After one season, how are we feeling?

[Root4GT]

I feel great about this hire. I will feel even better if we retain MK, Gapare, Reeves and our freshman. If we land a quality rim protecting big in the portal, im going to be very geeked up. Someone mentioned a high low offense yesterday and that is one of my favorite offensive schemes but I am not sure that is CDS's vision. The last time i remember seeing is consistently was Tim Duncan and David Robinson.

I would be surprised to see GTBB running a High Low offense as anything more than a very occasional thing going forward.

 

[RamblinRed]

Picking up on my comments from yesterday you can really see the weaknesses that need to be improved upon if the program wants to move forward.

In ACC Games
GT was 13th in FG%, but 7th in 3FG% (4th in 3FGM), 4th in rebounding offense and 7th in assists.
While GT was 7th in assists, it was 13th in TO, 11th in TO margin and 11th in Assist/TO ratio.
We just did not value the ball enough and gave up possessions because of it.

Defensively, GT was 7th in FG% defense and 6th in 3FG% defense as well as 5th in blocked shots, but so much of that is undone by poor defensive rebounding (11th) and 11th in Defensive rebounding %,
last in steals, last in TO Forced.
Our TO Margin was also last in the league by a large margin -4.05 per game, ND was the next worst at -2.60 per game.
We didn't secure defensive rebounds or force TO's allowing our opponents to have more opportunites to score.

Committing alot of TO on offense and not forcing alot of TO on defense is not a good thing to say the least.

 

[Root4GT]

Picking up on my comments from yesterday you can really see the weaknesses that need to be improved upon if the program wants to move forward.

In ACC Games
GT was 13th in FG%, but 7th in 3FG% (4th in 3FGM), 4th in rebounding offense and 7th in assists.
While GT was 7th in assists, it was 13th in TO, 11th in TO margin and 11th in Assist/TO ratio.
We just did not value the ball enough and gave up possessions because of it.

Defensively, GT was 7th in FG% defense and 6th in 3FG% defense as well as 5th in blocked shots, but so much of that is undone by poor defensive rebounding (11th) and 11th in Defensive rebounding %,
last in steals, last in TO Forced.
Our TO Margin was also last in the league by a large margin -4.05 per game, ND was the next worst at -2.60 per game.
We didn't secure defensive rebounds or force TO's allowing our opponents to have more opportunites to score.

Committing alot of TO on offense and not forcing alot of TO on defense is not a good thing to say the least.

George was the one guy who got a lot more assists than TOs. Kyle was ok as well. Ndongo and Kelly were really bad in TOs vs Assists. I would expect Ndongo to improve as he gets stronger and more experienced. Kelly is what he is. Having better finishers around the rim will help generate more assists. Gapare and Claude were not very good finishers near the rim this year.

 

[MtnWasp]

GT went 6-8 against teams that were .500 or better in the ACC, but 1-6 against teams with a sub .500 conference record.

This is just a bizarre stat. I don't have any insight abut how a team produces a stat line like that except that I suspect that it has more to do with something between the ears than talent or coaching. Not sure if it says more about what is going on between our players' ears or the ears of the opponent players.

 

[Root4GT]

This is just a bizarre stat. I don't have any insight abut how a team produces a stat line like that except that I suspect that it has more to do with something between the ears than talent or coaching. Not sure if it says more about what is going on between our players' ears or the ears of the opponent players.

Good thoughts. Likely as much about our opponents as our players.

 

[MtnWasp]

Picking up on my comments from yesterday you can really see the weaknesses that need to be improved upon if the program wants to move forward.

In ACC Games
GT was 13th in FG%, but 7th in 3FG% (4th in 3FGM), 4th in rebounding offense and 7th in assists.
While GT was 7th in assists, it was 13th in TO, 11th in TO margin and 11th in Assist/TO ratio.
We just did not value the ball enough and gave up possessions because of it.

Defensively, GT was 7th in FG% defense and 6th in 3FG% defense as well as 5th in blocked shots, but so much of that is undone by poor defensive rebounding (11th) and 11th in Defensive rebounding %,
last in steals, last in TO Forced.
Our TO Margin was also last in the league by a large margin -4.05 per game, ND was the next worst at -2.60 per game.
We didn't secure defensive rebounds or force TO's allowing our opponents to have more opportunites to score.

Committing alot of TO on offense and not forcing alot of TO on defense is not a good thing to say the least.

13th in FG% on offense
13th in turnovers and #11 in turnover margin.
11th in Defensive rebounding.

That is a lethal combination.

Pre-season, Stoudamire emphasized rebounding and turnovers and the roster flubbed those jobs royally. The games we won is when we shot the ball well. We tended to do it against the good teams.

My thinking is that Stoudamire will approach those problems by re-tooling the roster.

 

[MtnWasp]

George was the one guy who got a lot more assists than TOs. Kyle was ok as well. Ndongo and Kelly were really bad in TOs vs Assists. I would expect Ndongo to improve as he gets stronger and more experienced. Kelly is what he is. Having better finishers around the rim will help generate more assists. Gapare and Claude were not very good finishers near the rim this year.

I thought it was very telling that in the second half of the ACC slate, our opponents routinely spent a lot of defensive effort to deny George the ball, especially in transition. This was a huge show of respect to Nait George and it revealed unequivocally that opposing ACC coaches new the best way to defend Gt was to keep the ball out of the hands of George.

I think that with both George and Ndongo, the speed of the game in their heads was ahead of their handles. In other words, their handling skills were behind what they wanted to do mentally. Usually, it is the opposite, most players being limited more between their ears than by their skills.

I think this leaves both players with huge upsides. If both players can improve their handles, both will be even more of a headache for opposing teams than they were this year. Ndongo's quick-twitch moves are remarkable. If he can refine his handles and finishing ability on the drive he will be a face-up terror. He is just far quicker than most players his size. He is more polished as a back to the basket offensive player right now but I am not convinced that is where his ceiling is highest because I think he has more upside going around defenders than over them. Ndongo is also a cool customer. George has tremendous game IQ and Alvarado-level moxie. He will likely get stronger and if he can get his dribble closer to the floor it will really help his speed with the ball. Exciting upside for both players.

 

[Root4GT]

13th in FG% on offense
13th in turnovers and #11 in turnover margin.
11th in Defensive rebounding.

That is a lethal combination.

Pre-season, Stoudamire emphasized rebounding and turnovers and the roster flubbed those jobs royally. The games we won is when we shot the ball well. We tended to do it against the good teams.

My thinking is that Stoudamire will approach those problems by re-tooling the roster.

You nicely skipped over #2 in offensive rebounding and #5 in rebounding margin. Talk about you cherry picking defensive rebounding as a stat, wow. Overall we were a good rebounding team.

We were not a good shooting team. We were #5 in FG% defense. And #7 in 3 point % defense.

Turnovers were a big issue. That has been a GTBB problem for years.

Turnovers and shooting were our issues this year. We badly need one more good ball handler next year. Asking George to be the only guy is a bad approach.

We also need to be better finishers around the basket. Of course another very good 3 point shooter would help a lot as well.

Good discussion but you were pulling a bait and switch.

 

[Techwood Relict]

im going to be very geeked up.

Just having Peacone say geeked, gets me a little geeked....

 

[MtnWasp]

You nicely skipped over #2 in offensive rebounding and #5 in rebounding margin. Talk about you cherry picking defensive rebounding as a stat, wow. Overall we were a good rebounding team.

After going back to look at the stats, I agree with you. We were +0.8rpg in conference overall and +12 in defensive rebounds for the year. How could be ranked 11th in conference with a net defensive rebounding margin?

 

[Root4GT]

After going back to look at the stats, I agree with you. We were +0.8rpg in conference overall and +12 in defensive rebounds for the year. How could be ranked 11th in conference with a net defensive rebounding margin?

Good question - guess we should remember what they taught us at GT - never trust statistics!

A major offseason challenge is how do we reduce turnovers and force more turnovers. Forcing turnovers may only come about with roster changes. Cutting down turnovers, that will be interesting to see what the offseason approach is to deal with that! Short of getting another PG like Davis i don't see a huge improvement next year. Hope I am wrong on not having Davis. As the "Crystal Ball" folks are leaning to FSU Davis does not fit the profile of most FSU players. They generally have guys much taller and longer than Davis.

 

[slugboy]

If we vaulted to 5th in the conference and likely in the tournament, I’d be really confident at this point.

We didn’t vault up and we aren’t a bubble team.

We turned over most of the roster. Most of the players who departed aren’t getting minutes on powerful teams. However, some teams that turned over the roster turned their fortunes around in one season—and we didn’t

Stoudamire did a lot of the things that had to happen, but we haven’t seen results yet. Or, they’re mixed results—some players turned out well, but we needed some development that we didn’t get.

Based on the players who stayed and who transferred in, we did a little better than the numbers suggested we would, but we always hoped the sum would be much more than the parts, and that the parts would get better.

There’s also the elephant in the room—even though the roster is a lot deeper than it was last season, we had holes to fill, and we still do.

I never played more than rec league or pickup basketball. There are people here that pick up progress that I would miss.

I think we’re operating on faith at this point—either pro or con.

 

[MtnWasp]

I think the turnover numbers were a function of a lack of depth in the backcourt for GT. When it turned out that neither Terry nor Abrams would play, I don't think we had the numbers to expend the energy to create ball pressure. And our wings were simply not the sort of players to get into the passing lanes or belly up perimeter players.

You look at a player like Gapare with his length and speed and think he would be a steals machine. Yet he created only 6 steals in 354 minutes of conference play. Similar for Reeves. One would think he has the tools to be a major disrupter on defense yet he created only 10 steals in 564 conference minutes. Gt had 78 steals in ACC play compared to 132 for our opponents.

We also committed to staying home on three point shooters and didn't play much trap or help defense. So, we didn't get many turnovers from doubling or overloading. Then, this squad was just uninspired to go after 50-50 balls. This latter trait was, I think, the major personality mismatch between the players and the coach.

 

[7979]

I've not been a Damon guy.....beat Carolina and Duke...lost to BC and ND (3 times?).....
But..... I played golf this past weekend with a guy who coached basketball for 41 years, retiring in 2020....10 in HS, then 31 at asst jobs in SEC and mid-majors, finishing up HC at a couple of HBC schools..
I asked him what he thought about the job Damon has done so far at GT. He said, "Big wins. Bad losses." I asked, "How does this happen?" He answered, "It is the kids. They don't listen anymore."
Then he added, "GT will never have to fire Damon. He is tough little MF'er. If it ain't working pretty damn quick, he'll walk away."
I like Damon better now...anxious to see what happens next year.

 

[Tundeballer]

Very disappointed. Felt there was no reason this team shouldn’t be a NIT team at worst at the start of the season. Returned a bunch of solid starters on a sub par team, and added a group of guys who contributed elsewhere in Reeves, Abram, and Gapare. Then we struck gold and Baye turns out to be an impact player day 1. We were 8-4 after the Hawaii tournament with four losses to pretty good teams in retrospect…. Then the wheels absolutely fell off going 2-7 in ACC play in January. Sorry to recap the season but it made no sense how things completely crumbled for us in a down ACC. Given the current track record of former nba coaches in college, I’m very concerned. Love that recruiting is going well but plenty of teams recruit well and still underperform. Hope we keep our best guys this off-season and shore up deficiencies in the transfer portal, but there’s no excuse for how bad we were this season.

 

[MtnWasp]

"Strategy doesn't figure into it unless you play hard."

"You have to get tired of losing."

"If Someone pokes you in the chest, you have to poke them back."

"If you can't play for the name on the front of your jersey, then you have to be willing to play for the name on the back of your jersey."

"When I get my guys, it won't be like this."

Quote after quote, press conference after press conference, week after week, the coach was speaking clearly on what the problem was. He didn't waver or back track. It wasn't like he was saying, we just don't have the talent to compete but our guys played really hard. He was as consistent as can be.

The way he wants to win is no mystery, and it is sound: He wants to recruit superior talent that can win one-on-one match-ups (like how Cremins won) and he wants players to be 100% committed to playing with competitive fire (like how Kryzyewski established Duke as a national power).

The question isn't whether Stoudamire is wrong headed, and it isn't even about whether he is a good enough coach to get it done. The question is whether ANY coach can accomplish this with today's players in the college game in this day and age?

Not everybody on here believes he can do it, but I bet nearly every single person here WANTS him to be successful. Not only because we want to enjoy the success of GT as fans, but also to show that today's youth can achieve that kind of commitment and sacrifice for personal and team success.

While I don't agree with most that this season represented a step in the right direction, I do think a more accurate description would be that this season provided Stoudamire a rude awakening about what he is up against with today's player. I bet he is going to be much more discerning in recruiting with regards to work ethic and competitive fire and that if anything, he places even greater priority on recruiting high school players, where he can get at them as young as he can.

I like the guy a lot and am pulling hard for him.

 

[Root4GT]

Our 7 early wins against real teams were by a total of 29 points. That an average of 4 points per win. Our 3 losses were by a total of 57 points. It was very clear we were not a team that was a particularly good at that point.

The returning starters Kelly, Sturdivant and Coleman were one starter and 2 reserves on this year’s team which seemed approximate. Their play was similar this year to the prior year on a team that had a 6-14 conference record.

Of the transfers in Reeves was pretty good, especially early but by no means a guy who could lead/carry a team. Abrams was a bust for whatever reason. I don’t think any of us really know. Gapare was a very raw athlete who did nothing on a bad Mass team and Ebe basically didn’t play for NCST.

Thinking that group would raise GTBB to the NIT was simply false hope.

Ndongo was a solid recruit. George seemed to be a development guy who would get little playing time. Turns out he was our leader/general on the floor and one of our 2-3 best players. Ndongo was the best player.

The roster has major holes. There are solid pieces but without an infusion of talent there isn’t much real hope. We need at minimum a good PG, a good big and a good outside shooter.

This offseason The team will know what CDS wants. If the players don’t like his style/methods they will transfer out.

Next year should be better but without a major upgrade in talent getting to .500 in ACC play will be tough.

I have no idea how GTBB sits regarding NIL. We better be at least ACC average or we will lose the player acquisition battle.

CDS is very clear what he wants vs what the team does. Should be an interesting offseason.

Only the Duke and UNC coaches have gotten their teams to the NCAAT in their 1st year. Shocking right.

Syracuse should make the NIT. Of course they hired from within so he knew the roster and was ready from day one to hit the Portal and had continuity with HS recruiting.

 

[Techwood Relict]

I've not been a Damon guy.....beat Carolina and Duke...lost to BC and ND (3 times?).....
But..... I played golf this past weekend with a guy who coached basketball for 41 years, retiring in 2020....10 in HS, then 31 at asst jobs in SEC and mid-majors, finishing up HC at a couple of HBC schools..
I asked him what he thought about the job Damon has done so far at GT. He said, "Big wins. Bad losses." I asked, "How does this happen?" He answered, "It is the kids. They don't listen anymore."
Then he added, "GT will never have to fire Damon. He is tough little MF'er. If it ain't working pretty damn quick, he'll walk away."
I like Damon better now...anxious to see what happens next year.

I don't know your golfing buddy, but I like him already.

 

[Root4GT]

"Strategy doesn't figure into it unless you play hard."

"You have to get tired of losing."

"If Someone pokes you in the chest, you have to poke them back."

"If you can't play for the name on the front of your jersey, then you have to be willing to play for the name on the back of your jersey."

"When I get my guys, it won't be like this."

Quote after quote, press conference after press conference, week after week, the coach was speaking clearly on what the problem was. He didn't waver or back track. It wasn't like he was saying, we just don't have the talent to compete but our guys played really hard. He was as consistent as can be.

The way he wants to win is no mystery, and it is sound: He wants to recruit superior talent that can win one-on-one match-ups (like how Cremins won) and he wants players to be 100% committed to playing with competitive fire (like how Kryzyewski established Duke as a national power).

The question isn't whether Stoudamire is wrong headed, and it isn't even about whether he is a good enough coach to get it done. The question is whether ANY coach can accomplish this with today's players in the college game in this day and age?

Not everybody on here believes he can do it, but I bet nearly every single person here WANTS him to be successful. Not only because we want to enjoy the success of GT as fans, but also to show that today's youth can achieve that kind of commitment and sacrifice for personal and team success.

While I don't agree with most that this season represented a step in the right direction, I do think a more accurate description would be that this season provided Stoudamire a rude awakening about what he is up against with today's player. I bet he is going to be much more discerning in recruiting with regards to work ethic and competitive fire and that if anything, he places even greater priority on recruiting high school players, where he can get at them as young as he can.

I like the guy a lot and am pulling hard for him.

The other things he has consistently said is he prefers HS players because he can mold them from the beginning. Secondly as far as portal players he wants to know them and look them in the eye before bringing them on board.

None of us know who completely bought in who partially bought in and who was just along for the ride. We can guess but only the guys in the locker room truly know.

Who leaves will be a partial tell.

 

[g0lftime]

I would be surprised to see GTBB running a High Low offense as anything more than a very occasional thing going forward.

I tend to agree. I think Stoudamire only wants to run a NBA style offense and use that as a recruiting tool. He comes from a NBA system and is more familiar with that style. Probably will not see much zone if at all. This team has been in position to win some games but came apart during crunch time with turnovers or bad shot selection.