Pan-Am Games - Pick Your Favorite Roster...

[GumbyDamnit!]

Certainly a post that someone who is insecure and thin-skinned would write. People are still picking you first in the preseason so clearly they have respect for your talent and your program. The reality is that the league is very good. Look at the positions of your returning guys around the league and tell me who you would take. At guard you have Markus howard, James akinjo, Myles Powell, kamar Baldwin, Markus zegarowski, ty shon Alexander, Mitch ballock, Paul scruggs, Myles Cale, etc. where are you putting Collin Gillespie among those guys? I’m not sure I’d take him over any of them. At forward without the Hausers you have more of a case for bey and samuels but you still have alpha diallo, naji Marshall, Paul reed, josh Leblanc, etc that you could take in front of them. In previous years nova has always had guys returning that were clearly the class of the league at their positions (Mikal bridges and Jalen Brunson last year, josh hart and kris Jenkins before that, arcidiacano before them, etc). That’s not the case this year

So an informed opinion is now insecurity and thin-skinned? Yeah, OK. Do you really think a fan of a team that has won (2) NC's in 4 years and 5 of 6 conference titles is fishing for reassurances about their team? No, this is an opinion-based forum and I am expressing my opinion.

I'm not arguing against MH, Baldwin or Powell--clearly the best of the returning talent. You start there. Every other name is open to debate. So let's debate. Let's look at the other 2 wing/forwards you mentioned, as an example, and let's compare both to Jermaine Samuels. Seems like slam dunks as Naji and Alpha are both very talented, well established players in this conference, and JS was the 4th or 5th best Nova player last year. I took all 3 players and compared stats per 40 min. Here's what I found (results are 1st, 2nd, 3rd in order; TO's are lowest to highest):

PPG - AD / NM / JS
RPG - JS / AD / NM
APG - NM / AD / JS
STl - AD / NM / JS
BLK - JS / AD / NM
TO - JS / AD / NM
FG% - JS / AD / NM
FT% - NM / AD / JS
3FG% - JS / AD / NM

If you assign 3 - 2 - 1 pts for each category this is how it shakes out:
AD = 20
JS = 19
NM = 15

JS was the best player in 5 of the 9 categories, while the other 2 split the other 4 categories. Now let's peel back the onion a little more... Knowing that Cooley is a good coach he would hopefully construct a team of complimentary players. You only have 1 BB to go around, and it is safe to assume that MP and MH would dominate that ball (with a little Kamar sprinkled in). So you don't need a ton of scoring or assists as that wing certainly would not be handling the ball all that much. All the other intangibles are key: play D, grab rebounds, block shots, hit the open 3, etc. This is where JS seems to have an advantage over the other 2, at least statistically.

The other 2 players are excellent. I'm not trying to take anything away from them. But this is what happens. Nova players serve as complimentary pieces for a couple of years and then take off when they become team leaders. It'll happen again this year. Otherwise based on this proposed roster it seems that CU, G'town, X and SHU are the teams with all the returning talent.

[scoscox]

All I’m doing is trying to make the point that it is hardly a crime to leave any of the nova returning guys off the team. You could reasonably come to that conclusion without an anti nova bias. Honestly I would take at least 5-6 guys before I would consider Collin Gillespie. I’d be surprised if even nova fans disagreed considering some of the things being said about him during the season.

As far as your jermaine samuels metrics, that was very slick way to interpret stats, but extrapolating 40 minute stats for a role player is dangerous because as roles change players have to adjust. Is jermaine samuels going to maintain such a high fg% when his offensive role increases? Probably not. Najis plummeted after being extremely high as a freshman because he became the focal point of the offense after being a 5th option. The same thing is true of his turnovers and 3pt%. It’s just easier to be efficient as a role player.

If you really examine the stats further you find naji averaging 5 more points a game, 1 fewer rebound, 2 more assists, 1 more steal.

I’m not saying I wouldn’t take him. I might because I think he’s very good and probably will break out this year but if he were to be left off the team I wouldn’t see it as being a huge oversight.

[BEXU]

With all the foreign trips, it may be a case of who is left or maybe split squads.

[CoachK]

Not sure if this has been mentioned anywhere, but I'm pretty sure that Kevin Willard is going to be one of the assistants. So you would think a couple of Seton Hall guys in the mix.

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I don't think Willard is going to miss 4-5 days of the Hall's Trip to Italy. Someone else will be assisting.
Plus he can't be in 2 places for pretrip practices, etc. SH has to be his top priority.

https://www.app.com/story/sports/colleg ... 487153001/

Senior guard Myles Powell and junior wing Myles Cale are on the 14-man roster, which was announced Tuesday. Hall coach Kevin Willard is on the coaching staff as an assistant to Providence’s Ed Cooley.