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Big Sky off-season winners and losers (so far)

Griz til I die

Well-known member
DONOR
Thought it would be fun to compare the off-seasons for each team in the conference and see how their offseason has gone so far. I think the easiest way to do this is to go in alphabetical order.

Eastern Washington- Biggest Loser. You can’t have a worse offseason then Eastern has, and this is happening to them in every sport. They have brought in a couple nice transfers but they got a long way to go before they get back to what they were. Gonna be a long season for the eags

Idaho- Big loser. Lost nearly their entire lineup, and even let their best player transfer to another Big Sky school (Blakney). I feel like they are looking to start fresh now with Claus as their coach and their new arena opening this season, so maybe this isn’t as bad as it looks.

Idaho State- hasn’t won or lost. Really one of the quieter teams this off-season, and that’s a good thing. Haven’t lost anyone of significance and have only brought in one transfer but it wasn’t a big get. Probably what you want if you’re a bengal fan.

Montana-Winner. I feel like we got what we needed in the portal, but we didn’t overachieve. Where I do feel like we won was in our freshmen class. I think we signed the best freshmen class in the conference with Braggs, Wetzel, and Solomon. These three have the chance to be big time game changers right away and throughout their careers. Curious to see if any of them do redshirt cause we’ve got a loaded roster with lots of talent and idk how you get them all on the floor.

Montana State- haven’t won or lost. The cats did lose 3 better players but did bring in a nice transfer in Raequan Battle. They retained all their top players and have a nice freshmen class highlighted by a kid that I think is like 7’3??? I’m surprised the cats haven’t been a little more active in the portal, and maybe they still are but Battle is all they’ve gotten so far.

Northern Arizona- Big Winner. I thought about ranking NAU #1 but they did have two big departures in Shelton and Avdalovic. They have however had no problem replacing them as they’ve killed it in the portal and landed what I believe is the marquee transfer in Jalen Cone of Virginia Tech. They brought in some stalwart guys as well to bolster the roster, and I could definitely see the Jacks being in the conversation next year.

Northern Colorado- Winner. Other then Sam Masten, they didn’t lose anyone of significance and brought in the best JUCO player of any school in the conference so far. Definitely won the offseason and should be much improved this upcoming season.

Portland State-Winner. Rarely can you say you’re a winner when one of the better head coaches in the league leaves your school. The viks will miss Perry and his physical style of play, but the internal hire of Jace Coburn is paying off and he’s done a very nice job in the portal so far. Viks should be much more competitive this season.

Sacramento State- haven’t won or lost. Brought in one transfer but that’s about it. I kind of expect them to finish right about where they did last season

Southern Utah- haven’t won or lost. Honestly they’ve been the quietest team this off-season. We haven’t heard anything on them since they got upset by the cats in Boise. They were able to retain pretty much their entire roster so no need to hit the portal if they’re all gonna stick around.

Weber State- Biggest Winner. Weber brought in two big time transfers and hung on to practically everyone. I have no reason to believe Weber won’t be top 3 in the conference this year (if not win it), and I think in that sense they’ve had the best off-season of anyone in the conference.

As I write this. It boggles my mind how much the conference has changed in just a few short months. At this point, I don’t think I could give you a definitive answer for who the favorite will be. I think it’s got the potential to be one of the most competitive seasons in the Big Sky in a long time. Thoughts?
 
Here's my take:

Winners:

-Southern Utah: Yes, they add pretty much nobody. I consider them winners because of the two seniors, Dre Marin and John Knight III taking their COVID years of eligibility. They also signed a very talented freshman in Anthony Swift, a top 5 player in the state of Nevada. He ranks as the 5th best player in the state of NV with Braggs coming in at 6th. Swift fielded reported offers from Fresno State, DePaul, UTEP, Nevada, LMU, Pepperdine, and UNLV. Even if Swift were not to make an immediate impact, Southern Utah returns everyone from a team that went 20-4. A couple less questionable plays against MSU from Tevian Jones and they likely find themselves in the BSC championship game this past season.

-Weber State: Again, WSU returns everyone but Brown with a couple of guys taking their covid years of eligibility in Kozak and Carlson. They fell short in the postseason to a young UM team, but add a couple of big time transfers in All-WAC 2nd team Jamison Overton, and Marquette transfer Koby McEwen, one of the most experienced players in college basketball who averaged 10.2 PPG this past season and is a former Mountain West Freshman of the Year for Utah State.

-Northern Colorado: Return pretty much everyone including likely pre-season MVP Bodie Hume, and add one of the best JUCO players in the country as well as accomplished shooter Dru Kuxhausen from McNeese State.

-Montana: Has already been addressed on this board. Just filled the needs and return talented freshman and sophomore classes. This incoming freshman class might not get as much hype out of the gate, but they are all very talented and highly recruited players who will challenge some of the upperclassmen.

-Montana State: Again, return pretty much everyone with a couple seniors still undecided from a team that made the championship game. Have quite a large freshman class in terms of numbers, but only a couple I see as having the potential to have an instant impact. Those being Isaac Spears and Great Osobor. Osobor will be a big name in the conference for the coming years. RaeQuan Battle is a big question mark. Very talented, but has yet to produce and has been incredibly inefficient.

-Northern Arizona: Lost a couple guys in Avdalovic and Shelton, replaced them with probably the signing of the offseason by any BSC team with Jalen Cone from Virginia Tech. Also got a couple other transfers that I'm not sure what to expect from.


Undecided:

-Portland State: Have added 3 D-1 transfers who each averaged over 10 PPG at their previous schools. Question becomes how much chemistry will they have with each other and the returning players. Not sure what to expect, and won't probably until halfway through conference play.

-Sacramento State: Have 0 clue what to expect here.


Losers:

-Idaho: It's Idaho

-Idaho State: Return everybody, but the problem is that a lot of the teams who finished below them made moves that significantly improved their rosters. Watching the UM vs ISU games in Pocatello, I came away with the impression that ISU did not have much talent, but were well coached and relied on being well coached and disciplined. They needed to add some major difference makers to keep up with other teams, and only came away with former Idaho big man Jared Rodriguez. A.J Burgin, incoming freshman guard who we were at one point recruiting has a chance to play a decent role.

-Eastern Washington: Lost pretty much every player in their rotation. Have started the rebuild with some good pieces but still have a long way to go.


Quick Wrap Up:

Hard to predict a winner. SUU will rightfully be the preseason favorite, but I don't think they will win the league. It will be a very competitive league and has the potential to be the most competitive season in quite a while.
 
Griz til I die said:
Idaho- Big loser. Lost nearly their entire lineup, and even let their best player transfer to another Big Sky school (Blakney). I feel like they are looking to start fresh now with Claus as their coach and their new arena opening this season, so maybe this isn’t as bad as it looks.

TBH, not sure losing everyone from a 1 win team is really losing.
 
HelenaHandBasket said:
Griz til I die said:
Idaho- Big loser. Lost nearly their entire lineup, and even let their best player transfer to another Big Sky school (Blakney). I feel like they are looking to start fresh now with Claus as their coach and their new arena opening this season, so maybe this isn’t as bad as it looks.

TBH, not sure losing everyone from a 1 win team is really losing.
Fair take but still they did lose some key players. With the departures they had it’ll be hard to say they improve from that debacle but who knows. They’re a disaster.
 
Griz til I die said:
HelenaHandBasket said:
TBH, not sure losing everyone from a 1 win team is really losing.
Fair take but still they did lose some key players. With the departures they had it’ll be hard to say they improve from that debacle but who knows. They’re a disaster.

So you think 2 wins is out of the question?
 
HelenaHandBasket said:
Griz til I die said:
Fair take but still they did lose some key players. With the departures they had it’ll be hard to say they improve from that debacle but who knows. They’re a disaster.

So you think 2 wins is out of the question?
They’ll probably get 2. COVID made it even tougher for them.
 
Just to clear up some Sac State info....our best player, Ethan Esposito, is turning pro instead of coming back for a second senior season - going to be impossible to replace his offense....Christian Terrell is also leaving for the pros.....Brandon Davis has been drafted into the Puerto Rican Pro league - I consider this a plus for us as Davis was a huge liability on the offensive end.....we also lost a back up center, Jordan Cooke-Harper.....Bryce Fowler has decided to come back for a second senior season as did Will FitzPatrick - these two are both double digit scorers so that is good for us.....We signed 2 transfers, 6'9" Jonathan Komagum from Toledo and Damion Thornton from DII Southwest Oklahoma State where he averaged 19pts 8rb 2 assists and 2 steals after being 2 time All State in high school including being 1st team his senior year....We also signed a guard from Riverside City College (JC) and 3 high school guards....Thats about all I know right now
 
sacstateman said:
Just to clear up some Sac State info....our best player, Ethan Esposito, is turning pro instead of coming back for a second senior season - going to be impossible to replace his offense....Christian Terrell is also leaving for the pros.....Brandon Davis has been drafted into the Puerto Rican Pro league - I consider this a plus for us as Davis was a huge liability on the offensive end.....we also lost a back up center, Jordan Cooke-Harper.....Bryce Fowler has decided to come back for a second senior season as did Will FitzPatrick - these two are both double digit scorers so that is good for us.....We signed 2 transfers, 6'9" Jonathan Komagum from Toledo and Damion Thornton from DII Southwest Oklahoma State where he averaged 19pts 8rb 2 assists and 2 steals after being 2 time All State in high school including being 1st team his senior year....We also signed a guard from Riverside City College (JC) and 3 high school guards....Thats about all I know right now

You seem to know a lot. Thx.
 
sacstateman said:
Just to clear up some Sac State info....our best player, Ethan Esposito, is turning pro instead of coming back for a second senior season - going to be impossible to replace his offense....Christian Terrell is also leaving for the pros.....Brandon Davis has been drafted into the Puerto Rican Pro league - I consider this a plus for us as Davis was a huge liability on the offensive end.....we also lost a back up center, Jordan Cooke-Harper.....Bryce Fowler has decided to come back for a second senior season as did Will FitzPatrick - these two are both double digit scorers so that is good for us.....We signed 2 transfers, 6'9" Jonathan Komagum from Toledo and Damion Thornton from DII Southwest Oklahoma State where he averaged 19pts 8rb 2 assists and 2 steals after being 2 time All State in high school including being 1st team his senior year....We also signed a guard from Riverside City College (JC) and 3 high school guards....Thats about all I know right now
That doesn’t sound very encouraging if you’re a SAC fan. Might have to downgrade my grade for SAC.
 
Griz til I die said:
sacstateman said:
Just to clear up some Sac State info....our best player, Ethan Esposito, is turning pro instead of coming back for a second senior season - going to be impossible to replace his offense....Christian Terrell is also leaving for the pros.....Brandon Davis has been drafted into the Puerto Rican Pro league - I consider this a plus for us as Davis was a huge liability on the offensive end.....we also lost a back up center, Jordan Cooke-Harper.....Bryce Fowler has decided to come back for a second senior season as did Will FitzPatrick - these two are both double digit scorers so that is good for us.....We signed 2 transfers, 6'9" Jonathan Komagum from Toledo and Damion Thornton from DII Southwest Oklahoma State where he averaged 19pts 8rb 2 assists and 2 steals after being 2 time All State in high school including being 1st team his senior year....We also signed a guard from Riverside City College (JC) and 3 high school guards....Thats about all I know right now
That doesn’t sound very encouraging if you’re a SAC fan. Might have to downgrade my grade for SAC.
I fully expect Sac, UI, ISU, PSU, and NAU to be improved over what they were last year. To me, the only questons are EWU and UNCo.

I'm looking forward to a fun, highly competitive season. I feel like road wins will be hard to come by. :clap:
 
Griz til I die said:
sacstateman said:
Just to clear up some Sac State info....our best player, Ethan Esposito, is turning pro instead of coming back for a second senior season - going to be impossible to replace his offense....Christian Terrell is also leaving for the pros.....Brandon Davis has been drafted into the Puerto Rican Pro league - I consider this a plus for us as Davis was a huge liability on the offensive end.....we also lost a back up center, Jordan Cooke-Harper.....Bryce Fowler has decided to come back for a second senior season as did Will FitzPatrick - these two are both double digit scorers so that is good for us.....We signed 2 transfers, 6'9" Jonathan Komagum from Toledo and Damion Thornton from DII Southwest Oklahoma State where he averaged 19pts 8rb 2 assists and 2 steals after being 2 time All State in high school including being 1st team his senior year....We also signed a guard from Riverside City College (JC) and 3 high school guards....Thats about all I know right now
That doesn’t sound very encouraging if you’re a SAC fan. Might have to downgrade my grade for SAC.


If we had lost a "stud" like SAM MADSEN, I could understand your concern....You're evaluations are suspect so I'm not too worried about your grades anyway...just trying to put some real info out there as you didn't seem to have much about Sac....
 
sacstateman said:
Griz til I die said:
That doesn’t sound very encouraging if you’re a SAC fan. Might have to downgrade my grade for SAC.


If we had lost a "stud" like SAM MADSEN, I could understand your concern....You're evaluations are suspect so I'm not too worried about your grades anyway...just trying to put some real info out there as you didn't seem to have much about Sac....
Losing Esposito will hurt you guys and from what I can tell with the transfers you’ve brought in, I don’t see how you replace his production. Maybe I’m wrong but Bryce Fowler can’t do it all. You may wanna go after another transfer IMO.
 
From reading the comments suggesting the vast improvements being made by quite a few Big Sky teams, due to the addition of transfers, it seems like these opinions are in contrast to those expressed in the thread discussing whether DeCuire's focus on building his team with high school players is the right philosophy. Some posters questioned how transfers would fit-in with their new team, or how long it would take for a transfer to play withing a new system. Looks like those concerns may not apply, huh, since such great things are predicted for conference teams having several new transfers. My take: Coaches must adapt their recruiting philosophy to the new environment, or get left behind.

One other comment about the glowing predictions about the current returning Griz players....... it seems like most of you are convinced that the team is loaded with great young talent from last season, who only lack experience to become the class of the conference. I am not sure that I agree with that assessment after watching 6-7 games on my computer from last season. I don't see any Cherry, Rorie, or Pridgett type talents there. And, how long has it been since a Griz player did not appear on an All-Big Sky team (even a third-string team)? So many fans seem to think that experience equals talent. I don't. We don't seem to have a "go-to" stud who we can count-on to lead us every game. How many games last season did a kid follow a game in which he lead the team in scoring, by a game where he disappeared? Some may say that it was a plus last season that we had different players each game who led the team in scoring. But I think we really miss a couple of players who we can count-on to lead the team in scoring most games, and who we can build an offense around. Interchangeable parts may be nice, but give me a couple of studs instead.
 
hunt-ducks said:
From reading the comments suggesting the vast improvements being made by quite a few Big Sky teams, due to the addition of transfers, it seems like these opinions are in contrast to those expressed in the thread discussing whether DeCuire's focus on building his team with high school players is the right philosophy. Some posters questioned how transfers would fit-in with their new team, or how long it would take for a transfer to play withing a new system. Looks like those concerns may not apply, huh, since such great things are predicted for conference teams having several new transfers. My take: Coaches must adapt their recruiting philosophy to the new environment, or get left behind.

One other comment about the glowing predictions about the current returning Griz players....... it seems like most of you are convinced that the team is loaded with great young talent from last season, who only lack experience to become the class of the conference. I am not sure that I agree with that assessment after watching 6-7 games on my computer from last season. I don't see any Cherry, Rorie, or Pridgett type talents there. And, how long has it been since a Griz player did not appear on an All-Big Sky team (even a third-string team)? So many fans seem to think that experience equals talent. I don't. We don't seem to have a "go-to" stud who we can count-on to lead us every game. How many games last season did a kid follow a game in which he lead the team in scoring, by a game where he disappeared? Some may say that it was a plus last season that we had different players each game who led the team in scoring. But I think we really miss a couple of players who we can count-on to lead the team in scoring most games, and who we can build an offense around. Interchangeable parts may be nice, but give me a couple of studs instead.

I mostly agree with you here, last years team was young, but they also might not have been very good. I think what gets a lot of people is almost everyone who played significant minutes "Flashed" as it were demonstrating above average talent and skill in certain areas. However, consistency is a pretty important talent as well. People get caught up in projecting and evaluating players based on the best levels they "Flashed" but the reality is there are tons a players that never take the step of consistently playing to the best of their abilities and at some point you have to value them as what they contribute on average and not on what their upside is. If you judge our guys by that standard our team was pretty average last year. Now that being said I think our team last year was probably a bit better than their actual result because although consistency is a talent it does usually suffer a lot from inexperience, further I think the talent's of the team last year were probably not maximized due to poor team composition, we had some pretty big weakness (lack of size and power and not taking open perimeter shots) that other teams could take advantage of to neutralize/diminish the talent/skill areas our players did possess. Also each player has to be evaluated individually when projecting, an although I think everyone was pretty inconsistent and I dont expect everyone next year to suddenly become more consistent and the best versions of themselves just because of a year of experience, I think there were a few guys that flashed such high ceilings that I think it is a pretty safe bet that they will improve their consistency just by virtue of the game being easier for them due to superior talent. Namely, Beasley, Owens, and Bannon. I think those three are well above average talent for Bigsky so if they do take a big step forward next year I could see our team having 3 consistent value added guys every night surrounded by plenty of other guys who can flash on any given night. If that happens I think we can be much improved. However, we were mediocre team last year so much improved still doesn't make the Griz any sort of lock to be fighting for the top of the conference. Final point, you say you don't see any Cherry, Rorie, Pridgett guys, I would say keep in mind some guys make big jumps and kind of just explode into being the guy rather than slow linear growth. Pridgett always flashed his talent, but kind of exploded to another level as a top tier guy in his Jr and Sr seasons and I think there's players on our roster who have the talent to go to an elite Bigsky level next year.
 
hunt-ducks said:
From reading the comments suggesting the vast improvements being made by quite a few Big Sky teams, due to the addition of transfers, it seems like these opinions are in contrast to those expressed in the thread discussing whether DeCuire's focus on building his team with high school players is the right philosophy. Some posters questioned how transfers would fit-in with their new team, or how long it would take for a transfer to play withing a new system. Looks like those concerns may not apply, huh, since such great things are predicted for conference teams having several new transfers. My take: Coaches must adapt their recruiting philosophy to the new environment, or get left behind.

One other comment about the glowing predictions about the current returning Griz players....... it seems like most of you are convinced that the team is loaded with great young talent from last season, who only lack experience to become the class of the conference. I am not sure that I agree with that assessment after watching 6-7 games on my computer from last season. I don't see any Cherry, Rorie, or Pridgett type talents there. And, how long has it been since a Griz player did not appear on an All-Big Sky team (even a third-string team)? So many fans seem to think that experience equals talent. I don't. We don't seem to have a "go-to" stud who we can count-on to lead us every game. How many games last season did a kid follow a game in which he lead the team in scoring, by a game where he disappeared? Some may say that it was a plus last season that we had different players each game who led the team in scoring. But I think we really miss a couple of players who we can count-on to lead the team in scoring most games, and who we can build an offense around. Interchangeable parts may be nice, but give me a couple of studs instead.

I see your point, but I think most experts will tell you that the biggest improvement players have comes between their freshman and sophomore years.

Rorie’s first year at Montana was actually his 3rd year in college after a year at Oregon and a RS year. I think you can make the argument that Beasley’s and Whitney’s freshman years were at least as good and possibly better than Cherry’s and Pridgett’s.

I think a lot of the optimism comes from the potential from the younger classes. Owens improved tremendously going from part-time starter to honorable mention Big Sky. DCH was held back by injuries so the jury is still out on his improvement. Vazquez went from 5ppg to 8ppg game and improved in all shooting categories.

Big jumps from the Frosh and moderate jumps from the sophs will be important. Player development will be key this summer.
 
CleanHOUSE said:
hunt-ducks said:
From reading the comments suggesting the vast improvements being made by quite a few Big Sky teams, due to the addition of transfers, it seems like these opinions are in contrast to those expressed in the thread discussing whether DeCuire's focus on building his team with high school players is the right philosophy. Some posters questioned how transfers would fit-in with their new team, or how long it would take for a transfer to play withing a new system. Looks like those concerns may not apply, huh, since such great things are predicted for conference teams having several new transfers. My take: Coaches must adapt their recruiting philosophy to the new environment, or get left behind.

One other comment about the glowing predictions about the current returning Griz players....... it seems like most of you are convinced that the team is loaded with great young talent from last season, who only lack experience to become the class of the conference. I am not sure that I agree with that assessment after watching 6-7 games on my computer from last season. I don't see any Cherry, Rorie, or Pridgett type talents there. And, how long has it been since a Griz player did not appear on an All-Big Sky team (even a third-string team)? So many fans seem to think that experience equals talent. I don't. We don't seem to have a "go-to" stud who we can count-on to lead us every game. How many games last season did a kid follow a game in which he lead the team in scoring, by a game where he disappeared? Some may say that it was a plus last season that we had different players each game who led the team in scoring. But I think we really miss a couple of players who we can count-on to lead the team in scoring most games, and who we can build an offense around. Interchangeable parts may be nice, but give me a couple of studs instead.

I mostly agree with you here, last years team was young, but they also might not have been very good. I think what gets a lot of people is almost everyone who played significant minutes "Flashed" as it were demonstrating above average talent and skill in certain areas. However, consistency is a pretty important talent as well. People get caught up in projecting and evaluating players based on the best levels they "Flashed" but the reality is there are tons a players that never take the step of consistently playing to the best of their abilities and at some point you have to value them as what they contribute on average and not on what their upside is. If you judge our guys by that standard our team was pretty average last year. Now that being said I think our team last year was probably a bit better than their actual result because although consistency is a talent it does usually suffer a lot from inexperience, further I think the talent's of the team last year were probably not maximized due to poor team composition, we had some pretty big weakness (lack of size and power and not taking open perimeter shots) that other teams could take advantage of to neutralize/diminish the talent/skill areas our players did possess. Also each player has to be evaluated individually when projecting, an although I think everyone was pretty inconsistent and I dont expect everyone next year to suddenly become more consistent and the best versions of themselves just because of a year of experience, I think there were a few guys that flashed such high ceilings that I think it is a pretty safe bet that they will improve their consistency just by virtue of the game being easier for them due to superior talent. Namely, Beasley, Owens, and Bannon. I think those three are well above average talent for Bigsky so if they do take a big step forward next year I could see our team having 3 consistent value added guys every night surrounded by plenty of other guys who can flash on any given night. If that happens I think we can be much improved. However, we were mediocre team last year so much improved still doesn't make the Griz any sort of lock to be fighting for the top of the conference. Final point, you say you don't see any Cherry, Rorie, Pridgett guys, I would say keep in mind some guys make big jumps and kind of just explode into being the guy rather than slow linear growth. Pridgett always flashed his talent, but kind of exploded to another level as a top tier guy in his Jr and Sr seasons and I think there's players on our roster who have the talent to go to an elite Bigsky level next year.


Good post. From what I saw last season, we are very deep with about 8-10 kids who are average Big Sky players. From that group, I agree that Beasley and Bannon could become very good players before they graduate.
 
GrizBall said:
hunt-ducks said:
From reading the comments suggesting the vast improvements being made by quite a few Big Sky teams, due to the addition of transfers, it seems like these opinions are in contrast to those expressed in the thread discussing whether DeCuire's focus on building his team with high school players is the right philosophy. Some posters questioned how transfers would fit-in with their new team, or how long it would take for a transfer to play withing a new system. Looks like those concerns may not apply, huh, since such great things are predicted for conference teams having several new transfers. My take: Coaches must adapt their recruiting philosophy to the new environment, or get left behind.

One other comment about the glowing predictions about the current returning Griz players....... it seems like most of you are convinced that the team is loaded with great young talent from last season, who only lack experience to become the class of the conference. I am not sure that I agree with that assessment after watching 6-7 games on my computer from last season. I don't see any Cherry, Rorie, or Pridgett type talents there. And, how long has it been since a Griz player did not appear on an All-Big Sky team (even a third-string team)? So many fans seem to think that experience equals talent. I don't. We don't seem to have a "go-to" stud who we can count-on to lead us every game. How many games last season did a kid follow a game in which he lead the team in scoring, by a game where he disappeared? Some may say that it was a plus last season that we had different players each game who led the team in scoring. But I think we really miss a couple of players who we can count-on to lead the team in scoring most games, and who we can build an offense around. Interchangeable parts may be nice, but give me a couple of studs instead.

I see your point, but I think most experts will tell you that the biggest improvement players have comes between their freshman and sophomore years.

Rorie’s first year at Montana was actually his 3rd year in college after a year at Oregon and a RS year. I think you can make the argument that Beasley’s and Whitney’s freshman years were at least as good and possibly better than Cherry’s and Pridgett’s.

I think a lot of the optimism comes from the potential from the younger classes. Owens improved tremendously going from part-time starter to honorable mention Big Sky. DCH was held back by injuries so the jury is still out on his improvement. Vazquez went from 5ppg to 8ppg game and improved in all shooting categories.

Big jumps from the Frosh and moderate jumps from the sophs will be important. Player development will be key this summer.

I have always believed that the biggest jump for players occur from their sophomore season to their junior season, providing that these players see significant PT as sophomores, which several of the Griz players have done. We'll see how they develop. I am more concerned at how they develop defensively than offensively. We finished near the bottom among all Division I teams in total team fouls last season. Way too many silly and "reach-in" fouls. They need to clean that up this season.
 
hunt-ducks said:
CleanHOUSE said:
I mostly agree with you here, last years team was young, but they also might not have been very good. I think what gets a lot of people is almost everyone who played significant minutes "Flashed" as it were demonstrating above average talent and skill in certain areas. However, consistency is a pretty important talent as well. People get caught up in projecting and evaluating players based on the best levels they "Flashed" but the reality is there are tons a players that never take the step of consistently playing to the best of their abilities and at some point you have to value them as what they contribute on average and not on what their upside is. If you judge our guys by that standard our team was pretty average last year. Now that being said I think our team last year was probably a bit better than their actual result because although consistency is a talent it does usually suffer a lot from inexperience, further I think the talent's of the team last year were probably not maximized due to poor team composition, we had some pretty big weakness (lack of size and power and not taking open perimeter shots) that other teams could take advantage of to neutralize/diminish the talent/skill areas our players did possess. Also each player has to be evaluated individually when projecting, an although I think everyone was pretty inconsistent and I dont expect everyone next year to suddenly become more consistent and the best versions of themselves just because of a year of experience, I think there were a few guys that flashed such high ceilings that I think it is a pretty safe bet that they will improve their consistency just by virtue of the game being easier for them due to superior talent. Namely, Beasley, Owens, and Bannon. I think those three are well above average talent for Bigsky so if they do take a big step forward next year I could see our team having 3 consistent value added guys every night surrounded by plenty of other guys who can flash on any given night. If that happens I think we can be much improved. However, we were mediocre team last year so much improved still doesn't make the Griz any sort of lock to be fighting for the top of the conference. Final point, you say you don't see any Cherry, Rorie, Pridgett guys, I would say keep in mind some guys make big jumps and kind of just explode into being the guy rather than slow linear growth. Pridgett always flashed his talent, but kind of exploded to another level as a top tier guy in his Jr and Sr seasons and I think there's players on our roster who have the talent to go to an elite Bigsky level next year.


Good post. From what I saw last season, we are very deep with about 8-10 kids who are average Big Sky players. From that group, I agree that Beasley and Bannon could become very good players before they graduate.

Blind resume test. Rank these players from 1-3 with 1 being the best. Then comment on how big of difference between the 3 or is it relatively even.



A 16.7p/3.3r/3.7a/2.2TO. 53%FG/45%3p/81%ft
B 13.0p/3.5r/7.5a/3.0TO. 49%FG/49%3p/79%ft
C 16.0/3.0r/3.3a/2.6TO. 47%FG/45%3p/93%ft
 
GrizBall said:
hunt-ducks said:
Good post. From what I saw last season, we are very deep with about 8-10 kids who are average Big Sky players. From that group, I agree that Beasley and Bannon could become very good players before they graduate.

Blind resume test. Rank these players from 1-3 with 1 being the best. Then comment on how big of difference between the 3 or is it relatively even.



A 16.7p/3.3r/3.7a/2.2TO. 53%FG/45%3p/81%ft
B 13.0p/3.5r/7.5a/3.0TO. 49%FG/49%3p/79%ft
C 16.0/3.0r/3.3a/2.6TO. 47%FG/45%3p/93%ft


And your point is? Every team in the conference, even the bottom-dwellers, had leading scorers. After all, the points have to come from somewhere, right? Does that mean that a leading scorer from Idaho, Sac. State or Idaho State is a great player? I don't think so. There are many more factors in evaluating a player than their offensive stats. If I missed the point of your post, please explain what you are asking.
 
hunt-ducks said:
GrizBall said:
Blind resume test. Rank these players from 1-3 with 1 being the best. Then comment on how big of difference between the 3 or is it relatively even.



A 16.7p/3.3r/3.7a/2.2TO. 53%FG/45%3p/81%ft
B 13.0p/3.5r/7.5a/3.0TO. 49%FG/49%3p/79%ft
C 16.0/3.0r/3.3a/2.6TO. 47%FG/45%3p/93%ft


And your point is? Every team in the conference, even the bottom-dwellers, had leading scorers. After all, the points have to come from somewhere, right? Does that mean that a leading scorer from Idaho, Sac. State or Idaho State is a great player? I don't think so. There are many more factors in evaluating a player than their offensive stats. If I missed the point of your post, please explain what you are asking.

I guess I disagree with your assertion that Montana was 8-10 “average” Big Sky players. Since Montana basically had an 8 man rotation I took that as the whole team was average players. A balanced team doesn’t equal a team of average players. There were players on the 2nd and 3rd all conference teams that I don’t think were noticeably better than some of the Montana players.

Idaho was by far the worst team in the BSC and even they had players that were better than Big Sky average players. At least I hope so, because one of them plays for us now
 
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