Mudville21 wrote:
Some thoughts:
1). After watching A10 basketball this year I have come to the following conclusions:
A). While the A10 is taller, more athletic than the MVC, the players are not necessarily better or great basketball players.
B). I really think it won’t be that hard to move up. If we run and play LUC basketball with better athletes we will be fine. Key is buy in to the system and pay attention to offensive and defensive details. Some of the teams ahead of us are not that good and they won 2-5 games more than we did. We hung in during a year where we have been awful in so many ways. We easily could have won 4-6 more games.
C). The broadcast teams in the A10 are generally not good. The clowns doing the game were terrible. The play by play guy couldn’t get names right or even who was in the game half the time. The color guys was embarrassing. Every foul was a bad foul. All he did was whine the entire game. Terrible and made the broadcast tough to watch. I think he forgot it was a NATIONAL broadcast. He was commenting like he was on the LaSalle college radio station.
2). Sheldon Edward’s should have played more, but I have a feeling he may not have been physically right. He broke his hand and when he came back he looked like he hurt his leg in some way as he was limping around. The last couple of games he has been moving free and easy and looks like the kid who terrorized us when he was at Valpo.
3). Hutson is a mystery. He has done well during the 2nd half of the season. His hustle, aggression, size have had impacts on the game. Hope he stays, but it seems like he is leaving.
4). Let’s go to Brooklyn and get 1 or 2 and serve notice to the A10 that we are coming for them next year.
The La Salle ESPN + broadcast yesterday was not national. The ESPN+ streams are produced (almost always) by the host team, which means they try to make it attractive to their fans. I believe in the Philadelphia market there's an NBC Sports cable station, so they might pick up the ESPN + productions like NBC Chicago does for some of our games done on ESPN +. Otherwise, they're available for streaming anywhere around the globe. But it's almost always a home team production, which decides the announcers, etc. (
La Salle has some severe money problems and enrollment issues, which might explain the lack of upgrades on their production and equipment.)
I think there's no reason for Hutson to leave, and I don't know why people think he will. He's invested a lot in this program, and vice versa. It's hard to imagine coach not having a lot of confidence in him after Saturday's performance (not to mention great minutes against URI). Per 40 minutes, he's our 6th best scorer, 3rd best rebounder, and tied for best shot blocker. If he has two more years after this, he could be a 20+ mpg player next year and a focal player in the league in his final season. Hutty and Rubin on the court together could be the best rim protection in the league.
As far as the MVC vs A-10 talent comparisons, I have trouble thinking of many MVC players that I think would thrive in the A-10..... Bradley's Malevy Lyons, maybe? Tucker DeVries, probably. That's about it. Dayton, VCU, or St. Louis might go 16-2 or better in the MVC if they were dropped in instead of Belmont or Murray State. The last two teams we played-- Rhode Island and La Salle-- would both finish around 4th or 5th in the MVC instead of 11th and 14th in the A-10.
Lastly, I'm starting to understand that the assistants are more important in the A-10 also. You can't just have yes-men, you have to have people who know how to relate at different levels with different players, at different positions.... and be motivators..... and be able to coach big men with footwork... scouting opponents..... charting trends.... advanced analytics.... showing up at big games for unsigned recruits.... it never ends...