Am rooting for Slim big time...so it's a yes.  Likely not tonight but in second round tomorrow.  Question is will he stick with G league for very long.  His skill set on offense is untapped and undeveloped.  He runs the floor exceptionally well and is a nightmare on traps which brings value to the right team.  Any scout who saw the allyoop at Smitty when he went up left elbow above the square to grab and dunk, took notice.  It was freakishly good.  And he's mature with a good work ethic.  

The continuity factor is all but gone these days, with CC being the only common denominator for this team.  What makes someone a great coach?  What qualities did Auerbach and Wooden have that separated them?  How did Dusty May and Brad Stevens work miracles.  Yes, having access to the superior talent helped, but there had to be more. Auerbach loved one speedy ball handler with a longer tough defensive minded 2, a lanky long wiry wing at the 3, a bruiser at the 4, and a track star at center like Russell, Cowens, and Parish.  They all ran the floor on breaks and owned the boards.  They had playbooks, drills, conditioning and fundamental discipline ingrained. 

One measure I found interesting was how Noel Brown did at St. Bon in a new system with Schmidt.  He had a specific role with defined footwork and looked his best.  Was it his coming of age or the new system?
Same for Autry this year.  Will they get him open looks in their scheme, or is he going to have to force the issue like last year?

One thing I know for sure is that CC has had the attention of his teams and they always came to play minus a few stinker games.  I hope his playbook, philosophy, motivation, and fundamental skill building shines bright.  The talent is sure to be improved.  

 

Agree with majority but would replace Joe Bam (his best yrs came after GW) and Potter, with Matt Hart and Ricky Lindo who were both pretty impactful.  

Watching some of his videos reminded me of Reggie Lewis (6'7" long strides and good leaper.)
He also conjured up an old memory of Les Anderson walking into the Tin Tab for the first time.  You knew there was something special about him both athletically and character wise.  He just had "it"!!!
Here's to hoping that Deng has "it" and gels with what appears to be an intriguing and eclectic group of guys.
Amazing how this team is almost a complete rebuild.  Can't wait to see them in action.

Thanks Insiders...a few random thoughts:  Agree that it would've been nice to see Jones and Autry continue developing, but equally fascinating will be how they do in their respective new situations both coaching and campus wise.   

Always fun to speculate starting 5's even when way too early.  This past years disclosure of injuries left us all hanging.  So, not only don't we know how much each transfer is receiving as compensation, we also don't know their health status and complete injury history.  Is it possible that some players never fully recovered their pre injury form?  Remains to be seen how money, personality, durability, and coaching get's mixed into the soup.

As for expanding the NCAA tourny to 76, I agree that the number of play-in games is awful and it's only purpose is $$.  Personally, I would get rid of conference tournaments because it negates the meaning of the regular in conference season.  Teams beat on each other for months to win the conference.  That should be enough.  Yes, cinderella stories are wonderful but if you go 14-4 in conference you should be a wild card not need to win 4 games in 4 nights.  Add 2 games to the conference schedule.

Oh well...hope the next 5 months bring pleasant surprises to GW hoops.

Following in the Bill Maher "New Rules" segment:  Will somebody please tell me why everything has to come down to analytics?  I get the OOC debate as it relates to KenPom, but can't a schedule be structured that makes sense geographically and also challenges a team with healthy competition. Now that all the NIL and recruiting issues are taking shape, the task at hand will be to take 14 different egos coming from 14 different schools plus a few other countries and 14 coaches.  Can only imagine the first time all the players and coaches meet in the same room for their first meeting.  Would love to hear each member give a few minute intro about where they're coming from to begin meshing together.  For me, that's the most fascinating part of all this. Then get in the gym and find out who has the best shot, leaping ability, strength, quickness and competitive fire.  The players usually know who should start after scrimmaging for hours at the direction of the coaching staff.  If the players are clearly given specific roles after running with each other, the bench takes shape.  And the best would be having CC ask: "so how did they do it at Houston, or Pitt, or ND, etc."  

This promises to be a fascinating season with lots of talent and many new rules.  Should be fun.

Wow, lot's of school and player shuffling happening in this wild wild world of college hoops.  Good luck Vinny even though I never knew you.  What's the latest on CJ?  Curious how all these pieces to the puzzle shake out at all these schools and what exactly the Revs will morph into.  

 

When one tries to imagine everything that goes into assembling a roster these days, it has to be head exploding 🤯!!  Can only imagine the war room with mountains of names, analytics, $$ considerations, bios, film, etc.  The process is similar to a real estate closing except that there are 6 or 7 going on simultaneously that have to mesh with each other. And it’s not over til it’s over.

Here’s to welcoming Terrance and wishing Coach Caputo the best of luck in pressing all the right buttons at this crazy time🍀

Maybe we can find a couple of 7 foot Croatian pros around 28 years old who want a grad degree.
Some snarky comments are floating around out there saying that the average age of Michigans team tonight is older than the OKC Thunder in the NBA  .  Auburn is actually the oldest averaging 23.5 years old. OKC is 25.  Not so far off.  

I saw the CNN documentary and agree it was informative i.e. all the point shaving nonsense dating back decades.

As for coaching in the present day climate of $$ and transfers, a couple of things never change: 1)Evaluating talent and 2) Developing talent.  I would credit Dusty May as pulling off some miracles at FAU as well as Michigan.  At FAU you could see how each player improved exponentially while the team blended as well. Michigan was 8-24 in 23/24 and second rd NIT exits in 22 and 24.  Last year 19-14 and this year 36-3 playing for championship.  That is remarkably fast even though the resources are there.  He knows what he wants.

Hurley developed his players to the max as well.  Look at Malachi Smith (who will probably play more minutes tonight because of Ball having foot issues) under Hurley. He's a different player than he was at Dayton. Tarris Reed has improved each year to the point where he can dominate.  Hurley deserves alot of credit for emphasizing that each and every possession is valuable.  He controls tempo as well as anyone, coaches his kids very hard, and obviously emphasizes discipline from the beginning of the season.

I thought CC did a good job in developing Castro, Aranguren, Hunger, and Marshall.  But that's pretty much it.  Let's see if we can be pleasantly surprised next season.