Men's Basketball: Are we legit?

[Dolphus Raymond]

I must confess that I know even less about basketball than I do about football, so I have no idea how good we are. The girls? We all know the answer to that, but what about the boys? I am starting to think we have turned the corner. Thoughts?

[msstate7]

Yes. We've got to get better at playing defense consistently, but I think this is a 4-seed type team. As perry and Woodard get more mins, watch out

[ShotgunDawg]

I think we could slip into the Sweet 16, but I don't think we are good enough in the post to go much higher.

If we make it to the Elite 8, I think it's either because Peters scored 35+ in the Sweet 16 game or Perry became something close to a one and done

[Scared_Hitless]

Not enough on the low block to make a deep run. Teams like TN and Duke would feast on our big men. Ado needs to move to a sixth man role and allow Perry to take his lumps and mature for this team to make any noise. Lamar Peters is that guy but I do not think we have enough outside of him that are elite.

So I say depending on the bracket possible sweet sixteen though unlikely, and for SEC a top 4 finish.

[MarketingBully]

Yes. We've got to get better at playing defense consistently, but I think this is a 4-seed type team. As perry and Woodard get more mins, watch out

Defense is fine. The turnovers though need to go down. Depending on time and score have to know when to push and when to set up and run our offense after a stop and defensive rebound. As far as others saying we don’t have an inside game, between what Holman, Perry, and Woodard give us theirs plenty there. Ado needs to improve but we have depth in the post where if he isn’t giving you what you need you can depend on Holman/Perry to get you points there. This is a Sweet 16 type team and could possibly go further given the right matchups in the tourney. I see us as finishing 26-5 (14-4) in the regular season which should get us a 3 or 4 seed in the tourney.

[sleepy dawg]

Lunardi has us as a 5 seed right now which was last updated on the 11th. There's still a whole lot of season left, but we have definitely put ourselves in position to have a very good season. If we keep the pace, we will be as good as any team Stansbury ever put together.

[MarketingBully]

Not enough on the low block to make a deep run. Teams like TN and Duke would feast on our big men. Ado needs to move to a sixth man role and allow Perry to take his lumps and mature for this team to make any noise. Lamar Peters is that guy but I do not think we have enough outside of him that are elite.

So I say depending on the bracket possible sweet sixteen though unlikely, and for SEC a top 4 finish.

Disagree regarding your first point that we don’t have enough low post presence to make a deep run. But then again I’m a bit more bullish on this team then you are it looks like.

[Leeshouldveflanked]

Probably top 15-20.... still very dependent on 3 pt shot...games slow down more when you get to tournament

[msstate7]

I think this board is writing off ado way too quickly. I don't think he's fully healthy. I expect him to be a good defender and rebounder for us by sec play

[Scared_Hitless]

If Ado is injured that would change my tune slightly. We just seem very reliant on the 3 right now. I would love to be wrong for sure. I think a Sweet 16 birth and top 4 finish = a good season IMO

[msstate7]

If Ado is injured that would change my tune slightly. We just seem very reliant on the 3 right now. I would love to be wrong for sure. I think a Sweet 16 birth and top 4 finish = a good season IMO

Damn good season, but it won't win my 100-1 national championship bet I placed haha

[MarketingBully]

If Ado is injured that would change my tune slightly. We just seem very reliant on the 3 right now. I would love to be wrong for sure. I think a Sweet 16 birth and top 4 finish = a good season IMO

That’s our offense. We run a motion and work the ball inside-out for catch and shoot threes or work it inside and drive to the basket for layups and easy buckets inside. There’s a difference with relying on the 3 point shot vs working the ball through your offense to get the best available shot. In the last three games, we have 51 assists on 78 made baskets. That’s pretty dang good and tells you we are moving the ball around to get the best shot.

[Ifyouonlyknew]

If Ado is injured that would change my tune slightly. We just seem very reliant on the 3 right now. I would love to be wrong for sure. I think a Sweet 16 birth and top 4 finish = a good season IMO

Where you see reliant I see exploiting our strength. We have a 8 man rotation, 7 are solid 3pt shooters. You want those guys shooting open good look 3's & they are. Our offense is running at peak efficiency & the open looks we're knocking down aren't flukes it's who we are.

[MarketingBully]

Where you see reliant I see exploiting our strength. We have a 8 man rotation, 7 are solid 3pt shooters. You want those guys shooting open good look 3's & they are. Our offense is running at peak efficiency & the open looks we're knocking down aren't flukes it's who we are.

Exactly. Listen to the man. He knows what he is talking about. 51 assists on 78 made baskets the last three games tells you we are moving the ball around to get the best possible shot.

[gravedigger]

I must confess that I know even less about basketball than I do about football, so I have no idea how good we are. The girls? We all know the answer to that, but what about the boys? I am starting to think we have turned the corner. Thoughts?

What is your definition of legit?

[Scared_Hitless]

Where you see reliant I see exploiting our strength. We have a 8 man rotation, 7 are solid 3pt shooters. You want those guys shooting open good look 3's & they are. Our offense is running at peak efficiency & the open looks we're knocking down aren't flukes it's who we are.

Not disputing any of this, I think we look like a solid top 15 team. Not undervaluing our guys in any shape I love this team and to watch them play. Just see a sweet sixteen type team after watching some of the powers in the country.

[Roy Munson]

Not disputing any of this, I think we look like a solid top 15 team. Not undervaluing our guys in any shape I love this team and to watch them play. Just see a sweet sixteen type team after watching some of the powers in the country.


We have a team that can easily be a spoiler to anyone in the country, something that normally happens to us. We can rain 3's and if they are going down, it will be very hard to beat us especially if we are running and playing good D. We ran into a buzzsaw last night and still won by double digits because why? Well, we just happened to make more 3's than they did. All that said, we can also shoot ourselves right out of the first round if we go 4-23 as we've also done several times this year. Going to be fun to watch...

[Prediction? Pain.]

Yes. We've got to get better at playing defense consistently, but I think this is a 4-seed type team. As perry and Woodard get more mins, watch out


That’s our offense. We run a motion and work the ball inside-out for catch and shoot threes or work it inside and drive to the basket for layups and easy buckets inside. There’s a difference with relying on the 3 point shot vs working the ball through your offense to get the best available shot. In the last three games, we have 51 assists on 78 made baskets. That’s pretty dang good and tells you we are moving the ball around to get the best shot.


Where you see reliant I see exploiting our strength. We have a 8 man rotation, 7 are solid 3pt shooters. You want those guys shooting open good look 3's & they are. Our offense is running at peak efficiency & the open looks we're knocking down aren't flukes it's who we are.

I agree with all of these takes. The team's defense at times looks like it's capable of stifling anyone, but then other times we'll go through stretches where multiple players miss assignments that lead to easy buckets. That seems to be reflected in our current national defensive efficiency rank. We're allowing .947 points per opponent possession, which is 88th nationally. That's by no means terrible -- we're 88th out of around 350(!) D1 basketball teams and only one spot below Tennessee, which is obviously a legit team -- but it's still middle of the pack in the SEC and needs to improve. We've been disruptive -- top 40 nationally in block and steal rates -- but bad on the defensive boards and bad at preventing 3-pt attempts. Hopefully this stuff will improve as the team focuses on SEC play.

The offense, on the other hand, is rocking and rolling. Top 15 in offensive efficiency, top 20 in offensive rebound %, and top 45 in 3-pt %, assists per game, assist-to-turnover margin, and free throw %. When we were clicking against Wofford (whose defense isn't great but isn't horrific, either), I saw some of the best ball movement and movement without the ball that I've seen from a State basketball team in a while.

I'm terrible at predicting finishes, though, so I'll stop short of that. But I think the team's got the potential to make some noise in the SEC and in the tourney.

[msu15]

If we keep the pace, we will be as good as any team Stansbury ever put together.

I have to chime in here. Who on this squad is checking Mario or Lawrence?

[PMDawg]

I agree with all of these takes. The team's defense at times looks like it's capable of stifling anyone, but then other times we'll go through stretches where multiple players miss assignments that lead to easy buckets. That seems to be reflected in our current national defensive efficiency rank. We're allowing .947 points per opponent possession, which is 88th nationally. That's by no means terrible -- we're 88th out of around 350(!) D1 basketball teams and only one spot below Tennessee, which is obviously a legit team -- but it's still middle of the pack in the SEC and needs to improve. We've been disruptive -- top 40 nationally in block and steal rates -- but bad on the defensive boards and bad at preventing 3-pt attempts. Hopefully this stuff will improve as the team focuses on SEC play.

The offense, on the other hand, is rocking and rolling. Top 15 in offensive efficiency, top 20 in offensive rebound %, and top 45 in 3-pt %, assists per game, assist-to-turnover margin, and free throw %. When we were clicking against Wofford (whose defense isn't great but isn't horrific, either), I saw some of the best ball movement and movement without the ball that I've seen from a State basketball team in a while.

I'm terrible at predicting finishes, though, so I'll stop short of that. But I think the team's got the potential to make some noise in the SEC and in the tourney.

We are good enough to make the tournament as a mid level seed. Post play will keep us from being much better, unless Perry continues improving by leaps and bounds. Ado is a liability. We are also thin. If anyone other than Woodard or Ado gets injured, we turn average overnight.

[LC Dawg]

If we play like we did in the 2nd half last night (except the last 30 seconds) we can play with anyone in the country.
Perry and Woodard are just going to get better and I think Ado is still hurt a little and hopefully heals up. I think we are a Sweet 16 team and if we get hot at the right time we can go further.

[Irondawg]

My take is we're dangerous: to others and ourselves. We're capable of beating just about anybody on the right night when we shoot good because we have multiple guys who can get hot from 3. We aren't overly physical but we do have some good length and are athletic. Peters is electric when he plays well and this team shows flashes of being really good defensively.

However, we're also the kind of team that if we hit a cold streak can lose to almost anybody. We struggle to find any way to score when we're not hitting from outside and we're prone to stretches where we don't seem to care about playing defense. I'd like to see us post up Q or Woodard more when we are in funks and/or press to push the pace a bit. We've definitely found a little rhythm offensively right now, but it's a bit optimistic to shoot this well for a continued stretch.

I think we end up as a 4/5 seed if we stay healthy with an outside shot at pushing up to a 3 seed. We've got a great shot at a sweet 16 run and then anything after that would be gravy.

[Ifyouonlyknew]

I think some of our fans are too stuck in the way the game used to be played when we were good. There's not many teams who's coming down dumping the ball in the post letting their big man do work. Basketball is all about guard play now & we have that in spades. Our bigs are doing their job on offense. Holman is avg 11ppg/game. Perry is avg almost 11ppg/game the last 6 games. Ado is not scoring a lot but part of that is because he's not getting the touches. He's avg 3 shots a game. He's shot 5x in a game 3 times this season. In those 3 games he's avg almost 10ppg. So they need to make a concerted effort to get him a couple shots the beginning of each half. The main point is our big are doing a very solid job on offense. I said it before if our 3 bigs can consistently give us 30 points a night there won't be many games we'll lose. In the 5 games we've played since we've come back from Vegas that all 3 have played in they've combined for 26ppg. So we're almost at that 30ppg number.

[PMDawg]

I think some of our fans are too stuck in the way the game used to be played when we were good. There's not many teams who's coming down dumping the ball in the post letting their big man do work. Basketball is all about guard play now & we have that in spades. Our bigs are doing their job on offense. Holman is avg 11ppg/game. Perry is avg almost 11ppg/game the last 6 games. Ado is not scoring a lot but part of that is because he's not getting the touches. He's avg 3 shots a game. He's shot 5x in a game 3 times this season. In those 3 games he's avg almost 10ppg. So they need to make a concerted effort to get him a couple shots the beginning of each half. The main point is our big are doing a very solid job on offense. I said it before if our 3 bigs can consistently give us 30 points a night there won't be many games we'll lose. In the 5 games we've played since we've come back from Vegas that all 3 have played in they've combined for 26ppg. So we're almost at that 30ppg number.

I'm not that worried about points in the paint. It's the defense and rebounding that we need. Holman is doing a bang up job, and Perry is only getting better. Ado is 4th on the team, averaging around 5. Q averages more RPG than Ado. Ado does a good job of blocking shots. I think we are a good team - a really good team. I think we will be around a 4-6 seed. But when we line up against the Tennessee's, Duke's, etc. of the world, we are going to get beat up on the boards and our interior defense is a step behind what we need. This doesn't mean we're bad, it just may keep us from being great. It limits our upside a bit. But you're right - guard play turns a lot of games in the NCAAT, so I could definitely end up looking dumb if our guards heat up at the right time. I won't mind a bit!

[sleepy dawg]

I have to chime in here. Who on this squad is checking Mario or Lawrence?


IDK, maybe someone from 12 seed Butler???

The difference is Stansbury was the coach, not Howland. We easily had Sweet 16 talent under Stansbury multiple times and couldn't make it. If Howland was the coach of our team the year we were a 5 seed, we would've been much better than a 5 seed going into that tournament.

[StarkVegasSteve]

IDK, maybe someone from 12 seed Butler???

The difference is Stansbury was the coach, not Howland. We easily had Sweet 16 talent under Stansbury multiple times and couldn't make it. If Howland was the coach of our team the year we were a 5 seed, we would've been much better than a 5 seed going into that tournament.

If Howland was the coach when we had Lawrence, Shane, Timmy, etc. we're a Final 4 team that year. That team was too good not to make a deep run. Stansbury was flat outcoached by Thad Matta in the 2nd round. I'm pretty sure we went there the next year and beat the doors off them.

[MedDawg]

If Howland was the coach when we had Lawrence, Shane, Timmy, etc. we're a Final 4 team that year. That team was too good not to make a deep run. Stansbury was flat outcoached by Thad Matta in the 2nd round. I'm pretty sure we went there the next year and beat the doors off them.

Was that Xavier? They were one of the hottest teams I have seen. Against us, they would pull up and shoot 30 footers and drain them. They blew away the next team after us, then nearly beat #1 or 2 seed Duke. That was just bad luck to be paired with them.

Butler also beat us then the team after us. We went through a several-year NCAA regional streak of hot teams beating us then also winning the next round.

Another big reason we never made it to the Sweet Sixteen under Stans was because early losses to bad non-conference teams caused us to have a worse seed in the postseason, which forced us to play better teams earlier in the regionals.

[Rawdawg]

I think some of our fans are too stuck in the way the game used to be played when we were good. There's not many teams who's coming down dumping the ball in the post letting their big man do work. Basketball is all about guard play now & we have that in spades. Our bigs are doing their job on offense. Holman is avg 11ppg/game. Perry is avg almost 11ppg/game the last 6 games. Ado is not scoring a lot but part of that is because he's not getting the touches. He's avg 3 shots a game. He's shot 5x in a game 3 times this season. In those 3 games he's avg almost 10ppg. So they need to make a concerted effort to get him a couple shots the beginning of each half. The main point is our big are doing a very solid job on offense. I said it before if our 3 bigs can consistently give us 30 points a night there won't be many games we'll lose. In the 5 games we've played since we've come back from Vegas that all 3 have played in they've combined for 26ppg. So we're almost at that 30ppg number.

I couldn’t agree more. The game has evolved into a positionless game where everyone can shoot and handle the basketball. Look at Nova last year. They had phenomenal guard play and anyone on their team could score from 3. UCONN with Kemba Walker a few years ago is another example. Having a back to the basket center scoring 16 a game is a thing of the past.

[RocketDawg]

Texas Tech (#12) and Duke (#2) are playing pretty much in a dead heat on ESPN now. Could we hang with either of these teams?

[Lord McBuckethead]

Maybe, but Duke would abuse us down low.

[Liverpooldawg]

I must confess that I know even less about basketball than I do about football, so I have no idea how good we are. The girls? We all know the answer to that, but what about the boys? I am starting to think we have turned the corner. Thoughts?

I think the jury is still out. We are closer to it than we have been in years. SEC play will tell the tale.

[Pit Bull]

Tenn's two big post players will eat us slap up. IMO, Tenn could be the #1 team in the nation when it's all said and done.

[thf24]

I think some of our fans are too stuck in the way the game used to be played when we were good. There's not many teams who's coming down dumping the ball in the post letting their big man do work. Basketball is all about guard play now & we have that in spades. Our bigs are doing their job on offense. Holman is avg 11ppg/game. Perry is avg almost 11ppg/game the last 6 games. Ado is not scoring a lot but part of that is because he's not getting the touches. He's avg 3 shots a game. He's shot 5x in a game 3 times this season. In those 3 games he's avg almost 10ppg. So they need to make a concerted effort to get him a couple shots the beginning of each half. The main point is our big are doing a very solid job on offense. I said it before if our 3 bigs can consistently give us 30 points a night there won't be many games we'll lose. In the 5 games we've played since we've come back from Vegas that all 3 have played in they've combined for 26ppg. So we're almost at that 30ppg number.

I absolutely agree the modern college game in particular is about guard play, but I'll still argue that having even just one established scoring threat on the low block would create a lot more opportunities for our guards. It's not nearly as hard to defend the perimeter when all you're concerned with inside is keeping one body between the opponent's bigs and the basket. Perry is working quickly towards being that guy though.

[HoopsDawg]

Definitely a tournament team. Get in the tournament and then anything can happen.