Navin R. Johnson

Stony Brook, a 7th seed, will play for the CAA championship and a trip to the tournament tomorrow.

So an 11 PM start now that we have 3 games in front of us that will all go into overtime.

This can be utilized as well. If the opposing team likes to man press and has a big that is slow footed, have his man bring it up. Mast, Gary or Allick are all good enough ball handlers to beat a slow 5 man.

I know a high school team that shot a better FT % than any D-1 team in the nation one year (even better than any NBA team for most of the season) but shot horribly from the line in the state championship game and lost. When you shoot them and in what situation makes a big difference as well.

The freethrow thing is interesting for recruits. Like you said a free throw is a free throw no matter what level it is but I have seen a 90% career high school shooter from the line go to 76% in college. This happens more than you think. Reps have a lot to do with it and most high school stars get to the line a lot but not so much in college in some cases. It also shows just how free throws can be as much mental as physical.

Man I did not feel comfortable with any lead at anytime in this one. The problem with a low scoring "rock fight" like tonight is that if Rutgers sticks a couple threes in a row it feels like a 12-0 run. KT made some big plays down the stretch but Allick's board work early might have been just as important.

I'll go with these guys. The second is with Springsteen.

Can't believe this one did not pop up in my head.

The buy in on defense. Our system helps with the lack of quickness. We force teams to do certain things. Williams settling in as the shooter many thought he was and Mast and Gary hitting 3's.

Two players I noticed from our non-conf schedule back in December that I thought might be good transfer prospects were Max Jones (Jr) of Cal State Fullerton and Jared Frey (So) from Stoney Brook. I posted on them after those games. Well it turns out they played about their best games of the season against us. Jones had 30 pts and Frey looked like solid all around player with a good looking shot. Here are their stats for the year: Jones: 15.3 pts, 3 reb, 2 asst, 38% FG, 33% from 3, 79% FT (volume shooter, not great 3pt shot) Frey: 6.5 pts, 2.4 reb, 2 asst, 39% FG, 37% from 3, 78% FT (came off the bench later in year) Long story short, I don't have a very good eye for spotting future talent.

I can say that the mop-up time I received on the court my Senior year really prepared me for the pick up game competition that I would face in college. If I tried to go a year early to college I might have been overwhelmed by the average to below average talent on the pick up game circuit back then.

This year: 21 points, 9 reb, 2 assists, 2.3 blocks, 51 % FG, 40% from 3, 73% FT. I did not realize he is that good of a 3 point shooter.

Wake Forrest with a bad loss at Notre Dame. Sallis had an awful game. He was 2 of 11 from the field with a season low 7 points and a costly late turnover. BYU with a huge win at Kansas.

Kentucky wins at Mississippi State. First time I really watched Kentucky. Freshman Reed Sheppard can play.

I understand the thought of developing his game in a college practice atmosphere but this is not like football where an athlete gets a jump on things by enrolling in the spring. He gets four years to play college basketball. I would prefer he is a year older doing it.

Back to Ohio which is not the name of this song but many think it is.

We kind of sacrificed Brice a little to get Lawrence going.

I think I would rather see him play his Senior year, redshirt the next year to develop and then play out his career at NU. Since the pendulum is swinging back to having experienced players (like we have now) instead of Frosh, the older the better. Especially with the NIL money coming in. The problem with redshirting is that it can also lead to a transfer for the athlete.

Correct. I was going off season stats on Maxpreps for his stat line. I should have been more specific.

Exactly. It's not just playing time for the walk ons but also the younger kids you want to give playing time to but feel you can't risk it. If it doesn't change teams might as well poor it on at the end and try to score every possession and not dribble the game out with seconds left. It has always been considered good sportsmanship to hold the ball at the end but not anymore. I really hate that metric. I would max it out at 10 points at call it good. If every coach knew that was the break point you could play to score up until that point. Nobody really throws up a white flag if the game is still in single digits.

Well, that would be zero if he redshirted and a ton if he played with LSW.

LSW finished with a 15-8 record including a 82-50 season ending loss to Millard North in the district final. Stat line: 18 pts, 7 reb, 27% from 3, 50% from the field and 78% from the line. Heard he might redshirt next year, which I don't understand when you could play another year of high school ball.

Read in the OWH today that there is talk of Ryan Kalkbrenner and Steven Ashworth using their year (which I didn't know they had) to come back to Creighton for another season.