re: Tide Hoops | Recruiting

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This team will have a much higher upside if we are being honest.

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Are we being serious? Last year's team returned like 90% of a final 4 roster. The only significant loss was Estrada and we brought in both a top portal and recruiting class. We were preseason #2 and deservedly so.

This off-season we've lost every starting player off the roster and have decent portal and recruiting classes. I've no doubt we'll still have a competitive team because Nate is a great coach but to say the roster as is has a higher upside than last year is sunshine pumping to absurd levels.

Joka Oats put an emphasis on guys with Elite defensive Traits in this portal class. He had enough shooting already….and honestly his offense is gonna score points no matter what. We had Galen Smith and 1 hand Herb Jones his first year and still was scoring 80/90pts a game

Imagine a lineup of

Wrightsell
Bethea
Jones
TBB
SHERRELL…

SHOO WEEE THE LENGTH!!

Scouting notes on Keonte Jones from February

This article has a section on Jones as a potential draft prospect. Could see him starting at the 3 and being used as a secondary playmaker.

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The closest thing we appear to have penciled in is Holloway running point by default if Philon stays in the draft. Ironically, he is the one I would prefer most to come off the bench.

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That's because Holloway is a damn spark plug. And it's so much fun watching a guy with his game come in as a 6th man, and change up the flow to the game. Especially since there's a noticable style difference between him and Philon.

It'll be interesting to see what happens in the NBA combine. Next week is a big week. But it looks like everyone has Philip as a late 1st pick. Even if he performs mediocre, he's still got age working to his advantage. So I'm but sure if he will drop into the 2nd round. Question is, how fun is he about needing to be top 20 to stay. Because every mock I've seen has him going at 28/29. That's still years of guaranteed money, and hard to turn down.

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and Wrightsell coming off injury .

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To add to that, I remember reading recently Oats saying he likes a Wrightsell coming in as a 6th man. He mentioned his playing style and coming off injury as a couple reasons. I expect him to ease him in early on, so he's full speed by SEC play.

Holloway definitely needs wings and a 4 or 5 at the rim that can cover his deficiencies on defense. Hopefully our roster will provide that.

Keonte Jones 6'6
Amari Allen 6'7
London Jemison 6'8
Keitenn Bristow 6'9
Taylor Bol Bowen 6'10 (has a crazy wingspan)

Against certain lineups...you could trot this 5 out there.

So much ATHLETICISM.

By the way, we all are talking like Jones is committed lol

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On defense, you actually can’t. He’d be the worst starting perimeter defender we’ve had in the Nate Oats era, with JQ the only one giving him a run for his money. He’s a train wreck on defense, and often had to come out of games due to foul trouble after limited bench minutes.

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drtg per 100 and dbpm

aden- 111.7 2.3
wrightsell- (23-24)- 112.2 2.5
mark- (22-23)- 96.1 4.2
(23-24)- 111.9 2.1
(24-25)- 112.3 1.2
youngblood- 112.6 2.4
shack- (21-22)- 108.2 0.0
jq- (20-21)- 100.9 1.5
(21-22)- 110.1 -0.4
(22-23)- 97.9 2.6
rylan- 115.2 0.6
primo- 98.7 2.1
keon- (20-21)- 90.3 6.0
(21-22)- 102.1 3.8
herb- (19-20)- 100.1 3.4
(20-21)- 90.6 5.3

a much more pressing issue is how the team D will look as that always has an impact on the individuals. aden last season was by no means a stud defender but hardly what one would call a lost cause. usually solid on ball but struggled with screen recovery and rotations, which is very coachable and easily mitigated by help defenders who know what theyre doing. last season the team as a whole had recurring struggles on that front, which was by no means just adens fault.
the point is theres no reason to suggest the D still cant possibly become very good to elite. the best examples of that are the 20-21 season where the team was generally undersized playing shack and jq extended minutes while reese was at center, and the 22-23 season that had a starting backcourt of jq and mark.

"and the 22-23 season that had a starting backcourt of jq and mark."

Jq wasn't really the starting pg in 22/23, he was 6th man of the year. He was certainly a critical part of the backcourt, but Bradley was really the starter and Bradley is a hell of a defensive player and a very big physical pg. That team was huge everywhere when they needed to be and you could have Chuck, Clowney, Miller, Griffen and Bradley all on the court at the same time. Thats just ridiculous length.

I always thought that is what led to so many insane blowouts for that team. If they got on top, teams would just crumble against their size on defense

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Honestly, not sure that I believe what these stats would suggest. They think Keon was a better defender than Herb in his SEC POY season and Aden was a better defender than Mark last year. Neither of those are remotely true IMO. I know defensive advanced stats are bit trickier than offensive ones, but I’m still a bit surprised by these.


That said:

20-21 had Petty, Herb, Ellis on the perimeter when needing a stop, and even if you insert JQ or Shack with Herb playing the 4 those 3 could help erase the defensive deficit.

22-23 had Miller, Clowney, and Bediako who were all elite defenders with huge length to help erase the shorter guards mistakes.

Not sure we have 3 elite defenders with huge length, or possibly the best defender to ever wear Crimson suiting up next season. Hopefully Aden will work really hard this offseason to become serviceable on defense, but I would definitely prefer him be a bench player and not on the floor late in games when we need stops.

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the reason keons was slightly above herbs was due to less minutes, where as herb played most the game including the less defensive savvy lineups such as when jq and shack were in at the same time.

right, whether the current roster will have that i have no idea, but as pointed out already with all the length and what not that we do have, its possible.