I can see Harris,Hughes,Walker,Mitch staying put and the rest are new guys... Which we are allowed 13 scholarships I believe... So maybe 9 new hungry ball players.. Sounds extreme which it is but it has also worked at other places.. Coach has got to get some guys with some fire in their bellies as SFA Jack Fanatic said...

Jacks4460 said:

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I can see Harris,Hughes,Walker,Mitch staying put and the rest are new guys... Which we are allowed 13 scholarships I believe... So maybe 9 new hungry ball players.. Sounds extreme which it is but it has also worked at other places.. Coach has got to get some guys with some fire in their bellies as SFA Jack Fanatic said...

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I agree with the four that you identified, but I think there's a chance that Hughes will transfer to a school where he can get more playing time right away. Bain and Comeaux deserve spots, but not as starters. Including the three recruits (if Pope makes it here), that will make a total of seven new faces coming in.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it (for the next few hours, anyway...)

Jacks4460 said:

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SFA Jack Fanatic said:

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Personally, if we don't have at least three or four players transferring, then I'll be very disappointed.

Whether we like to admit it or not, we had two studs and several mediocre (at best) D-1 level players this year. Do we really want all of those mediocre players back next year? Not me. They may be "likeable" guys and familiar faces, but they're not the level of players that'll get us back to the Big Dance. Admit it. I want to bring in some new blood. Some D-1 level guys with some fire in their bellies. I saw very little of that this year. SFA MBB must never be satisfied with mediocrity!

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Great post!!! Feel the same... I am told TJ is gone too and its not a secret because the kids know it... I dont think TJ is gone until I hear it from him mysel..,,

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he gone now...

Departing:
Jovan Grujic - Graduating
TJ Holyfield - Transfer
Shannon Bogues - Graduating
Davante Fitzgerald - Graduating
Aaron Augustin - Removed
Karl Nicholas - Removed

Incoming:
Samazha Hart
Tylan Pope
David Kachelries

So that leaves three spots to fill as of now?

Yep and we're in need of a plug and play forward.

TallTexan said:

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Yep and we're in need of a plug and play forward.

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A plug and ply forward? Is that some weird new position that Coach K plans to experiment with?

Didn't really have a place for this, so it's going here.

I took off the one tweet that had supposed overheard quotes which runs afoul of our posting policies. Anyone that wants to read Jones' stuff in their entirety can go to his twitter, but be aware that twitter rants by ex-assistants who feel they have been slighted are not necessarily even-handed. This topic has been discussed at length on the Premium side.

May need to reactivate premium so I can see that convo. Just looked up the tweets and they were, um, interesting to say the least...

There goes another. Great. All seems well.

Not surprised that Jock Hughes is transferring. Here's a guy that came to our program after an outstanding high school career at Jack Yates in Houston. Unfortunately, he couldn't create his own shot. He had to be wide open in order to get his shot off. Defensively, he was not strong. I wish him luck and hope that he works on his game because it's not ready for mid major college basketball.

Rev007 said:

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Not surprised that Jock Hughes is transferring. Here's a guy that came to our program after an outstanding high school career at Jack Yates in Houston. Unfortunately, he couldn't create his own shot. He had to be wide open in order to get his shot off. Defensively, he was not strong. I wish him luck and hope that he works on his game because it's not ready for mid major college basketball.

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I mean, who was strong on defense? And was he really any worse that anyone else on offense not named Shannon or Kevon?

if you can convince me he was leaps and bounds worse than some of the guys who did play, then I'll accept it.

I don't think he ever got a real chance to show IF he could do it. We have a roster full of guys who look like they are not ready for mid-major basketball.

It also means we did a piss poor job in recruiting/developing. Either we recruited a guy who wasn't good enough or we over estimated our ability to develop him into a good enough player.

Reguardless I wish him the very best. He was fun to watch.

I just fear hes not the last to leave.

I'm hoping and praying that Mitch stays

Figured for a while this one was coming, as unfortunate as it is. This is a case of what-if? It is painfully clear three years in, that Keller isn't big on freshman getting a lot of PT unless absolutely necessary, and wants the guys to get a chance to develop during practice instead of being thrown into the fire.

Still, late in the season I think a little playing time to see what we actually had there would have been nice.

Wish Jock luck. I feel like the bleeding has stopped, but who knows...

No one that ended the season was strong on defense. Mitch blocked a few shots, but he got pushed around a lot. Bottom line, we either had bottom if he barrel talent which is what I suspect or we had poor coaching which I doubt. I never saw a sense of urgency by the players to improve. Game after game,
we left the 3 point shooters wide open, and we weren't even double teaming. Where were all the steals and deflections that we had in the past?

My main concern with Hughes is that he is a set shooter and can't get his shot off unless he is wide open. I could accept adequate defense if he had some offense at the college level. He's not alone. Too many of our players would receive a pass without being in triple threat position. This made it so easy for the opponents' defense to close out on our players. The season was a complete disaster. I hope we can get out recruiting right this time because I can't accept that it is just a crap shoot when scouting, recruiting, and signing players to a scholarship.

* of the barrel

Rev007 said:

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No one that ended the season was strong on defense. Mitch blocked a few shots, but he got pushed around a lot. Bottom line, we either had bottom if he barrel talent which is what I suspect or we had poor coaching which I doubt. I never saw a sense of urgency by the players to improve. Game after game,
we left the 3 point shooters wide open, and we weren't even double teaming. Where were all the steals and deflections that we had in the past?

My main concern with Hughes is that he is a set shooter and can't get his shot off unless he is wide open. I could accept adequate defense if he had some offense at the college level. He's not alone. Too many of our players would receive a pass without being in triple threat position. This made it so easy for the opponents' defense to close out on our players. The season was a complete disaster. I hope we can get out recruiting right this time because I can't accept that it is just a crap shoot when scouting, recruiting, and signing players to a scholarship.

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I think I agree with you that this just may have been a misfire in recruiting. But I also place some blame with the coaches.

You would think during the end of the year when we were losing eight out of the last 10 games that we just might try something different. Just for the hell of it you know.

What concerns me is if we misfire in recruiting again. We may be looking at a team that can't win 10 games if some of our new guys don't hit immediately.

Not surprised at losing Jock. Anyone who's been paying attention could see it coming. But when you think about it, did we really lose anything? How many minutes did he play?

I really hope that Mitch stays. He has a future here, especially if he can bulk up some. He and Jock are close friends, so we'll see.

I think we are on the same page. Both of us are disappointed and never want to see such a pathetic season of Jacks Basketball again.

Coaches should surely take some blame, especially for not giving playing time to some of our freshmen.

I have a suspicion that the expectations were too low at the start of the season, but too low by our coaching staff. Perhaps because of the loss of TJ and the early injuries to John and Aaron. I for one was pumped up when the season started. My expectations were sky high. However, I had the opportunity to meet with one of the coaches, and he clearly did not express optimism in the 2018-2019 season. If I had that impression after meeting with him for only a few minutes, it's possible the team and coaching staff sensed the same. I hope I'm wrong about this because it would be a major mistake to have low expectations and basically write off the season, and I'm not claiming that it happened. Just a possibility.

It would be nice to have players coming in next year with fire in their bellies.

CertifiedAxeman98 said:

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Keller mentioned he tried changing the offense several times this year, basically to see if anything would stick.

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Could have fooled me.

With all the defections he's going to have trouble running anything.

BigJack85 said:

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With all the defections he's going to have trouble running anything.

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people were giving me crap for saying we were gonna have 9 new players...

Jacks4460 said:

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BigJack85 said:

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With all the defections he's going to have trouble running anything.

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people were giving me crap for saying we were gonna have 9 new players...

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sitting at six now? It's getting closer to nine. Lol

If anyone wants to spot me some cash for a doctorate, I think I have a couple good years of ball left in me.

I think I could fit in well, especially if I didn't have to shoot or pass or dribble or be in position on defense or rebound.

In all seriousness, where do we stand on filling the vacant spots?

We have 6 players gone (TJ, Jock, AA, Karl, Jovan, Fitz) and to my knowledge only have three coming in
(Pope, Hart and Kach)

Still a ton of holes in the roster.

We are currently losing seven players:
Graduation -
Shannon Bogues
Devonte Fitzgerald
Jovan Grujic

Transfer -
TJ Holyfield
Jock Hughes

Other -
Aaron Augustin (I'm not sold he is completely out of the picture in Nac)
Karl Nicholas

Don't forget Aaron Walton. He was the JUCO transfer that left the team early in the season. Wasn't he on scholarship?

Thought he was the walk on that replaced Harrison Perkins spot on the roster