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#Post#: 44438--------------------------------------------------
Game 1: at Marquette, 11/4 8:30pm
By: Checkmate Date: October 31, 2024, 7:08 pm
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MARQUETTE (27-10, 14-6 Big East in 2023-24)
Last Game: NC State 67, Marquette 58 in NCAA Sweet 16 3/29/24
Last Game vs SBU: First-ever game
Checkmate Guess the Line: Marquette -21.5 ✅
NET Ranking: TBD
KenPom Rating: Stony Brook 270, Marquette 22
KenPom Prediction: Marquette 84, Stony Brook 62
Olaniyi GoFundMe:
HTML https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-elijah-with-medical-bills-and-therapy
Watch: FS1 or
HTML https://www.foxsports.com/live/fs1
Listen:
HTML https://thevarsitynetwork.com/feed/source/oas-1450
Notables:
6-5/205 sr G Kam Jones 17.2 ppg, 1.1 spg, .501 FG%, .406 3-pt
FG%
6-8/225 sr G David Joplin 10.8 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 1.0 bpg, .355 3-pt
FG%
6-3/200 sr G Stevie Mitchell 8.8 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 1.9 spg, .516
FG%, .766 FT%
6-5/210 jr G Chase Ross 6.1 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 1.3 spg, .362 3-pt FG%
6-11/235 jr F Ben Gold 5.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg, .359 3-pt FG%
Basketball season is back. Let's gooooooooooooooo ...
As we've done the last few years, 10 questions to start the
season. I can try to talk about Marquette, but you know what
we're getting into – top 25 team, tons of experience (with no
transfers in or out :o), a quick pace, a veteran coach, all in
a full NBA arena. So let's look at us, albeit a scatter-brained,
half-informed one.
1. Who are these guys?
It's an exaggeration but the turnstile continues to turn at a
more rapid pace than the days of yore. Eight guys out, eight
guys in. When the portal's hit us before, it has felt like we've
at least had some offensive firepower still in the fold. That's
of course courtesy of TSM being an SBU lifer, Policelli, some
Olaniyi, some JRod and Garcia, etc. We've all heard about Octave
and I suspect he's the guy for us, but we haven't seen it, and
there isn't really someone who we can point to from last year's
team and say "that's our clutch-time guy." Some good pieces, but
they're more apt to fill up the box scores in other ways. For a
returning leading scorer, you have to go all the way down to
Frey at 5.8 ppg – which was sixth best for us. In that vein ...
2. Have any of the incumbents advanced offensively?
With Frey, we know we have some shooting, with Snoddy some
energy, some ability to create with TO. But just like TSM went
from 7 to 14 a night, and Policelli from 8 to 14, or even on a
lesser level with Nyama going from 3 to 10, do we see a notable
leap from any of the returnees where they're even our second
option? Can we find Frey in rhythm or coming around screens more
often than we have? Do we even set screens to get open looks?
Can Snoddy step up in shooting percentage and volume? Are Philip
and TO more than just depth pieces, and does Nahar finally
contribute? From that group, I'd sign up right now for a
consistent third option, with Frey being the most likely. It
would be something if his highly touted shooting finally
calculates to significant production. In conference play, he had
more games with zero points (6) than double figures (2). We
could really need more than that, especially because I'm
skeptical that he's anything better than average defensively, a
major ball handler or distributor, etc. You know Snoddy's going
to affect the game in some way on both ends.
This sounds crude, but the portal is a dog eat dog world, and
you can't help but think that the guys you absolutely want to
keep move on to bigger things, and only the depth pieces remain.
Let's see if we can develop them.
3. Can any of these juco transfers be stars at the mid-major
level?
It's nice to more or less know what you're going to get from
Octave – All-Patriot League guy, formerly of two really good
academic programs, more than 100 games to his credit. But we
live in a world where juco talent, from places we've never heard
of, are going to be on the roster every year. I'm excited for it
though. Ford has touted Luster's shooting, and he was lights out
at the preseason get-together among fans – 28 threes across two
30-second segments, including looong stretches where he didn't
miss. At most eight misses. It was crazy. Last year in a near
empty gym we saw that from Frey too, so we'll see how it
translates to the game, but 48 percent at the juco level for
Luster does not surprise me. Smoooooth stroke. I'm also really
curious about Nyarko, who is billed as an outstanding athlete
and versatile offensive talent in the Gueye mold. 11 shot
attempts in 14 minutes of action at Western Texas! [emoji50] And
then there's Woodard, who could put on a Duke uniform and go as
Paolo Banchero for Halloween with EASE. All three of those guys
have played at a competitive level, albeit off the grid a bit.
One of the big things that we'll need from all of them are
contributions on the glass. We know that Snoddy will be all over
it, but we lost a lot in that department too. In addition to the
frontcourt guys, I like that Octave has shown to be a willing
rebounder.
4. Which version of Ben Wight are we getting?
I couldn't believe what Wight was reduced to at Toledo. Going
off to the MAC, he was off the radar for us. And then when he
transfers in, you take a look at his production there and, wow,
next to nothing. When I polled the people in the Toledo message
board, one particularly outspoken fan said he competed hard but
was a major liability offensively, on all levels. Meanwhile,
that is not what he showed at W&M. As a sophomore, he went for
12 and 5 and shot 62 percent from the field. The year before, 11
and 5, including a 24-point, 11-rebound effort at Pitt. But
little for Toledo. What's he do for Stony Brook? I choose to
believe that, given what I think will be a long leash in the
middle, he will give us double digits in the points column, a
good presence on the glass, and at least some rim protection
next to Nyarko.
Could the top five scorers be all new guys – Octave, Luster,
Nyarko, Woodard and Wight in that order? Chris Maidoh revived
his career here. I could see Wight doing it too.
5. Can we protect the rim?
This is a big one – not just in turning away shots but in
keeping the opposition out of the paint. Fitz and Maidoh were an
outstanding duo, and guys like Gueye, Otchere, Warney made teams
seriously reconsider whether it wanted to take it to the tin.
But this year? I dunno. We're returning just 14 of our 113
blocks last year and feel a little thin up front. Woodard
averaged over a block a game at the juco level, and I have to
think Nyarko can defend the rim. Wight, even at his size, has
never really been a shot blocker. The thing is, with last year's
bigs, it covered up for our generally stone-footed wing defense.
I like Philip and Snoddy as on-ball defenders, but I'm not sure
what else we have out there. Teams were more than willing to
shoot over our defense last year, with more than 42 percent of
attempts coming from deep, and more than 57 percent of buckets
were assisted ... which makes sense, because I recall a lot of
catch-and-shoot looks. What's keeping them from going to the
hoop more this year?
6. Who's our primary ballhandler?
Aaron Clarke was such a luxury last year. With how much he
handled the ball, to have a little over one turnover a game was
really something. Comparing him to past point guards, Puriefoy
had 79 in 33 games in our AE title year. Cornish had 71.
Woodhouse had 61 in 31 games, which was 20 more than Clarke. His
41 turnovers were less than Fitz and Snoddy, and much less than
Noll. We're going to miss AC. And behind him we had Noll and
TSM, veterans of a million games and pressure situations. This
year, we gotta see. Handling pressure, directing traffic,
penetrating the defense, finding the open shooter – who's our
guy? I suppose it's Octave. But he's not a passer! Is he more
Tykei/Roberts than a point guard? And we haven't customarily
moved the ball well under Geno, and that was with some guards
who could. AC was down from his Sacred Heart numbers by more
than an assist. Noll was close to that. TSM was serviceable.
TO's with us (albeit banged up), but there's been reluctance to
give him the keys – although I think he's a nice dual threat at
at least 15 minutes a night. Or is O'Connor wise beyond his
years and ready to be a sturdy backup at the very least?
7. Will Nahar finally arrive?
I touched on this earlier, but it deserves its own question.
Some of us – not really me – have clamored to see more of Nahar.
And he's shown flashes here and there, but when you see a
stretch 4, pretty good athlete, pretty good shooter on the
surface, maybe a presence in the paint, what does he need to do
to earn regular playing time? He is 6-foot-10 in the Coastal
Athletic Association. Is he not even with or better than Kenan
Sarvan? We're not looking for 43 and 10, but can Nahar be more
than a mop-up guy at any point? I say we see him out there for
10-12 minutes. Fingers crossed.
8. Can we score inside?
Some have pled with Geno to table the threes and pound it
inside. And last year, finally, they did and it worked. Fitz and
Maidoh carried us at times, and we don't get to the CAA title
game without them. And we even had some marksmen from three,
particularly TSM, who finished 60th nationally in three-point
FG%. And I think we have some shooters again, including Nyarko
and maybe Nahar (?) among the big guys. Luster, Frey, hopefully
Octave, we should have shooters. Of course, a lot of the time
under Geno (and, to be fair, Pikiell and to a lesser extent
Boals) we have less flow than a glass of Swill but that's
another story for another day. Is there someone who can operate
on the block and get us a bucket, or get it on the block and
shoot over either shoulder, or just back somebody down? And
maybe even pass out of the post? Our last two bigs were
respectable/significant assets in those departments. What are we
getting this year, and as importantly, how badly are we going to
need it?
9. Are any of the freshmen ready?
I just had a flashback to 2022-23 when TO was playing 25 minutes
a game, and Kaine Roberts (not a freshman and, ahem, not a
Division I player) was out there 25 minutes too. What a
ridiculous year. We hung with West Virginia! Insane.
I bring that up because it's uncommon for freshmen to come in
and be especially impactful. Besides TO, you can look at
Latimer, Olaniyi, Warney, Dougher further back than that, as far
as guys who I'd call major pieces to the puzzle that early.
Looking at the record book, wow, Earl Keith 22 a night as a
freshman. Emeka Smith 21. Different level of course but still. I
haven't seen the school bring anybody back to the games to be
recognized on the scoreboard. That'd be cool.
This year we're looking at Gorman, O'Connor and Mitchell. I'm
particularly interested in O'Connor because, as mentioned
before, point guard is an area of concern. That he comes from a
reputable prep program (Western Reserve Academy), and isn't
somebody who was a pure scorer and might have dominated inferior
competition but rather distributed it to scorers – including
Owens and Parham from Marquette – suggests to me that he can be
a Woodhouse type eventually. Maybe? One article after WRA won
the title said this about him: "The champions based their attack
around their front court trio, but they wouldn’t have won this
tournament without the play of their point guard. O’Connor
steadied the ship from start to finish, showed a good feel for
the game, and a highly competitive approach on both ends." I'm
all for a steady ship. And maybe Gorman can be this
inside/outside threat, a presence in the paint, etc. And if
Mitchell's anything like his brother, he can give us an
offensive spark off the bench at some point.
10. Is there any life to our NIL collective?
We are playing with one hand tied behind our back if the answer
is no. I don't think that Jim Simons or anybody from Renaissance
is walking through that door either. But can we get it to a
point where we can think about keeping our better players, or
offering something to transfers other than playing time and an
MBA? Honestly, I'm completely in the dark on whether it's viable
or it isn't. Gut feeling, based on general malaise around all
sports on campus and in the community really, and Geno's
outspokenness about the disadvantage we face not just nationally
but in the CAA seems to tell us all we need to know. There are
pro towns and college towns. We're much much more of the former,
and TBH, I feel like Three Village and the areas around it are
youth sports towns. I would buy season tickets but, you know, we
have CYO or futsol or deck hockey or indoor lax every Saturday.
I might consider giving $1000 to Stony Brook but, you know,
that's a quarter of a travel ball season. It's tough.
Bonus question: Man, what happened in that fifth inning
yesterday?
What a wild 10 minutes. But you can't make those kind of
mistakes against that team in that spot. Never seen anything
like it.
Excited that the year is here. Cautiously optimistic.
#Post#: 44439--------------------------------------------------
Re: Game 1: at Marquette, 10/28 8:30pm
By: Chairman of the Board Date: October 31, 2024, 8:02 pm
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its back!!!
SUPERSTAR ALERT- checkmate. delivers every time. GO SB
#Post#: 44440--------------------------------------------------
Re: Game 1: at Marquette, 10/28 8:30pm
By: nyrfan1013 Date: November 1, 2024, 10:48 am
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Checkmate, it’s great to see you posting again! What an
offseason it’s been. I’m excited but skeptical for this year. In
college basketball these days, NIL is one of the most important
things. It seems that Stony Brook has two NIL entities. The 1957
club (www.the1957club.org) who just hosted their annual casino
night. They contribute to all sports within Stony Brook
University. Based off Shawn’s tweets, it seems that they also
just launched another NIL called the CR97 Fund
(www.cr97fund.com). This is a basketball only NIL with a
membership platform and one time contributions along with
benefit perks. I have taken a look at other teams NIL entities
and the memberships seem to be the way to go for mid majors.
#Post#: 44441--------------------------------------------------
Re: Game 1: at Marquette, 10/28 8:30pm
By: Moveitfred Date: November 1, 2024, 12:12 pm
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As always, thank you Checkmate, and looking forward to the
season to come.
I agree as a longtime 3V resident who raised two "sports kids"
in the town (now adults and off in the world) that the identity
in town is and has always been somewhere along the spectrum of
apathy/pro sports/kids sports. I just don't see that ever
changing and, frankly, I'm just happy I can see a version of D1
basketball live every season.
I will also admit I'm not really fully informed about NIL. I
mean, I get it, know what it is, and understand how it shapes
the landscape of college sports generally. But I still don't get
what's going on specifically at SBU and why there just seems to
be so much mystery (at least from where I'm sitting). Let's just
say I want to do a good deed, have 100 bucks in my pocket, and
want to help the basketball program. Who do I give my money to?
The athletics dept? 1957 club? This CR97 fund? Something else? I
have no idea and don't really understand how the money might be
used in each case.
Now that's probably on me, and I have not made phone calls to
try to find answers. I'm also sure a "100 buck guy" carries
little to no interest from the AD. At least that's the
impression the current AD has always given me--he seems to only
want to meet/greet the higher profile people at games.
Maybe it just comes down to this. I consider myself just a
rather average community member, and I don't think the athletics
dept shows much interest in the community. Meh, okay, I'll still
go to basketball games though.
I strayed a bit. Let me loop back--thanks again, Checkmate, and
go SBU basketball this season.
#Post#: 44456--------------------------------------------------
Re: Game 1: at Marquette, 10/28 8:30pm
By: NoVA_Seawolf Date: November 2, 2024, 6:59 pm
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I'll be tuning in. I don't expect to win, but if we can at least
keep it entertaining for a little bit that'll make me plenty
happy.
#Post#: 44460--------------------------------------------------
Re: Game 1: at Marquette, 10/28 8:30pm
By: OldSeawolf Date: November 4, 2024, 6:44 am
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Nice kickoff, Checkmate, finally had time to read
this.............yeah, TBD on this brand new team. Lots of good
questions there.
Looks like FloSports have raised their prices to $ 20/mo
(branded now as FloCollege). I only subscribe for Bball season,
but prices have jumped from $ 12.49 -> $ 14.99 -> $ 19.99 per
month over last 2 years. Hard to believe that they are growing
and competing with ESPN+. If signing up for Bball only, make
sure you sign up using a link from SBU website schedule page or
CAA home splash page, or you'll be banged for $ 30/mo. And if
any of you guys have an .EDU Email from SBU, allegedly you get a
student discount (not sure how much).
#Post#: 44465--------------------------------------------------
Re: Game 1: at Marquette, 10/28 8:30pm
By: Checkmate Date: November 4, 2024, 11:50 am
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Line is up to 23.5. Huge spread, particularly with Marquette
losing a major piece in Kolek. So much continuity there and so
little here. It would be nice to hang in there.
#Post#: 44470--------------------------------------------------
Re: Game 1: at Marquette, 10/28 8:30pm
By: sbupatriots Date: November 4, 2024, 1:35 pm
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Thanks for the preview Checkmate. I started contributing to the
CR97 fund. Starting at $10/month. Everyone should consider
joining as well, especially the "$100 guys" like myself.
#Post#: 44472--------------------------------------------------
Re: Game 1: at Marquette, 10/28 8:30pm
By: Chairman of the Board Date: November 4, 2024, 1:40 pm
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[img]
HTML https://uxwing.com/wp-content/themes/uxwing/download/hand-gestures/clapping-icon.svg[/img]
#Post#: 44476--------------------------------------------------
Re: Game 1: at Marquette, 10/28 8:30pm
By: sbupatriots Date: November 4, 2024, 2:48 pm
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Interesting (and a bit of a let down) wrinkle for tonight's
broadcast. All Big East teams are on FS1 tonight as part of
their Big East Tipoff. 8 games are starting on FS1 between 6:30
and 8:30 so I don't know how much of our game we'll be able to
actually see. Only positive is we're the last game on the
schedule so hopefully the last half hour of our game is
uninterrupted
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