2023-2024 ROSTER???

Techster

Helluva Engineer
Messages
17,715
I'm picturing some huge runs in McCamish next season if the crowd gets going and the guards get out in transition for some in-rhythm 3s. I think Deebo has an enormous comeback season next year as a spot-up shooter in a motion-centric offense.

Agreed. Between Kelly, Abrams, Terry, Reeves, and Coleman, we could have 4 guys who can give us coverage for scoring. Don't sleep on Sturdy, he can add some buckets as well. In our last 12 games, he was a double figure scorer in 9 of them. He was a bucket away from being a double figure scorer in 11 of the 12 games. I also agree that Deebo probably had a sophomore slump...he's much more talented than what we saw last season.

I can see a LOT of 8-2, 12-4 type runs from this team. Next thing you know, we're up by double figures. It's interesting, because if this team can get a lot of turnovers on the defensive end, it could get REALLY ugly for the other team if 3 of the 5 guys above are hot. If 4 or more of those guys are hot? Wow. Guess what? Stoudamire's reputation is for defense, so it will be worth watching how his defense sets up the style of play he wants on offense. This isn't even counting how our post guys develop.

I REALLY like what happened with this roster. Some of us were concerned about losing Cain and current players leaving, but overall IMO, it's easily a net positive from what we had last season and projected to have this season if Pastner stayed. I still think the post is a bit of a concern because it's either young (Gapare, Ndongo) or unproven on this level (Claude/Dowuona). I think we'll play with only one "true" post guy to minimize that until more guys develop during the season as our strength will easily be our guards and wings.

Hope springs eternal, but I'm lot more positive now about our prospects than I would have been had Pastner remained.
 

Jack

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
165
Agreed. Between Kelly, Abrams, Terry, Reeves, and Coleman, we could have 4 guys who can give us coverage for scoring. Don't sleep on Sturdy, he can add some buckets as well. In our last 12 games, he was a double figure scorer in 9 of them. He was a bucket away from being a double figure scorer in 11 of the 12 games. I also agree that Deebo probably had a sophomore slump...he's much more talented than what we saw last season.

I can see a LOT of 8-2, 12-4 type runs from this team. Next thing you know, we're up by double figures. It's interesting, because if this team can get a lot of turnovers on the defensive end, it could get REALLY ugly for the other team if 3 of the 5 guys above are hot. If 4 or more of those guys are hot? Wow. Guess what? Stoudamire's reputation is for defense, so it will be worth watching how his defense sets up the style of play he wants on offense. This isn't even counting how our post guys develop.

I REALLY like what happened with this roster. Some of us were concerned about losing Cain and current players leaving, but overall IMO, it's easily a net positive from what we had last season and projected to have this season if Pastner stayed. I still think the post is a bit of a concern because it's either young (Gapare, Ndongo) or unproven on this level (Claude/Dowuona). I think we'll play with only one "true" post guy to minimize that until more guys develop during the season as our strength will easily be our guards and wings.

Hope springs eternal, but I'm lot more positive now about our prospects than I would have been had Pastner remained.
Recruit and coach. A+ on recruiting, ? on coaching.
 

orientalnc

Helluva Engineer
Retired Staff
Messages
9,338
Location
Oriental, NC
Our roster looks pretty good right now with Kelly. Without Kelly I worry we will not have the outside shooting we need. That's why I hope CDS and staff are hounding Cam Spencer heavily. He has only one year left, so hold a spot for 2024 is not an issue with him.
 

orientalnc

Helluva Engineer
Retired Staff
Messages
9,338
Location
Oriental, NC
Unless Miles isn't coming back, I have a hard time we have another $90k to dole out.
A part of me agrees with you 100%. Yet, Batt and Cabrera had to have established a network of NIL funding or CDS would not have come to GT. As a professional athlete he had to know how the game was changing. Coming to GT with an empty clip was career suicide. It's like GT under Batt and Cabrera to not be talking about this openly. They keep their cards hidden pretty well.
 

iopjacket

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
723
When does Miles Kelly need to decide on returning? June 22 is the NBA Draft Day, but are the other options he is considering?
 

Peacone36

Helluva Engineer
Messages
10,332
Location
Maine
Do we feel like all these players are or could be interchangeable at each position?

Like, for instance, could a lineup of Abram, Terry, Coleman, Ndongo, Dowuona work?
Wouldn’t be my favorite lineup by any stretch of the imagination. I am not as high as some on one of these guys, HOWEVER, if we are running an offense that is conducive to corner triples, this could be successful.

I wanna see Abram, Kelly, The Cooler, Terry and Claude first and foremost because if Claude can be an ACC big I think CDS can run an NBA style offense that we see with the Celtics. Style being the key word before the Swarm swarms and tells me this team isn’t the Celtics.

ED could be the Robert Williams type off the bench. He’s a little stiff but he just has to compete and play hard at the rim on defense.

I also question how much run Ndongo is going to receive. Very few programs go 9-10 deep and he is going to be behind Claude, Duwuonu and Gapare (at least early). I see BN as a developmental guy in year 1.
 

Northeast Stinger

Helluva Engineer
Messages
9,563
Wouldn’t be my favorite lineup by any stretch of the imagination. I am not as high as some on one of these guys, HOWEVER, if we are running an offense that is conducive to corner triples, this could be successful.

I wanna see Abram, Kelly, The Cooler, Terry and Claude first and foremost because if Claude can be an ACC big I think CDS can run an NBA style offense that we see with the Celtics. Style being the key word before the Swarm swarms and tells me this team isn’t the Celtics.

ED could be the Robert Williams type off the bench. He’s a little stiff but he just has to compete and play hard at the rim on defense.

I also question how much run Ndongo is going to receive. Very few programs go 9-10 deep and he is going to be behind Claude, Duwuonu and Gapare (at least early). I see BN as a developmental guy in year 1.
Sounds right. I was just pushing the envelope on the question of how interchangeable the parts are on this team might end up being. I was dreaming a little but thanks for a thoughtful response.
 

Peacone36

Helluva Engineer
Messages
10,332
Location
Maine
Sounds right. I was just pushing the envelope on the question of how interchangeable the parts are on this team might end up being. I was dreaming a little but thanks for a thoughtful response.
I got you. I think coaching is a huge deal with this roster (yes that is cliche) we have a lot of high upside guys that need to be coached (Abram and Gapare) in order to become consistently effective. I am not worried about a guy like Claude, the more I search him, the more I like, especially as we anticipate the programs offensive style.
 

RamblinRed

Helluva Engineer
Featured Member
Messages
5,714
CDS really remade this roster over quickly.

It looks very different than last year's team. More length and athleticism, especially in the frontcourt.

If Kelly comes back then I expect to see Sturdy/Abrams/Kelly/Terry eat up the guard minutes (and Kelly could play some three as well). Forrest feels like a kid that can be brought along slowly with the experience in front of him.

With Coleman and Reeves you have 2 very different wings. Coleman is more a shooter while Reeves is more of the slasher. Both could see minutes at 3 or 4. Both are in the same class.

Then you have the bigs - Duowona, Claude, Gapare, Ndongo. Gapare and Ndongo are both the long, athletic face up 4 types. I'd give Gapare a small initial advantage due to his having a year of experience, but he and Ndongo were originally part of the same HS class. Claude is going to be our post scorer. Duowona is there to provide rim protection. Sad to see Moore go - probably would have contributed more this year than a couple of the bigs, but the upside of Gapare and Ndongo are higher than Moore's was.

Wouldn't mind if Kante wanted to step on board but I am not expecting that right now. We have the room for him.

So we are now at
1 Yr Eligibility - Study, Terry, Claude (could likely get a 2nd yr if he wants. Did not play 20-21 due to injury).
2 Yr Eligibility - Coleman, Reeves, Duowona, Kelly (if he returns)
3 Yr Eligibility - Abrams, Forrest, Gapare
4 Yr Eligibility - Ndongo

I expect this team to look very different both offensively and defensively. The type of players CDS has brought in suggest different systems than the previous regime.
 

GTNavyNuke

Helluva Engineer
Featured Member
Messages
9,861
Location
Williamsburg Virginia
CDS really remade this roster over quickly.

It looks very different than last year's team. More length and athleticism, especially in the frontcourt.

If Kelly comes back then I expect to see Sturdy/Abrams/Kelly/Terry eat up the guard minutes (and Kelly could play some three as well). Forrest feels like a kid that can be brought along slowly with the experience in front of him.

With Coleman and Reeves you have 2 very different wings. Coleman is more a shooter while Reeves is more of the slasher. Both could see minutes at 3 or 4. Both are in the same class.

Then you have the bigs - Duowona, Claude, Gapare, Ndongo. Gapare and Ndongo are both the long, athletic face up 4 types. I'd give Gapare a small initial advantage due to his having a year of experience, but he and Ndongo were originally part of the same HS class. Claude is going to be our post scorer. Duowona is there to provide rim protection. Sad to see Moore go - probably would have contributed more this year than a couple of the bigs, but the upside of Gapare and Ndongo are higher than Moore's was.

Wouldn't mind if Kante wanted to step on board but I am not expecting that right now. We have the room for him.

So we are now at
1 Yr Eligibility - Study, Terry, Claude (could likely get a 2nd yr if he wants. Did not play 20-21 due to injury).
2 Yr Eligibility - Coleman, Reeves, Duowona, Kelly (if he returns)
3 Yr Eligibility - Abrams, Forrest, Gapare
4 Yr Eligibility - Ndongo

I expect this team to look very different both offensively and defensively. The type of players CDS has brought in suggest different systems than the previous regime.

Looks like a get old roster.
 

Techwood Relict

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,074
Looks like a get old roster.


Damn It The Goldbergs GIF by ABC Network
 

slugboy

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
10,749
I expect this team to look very different both offensively and defensively. The type of players CDS has brought in suggest different systems than the previous regime.

The new roster construction looks more intentional to me. We could have used a bigger “big”, but the players seem to be a better fit into Stoudamire’s scheme than our last roster was for Pastner’s.
 

lv20gt

Helluva Engineer
Messages
5,546
Do we feel like all these players are or could be interchangeable at each position?

Back court more or less is. Some dynamics to work around like Sturdivant's passing and Reeves shooting, but with the exception of Forrest I would expect the quality to be fairly similar of the top 6 in the back court. Front court not really. At the 5 spot hopefully Claude transitions well to ACC play. If he and Dowuona are interchangeable then we are likely hurting. We'll probably be looking at trying to steal minutes with Dowuona's defense down low.

The other front court spot has options. Some will argue we can put Coleman and Reeves there and be interchangeable but I don't see it. Reeves isn't a good enough shooter to warrant that type of line up with the weakness it will create defensively and on the board (which is there with either Coleman or Reeves). In an ideal situation I would say Gapare takes a big leap and Ndongo adjusts to college life well and then can hold down the spot and allow Coleman to play a more natural position. I think more realistically, what we should hope for is Coleman to more or less be the guy there and Ndongo to be able to use his athleticism and defense to give productive minutes. It wouldn't be really interchangeable as we'd likely have to adjust pretty heavily for the change in skill sets. Possible though. I don't think we can rely on Gapare to be ready to play this year for us. He was not good for Umass last year and taking a big step up in competition. Potential is there to develop into a contributing member, but I don't see how you can really expect it.
 
Top