Returning players for 2021-22

[RyanS12]

Jose, I’m 40/60 on returning
Mike I’d say 95/5. Is say 100 but nothing really is ever 100 with college kids.
Mike has a chance to build off the ACCT mvp and be the man next year. He’s got an opportunity, along side Usher to put up some big numbers.

 

[slugboy]

Not an awful write up on next year for the Jackets from the <cough cough> D*** basketball report: https://www.dukebasketballreport.co...aster-georgia-tech-jose-alvarado-moses-wright
TL;DR version

• Jose is/was awesome; gets compared to all time ACC players like Corchiani
• Moses was a “0-star player who became awesome”. ()
• They’re both hard to replace, and this might be a transitional year
• Pastner is getting good players to play at Tech again. If he can start getting some of the players who have gone SEC in the past few years, watch out.
• This team plays defense
• The coaching staff working with and developing young players is a difference-maker

 

[iopjacket]

Not an awful write up on next year for the Jackets from the <cough cough> D*** basketball report: https://www.dukebasketballreport.co...aster-georgia-tech-jose-alvarado-moses-wright
TL;DR version

• Jose is/was awesome; gets compared to all time ACC players like Corchiani
• Moses was a “0-star player who became awesome”. ()
• They’re both hard to replace, and this might be a transitional year
• Pastner is getting good players to play at Tech again. If he can start getting some of the players who have gone SEC in the past few years, watch out.
• This team plays defense
• The coaching staff working with and developing young players is a difference-maker

Thanks for the posting the article. Sounds like we may be replacing the Silver Haired Wackco (Cremins) with the Raven Haired Wackco (Pastner).

 

[orientalnc]

Not an awful write up on next year for the Jackets from the <cough cough> D*** basketball report: https://www.dukebasketballreport.co...aster-georgia-tech-jose-alvarado-moses-wright
TL;DR version

• Jose is/was awesome; gets compared to all time ACC players like Corchiani
• Moses was a “0-star player who became awesome”. ()
• They’re both hard to replace, and this might be a transitional year
• Pastner is getting good players to play at Tech again. If he can start getting some of the players who have gone SEC in the past few years, watch out.
• This team plays defense
• The coaching staff working with and developing young players is a difference-maker

There is nothing in that article I would 100% disagree with. However, unless the writer knows something I do not regarding Michael Devoe, leaving him out of the write up sees a strange omission. Especially since he was our leading scorer.

 

[slugboy]

There is nothing in that article I would 100% disagree with. However, unless the writer knows something I do not regarding Michael Devoe, leaving him out of the write up sees a strange omission. Especially since he was our leading scorer.

I'll assume that they focused on Jose and Moses, and who would fill in for them, and didn't cover Michael for that reason.

Thanks for the posting the article. Sounds like we may be replacing the Silver Haired Wackco (Cremins) with the Raven Haired Wackco (Pastner).

If we get a crowd of students with curly wigs and face shields next year, that'd be alright

 

[RyanS12]

There is nothing in that article I would 100% disagree with. However, unless the writer knows something I do not regarding Michael Devoe, leaving him out of the write up sees a strange omission. Especially since he was our leading scorer.

I thought the same. Mike will be back and will be the focal point of the offense. Unless he knows something we don’t about him returning.

 

[MtnWasp]

I am hopeful that the ability of Sturdivant and Smith to break down ball pressure and get into the lane will really help Devoe (and Usher) to get some easy buckets so that our scorers and are not left to constantly create their own shots. I'd like to see Devoe get more spot-up three attempts next season (if he returns) and for both Devoe and Usher to receive passes while cutting to the basket instead of needing to always dribble in.

Devoe did not have a great Junior season. While he made excellent strides to cut down his turnovers, his shooting numbers were a little down across the board. And he was not consistent last year. I'd like to see the staff take a little off of his plate and let him play off the ball more with an emphasis of getting him some open looks instead of making him create from the top of the key so often.

 

[lv20gt]

Devoe did not have a great Junior season. While he made excellent strides to cut down his turnovers, his shooting numbers were a little down across the board. And he was not consistent last year

What? He averaged 15 ppg on 45/40 shooting and improved his rebounding and defense while cutting down both his fouls and his turnovers.

As far as not consistent goes, he scored in double digits 21/26 games compared to 20/26 for Jose and 21/25 for Moses.

 

[MtnWasp]

47.6% from the floor as a soph, 45.6% as a Junior
42.7% from three as a Soph, 40.0% as a Junior.

He had a difficult start to the year and was often quite frustrated. Except for the turnovers (which is important) he stagnated. He's a heavy legged guard and not a great defender.

Devoe is a good player, a crafty scorer and is at his best when he is scoring the ball and that should be the emphasis next season, freeing him of on the ball duties and to get him open to shoot.

 

[tbglover]

What? He averaged 15 ppg on 45/40 shooting and improved his rebounding and defense while cutting down both his fouls and his turnovers.

As far as not consistent goes, he scored in double digits 21/26 games compared to 20/26 for Jose and 21/25 for Moses.

He put up numbers. We also witnessed his inability to create off the dribble for himself and be a guy who can get a bucket when necessary. How many times did we see him drive the ball into the defense, pick up his dribble and search around for a pass to bail him out of a bad situation that he put himself into? He's a good player but there are very obvious ways in which he he is deficient and can improve by coming back.

 

[gtrower]

He put up numbers. We also witnessed his inability to create off the dribble for himself and be a guy who can get a bucket when necessary. How many times did we see him drive the ball into the defense, pick up his dribble and search around for a pass to bail him out of a bad situation that he put himself into? He's a good player but there are very obvious ways in which he he is deficient and can improve by coming back.

Your nitpick on Devoe is inability to create off the dribble for himself? Of all the things to ding him for, you pick the thing he was best on the team at doing.

 

[lv20gt]

How many times did we see him drive the ball into the defense, pick up his dribble and search around for a pass to bail him out of a bad situation that he put himself into?

Not nearly as many times as you believe.

That is one of those things that happened occasionally but for whatever reason people latched onto so whenever it happened acted like it was some huge issue that was happening a every third possession or something.

 

[iopjacket]

Assuming he returns, Devoe will be our best returning player and best outside shooter. We may be a decent team without him, but we will be a much better team with him.

 

[slugboy]

I don’t think we’ll change the offensive scheme, but with Moses and likely Jose gone, I wonder what tweaks we’ll make. With Lammers, we’d distribute from the 5 more. I don’t think we’ll do that with Howard, Meka, and Saba, but maybe we position differently
I think we screened a little more towards the end of the season, and I think that Parham and Devoe could use that help to create shots.

 

[YlJacket]

My guess/bet is that the staff would like to plug Saba into the Lammers type of role on offense and use him as a distributor and pick/pop guy while Howard is more of a Banks type of player who needs the ball close to the basket. I assume Meka is like Howard in this regard but that remains to be seen. If he can earn minutes, I expect the goal with Saba is to have him spread the floor.

Beyond the 5, if Coleman is as advertised and wins the 3 spot, we would have more shooting there than last year - and less ability for teams to play off of Moore. On the other side, I am not sure either of our potential replacements for Jose can shoot or finish as well as he did last year (hope I am wrong).

Last year we were 4th in scoring in the ACC and first in FG % overall, while we were only 8th in 3PT % and middle of the pack in 3PT shots attempted. Point being we were a take it to the rim offense last year with Jose and Usher leading the way in that regard. The recruiting that has been done seems to be a lot more focused on shooting - especially 3 point shooting - and I expect they will change the offense in some way to reflect that. Or stated another way, we are going to have to create more perimeter/3PT jumpers for Devoe and Coleman to replace the points we got from Jose and Moses in and around the paint. I expect it will be some new wrinkles and potentially new scheme involved. Hope so as this will be a new and different team.

 

[Fatmike91]

My guess/bet is that the staff would like to plug Saba into the Lammers type of role on offense and use him as a distributor and pick/pop guy while Howard is more of a Banks type of player who needs the ball close to the basket. I assume Meka is like Howard in this regard but that remains to be seen. If he can earn minutes, I expect the goal with Saba is to have him spread the floor.

Beyond the 5, if Coleman is as advertised and wins the 3 spot, we would have more shooting there than last year - and less ability for teams to play off of Moore. On the other side, I am not sure either of our potential replacements for Jose can shoot or finish as well as he did last year (hope I am wrong).

Last year we were 4th in scoring in the ACC and first in FG % overall, while we were only 8th in 3PT % and middle of the pack in 3PT shots attempted. Point being we were a take it to the rim offense last year with Jose and Usher leading the way in that regard. The recruiting that has been done seems to be a lot more focused on shooting - especially 3 point shooting - and I expect they will change the offense in some way to reflect that. Or stated another way, we are going to have to create more perimeter/3PT jumpers for Devoe and Coleman to replace the points we got from Jose and Moses in and around the paint. I expect it will be some new wrinkles and potentially new scheme involved. Hope so as this will be a new and different team.

You're spot on with Saba. I think he plays, and I think he will be used like Lammers (he's probably a better shooter than Lammers which makes him more dangerous in that role).

I do think your wrong about our new guard's (Deivon Smith). The kid can get flat out get to the hoop. I haven't seen him shoot but I assume he's not at Jose's level.

I hope Khalid shoots 250 makes per day in the offseason and comes in a 40% 3 point shooter next year. We need him on the floor for his defense (and because we will be young next year), but he needs to be able to punish teams for giving him open 3's.

/

 

[MidtownJacket]

I disagree about the importance of the 3 ball being higher next year. I mean obviously you always would love to have a great set of perimeter shooters and fire and forget from outside, but our scheme is designed to get looks driving to the paint. There is a reason CJP says about 1,000 times a day he wants guys who are: “violent slashers /cutters” or “this game is about point guards, the point guards are what NC-two-A basketball is all about”.

I do think we will have a lot to make up for on the sneaky passes Jose and basic lack of turnovers gave us if he leaves. The scheme doesn’t seem to change for me though even if we end up having Mike play point more (which he has said he wants anyway) with bubba / Coleman backing him up.

 

[YlJacket]

Hope you are right about Smith. I haven't seen him play. It would work a lot better with Howard if we could get to the hoop with ease and drop off to him. That would look a lot like last yearl.

 

[lv20gt]

IMO one of the big reasons we leaned so heavily on Lammers was the PG situation we had with him. Heath was okay and Jose even as a freshman had his upside, but running the offense through Ben meant an upperclassman with good decision making was the one initiating things. While Saba has some similar skills as Ben, I don't think it would be ideal, either for him or the team, to try and replicate what we did with Lammers.

IMO if we gameplanned around Saba's skill, whether it is this year or next, it would be a heavy PNR diet using either his size on the roll or his ability to stretch the floor with his shot as well as putting the ball on the floor and passing as a big on the pop. With more shooters on the wing, especially with Devoe/Coleman, that would really serve to open up the middle which I think would benefit both Sturdivant and Smith as well as Usher this year.

 

[crut]

So May 30th has passed, Devoe hadn't declared for the draft last week, is he on the final list? Not sure where to look for it.