quit right before the start of the season around 2018 and his comments were that he had missed a lot of life during the school year, and that visiting Jordan in FL sorta sealed the deal. Jordan has commented often that being back in PA near family and friends has been such a pivotal benefit to the move, and honestly, I can't blame the guy. It's the closest he's been to family since HS. His wife is from Cleveland as well and played d2 at Lake Erie... Hard to to imagine the pull to Florida with kids in the picture. If anything, it'd be YSU, Akron, Cleveland State, and I gotta be honest, it'd be a money thing mainly.

I heard he's making littlest but Jordan seems savvy enough that I think he's probably got some good incentives built in that contract and will hold wayyyy more sway in the next round should he want it. Especially if a new guard of young fans is built. Gotta say, I'm seeing chatter like I've NEVER heard up here for Gannon this century. Not since the 90s, mayyyybe.

Sure...that could be. You never know what will or won't sway a coach to take a job and it's always questionable to try and evaluate their motivations through the lens of ours. I will point out that a LOT of retired northerners migrate to Florida. Would Fee's father fall into that category if his son got the Nova nod? Don't know, but he wouldn't be the first or last retiree to trade the snow and lighting cold wind of the winter North for the sun and balmy breezes of the sunshine State.

Either way, I think Fee being a prime candidate for Nova...Weather he wants it is a different story.

[TheMadLibs]

Sure...that could be. You never know what will or won't sway a coach to take a job and it's always questionable to try and evaluate their motivations through the lens of ours. I will point out that a LOT of retired northerners migrate to Florida. Would Fee's father fall into that category if his son got the Nova nod? Don't know, but he wouldn't be the first or last retiree to trade the snow and lighting cold wind of the winter North for the sun and balmy breezes of the sunshine State.

Either way, I think Fee being a prime candidate for Nova...Weather he wants it is a different story.

Was thinking more about this. Where is this strategy/style more applicable - d1 or NBA? Of course in both it's far more star player focused, but if anything I could see Crutchfield/Howland/Fee's style translating to an NBA team. That's a path with another national championship or two that could make a smaller market team struggling take a chance. Just a thought...

[TheMadLibs]

Gannon settled its lawsuit with former coach Kelvin Jefferson last month, as announced in the paper. No terms were announced. Heard rumor it'd be one year salary but you know what rumors are... Article at goerie.com

[Columbuseer]

Was thinking more about this. Where is this strategy/style more applicable - d1 or NBA? Of course in both it's far more star player focused, but if anything I could see Crutchfield/Howland/Fee's style translating to an NBA team. That's a path with another national championship or two that could make a smaller market team struggling take a chance. Just a thought...

Interesting question. I think several aspects of nba are barriers to the style. Not all fans understand the sheer amount of effort required to play this style.
1. Much longer season and games
2. Older players and big contracts have concerns about wear and tear on the body.
3. Crutchfield said pitino was a source for aspects of his style when pitino was at Providence. When pitino got the Celtics job, he implemented some of the style. Opinions were mixed, as there were factors besides the style that muddied the waters in terms of assessing its effectiveness.

I think it would work at d1 with correspondingly better athletes. Some pressing styles have been effective.
Examples are Huggin's Press Virginia, Tarkanian's UNLV, Pitino at Providence, and Nolan Richardson's 40 minutes of hell at arkansas.
The unselfish part, 3pt shooting and ball movement might have to come from Euro players.

[Ship69]

Interesting question. I think several aspects of nba are barriers to the style. Not all fans understand the sheer amount of effort required to play this style.
1. Much longer season and games
2. Older players and big contracts have concerns about wear and tear on the body.
3. Crutchfield said pitino was a source for aspects of his style when pitino was at Providence. When pitino got the Celtics job, he implemented some of the style. Opinions were mixed, as there were factors besides the style that muddied the waters in terms of assessing its effectiveness.

I think it would work at d1 with correspondingly better athletes. Some pressing styles have been effective.
Examples are Huggin's Press Virginia, Tarkanian's UNLV, Pitino at Providence, and Nolan Richardson's 40 minutes of hell at arkansas.
The unselfish part, 3pt shooting and ball movement might have to come from Euro players.

I think the system works best when you have some clearly superior athletes and more depth than your opponents. I think that's harder to obtain at the top tier of Division I, which is why I don't recall too many all-out press teams winning a title at that level. Sooner or later, the pressing team has an off shooting night, and the press, if broken, offers a lot of opportunity for the opponent to score as well. As for the pros, the few games I've seen recently would indicate that some of the teams are already playing a sort of run-and-gun style, with minimal attention paid to defense. And, as you say, I doubt you'd get players in their 30s wanting to go an all-out press when they're playing 100 games or more if you include preseason and playoffs.

[IUPHawks24]

Was thinking more about this. Where is this strategy/style more applicable - d1 or NBA? Of course in both it's far more star player focused, but if anything I could see Crutchfield/Howland/Fee's style translating to an NBA team. That's a path with another national championship or two that could make a smaller market team struggling take a chance. Just a thought...

It would never fly in the NBA. For about 25 different reasons. The first being the players are way too good.

[TheMadLibs]

There's that then 😂

[boatcapt]

Was thinking more about this. Where is this strategy/style more applicable - d1 or NBA? Of course in both it's far more star player focused, but if anything I could see Crutchfield/Howland/Fee's style translating to an NBA team. That's a path with another national championship or two that could make a smaller market team struggling take a chance. Just a thought...

While the style could be very successful at any level, the real problem would be finding players willing to buy into and play the style. And in college at the D1 level, you would have to include the alumni donors who would HOWL when the new coach didn't recruit the proper number of 3 and 4 star players. At the NBA level, offensive stats equal contract $'s. It's hard enough getting an NBA player to play half court D...try getting them to play press D the whole game EVERY game!!

The WLU Style is really not a part time style or something you can implement half way.

[Columbuseer]

I think the system works best when you have some clearly superior athletes and more depth than your opponents. I think that's harder to obtain at the top tier of Division I, which is why I don't recall too many all-out press teams winning a title at that level. Sooner or later, the pressing team has an off shooting night, and the press, if broken, offers a lot of opportunity for the opponent to score as well. As for the pros, the few games I've seen recently would indicate that some of the teams are already playing a sort of run-and-gun style, with minimal attention paid to defense. And, as you say, I doubt you'd get players in their 30s wanting to go an all-out press when they're playing 100 games or more if you include preseason and playoffs.

I am somewhat surprised that you think wlu has clearly superior athletes. Higher basketball iqs? No question.
the ongoing joke at wlu is that we have not won a pre-game game warmup yet.
dalton bolon was a walk on. Luke dyer was told that he would probably not see much playing time and all he did was have the 2nd highest season assist to turnover ratio in ncaa history.
in the Howlett era we have gotten better athletes as the word has spread, but nowhere near an iup or wvsu.

the depth is due to how wlu practices. Rather than drills, they play games to 100. Their platoon system makes their depth much better in Feb compared to other teams. Depth is an important factor, because the cumulative effect of fatigue on the opponent is an important factor in the success of the style.

[Ship69]

I am somewhat surprised that you think wlu has clearly superior athletes. Higher basketball iqs? No question.
the ongoing joke at wlu is that we have not won a pre-game game warmup yet.
dalton bolon was a walk on. Luke dyer was told that he would probably not see much playing time and all he did was have the 2nd highest season assist to turnover ratio in ncaa history.
in the Howlett era we have gotten better athletes as the word has spread, but nowhere near an iup or wvsu.

the depth is due to how wlu practices. Rather than drills, they play games to 100. Their platoon system makes their depth much better in Feb compared to other teams. Depth is an important factor, because the cumulative effect of fatigue on the opponent is an important factor in the success of the style.

Well, you do practice for 10 players continually playing a pressing game, so I think that does build more depth and I imagine your coaches recruit to it. You're not just going to throw any 10 players out there and win 25 games a year, no matter what you're running. If you're predicating some of your success on three-point shooting, you have to have players who are decent three-point shooters to make your system succeed.

I said the system works best when you have clearly superior athletes as does any system. Gannon has certainly had success so far in the PSAC with the WL system, but I've watched a couple of their games, and he's also brought in 3-4 damn good players in addition to some worthy role-players. With the same type of roster as they had last season they'd be going nowhere.

[Columbuseer]

Well, you do practice for 10 players continually playing a pressing game, so I think that does build more depth and I imagine your coaches recruit to it. You're not just going to throw any 10 players out there and win 25 games a year, no matter what you're running. If you're predicating some of your success on three-point shooting, you have to have players who are decent three-point shooters to make your system succeed.

I said the system works best when you have clearly superior athletes as does any system. Gannon has certainly had success so far in the PSAC with the WL system, but I've watched a couple of their games, and he's also brought in 3-4 damn good players in addition to some worthy role-players. With the same type of roster as they had last season they'd be going nowhere.

I may have misunderstood the definition of athlete in this context. I has thinking raw athletic ability like height, vertical jump, sprinting, strength, etc. that are somewhat transferable across sports.

I did not consider mastery of bball fundamentals as part of the definition of athlete.
for example, take zach rasile. Maybe 6-0 ft, not quick, and not sure he would ever attempt a dunk in a game. But he scored 3000+ points on high school. He has made himself into a solid defender through his bball iq and hard work.

In summary, I dont think we are disagreeing on the depth and bball skills of wlu. They only recruit players who can shoot, pass, and defend and hate to lose.

[TheMadLibs]

Biggest news out of Gannon in men's hoops is starting guard Derrick James, who leads conference in steals and assists ,was out today. He had a brace around the same right wrist that he grimaced multiple times during the Cal game. In the handshake line he reached across with left hand. Hoping it's not as bad as it looked and that they held him precautionarily ahead of IUP and gave a young kid a chance to start. But that's potentially a big loss for a team so reliant on those critical roles that are his strengths.

For the women, their big news item is 3x All American Sam Pirosko crossed 2000 points tonight for her career. I don't care that it was in more than 4 years, that still an insane feat, especially given that she actually played her freshmen year for Brunelli who clearly had no gd idea what talent he had in front of him (could say that for just about every player...but I digress). Pirosko is a stalwart for this team and has developed so many many parts to her game. She was never a 3pt threat and the 2nd half of this season she's hitting at least 1 a game.

The women's game was quite the nail biter. Callie, like Jess Strom, it's such a good defensive minded coach and they both know Cleves offensive schemes well and always have teams ready, whether they're a top team or not. Seemed that Gannon was so anxious to get Sam her 2000th pt that they were a bit sloppy at times in the paint, forcing shots and passes that were ill advised. Credit to Edinboro. Callie has her team improving this February. That's been one of the biggest challenges I think her teams have had the last few years, so, fortunate for them, perhaps not for the rest of the division/conference, they're improving scoring wise and defensively. Gannon's true post play continues to be their greatest weakness right now. So many missed bunnies I could have cried, especially in the first half. I thought Boro keyed in on Claxon and shutting her down impacted the offense. When Pirosko wasn't getting good passes. Perimeter was well defended and we were not patient.

Men had one of those first halves you salivate about as a fan and then wonder how many things the coach is pissed about defensively 😂. I thought it was was a great night for a number of our younger players and a goodnight chance to get some key starters extra rest. I'm beyond stoked with the growth of one of our true freshmen, Ernest Shelton. Jefferson signed him before he was dropped and my goodness, that's two incredible signings that Fee is developing well. His defense starting around conference play got him pulled from the 2nd wave, but since the Rock game he's returned to the 2nd Wave. I think he's filling the offensive role that Omojafo does on the 1st wave while filling Hobbs post play defensively now. That latter part has helped Gannon move into a new gear.

[bballfan03]

Biggest news out of Gannon in men's hoops is starting guard Derrick James, who leads conference in steals and assists ,was out today. He had a brace around the same right wrist that he grimaced multiple times during the Cal game. In the handshake line he reached across with left hand. Hoping it's not as bad as it looked and that they held him precautionarily ahead of IUP and gave a young kid a chance to start. But that's potentially a big loss for a team so reliant on those critical roles that are his strengths.

For the women, their big news item is 3x All American Sam Pirosko crossed 2000 points tonight for her career. I don't care that it was in more than 4 years, that still an insane feat, especially given that she actually played her freshmen year for Brunelli who clearly had no gd idea what talent he had in front of him (could say that for just about every player...but I digress). Pirosko is a stalwart for this team and has developed so many many parts to her game. She was never a 3pt threat and the 2nd half of this season she's hitting at least 1 a game.

The women's game was quite the nail biter. Callie, like Jess Strom, it's such a good defensive minded coach and they both know Cleves offensive schemes well and always have teams ready, whether they're a top team or not. Seemed that Gannon was so anxious to get Sam her 2000th pt that they were a bit sloppy at times in the paint, forcing shots and passes that were ill advised. Credit to Edinboro. Callie has her team improving this February. That's been one of the biggest challenges I think her teams have had the last few years, so, fortunate for them, perhaps not for the rest of the division/conference, they're improving scoring wise and defensively. Gannon's true post play continues to be their greatest weakness right now. So many missed bunnies I could have cried, especially in the first half. I thought Boro keyed in on Claxon and shutting her down impacted the offense. When Pirosko wasn't getting good passes. Perimeter was well defended and we were not patient.

Men had one of those first halves you salivate about as a fan and then wonder how many things the coach is pissed about defensively 😂. I thought it was was a great night for a number of our younger players and a goodnight chance to get some key starters extra rest. I'm beyond stoked with the growth of one of our true freshmen, Ernest Shelton. Jefferson signed him before he was dropped and my goodness, that's two incredible signings that Fee is developing well. His defense starting around conference play got him pulled from the 2nd wave, but since the Rock game he's returned to the 2nd Wave. I think he's filling the offensive role that Omojafo does on the 1st wave while filling Hobbs post play defensively now. That latter part has helped Gannon move into a new gear.

i've come to love the addition of Thomas Whitley to Wave 2. He won't put up big numbers... but at 6'6 with a solid jumper and a good 3 pt shot... he forces coaches to have to pay attention to him.