2023 Transfer Portal Thread

[gmujim92]

Completely agree, and it’s not a knock on those guys whatsoever, just shouldn’t build them up to be something their numbers don’t say they are. Not to say they can’t improve, or won’t do better with more volume, but there’s nothing that suggests that outside of Hall and Maddox that any of our incoming transfers are huge outside threats.

Newton played in the ACC and Big 12, pretty sure he’s gonna find it slightly easier to get buckets in the garbage A-10 lol

 

[GMUgemini]

I’d put our “shooters” as Maddox, Polite, Dinkins (yes, the kid can shoot), and Ball in that order of confidence. Hall has interesting numbers but I haven’t actually watched him play and his volume is too low to know (that’s true of his 68% FT shooting too — making one more FT would have put him at 72%, for instance).

But if we are generating turnovers and getting a bunch of transitions layups, I think we can all live with a highly athletic lineup getting a bunch of runouts and not necessarily launching threes on every possession like we have the last two seasons.

 

[Verdad]

No matter what, we need more shooters (ft and 3pt), whether that comes from improvement upon previous stats by current players or remaining spots filled.

Shooting is the one glaring weakness of the collective group of xfers, but I am happy to have each and every one of them and excited to see how they fit together.

 

[Earl the Squirrel]

I like what they bring so this is not to knock them, but I don't think they've all proven they can shoot it at this level yet. Maddox yes. Let's hope Polite keeps up his shooting from last year. But. . .

Hall has made 10 career 3s, albeit at an impressive 50% clip. Shot 68% from the foul line.

Newton made 7 3s at Syracuse. 33 total threes made on about 30% shooting. Career 59% from the foul line. He also banked a few in on his highlight tape.

Billups has 20 3s on about 25% shooting. Better (~73%) from the line.

I've only seen these guys highlights, but I'm hesitant to declare them shooters. Reminds me of when people thought Saquan would be a good shooter because he hit 36% of his threes two season ago.

No matter what, we need more shooters (ft and 3pt), whether that comes from improvement upon previous stats by current players or remaining spots filled.

Shooting is the one glaring weakness of the collective group of xfers, but I am happy to have each and every one of them and excited to see how they fit together.

Agree with the above sentiment. We do not have a guy who shot a high percentage from beyond the arc last year, on high volume. Hall has a nice release, Maddox hit 50% two years ago, and Polite showed nice improvement the last 10-12 games. Need Ball to come to Fairfax and we need a guy who has demonstrated he can knock them down at a 38%+ rate on volume (but so does every othe program!).

One thing we can count on: opposing shooters are going to struggle to hit from deep against us.

 

[GMU79]

Agree with the above sentiment. We do not have a guy who shot a high percentage from beyond the arc last year, on high volume. Hall has a nice release, Maddox hit 50% two years ago, and Polite showed nice improvement the last 10-12 games. Need Ball to come to Fairfax and we need a guy who has demonstrated he can knock them down at a 38%+ rate on volume (but so does every othe program!).

One thing we can count on: opposing shooters are going to struggle to hit from deep against us.

Tall and in. their. face!
Over the last few years I have been sick of watching guys have career scoring nights against us because they have been left wide open.

 

[masonhoops1984]

Tall and in. their. face!
Over the last few years I have been sick of watching guys have career scoring nights against us because they have been left wide open.

Agreed I don’t think we will be screaming about these guys being too soft. I think people are going to dread playing mason teams coached by Skinn. Offensive Talent will vary from year 2 year but defensive intensity will become a constant.

Not really to say he’ll win the A10 year 1 but I don’t think will see kids being thrown to the grown, punched in the face and out muscled like the last 10 years. Tony’s teams will battle.

 

[Patriotsince81]

I think the team this winter will have the "toughness" that a certain former coach always talked about wanting us to have.

 

[GSII]

Regarding the shooters we need, yall do know our Director of Player Development knows a thing or two about shooting.

 

[hoopsjunkie75]

At a minimum we will have a bench that is capable of playing real D and maybe even putting up some points. We won't be having our usual heart attacks like when Oduro got his second foul 4 mins into the game. I'd love to see a resurrection of the old Green and Gold teams. The A-10 is not going to know what the "F" happened to the milquetoast team of the league.

Bravo, sir. Outside of comic strips, this is only the second time in my life that I have seen this word in use.

 

[psyclone]

Tall and in. their. face!
Over the last few years I have been sick of watching guys have career scoring nights against us because they have been left wide open.

I know it's frustrating when that happens, but, checking Kenpom, Mason was 16th in Division 1 in defensive 3 pt FG % this past year.

 

[mkaufman1]

Agreed I don’t think we will be screaming about these guys being too soft. I think people are going to dread playing mason teams coached by Skinn. Offensive Talent will vary from year 2 year but defensive intensity will become a constant.

Not really to say he’ll win the A10 year 1 but I don’t think will see kids being thrown to the grown, punched in the face and out muscled like the last 10 years. Tony’s teams will battle.

I don’t feel like Mason was outmuscled or lacked the toughness during Kim. Maybe less year 1 than year 2 but in general i didn’t feel this way. Maybe I’m in minority?

Tall and in. their. face!
Over the last few years I have been sick of watching guys have career scoring nights against us because they have been left wide open.

feel like this didn’t happen under English but someone can correct me,

 

[tblack33]

I don’t feel like Mason was outmuscled or lacked the toughness during Kim. Maybe less year 1 than year 2 but in general i didn’t feel this way. Maybe I’m in minority?

feel like this didn’t happen under English but someone can correct me,

False narratives folks on this board have created to justify their feelings on Kim leaving.

 

[Where's the party?]

This year's game against Fordham was the first time in years that Mason wasn't out-toughed. I remember being thrilled after because they play rough and we gave as good as we got. Prior to that game, I felt we got pushed around quite a bit. The Auburn game was a particular embarrassment. Yes, they were by far a better team, but they punked us a lot during that game and there was no response.

 

[GMU79]

I know it's frustrating when that happens, but, checking Kenpom, Mason was 16th in Division 1 in defensive 3 pt FG % this past year.

Yeah, I was really talking about Hewitt and DP's teams.

I don’t feel like Mason was outmuscled or lacked the toughness during Kim. Maybe less year 1 than year 2 but in general i didn’t feel this way. Maybe I’m in minority?

feel like this didn’t happen under English but someone can correct me,

Yeah, I was really talking about Hewitt and DP's teams.

 

[mkaufman1]

This year's game against Fordham was the first time in years that Mason wasn't out-toughed. I remember being thrilled after because they play rough and we gave as good as we got. Prior to that game, I felt we got pushed around quite a bit. The Auburn game was a particular embarrassment. Yes, they were by far a better team, but they punked us a lot during that game and there was no response.

I agree with you about Auburn and there are probably other early season examples.

However as the season went on and especially a10 play I didn’t think we got pushed around. There were some rough nights but I didn’t think we got bullied.

 

[masonhoops1984]

False narratives folks on this board have created to justify their feelings on Kim leaving.

Not at all, mason player got a forearm to the face and they did absolutely nothing about it. I think there’s a very different opinion on what’s soft… has nothing to do with English. Don’t care, wanted Skinn 2 years ago so I’m happy! English was fine and said as much in past. He moved on is what it is, still think for a dude out of Baltimore his teams were soft.

False narratives folks on this board have created to justify their feelings on Kim leaving.

not a false narrative, a difference of opinion? Sure. For a dude out of Baltimore watching his player take a forearm to the face and no one did anything about it, tells me everything I needed to know…. Feel free to disagree but it’s not a false narrative…..

 

[Verdad]

This year's game against Fordham was the first time in years that Mason wasn't out-toughed. I remember being thrilled after because they play rough and we gave as good as we got. Prior to that game, I felt we got pushed around quite a bit. The Auburn game was a particular embarrassment. Yes, they were by far a better team, but they punked us a lot during that game and there was no response.

Agreed - was at both of those games and felt the same as you described after both. Was really excited about how they responded to Fordham’s physicality.

 

[Patriotsince81]

No matter what, we need more shooters (ft and 3pt), whether that comes from improvement upon previous stats by current players or remaining spots filled.

Shooting is the one glaring weakness of the collective group of xfers, but I am happy to have each and every one of them and excited to see how they fit together.

I was curious so I took a look at stats for each new player from last year to see what we MIGHT be getting offensively. I also compared our percentages from last year.

Collectively: The six new guys posted the following numbers last season.
Overall FG% - 378-857 (44.1%) Would have been 203rd in the NCAA.
Last year we were 800-1774 (45.1%) overall. 152nd in NCAA.

Overall 3 PT% - 65-208 (31.25%) Would have been 318th in the NCAA.
Last year we were 240-685 (35%) from 3. 126th in NCAA.

FT% - 218-340 (64.1%) Would have been 343rd in the NCAA.
Last year we were 428-657 (65.1%) from the line. 333rd in NCAA.

Individually:
Hall - FG% 35-73 (47.9%), 3Pt% 10-20 (50.0%), FT% 17-25 (68.0%)
Billups - FG% 72-214 (33.6%), 3Pt% 13-49 (26.5%), FT% 94-131 (71.8%)
Maddox - FG% 64-171 (37.4%), 3Pt% 20-62 (32.3%), FT% 21-24 (87.5%)
Kelly - FG% 104-180 (57.8%), 3Pt% 4-12 (33.3%), FT% 53-82 (64.6%)
Newton - FG% 43-118 (36.4%), 3Pt% 18-65 (27.7%), FT% 21-34 (61.8%)
Pavrette - FG% 60-101 (59.4%), 3Pt% 0-0 (N/A), FT% 12-44 (27.3%)

 

[FlPatriot]

I was curious so I took a look at stats for each new player from last year to see what we MIGHT be getting offensively. I also compared our percentages from last year.

Collectively: The six new guys posted the following numbers last season.
Overall FG% - 378-857 (44.1%) Would have been 203rd in the NCAA.
Last year we were 800-1774 (45.1%) overall. 152nd in NCAA.

Overall 3 PT% - 65-208 (31.25%) Would have been 318th in the NCAA.
Last year we were 240-685 (35%) from 3. 126th in NCAA.

FT% - 218-340 (64.1%) Would have been 343rd in the NCAA.
Last year we were 428-657 (65.1%) from the line. 333rd in NCAA.

Individually:
Hall - FG% 35-73 (47.9%), 3Pt% 10-20 (50.0%), FT% 17-25 (68.0%)
Billups - FG% 72-214 (33.6%), 3Pt% 13-49 (26.5%), FT% 94-131 (71.8%)
Maddox - FG% 64-171 (37.4%), 3Pt% 20-62 (32.3%), FT% 21-24 (87.5%)
Kelly - FG% 104-180 (57.8%), 3Pt% 4-12 (33.3%), FT% 53-82 (64.6%)
Newton - FG% 43-118 (36.4%), 3Pt% 18-65 (27.7%), FT% 21-34 (61.8%)
Pavrette - FG% 60-101 (59.4%), 3Pt% 0-0 (N/A), FT% 12-44 (27.3%)

compared all players or just our staters, if the latter may be an apples to oranges comparison. If one could do a per minute comparison or extrapolate incoming guys to starter minutes might be better.

 

[Patriotsince81]

compared all players or just our staters, if the latter may be an apples to oranges comparison. If one could do a per minute comparison or extrapolate incoming guys to starter minutes might be better.

All players.