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- Long Suffering Fan
- Buff & Blue Club
Offline - Registered: 7/23/2019
- Posts: 2,583
Re: Good News Ahead!
Joel Joseph wrote:
If this is "great news" and the quality of player we are filling our needs with, it's going to be another mediocre season.
As someone used to say, we need Power 5 talent to compete in the A-10! Not #10-15 P-5 players who realize they want to finish out their college careers with a little more playing time.
Hopefully I am proven wrong. All I'm asking for is the type of transfer hits we used to get at GW - Zeke, Cavanaugh, Mo, etc. They are out there. CC needs to put on the sales pitch charm.
After looking at his stats from last season, I am in Joel's camp on this one...skeptical. One stat that immediately jumpted out at me was in 313 minutes on the court, he shot only 8 free throws. At 6'10: 260 lbs, how do you only get to the line 8 times for the season? How passive must he be? His rebounding numbers were nothing special. I would say that maybe he is filling the Hansen role as a big with an outside touch,since he obviously is not a banger or a low post player, but he shot 2-18 from the 3 for the season. Those are Buchanan numbers. Hopefully the initangibles are there and he is a great defender and sets a good pick, but there is nothing in his stat line that I really like. I assume he will see similar minutes at GW (around 12 per game), maybe a few more, as I hope that we aren't looking at him for 25-30 minutes per game. Frankly to me, this signing has an air of desperation about it. Somebody tell me why we should be excited.
- GW0509
- Administrator
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- Registered: 7/22/2019
- Posts: 3,057
Re: Good News Ahead!
It seems like we were close on Kam Craft and have shown interest in some other guys that are similar
Kam Craft reportedly is getting $900,000 next year from Georgia Tech. That’s probably close to 1/3 of our basketball roster budget so adjust your expectations accordingly.
- Free Quebec
- Buff & Blue Club
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- Registered: 7/22/2019
- Posts: 2,192
Re: Good News Ahead!
Hey, Rising, can we get some more good news in the next couple days?
- Gwmayhem
- Buff & Blue Club
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- Registered: 7/22/2019
- Posts: 2,899
Re: Good News Ahead!
Let's start with Luke. All hail the P4 + BE player who transfers "down" to GW. The comparison to those who transfer "up" is stark. It's also consistent with a new 5 year study which indicated that 70% of college basketball transfers are "transfer down" situations, which includes transferring to a weaker program within the same tier (say a Marquette player transferring to DePaul). At GW, Slim Castro is only the latest example of a long list which also includes (among others) Zeke Armwood, Mo Creek, Tyler Cavanaugh, Jaren Sina, and James Bishop. Even guys like Joe Bamisile, Max Edwards, and Darren Buchanan who transferred down and then out more than proved their worth while playing for GW.
Hunger saw limited opportunities on a Northwestern team whose season fell into the crapper (and then almost out of it) due largely to injuries to Brooks Barnhizer and Jalen Leach. Nick Martinelli became the sole focal point for the offense and Matt Nicholson was the center of choice for Chris Collins. As one writer who followed the team put it, perhaps Hunger will not be as undersized a center at GW as he was in the Big 10. I have to believe there's much truth to this. Take away the small sample size of 2-18 shooting 3's (from a guy who does seem to like taking them) and I think there's a lot to like here as long as expectations are reasonable. Luke will not be another Castro, playing alongside Castro, but as a guy who can help patrol the lane and get his hands dirty at the center position, Luke can certainly help fill the Sean Hansen role even if he'll go about this a bit differently.
I did not see Hofstra play this past season though it was perhaps noteworthy that the team endured a subpar season relative to recent seasons. Jean's statistics certainly imply he possesses sound abilities as a complete player and perhaps the team's record had more to do with his supporting cast. Nevertheless, the notion of bring in a good player on a below 500 CAA team does not sound overly inspiring if the recent past is any indication. (Trey Moss played on a 23 loss William & Mary team while Gerald Drumgoole competed on a better 19-14 Delaware squad.) In the end, it will boil down to how Aranguren fits within the existing backcourt as there's not much to suggest that his presence will substantially elevate it.
In any case, a sincere welcome to both Luke and Jean to GW.
- dmvpiranha
- Moderator
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- Registered: 7/23/2019
- Posts: 1,395
Re: Good News Ahead!
Take away the small sample size of 2-18 shooting 3's (from a guy who does seem to like taking them) and I think there's a lot to like here as long as expectations are reasonable.
Agreed. I think as a backup it's not a bad get and he has played in high leverage situations on a Big 10 team during his second year. I'm imagining him as being like Isaac Jack at Dayton (probably because both were backups and are Canadian). Having said that, I can understand where people are coming from when they are not impressed by his metrics when he did see the floor. His highlight film also shows that - he has a slightly awkward hitch when he shoots, but I did like when he made decisive moves in the mid-post and accelerated to the basket for a layup.
I did not see Hofstra play this past season though it was perhaps noteworthy that the team endured a subpar season relative to recent seasons. Jean's statistics certainly imply he possesses sound abilities as a complete player and perhaps the team's record had more to do with his supporting cast.
I think Aranguren is easily the best get of the three guys GW has landed so far. Hofstra had a subpar season because they lost nearly 80% of their scoring (their top four guys) from 2023-24 to either the transfer portal or graduation. Jean really stuffed the stat sheet and was relatively efficient despite the Pride not having many options.
Nevertheless, the notion of bring in a good player on a below 500 CAA team does not sound overly inspiring if the recent past is any indication. (Trey Moss played on a 23 loss William & Mary team while Gerald Drumgoole competed on a better 19-14 Delaware squad.)
I get this, and I have some trepidation about another CAA guy coming to GW myself. I do think Jean is the best of the three CAA guys though. Moss was never a good three point shooter, and Drumgoole showed over the course of his career that he was streaky from both 3 and the FT line (which played out in his final year here). Aranguren appears to be a bit more consistent, although he was still admittedly less efficient against better competition. There's enough to like for me to look past this, which is something I didn't feel about Drumgoole or Moss a year ago at this time when we landed both. Jean gets to the rim, is a good passer, draws contact, can shoot more consistently, and is a pretty good defender. Pretty good metrics across the board, and even averaging 1.1 steals per game is pretty good given how slowly Hofstra played last year. He's also pulled down 10+ rebounds in multiple games as a 6'3" guard.